Ikea Invades America free essay sample

Founded in 1943 by a poor Swedish farmer named Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA is now one of the largest furniture retailers in the world. From its inception, Kamprad wanted to create cheap, quality furniture that everyone could afford. That formula led to IKEA’s early success in Sweden and has carried over until today. To its customers, IKEA is not just a store but a way of life, which may be evident through the cult-like following the company has achieved. When talking about the four P’s of marketing (product, price, place, promotion), there are few companies in the world that have mastered this concept better than IKEA. IKEA has been able to recognize the demands of its shoppers and create compelling products that meet those demands at a reasonable price. Its products are sold at unique stores that serve strategically important, geographic markets. This paper examines the factors that have made IKEA such a big success and offers some recommendations for future growth in the United States. We will write a custom essay sample on Ikea Invades America or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Today, IKEA has over 240 stores in 35 countries and has revenues of over $26 billion. Its revenues double every 5-6 years and the company is now expanding to growing markets like China, Japan, and Brazil. The future of IKEA looks brighter than ever. For a brief snapshot of IKEA’s current sales around the world see Appendix 1. In 1985, IKEA decided to invade America. Faced with this early failure, IKEA retooled its furniture to fit American tastes. IKEA soon became the fastest growing furniture retailer and the 14th largest furniture retailer overall in the United States. IKEA executives needed to find a balance of how to create new furniture offerings without losing its unique design and corporate soul. By examining IKEA’s marketing strategy and answering a series of four questions, we have developed recommendations (see Appendix 2) that we think will lead to IKEA’s continued growth and success. 1) What are some of the ways that furniture retailers have sought to overcome these purchase obstacles? : a) identifying a product that consumers like, b) visualizing the product in the consumer’s home, and c) getting the product in the consumer’s home? In furniture sales, there are two general strategies: the low-end and the high-end. The low-end offers cheap, utilitarian furniture that is dreary looking. Cheap furniture is marketed to people such as college students who have a small budget. The cheap furniture is also displayed in poorly lit showrooms that offer little to no customer service. High-end furniture stores compete on quality and service. The high-end offers a large selection in each style and sub-style of furniture, which results in the showroom having a large inventory. The broad, variety strategy virtually guarantees that a customer’s preferred style will be available. The high-end stores also have high touch sales associates to help customers with product selection and furniture measurement. Sales associates are trained to educate their customers; such as explaining the life spans of different materials. They also reassure customers that their furniture will last a life time. Visualizing a piece of furniture in a person’s home can be very difficult. The high-end furniture stores have beautiful showrooms that are elaborately decorated to help the customer visualize where they can place new furniture or how they can redecorate their home. High-end stores also offer interior design services. Most retailers offer credit to make high-end furniture more affordable. All retailers offer home delivery, sometimes free, to make the transition as painless as possible for the customer. As an added bonus, retailers offer to assemble the furniture in the customer’s home. Sometimes, delivering the furniture also involves rearranging furniture, as well as removing and discarding old furniture. Providing these services makes the purchase of new furniture an easy and worry-free process. 2) Explain IKEA’s reverse positioning strategy. IKEA created a matrix used to prioritize product lineup and price. (See Appendix 3) Primarily the matrix is used to set a target retail price and select a product style. With the matrix system, IKEA is able to identify product line opportunities and gaps; creating a well rounded store. IKEA has avoided the image of the low end furniture store by displaying furniture in brightly lit showrooms. These showrooms help customers envision how the furniture interacts with the allotted space. Plus color coordinated cards provide design tips and information kiosks are on hand to help customers. All of these features reinforce IKEA’s self service ethos without making the customer feel abandoned. In IKEA’s case, the firm rejected the standard business models for both high-end and low-end furniture stores. IKEA’s furniture is composed of cheaper parts that are not visible and are not under high stress through use and a higher quality material is used for the visible parts or parts under high stress. This gives IKEA’s furniture a higher end look while keeping their costs low. IKEA’s reverse positioning kept prices low, while eliminating many services thought essential to a higher-end store. The company replaced them with unique services for its category: a bright, inviting showroom, furniture that was attractively designed, a child care center, a restaurant serving Swedish meatballs, and brightly colored house wares and clever toys. As a result, IKEA successfully avoided the feel of the low-end retailers, and customers â€Å"find the IKEA shopping experience to be immensely appealing (Moon, â€Å"IKEA Invades America,† 5). 3) What are some of the various product/service attributes that IKEA has chosen to withhold from its customers? IKEA seems to incorporate a hybrid strategy focusing on both cost and differentiation. IKEA attempts to price in the low to midrange category. IKEA does not build its furniture to last a lifetime, which in-fact flows well with its ad campaigns focused on letting go of the semimetal value Americans often place on furniture. IKEA products are known for falling apart after a few years; however, its customers are typically satisfied with the look, functionality, and affordability of IKEA products (Moon, 2004, p. 5). Its focus is on cost-efficiency, so the company uses higher-quality materials on visible surfaces and lower-quality materials elsewhere. High-end stores compete on quality and â€Å"high touch† experience and selection. Nearly all types of furniture stores offer delivery services. However, IKEA successfully eliminated many of these attributes. IKEA products are designed to be transported unassembled in flat boxes, which keeps shipping costs low and prevents IKEA from having to deliver/assemble furniture for customers (Moon, 2004, p. ). Customers are responsible for transportation of their furniture and assembly of their furniture. Although this step may seem like its decreasing the consumer experience/perceived product value; it’s actually keeping the customer involvement level high. Moreover, the competitive pricing offered at IKEA is attributed to letting customer build their own furniture, which keeps costs to a minimum. Formerly, IKEA only produced a few different designs; however, this has changed in recent years. In order to be consistent with IKEA’s self-service ethos and to keep costs low, the ratio of sales assistants to customers is kept low. The low number of sales associates can have a negative effect on the consumer experience. To handle furniture questions, customers are provided with product descriptions and measuring tape so they can make their own measurements. 4) What are some of the areas that IKEA has managed to achieve cost efficiency by implementing a number of firm-specific operation processes? A number of cost effective operating processes have been implemented by IKEA. In furniture design, IKEA engineers often select cheaper/low quality materials for less visible areas that experience minimal stress and expensive materials for visible areas that undergo stress. This aids IKEA in producing durable, good-quality products at low costs. IKEA has worked with over 1,800 suppliers in over 50 countries and often uses suppliers from developing countries. To keep costs down, IKEA usually purchases in bulk and often orders various components of a given product from different suppliers. IKEA is strict with employees about waste; it enforces minimal travel budgets and requires them to save electricity. IKEA keeps a small staff in stores and provides self-serve trolleys to aid consumers in loading their vehicles. Typical furniture retailers require a larger staff and/or incur shipping costs for delivery of their bulky, already assembled products. Flat packaging allows IKEA customers to transport their purchases home and eliminates the expense of home delivery. IKEA’s flat packaging strategy is another firm specific operating process. The strategy was inspired by an employee who, in 1955, removed the legs off a table to fit it into a customer’s car. This strategy requires designers to keep in mind the amount of space their products take up in their unassembled form. Flat packaging also helps prevent damage to the products during the shipping process. IKEA will often redesign their products multiple times to achieve space optimization and reduce shipping costs. Space optimization typically lowers prices for consumers; however, it may lengthen the assembly process. IKEA should continue to incorporate cost cutting activities across the board so long as the consumer experience remains positive.

Trumpeter Of Krakow essays

Trumpeter Of Krakow essays The Trumpeter of Krakow" is about the Charnestskis family who was given a legendary crystal that had been handed down from one generation to the next. They were running away from evil forces that wanted possession of the crystal. Then one day the father of the family decided to move to a town in Poland called Krakow. They left their dwelling just days before a group of Tartars looking for the Great Tarnov crystal came and raided the town that they used to live in. On the Charnetski's way to Krakow, they met a man who is not who he seems to be. He offers to buy the pumpkin from the family. Charnetski's refuse because inside the pumpkin is the hidden crystal. The man gets angry because of their rejection. That man it turns out, is called Peter of the Button face and is a man that is feared in many countries. When they reach Krakow the son, Joseph, asks his father, Andrew, if he could explore the city for a while. On his tour of the city he rescues a beautiful girl from a vicious dog. When Joseph tells her that they are looking for a place to hide the girl, Elizebitieka tells Joseph that there is an apartment just above theirs that is for rent. Joseph and Elizebitieka start to talk and it turns out that Elizebitieka lives with her Uncle Kruetz who teaches in the university. He is also an alchemist. Joseph starts going to school and life goes on as usual, except that they continue to have encounters with Peter of the Button face who never gives up. He keeps on trying to steal the crystal. Eventually the king's royal guards capture Peter and take him to the King of Poland. Then when Andrew hears about the good news he goes for a meeting with the King and tells him all about his family history with the crystal. Andrew gives the crystal to the King but Kruetz immediately grabs the crystal an d throws it in the river that runs through Krakow. When asked why he did that, he tells them that he wanted to get rid of it so that gree ...

William Faulkner's use of Theme in A Rose for Emily Essay

William Faulkner's use of Theme in A Rose for Emily - Essay Example Perhaps this is most prominently witnessed in his short story ‘A Rose for Emily’. This story explores the macabre and desolate life of a woman named Emily as she experiences a number of life setbacks before finally settling into a reclusive existence. While containing southern gothic tendencies, the story is characteristic of Faulkner’s style in terms of theme. This essay argues that Faulkner implements a number of thematic elements in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily’. Perhaps the most pervasive theme in ‘A Rose for Emily’ is the power and exploration of death. This is perhaps one of the most important elements in articulating the story as an element of southern gothic literature, and it gives the tale a sort of surreal touch. Faulkner begins the narrative in reverse, already stating that Emily Grierson, the main focus of the story is deceased. Faulkner writes, â€Å"When Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to the funeral† (Faulkner, web). While this is only a narrative element, it’s position as the first sentence of the story is notable as it sets the general thematic tone for the tale. In addition to Emily’s death the story also indicates that Emily’s father died. Faulkner advances the thematic power of death in this instance by demonstrating that it extremely impacted Emily’s existence.

The management of art organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The management of art organisations - Essay Example Consequently, it will be a useful company to the whole community. Further, the company acknowledges the family event, forums, and other events all in the effort of portraying the importance of artwork. It will also give chance to children who have art interest to pursue their dreams by offering them maximum support (Crosby, 2008, p. 5). Being a company known to deal in presenting the Australia’s most contemporary and largest visual arts, our mission is to get the recognition of the whole nation is terms of being a non-profit firm, yet helpful in selling the best talents in the country. Moreover, this company will ensure that productivity is translated into prosperity as well as growth for all the members who participates in our team. With this, the organization is determined to be a revelation to the larger community in the worldwide arena (Heijden, 2006, p. 4). The inaugural Biennale of Sydney was formed in 1973, with the aim of providing a showcase that could attract international community for contemporary art. The country is rich with traditional thinking. Therefore, the main aim of the organization was to challenge the traditional thinking by encouraging enthusiasm on a new level of thinking. For the above to work properly, it should be noted that the organization has to have attraction power. So far, this can be traced since the company now is witnessing an increased level of visitation, to the extent that it has doubled that of the year 2012. Its 18th Biennale of Sydney achieved a record of 665, 488 visitors witnessed across all revenues. This is somewhat encouraging, however, the fact remains that the country has to move forward, and pursue or perceive artwork on the level of the organization. This will change all the thinking of the Sydney’s residents, hence giving them a chance to explore the world to its furthest with rega rd to

Artificial Bee Colony Algorithms And Software Testing Computer Science Essay

Artificial Bee Colony Algorithms And Software Testing Computer Science Essay The emerging area in the field of optimization is swarm intelligence. Various meta-heuristics algorithms based on swarm intelligence have been developed by many researchers. These algorithms have been developed by modeling the behaviors of swarm of animals and insects such as birds, bees, ants, fishes etc. The main focus of these algorithms is on the collective behavior which results from the local interactions between the individuals and with their environment. The Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm which has been recently introduced [1] is also a swarm based meta-heuristic algorithm. The algorithm models the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees and has been introduced for optimizing various numerical problems. This paper gives a brief introduction about Artificial Bee Colony algorithm and also presents a review of applications of Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm in the field of software testing. Keywords Swarm Intelligence, Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, Software Testing. 1. INTRODUCTION Swarm intelligence as a discipline deals with the artificial and natural systems which are composed of many individuals and they coordinate using the decentralized control and self organization [2]. The main focus of the discipline is on the collective behavior. Local interaction amongst the individuals and with their environment results into collective behavior. Some of the swarm based meta-heuristics algorithms are Particle Swarm Optimization, Ant Colony Optimization, and Artificial Bee Colony Optimization. Dervis Karaboga [1] in 2005 defined the artificial bee colony algorithm, which is the most recently introduced swarm based meta-heuristics algorithm. Since its inception, artificial bee colony algorithm has been applied in various fields. It also finds application in the field of software testing, which is one of the most indispensible phase of the software development lifecycle. This paper is divided into five sections. The next section gives a brief introduction about the nature of bees. Section 3 describes the artificial bee colony algorithm. Section 4 presents a review of application of artificial bee colony algorithm in the field of software testing and the last section give the comparative analysis of the applications on different parameters. 2. BACKGROUND 2.1 Components of Bee Colony The bee (Apis Mellifera) native to Europe and Africa is a social and domestic animal. Bees feed on nectar and pollens, where nectar is the prime source of energy and pollens act as supplements of proteins and other nutrients. Pollen is mostly used as food for larvae [3]. Generally the bee colony consists of a single queen bee that is responsible for laying eggs, thousand of male bees called drones and thousands of worker bees, which are the sterile bees and the young bee larvae called broods. 2.2 Bees Dance Bees randomly searches for food source positions with good supply of nectar. Once a bee finds such a position, it goes back to the hive and communicates about the food source position by dancing in the comb. If the foraging bee finds the food source position close to hive, it performs a simple round dance and if the food source position is far from the hive, then it performs waggle dance. Waggle dance basically forms an eight like figure and the distance and the direction of the food source is indicated by this dance. The speed of the dance conveys the distance. The inclination of the dance (angle between the sun, relative to hive and the food source) indicates the direction of the food source [4]. 3. Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm The artificial bee colony algorithm consists of 3 types of bees- the employed bee, onlooker bee and the scout bee. Scout bee is responsible for carrying out random searches in the environment. A bee who visits the food source visited by it previously is called an employed bee and the bee that waits in the beehive for decision making is called the onlooker bee. Both exploration and exploitation processes are carried out by all the three bees. In the ABC algorithm it is assumed that the colony consists of equal number of employed bees and onlooker bees and for every food source there is an employed bee in the hive. The bee whose food source has been exhausted by other bees becomes a scout bee [5]. The bee has the capability of memorizing the location of the food source once it has been discovered and then immediately starts exploiting it. The foraging bee returns to the hive with load of nectar from the source and then unloads the nectar to a food store. The bee has the following three options after unloading the nectar [1]: It becomes an uncommitted follower once the food source has been abandoned. It dances and recruits other nest mates while returning to the same food source. Without recruiting other bees, it continues to forage at the food source. The search consist a cycle of three steps [1]. In the beginning, some food sources are randomly selected by the bees and the amount of nectar is also determined. Then these bees return to the hive and share this information by performing the waggle dance. In second stage, each employed bee goes to the food source visited by her in previous cycle and then by means of visual information, chooses a new food source in the neighborhood. In the third stage, an onlooker bee visits the food source position depending on the nectar information shared by the employed bees. The food source with maximum nectar quantity is selected by the onlooker bee. After arriving at the selected food source, the onlooker bee according to visual information chooses a new food source in the neighborhood of the selected food source. Once the food source is abandoned by the bee, a new food source is randomly selected by a scout and then the abandoned source is replaced by this new food source. Depending upon the probabilistic value onlooker bee selects a food source. This value pi is calculated as [5]: where SN is the number of food sources which is also equal to employed bees number (BN) and fiti is the fitness value of the solution i evaluated by its employed bee. The fitness value is proportional to the nectar amount of the food source. To produce a candidate food position from the old one, the algorithm uses the following expression [5]: Where the random chosen indexes are k â‚ ¬ {1, 2. . . BN} and j â‚ ¬ {1, 2. . . D} and k is different from i. φij is a random number between [−1, 1]. It controls the production of a neighbor food source position around xij and the modification represents the comparison of neighbor food positions visually by the bee [5]. 4. Application of Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm to Software Testing Software testing is a type of multi variable optimization problem where generation and selection of efficient test cases cannot be achieved within permissible time bounds. Hence for solving these types of problems, meta-heuristics search algorithms have been proposed [6]. These algorithms help in finding the near optimal solution in reasonable running time. The artificial bee colony algorithm, which is also a meta-heuristics search algorithm, is capable of locating efficient solutions. The algorithm models the food foraging behavior of honey bees. The main focus of software testing is on uncovering as many errors as possible in the given time, as this would help in conforming the product to the requirement specifications and also to validate the quality of the software produced [7]. The following paragraphs give the review of application of artificial bee colony algorithm in the field of software testing. Mala et al [6] applied artificial bee colony algorithm in the field of software test suite optimization. The approach is based on population based algorithm where every test case represents a possible solution for the optimization problem. A happiness value has been introduced for each test case corresponding to the fitness or quality of the associated solution. Here the three bees are replaced by search agent, selector agent and optimizer agent. Various properties of agents are autonomy, inter-operability and social ability [11]. These agents help in selecting efficient test cases from infinite number of test cases. The parallel behavior of the agents helps in generating the solution faster. Path coverage has been described as the test adequacy criteria. Initially random test cases are generated for all test paths or sequences. Along the path, as the search agent goes to an executable state, it monitors each test case and also determines a neighbor state. The happiness value is upda ted for every test case, along every test path. If a particular node is not covered by a particular test case, then that node gets eliminated. The selector agent starts a new search for locating the node with highest feasibility in that path. Only the test case with maximum happiness value is remembered and rests are removed from the memory. Based on the happiness value, the optimizer agent chooses one of the test cases and also selects a neighbor around that for evaluating its happiness value. Abandoned test cases are replaced with the new test cases as discovered by the selector agent and this is repeated until all the nodes have been visited once. This algorithm was implemented on few sample problems and the results were compared to the results of application of Ant colony Optimization for test suite optimization. It was observed that ABC algorithm provided consistent results and the problems faced in ACO such as pheromone updation, memory and time overheads were not faced by ABC algorithm. McCaffrey [8] applied simulated bee colony algorithm for generation of pair wise test sets. A pair wise test set is generally a collection of test vectors where all possible combination of pairs of values has been captured from different parameters. Here a bee has been modeled as a bee object with four types of data fields and the entire colony is represented as a hive object consisting of an array of bee objects [8]. An enumeration type which specifies the current role (active, scout and inactive) is the first field. The second field defines a 2-D array representing a bees memory, which in turn would represent a partial solution. An integer value representing the quality of food source associated with data in bees memory is the third field type and the fourth field is represented by the number of times a particular food source has been visited by the bee object without locating a neighbor source with higher quality value. The algorithm requires an initial seed value which can be any value equal or greater to number of test vectors which are representing a minimal solution. In the proposed algorithm, when the scout bee is in active role, then it leaves the hive and selects a random food location and compares the quality of food. If the quality of the food location is greater than the one in its memory, the memory gets updated with new food location. The simulated scout bee performs the waggle dance in hive and these dances are visible to all the inactive bees in the hive. In the algorithm, the number of times an active foraging bee visits a source has been fixed. Global counter variable helps in tracking the number of simulated bees in each role. Therefore when an active bee becomes inactive, then randomly an inactive bee is selected and gets transitioned to an active state. The algorithm was run against seven pairwise tests set generation benchmark problem. The approach yielded good result in terms of test set size but the performance of the algorithm was slower as compared to other deterministic algorithms. Mala et al [9] again proposed the use parallel behavior of the three bees for automated software test optimization. The main focus was to generate efficient test suite which can cover the software under test within time and less cost. The artificial bee colony algorithm system combines the local search conducted by the employed and onlooker bees with the global search carried out by scout bee. Hence it helps in attaining global or near-global optima. The test adequacy criteria applied here is ensuring the state coverage, path coverage and branch coverage. The cyclomatic complexity of the given program is known and it also indicates the number of independent paths. Three bees functionality gets extended to three agents- search agent, selector agent and replace agent. The algorithm in [6] was implemented on 10 benchmark problems and the results were compared to sequential ABC, random testing and Genetic Algorithm. It was found that the performance of parallel ABC algorithm is better th an the other approaches. In some cases random testing also produced better results as compared to genetics algorithm. For 100% coverage, the number of test cases needed was very less in parallel ABC as compared to other approaches. GA gave only 50% coverage due to strike up local optimal solution. Dahiya et al [10] presented an ABC algorithm based approach for automatic generation of structural software tests. The working of the honey bee is reported as robust and adaptive by [12].The paper applied artificial bee colony based search algorithm for generating test data using symbolic execution technique of static structural testing and therefore corresponding to every path a compound predicate was constructed by anding all the branch predicates of a path. The compound predicate should be evaluated to true by a candidate solution to become a valid test case. For test data generation, random population of candidate solution is generated. Solutions are represented by position of flower patches. The profitability related to each flower is also measured. This profitability is replaced by the fitness of the positions in computer modeling. It includes various parameters such as nectar content in the flower, distance of flower from the beehive and sugar content in nectar etc. In the first phase of the algorithm; the employed bees modify elite flower patches position w.r.t. neighborhood. In the second phase, the onlooker bees modify their patches position w.r.t. elite patches position. A greedy selection process is repeated after every phase where solution or flower patches compete among themselves for retention in the selected or elite flower patches, based on their fitness. Hence some solutions or flowers may migrate from one patch to another patch and some may get abandoned. These search phases of the bees are repeated until some termination criteria are met. The algorithm was implemented on ten real world problems. The output suggested that the proposed algorithm had performed satisfactorily for most of the programs except for the programs having large input domains and various equality based path constraints. 5. Analysis and Discussion Four different applications of Artificial Bee Colony algorithm in the field of software testing has been reviewed and based on the analysis a table has been formulated which compares all the applications on different parameters. Parameters Application by D Jeya Mala (2009)[6] Application by James D McCaffrey (2009)[8] Application by D Jeya Mala (2010)[9] Application by S S Dahiya (2010)[10] Main Objective Test suite optimization Generation of pairwise test sets Automated software test optimization Automatic generation of structural software tests. Output obtained Generated optimal results and it converges within less number of test runs. Good results in terms of test set size and suggests the use where test sets are intended to be reused. Generated global or near global optimal results and it converges within less number of test runs. Generated test cases for all paths. Tool used for implementation Java PICT in C++ QICT in C# Java MATLAB Output Comparison With Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm With published results of 7 benchmark problems. With Sequential ABC, Random Testing and Genetics Algorithm No Comparison made Behavior of Bees Parallel behavior of bees Sequential behavior Parallel behavior Sequential behavior Cyclomatic complexity YES NO YES YES Type of bees Search Agent, Selector Agent, Optimizer Agent Employed bee, Onlooker bee, Scout bee Search agent, Selector agent, Replace Agent Employed bee, Onlooker bee, Scout bee Test Adequacy Criteria Path Coverage Not Mentioned Path coverage, Branch Coverage, State coverage Path coverage Drawbacks Not Mentioned Longer generation time Not mentioned Did not perform well on programs having large input domain and many equality based path constraints. Benchmark problem used 6 problems 7 benchmark problems Many 10 real world problems Table1. Comparison of various applications of ABC algorithm Mala et al [6] applied artificial bee colony algorithm for test suite optimization and the results obtained were better than the use of Ant Colony Optimization. McCaffrey [8] applied ABC algorithm for generation of pairwise test sets and suggested the use where test sets are intended to be reused. Mala et al [9] again applied ABC algorithm for automated software test optimization and compared the output with that of sequential ABC algorithm, Random Testing and Genetics Algorithm. For 100% coverage the number of test cases needed was very less in parallel ABC algorithm. Dahiya et al [10] used ABC algorithm for automatic generation of structural software tests. The algorithm performed satisfactorily except for programs with large input domains. 6. Conclusion In this research the artificial bee colony algorithm has been studied and a review based on application of the artificial bee colony algorithm in the field of software testing has been performed. Based on review a table has been formulated which compares all the applications on different parameters. It was also observed that the current application of artificial bee colony algorithm is in the field of structural testing and for test suite optimization only.

Explore How Arthur Miller Portrays John Proctor Essay

John Proctor is the protagonist in the Crucible. The story revolves around him and shows how one man battle with his own self conscience. It is set in Salem with a strong puritan community surrounding the story throughout and gives puritan views on every scenario shown. The story was true and closely researched by Arthur Miller including factual characters. The episode set between February 1692 and May 1693 has been used as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of religious extremism, false accusations, governmental intrusion and false pretences. However to help the story appeal to a wider audience Arthur added a love affair into the plot. This was the biggest change from the original story and added another genre to it creating a more interesting and in depth version of a factual set of events. The overall feel to the plot is closely linked to the House Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) in which McCarthyism, the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence was used. It started in the late 1940’s and was characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. It died down in the late 1950’s but inter twines throughout the plot of The Crucible and uses real scenarios from history. The title of the story sums up the conclusion of John Proctors life on a whole. A crucible is a pot used to burn impure objects, as they come out clean and pure once heated. This is a metaphor for the whole village of Salem as after the event they see the error of there ways and act like puritans again. This can also be seen throughout the story as John Proctor has the impurities of his affair with Abigail and then is relieved of this sin at the end when he chooses to be truthful and accepts to do what everyone who likes him wants. This is also what his wife wants as she would prefer him to be dead and forgiven than live and be living a lie. John Proctor was not a typical puritan. He had a sharp and biting way with hypocrites and was a man who stuck to his guns. His outspoken mannerisms could some times cause friction, for example with Putnam as he tells â€Å"I seen none children dying, this society will not be a bag to swing around your head†. This is a prime example of what Proctor is best at. Taking a look at all the evidence and then making a clear and clever conclusion from it and choosing who to blame. If you were stupid he enhanced your stupidity further by making you feel small. Arthur tells us in his notes that if a character told a stupid or blatantly obvious fact then Proctor would make them seem stupid by pointing out errors or miss judgements. This was a characteristic that won a lot of respect for John Proctor, but also made him a lot of enemies. Another reason why John is not a stereotypical puritan is the affair with Abigail. Abigail was made to be shown as a young, nasty, malicious girl who had once had an affair with Proctor but had never let it go. She uses her cunning words to tempt John back to her and reminds him of the times spent together. Miller uses warm heat imagery here and later on in the play when Proctor is with Abbie, yet again linking back to hell and religion. She tells him of how she remembers â€Å"clutching my back behind your house and sweating like a stallion whenever I come near. Or did I just dream that? I saw your face when she put me out, and you loved me then and you do now! † This lets John reminisce about the times he had with her and the fun that occurred. She then goes on to tell and contrast heat imagery with him burning in loneliness while with Elizabeth and that â€Å"he is no wintry man†. This section is the start of the tragic hero genre for Proctor as the readers and viewers see he’s not so perfect and has deep dark secrets of his own. The audience in this time period would have been shocked with the adultery theme being added, and as a result would have been more interested. The next main event involving John in the story has to be the biggest turning point. As he is in the court he exclaims loudly to everyone as the pressure has built up that he has known Abigail. As mentioned earlier this would have stunned the audience and sent them into shock and horror. Adding an adult theme into the story showed more depth and emotion in Arthurs writing, enhancing Proctors darker side and opening him up to the village. On the other hand this only furthers John’s many talents by giving him the courage to admit it. During this scene John’s wife plays a vital and negative role on his life by adding his downfall. To the contrast of Abigail, Arthur uses cold and shallow heat imagery when describing John’s time with her. â€Å"Its winter in here yet† has to fully describe the relationship between proctor and Elizabeth. The quick, blunt and emotionless dialogue between them proves this as well as the stage directions of Elizabeth receiving a kiss from Proctor, almost as if it was a chore. The cold heat imagery here is in total contrast compared to Abigail. As if because she’s younger and more tempting then the hot heat represents Hell and the temptation. While the cold heat represents the dead relationship with Elizabeth. Before Elizabeth enters, John tells the court of how she would never lie and is a good, pure puritan. She then enters, lies to the court not knowing the consequences and digs a hole for John. This is one of the rare cases of Irony throughout the play and varies the methods Arthur used to keep it interesting. Once the court case has been shown the next main predicament is what John is to do. He has been given the opportunity to tell the Court of who has been lying in exchange for his life much like the HUAC cases. This only adds to the dilemma’s John is facing and turns to his wife. Here they are shown to have there first proper emotional, loving conversation. It is in contrast to the short, blunt, snappy conversation in Act 4 and lets them become closer. If anything this is the only positive to come out of John’s death penalty and can be looked upon with happiness. In then end he doesn’t sign the others names and shows that he can be a loyal puritan and a loyal friend. Most people see this as a selfless thing but he also does it to stay respected and not let others see he has lied. Elizabeth is then happy and I believe this is the reason she spoke to him with such depth. She knew what he was going to do and so respected him for it. His puritan lifestyle comes full circle as he dies pure and Elizabeth would of rather he died pure than lived falsely. What I believe the summary and the main plot for the Crucible to be is one mans inner struggle with his conscience and guilt. When first reading through it I thought the main focus was on witchcraft and judgement, but after reading and looking through key points several times I now have different thoughts. John Proctor is a tragic hero towards the start but in the end is loved as a hero. He made his choice and his wife stood by him. This was all that mattered and completed him. I think Millers intent upon this was to show us all that even though mistakes have been made in a life, it doesn’t ruin the life itself and instead enhances the options we can take to correct it.

Final research HND Business Essay

Executive Summary Of Research on Basant or Spring Festival Event for the research was decided as â€Å"Basant or Spring Festival Lahore†. Basant was started 1300-1400 hundred century. But in near past the event was become controversial. Some religious activist called it Hinduism while some people in taking lead in kite-flying start taking lives of people and this activity was banned. Its was business event too and contributing national income. Was a beneficial for hotel and food industry etc. Our research was too found out the reasons for banning it. The beneficiaries of the festival and out put from the event and Myths regarding the events as well as give some recommendation. For the purpose a detailed proposal were made and presented to supervisor after approval of the proposal. Work was started on research. Literature was reviewed for facts finding. A questionnaire were made and distributed in 500 people and collected, interviews were conducted from different stake holders and other techniques of data collection were applied. Data were organized and presented in percentage and graphically. Analysis was made. The research findings were that basant or spring festival is better business activity accepted people of the country and encouraged by the business community. Basant has nothing with religion. It is celebrated with seasonal change. Some religious groups are against it because of the immoral & un-ethical musical and dance shows during the festival. Some people use alcohol in public places and commit crime these should be stopped. Kite-flying with harmful wires should be banned as it takes lives as well as damages electricity lines etc. The events mainly benefits hotel, food, garments, transport, music, traitor industry and overall positively affect the market of Lahore. Government can provide better law & order situation too public and Lahore is feasible in security prospective for spring festival. Literature Review Of Basant or Spring Festival Basant is centuries old cultural festival of Punjab. It was started in 1300-1400 century. But in near past got controversial as the some religious groups called it sign of Hinduism and show zero tolerance over it. According to Dr.B.S. Nijjar’s book, â€Å"Punjab under the Later Mughals†. According to him, when Zakariya Khan (1707-1759) was the governor of Punjab, a Hindu of Sialkot, by the name of Hakeekat Rai Bakhmal Puri spoke words of disrespect for the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his daughter Fatima (ra). He was arrested and sent to Lahore to await trial. The non-Muslim population was stirred to request Zakariya Khan to lift the death sentence given to Hakeekat Rai but he did not accede to their request. Eventually the death penalty was carried out and the entire non-Muslim population went into mourning. As a tribute to his memory, a prosperous Hindu, Kalu Ram initiated the Basant ‘mela’ in (Marrhi) Kot Khwaja Saeed (Khoje Shahi) in Lahore. (This place is now known as Baway di marrhi.) It is the last stop on the route of Wagon no.60 from Bhati Gate. Dr. B.S. Nijjar states on Page no. 279 of his book that the Basant ‘mela’ is celebrated in memory of Hakeekat Rai. Another myth about Basant is â€Å"It is said that Nizamuddin Auliya had no children. He had adopted his nephew who died at the age of 20. Amir Khusro tried to cheer the bereaved Nizamuddin, but in vain. One day while Amir Khusro was walking in the fields, he saw some young women dressed in yellow clothes and celebrating Basant. Khusro donned a yellow ghagra ad covered himself with a chunni and sang the qawwali — Sakal basant aayo ri. Seeing he dressed in yellow clothes, Nizamuddin became cheerful. † But majority of the society consider all the as myth and has opinion that It is a seasonal festival of indo-Pak and has no religious aspects. It is celebrated at spring on starting of winter on fourth or fifth day of lunar month (Magh). Yellow is mainly used for basant as its is narrated for wheat grow and mustard blossoms in the seasons. Yellow color is considered as the  color of Spring. Yellow outfits are worn in these days mostly. In pre-partition India Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs all celebrated Basant. Basant festivals held in all major cities of Punjab. Yellow clothes were worn; men wore yellow turbans and women yellow dupattas and saris. It was common to sway swings among Hindu, Muslim and Sikh women together and Basant’s traditional songs were sung that reflected the liveliness and romance of life in Punjab. Kite flying was common but on a small scale with decency. Kite flying is also part of the festival. Most of kite flyers are illiterate and labor class. They mostly use unethical ways for winning kites competition which leads to deaths of valuable lives. This factor decrease the color of this great festival from last 50 Years and the slogan is shouting. Celebrate Basant- but don’t snatch away lives. Gallup Pakistan Survey: Basant as Business activity Basant is high appreciated business activity as people from the whole country rush towards Lahore and hotel industry , food industry , music and other tourism industry boost up with the festival. It is highly encouraged by business community of Lahore. According to a survey 11% of the whole year business is three days of basant in Hotel and Food industry. Same effects brought on other industries. Research Back Ground In our country every business activity is banned due to some accident or religious pressure groups same controversy is with spring or Basant festival. I want to find out the financial benefits from this type of festival and the aim of pressure groups. As part of the academic requirement, in the Higher National Diploma program in IPS, Peshawar; for completing diploma of Business Studies the students are required to write a report for each one of their core units, this one being Research Project.  This subject gives us an opportunity to learn how we can write a detailed research report in a given word limit on a business organization. Our choice of Topic will be Basant Festival or Spring Festival Lahore. In the research we will address the questions 1. Effects of Spring Festival on Business Community of Lahore. 2. Finding financial beneficiary of Spring Festival Lahore. 3. Finding good and bad of Basant or Spring Festival. 4. Are Basant Festival suits our Law and Order situation? 5. Why our Religious activists are against the Festival? 6. How much basant Festival contributing to which industry and National Income. Data Collection Primary Data: For the purpose of collection of primary Data, Spring Festival was observed. Interviews were arranged with different community members and life class as well as with Business community of Lahore. Hotel Managers, Restaurant owners, Visitors were also interviewed. For the same purpose a Questionnaire were also made and distributed in different groups of community as well as to religious groups. Collect back and analyzed. Secondary Data: Secondary data collection were made trough news paper , magazine and mainly from internet sources , where we found that government banned kite flying not the Festival while Religious groups pretending it as Hinduism but Business community appreciate it. Research Methodology We have used different methodologies for our report taught in the course book. During This report, we used both the primary as well as the secondary data. Major sources are primary data and some of it is secondary date sources. Most of information will be through personal observations and interviews. Other information was gathered through mystery shopping during  the visit to the different Areas of Lahore During Spring Festival. Additional will be through questionnaires and surveys, brochures studies, telephonic interviews, newspaper, magazines and Internet sites search.. The major aim of this report was to study the about Festival as Business activity. Research techniques and Results Observation: A visit were made to Lahore during Basant Festival and observed the event 3 days. It was noticed that people of the country and business community Lahore really encourage the festival. But some citizen has the view that kite-flying should be minus from the festival as it take many lives every year and damage government property as people use harmful wires for kite-flying. Some religious groups are against it and want to ban dance parties and music shows in the festival. But large number of people supports it. Interviews: Interviews from different from different groups of community were made including government officials, Hotel Industry stakeholders, Food Industry Stake Holders, visitors and Religious groups. Interview questions were mainly same as questionnaire and including some general discussion. 150 people were taken interview including students, business man, government officials, religious activists and other community members. The questions & result of the interview was as below. Results and Graphical Representation of Interviews: Q.1: Are You in the favor of Basant or Spring Festival in Pakistan? Result: YES was the answer of 80% people and NO was the answer of 20% people. Graphical Representation: Q.2: Basant Festival has any relation with religion? Result: Yes was the answer of 20% people and No was the answer of 70% while 10% people said that they don’t know about the Issue. Graphical Representation: Q.3: Basant Festival Effects on Business Community of Lahore. Result: NAGATIVE was the answer of 8% while POSITIVE was the answer of 92%. Graphical Representation: Q.4: Is Basant Festival suits our Law and Order situation in Lahore? Result: YES was the answer of 60% people and NO was the answer of 30% while 10% people said that they don’t know. Graphical Representation: Q.5: Basant Festival Favor National Income? Result: 87% People answered as YES and 11% as NO while 2% has no comments. Graphical Representation: Q.6: Positives of Basant are more heavy than negative? Result: YES was the Answer of 78% People while NO was the answer 22% People during interviews. Graphical Representation: Q.7: Kite Flying Should is banned? Result: YES was the answer of 67% People while NO was the answer of 20% and 13% People has no comments on the question. Graphical Representation: Q.8: Basant Festival Should is kept Banned? Result: YES was the answer of 20% while 80% was NO. Graphical Representation: Questionnaire: Questionnaire was used to for distance stake holders. They people who were not easily reachable. Questionnaire was designed as requirement of project mentioned in the interviews section. Institute of Professional Studies Peshawar Questionnaire for Research of Basant or Spring Festival Name __________________Area ______________ Occupation __________________ Age__________________ Religion______________________ Mark ( ï  °) for your in box in front option. Q.1: Are You in the favor of Basant or Spring Festival in Pakistan. Yes No Q.2: Basant Festival has any relation with religion? Yes No Q.3: Basant Festival Effects on Business Community of Lahore. Negative Positive Q.4: Are Basant Festival suits our Law and Order situation? Yes No Q.5: Basant Festival Favor National Income? Yes No Q.6: Positives of Basant are more heavy than negative? Yes No Q.7 Kite Flying Should is banned? Yes No Q.8: Basant Festival Should is kept Banned? Yes No Results and Graphical Representation of Questionnaire: Result of Question Number 1: YES : 80% NO : 20% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 2: YES: 70% NO: 30% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 3: NEGATIVE: 8% POSSITIVE: 92% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 4: YES: 60% NO: 40% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 5: YES: 83% NO: 17% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 6: YES : 80% NO : 20% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 7: YES: 66% NO: 34% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 8: YES : 20% NO : 80% Graphical Representation: Internet Search: Internet Search was used as Secondary data findings. We found some writings on Basant and Spring Festival and analyzed accordingly. These writings has two stories about basant one supporting the festival as cultural festival and No relation with Hinduism while the other showing it has extreme hindu festival and against the religious values of Muslims.  While most of writings shows it a healthy financial activity with some bad strings attached with it as it make many damages to human lives , electricity lines etc in regard of kite-flying and moral & ethical values in Music and Dance parties. Findings Basant or Spring Festival is acceptable to majority with some changes. Law and Order situation is better in Lahore for Festival. Kite-Flying Should is kept banned. Religious groups are extreme against it and called it Hinduism. Government is ready to allow it in business aspect. Moral & Ethical Values should follow. Hotel and Food industry mainly is the beneficiary of the festival. Youngsters are the main supporters of the festival. Most of supporters are Muslim. It is given out put financial growth of the country. It’s an organized festival after Eid. Analysis After that data was organized and analyzed with different techniques of Data Analysis. Mainly the pie chart and Bar Chart method were used for Data Analysis. And result was produced for implementation. All the data formats and findings Shows that all stakeholders are in the favor of Basant or spring festival in Lahore as healthy business activity with some changes is the format of Festival. Mainly Hotel and food industry is beneficiary of the festival while Music, film and traitor industry also earning good from this festival. Garments and Fashion is industry is the indirect beneficiary of the event. Transporters, SME’s and general labor and working also get good benefits from the festival. Conclusion & Recommendations Basant or Spring Festival is healthy Business activity. Government should allow the Basant or Spring Festival as per demand of Business community and higher percentage of public. Kite-Flying should ban or allowed outside of walled city. Better security should be provided. Religious groups should convince and their guanine demands should be fulfilled. Harmful wire should completely ban from manufacturing. Un-ethical and Immoral acts should be discouraged. People from other parts of the country should be properly entertained to encourage the business. Proper promotion and Public Awareness campaign should be initiated to guide the people from stopping bad of Basant. Spring Festival and other Festival should be celebrated as it warm up different businesses.