Management - Business Simulations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management - Business Simulations - Essay Example The month end bank balance of ?7687 is decent enough to start with and is sufficient to meet the immediate cash needs as compared to the level of business activity. The slightly higher fixed costs of ?826 are indicative of the initial spending in research and networking which is absolutely crucial at this stage to take the business into the future. This is a step in the right direction at this stage. There is a net loss of ?778 and at this stage it is quite expected as the sales effort starts showing results only after some time. Besides, from the Time spent breakup (Appendix 1.2), it seems that the sales effort is greater than the overall marketing effort at this stage, since building cash inflow is a priority at this stage. The idle time shows that here is pressure to build up business and this is translated into sales activity which is more action oriented than the marketing activity. The same trend continues in February and is depicted in March ’13 report. In March’ 13, the bank balance is more or less maintained, indicative of even cash inflows and outflows. However, the expenditure and time on the marketing and product research activities shows an increase. The customer research and competition research is complete and the product redesign based on the research has been completed y this time. The business breaks even in the month of March 13 which is shown in the April 13. The bank balance is maintained and the business shows strong growth signs. The sales are increasing and the bank balance is building up with increase in new orders. The production time is increasing and the idle time is decreasing. The business has made a small profit of ?45. However, this trend is reverted the very next month owing to higher overheads in terms of spending business website. The website though a cost, is the right decision at the right time for the business, since, an online presence with the traditional marketing as well as supply chain management methods was hugely complemented by the same. Since at this time, the number of sales enquiries from traditional marketing methods is too low to sustain the business (Appendix1.3). The sales effort and its effectiveness has been maintained and is evident from the fact that the product stock at the end of the month is zero for a considerable period of time that is from Jan’ 13 to Feb’14. This apart from sales effort is also indicative of good inventory planning. However, by month May 13, due to lack of orders, the production capacity was idle for the most part. The scenario seems to be a result of overemphasis on research and planning at the expense of sales effort in recent past. The management was advised to give some more focus to the core activity of selling. This showed some result in the very next month, when the orders from previous month exceeded an amount of ?2870 and this is where the business starts making profit on a sustainable basis. The production capacity is util ized to a great extent and the idle time minimized. The growth in profit continues and by August, the production targets are being met. The Marketing team was advised to work out the possibilities of a long term business opportunity. The effort showed results in the form of the first customer contract by August 13 (Appendix 1.4). By September

Self-Presentation and Gender on Social Networking Sites Research Paper

Self-Presentation and Gender on Social Networking Sites - Research Paper Example These sites allow the users’ to create a profile that reflects their identity. A study by Magnuson and Dundes (2008) about the MySpace Profiles for 51 females and 49 males revealed that women had a better self presentation profiles on MySpace than men. Also they were more active that the males. The studies also revealed that although females dominate the social network sites, they have to depend on others for their sense of self as they do traditionally depend on the male in their families. A similar study by Manago et.al. (2008) revealed that social networking sites were a means to explore one’s own identity, engage into social comparison and express idealised aspects of selves they had dreamt to be. This paper tries to identify the ways in which males and females present themselves online in the social networking environment. The paper also intends to check if culture influences self presentation of genders in social networking. Keywords: Social Networking Sites, Gend er Difference, Self-Presentation Self-Presentation and Gender on Social Networking Sites Self-presentation is a very important aspect of today’s globalised world. According to Leary (1996) â€Å"Self-presentation is kind of impression management, which is the management of other’s impressions of a social unit such as people or organisation† (p. 17). ... Thus this subject has also attracted researchers to the study the gender differences in self-presentation on these sites. A study by Kornblum (2006) revealed the exploded popularity of these SNSs with users numbering to hundreds of millions in the recent years. However self-presentation on SNSs differs from face-to-face self-presentation. Self-presentation on SNSs differs because one can â€Å"inspect, edit and revise† one’s self presentation before it is available to others (Walther, Slovacek & Tidwell, 2001, p.110). These sites proclaim to help people get connected and share with the people in their lives. Thus SNSs create a real-life social network for people online. Although the SNSs are a replica of a real-life social network but the environment provided by the SNSs differs greatly from real life (cited in Hinduja and Patchin, 2008, p. 127). The studies have revealed that several people have 1000 other people on their friend list which is nearly impossible in the r eal life. These SNSs provide people with unique opportunities to stay connected to more people than they might otherwise have and to be able to know in their real lives. Also people can construct any kind of image about themselves that they would like to portrait to the people on their friend list. The self-presentation on these SNSs allows the users to construct an audience as they can add or remove friends from their social network in just seconds, with no more efforts but just a click on the mouse. Past research suggests that these SNSs are most popular among adolescents as it allows them to experiment with their identity. Research also suggests that adolescent girls use SNSs more than the adolescent boys as it