The Artwork Soft Calendar for the Month of August, 1962. Metropolitan Assignment

The Artwork Soft Calendar for the Month of August, 1962. Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - Assignment Example One must wonder why the artist uses the particular medium that he does—especially since it is quite strange. â€Å"Soft Calendar for the Month of August, 1962† is basically canvas filled with shredded foam rubber; it’s painted with Liquitex and enamel. Now, Liquitex, as one understands it, is primarily a plastic paint—which we now know as acrylic gesso. Gesso is what artists usually put on their canvases in order to prime the piece of artwork with paint. So, it seems rational that Claes used Liquitex, perhaps for a first coat. Then, he most likely next applied enamel, which leaves a decorative and glassy coating. It’s a type of paint used for modeling (such as miniature toy plane replicas, etc.). One must ask why the artist uses this particular medium besides why he actually uses the types of paints—and rather, why does he feel this is the best way to represent his art? Perhaps this was the easiest way to paint shredded foam rubber. It must h ave taken some masterful skill to form the rubber just the way he wanted it, because the rubber numbers on the calendar look like dough. The advantages of working with acrylic gesso would be that the first coat would dry easily. The limitations of working with enamel include the fact that enamel takes a longer time to dry. III. Style Elements of the composition work to constitute the artist’s style, much in the way that putting a bunch of puzzle pieces together creates a whole picture. As for what movement within which Oldenburg was working, he was clearly in the realm of various possible categorizations: Modernist, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art. It’s possible it might have even been more than one style blended together. At any rate, â€Å"Claes Oldenburg's highly individual figurations make him one of the leading protagonists of Pop Art† (Osterwold 193). Pop art, short for popular art, was at its heyday in the ‘60s, along with the likes of Roy Licht enstein and others. Unmistakably, as one can see below, the calendar for the month of August of 1962 starts with the number â€Å"29,† as that was the day of the week from the previous month of July in that particular year. One also may note that the August calendar of 1962 ends with the number â€Å"1,† because the last day in the calendar was September 1st of 1962—according to the painting. The numbers and letters almost look like baked bread dough rising. More is forthcoming about why this painting looks like it does, in the next section regarding the context of the painting. IV. Context One should examine also, the context of the work. This was painted in the 60s by Claes Oldenburg. He was born in Sweden in 1929, but is an American citizen. It’s uncertain exactly where he painted it, nor with what other works it would be in conversation with unless one talks about this painting being a type of conversation piece in the context of Pop Art. All of the f irst days of the week on the calendar are painted red, while the other days are white. One is unsure whether the colors or this particular month held any kind of cultural or historical events or issues which the piece is addressing. To be sure, Soft Calendar for the Month of August, 1962 is definitely riveting. It makes you ask why a thousand times. Why are the first days of the week painted red, and the rest white? Why do these numbers look like rising bread dough? And so forth and so on. It is a discussion that must be had. V. Conclusion

Civil rights Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Civil rights - Term Paper Example You get an ensurity to get involve in political and civil life. These civil rights are made for safety and ensuring the physical integrity of the person like. Beside all these facts these rights protects you from many discriminations like gender, race, nationality, age, speech, mental or physical disability and many more things. By origin civil rights are the major part of global Human Rights. These civil rights are enforceable rights and they are entertained by other people also. This right can be use when you have to take some action against an injury. Some common examples of civil rights are freedom to speech, right to vote, right to equality in public places, press, freedom from involuntary servitude and many more. Example of civil rights: The famous example of civil rights in America is â€Å"civil right act of 1964†. This civil right act was the unique mark of legislation in United States. This act is used to outlaw segregation in schools, employment places and also the public places. This civil right was first conceived to aid African Americans. In this act people also raised their voices to protect women including white people also (George H. Rutland, 2001). Role of FBI agencies in protecting civil rights: A FBI agency is made to do investigation the violation of national law of civil rights. The FBI do his duty seriously because if there is any violation in the civil laws and if any person among us looses any right then the freedom of all of us will be drawn towards danger. Activities of US commissions for enhancing civil rights: US commissions is also doing a regular work on civil rights. The main aim of US commission is to do investigation of complains that are made by people. These complaints are made because many people’s are deprived because of their voting rights on the basis of their race, religion, color, sex, citizenship, age. These complaints are taken by US commissions and then a proper action is taken to solve the problems of a common people. Center of civil rights (CRS): CRC stands for Civil Right Center. This center of civil rights is for the enforcement and administration of different Federal statues, executive orders, regulations which are related to both equal and nondiscrimination opportunities. These three laws based on equal opportunity are: 1. A forbid discrimination based on disability. This law can be specified by different public entities like local and state government. It is also enriched with the programs organized and activated by DOL. 2. A forbid discrimination on different basis of programs and activities. This also receives a financial assistance from DOL or work investment act. 3. The discrimination of forbid employment within the DOL (George H. Rutland, 2001). Benefits of EEOC in civil rights: The civil right of EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is very much popular. This civil right holds the responsibility that every employee or job applicant must receive equal employm ent without introducing the thoughts of religion, race, sex, color, age, nationality and disability. According to this civil right discriminating against any employee is also illegal. And if any person faces this situation then he can complaint for this and you can be fined heavily for this or have to face a lawsuit. This is a very strong civil right and because of this right people in America are working equally and are enjoying equal payments. Political book: According to political book of America civil rights are considered as normal rights of human

Negative Stance on Usage of Animals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Negative Stance on Usage of Animals - Essay Example The first problem that is associated with conducting medical tests and research on animals is that animals and human beings are different from each other and the reliability of tests conducted on animals decreases for human beings due to their physical and emotional differences (Hill 31). Animals such as mice are weaker than human beings, they do not have strong bones like human beings, and thus the impact of a particular chemical on mice may be much worse than it may impact human beings and what might suit a particular individual may not suit mice. The second problem associated with using animals for research is that by giving importance to human interests, researchers may be violating animal rights. Animals and human being are both living things and no single living thing should suffer pain for the benefit of another living thing. The extent of suffering that is experienced by animals is very high, they are treated in an inhumane manner and are not given as much respect as other li ving things such as humans during tests. Animals cannot speak up or exhibit experience of pain as human beings do; this does not necessarily mean that they cannot feel pain. The third issue with the usage of animals for the purpose of conducting research and tests in order to benefit human beings is that this act is unethical. Those in the favor of this act use the ethical problem-solving method of utilitarianism to support the act. They believe that using animals for research purposes has more benefits to offer to the society and the costs associated with the act are near to zero. The benefit that is obtained by using animals for research purpose is that treatments are developed which help in maintaining and achieving wellbeing of human beings.  

Is European Union undermining the sovereignty of its individual member Essay

Is European Union undermining the sovereignty of its individual member states - Essay Example The next case that further emphasized upon the sovereignty principle was Case 11/70 Internanationale Handelsgesellschaft GmbH3, whereby it was stated that even where the case was in respect of fundamental rules that had been established by way of the German Constitution, Community law would prevail over such national laws and rules. Another important case which can be cited in respect of the powers of the courts of the member states to respect the sovereignty of Community Law is Case 106/77 Simmenthal SpA (No.2)4 whereby it was stated that even a court of first instance were under a duty to set aside provisions of national law which were incompatible with Community law. Furthermore, there was no need to wait for the national law to be amended in accordance with the EC law and so the national law could be set aside where it was in conflict with a directly applicable or effective provision of the EC law. The duty to respect sovereignty of EC law was extended to administrative agency wh ich was dealing with a national insurance scheme who were said to have powers to set aside conflicting provision. (Case C-118/00 Larsy v. INASTI)5. It is important to mention here that even thought by virtue of the powers being given to courts and administrative agencies the national measure is held to be inapplicable, the Member State is still held to be under a continuing obligation to repeal the conflicting provisions. The Courts in Case 167/73 Commission v. France (French Merchant Seamen)6 for the sake of legal certainty expressly stated the Member States are under an obligation to repeal the offending or contradicting national provision or rule. A step forward in respect of this can be seen from the fact that even if there is not sufficient certainty as to whether a person has a Community law claim, the supremacy doctrine specifies that the national court should set aside the provisions that may prevent anyone from acquiring the full benefit of Community law, even if this is es tablished later in time. The concept can be seen to have been applied in Case C-213/89 R v. Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd and others7 which was a case on Spanish fishermen who claimed that the UK Act prevented them from fishing in British water and therefore was in contradiction and breach of EC Treaty Articles. The fishermen sought interim relief in this respect; however, the problem that arose in this respect was that the courts in UK were not empowered to grant an injunction against the State, thereby suspending an Act of Parliament. The problem in this case was the if interim relief was not provided the Spanish fishermen would have been driven out of business and might have suffered huge losses and therefore a subsequent judgment would not in any way serve their purpose. The ECJ held that the act of Parliament must be set aside and subsequently the House of Lords granted an injunction. There has been a strong reaction by the national courts in respect of the concept of direct effect and supremacy which has been developed by the Court of Justice. The important point that needs to be looked into when determining the way how the EC law enters the Member State is dependent on the fact as to whether the member state is monist or a

Communication in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Communication in Business - Essay Example BMW conducts its business as a genuine professional and care for its customer with respect by assuming it as their responsibility. The professional behaviour of BMW reflects from their principles which are shown at their websites. BMW strictly respects the law of the country where it operates and maintains honesty and integrity towards the employees and stakeholders. BMW Group acknowledges the requirement for understanding the needs of different people of different culture while engaging with the local network. To effectively take up environmental responsibility and provide recommendations to local network, BMW Group executes efficient business practices to deal with the environment protection, decreases energy consumption, adopts energy saving measures and regenerates energy from waste. BMW Group implements resource conservation and environmental protection. The group evaluates all procedures and creates strategy and measures to reduce the utilisation of natural resources and environmental impact. BMW is well aware of the responsibility towards environment and thus their products of vehicle are designed in such a way that it causes less impact on the environment. BMW Group follows the philosophy of clean production and applies it in their international production units. BMW’s business actions are based on the principles of resource conservation and environmental protection. BMW had established environmental management system in their production units as well as planning sectors (BMW Group 2011). BMW Group continuously examines, evaluates and monitors the risk factors and also considers the global climate change. It had successfully established systems for reducing the emissions of CO2 and waste. BMW’s resource management develops solution to decrease the energy consumption and CO2 emission. In the year 2008, BMW had developed energy data management system which helped to record the consumption of energy in details (BMW Group 2011). BMW always strives to

Gulliver Travel Theme Essay Example for Free

Gulliver Travel Theme Essay Might vs. Right In Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travel there are many characters who have power over others, some of these characters abuse it other characters do not. Swift gives many details and examples of how the character uses or abuses his or her power. Swift relates many of his characters to real life people of his time The first occurrence of this theme happens when Gulliver washes up on the island of the Lulliputains after his boat was capsized by a huge storm. Gulliver awakens to his arm, legs, and body tied down and is unable to move. He is surrounded by a abundance of miniature like people. Though Gulliver showed no sign of aggression the Lulliputains, despite their small size, still took full advantage over Gulliver and attack him with arrows. The emperor who rules Luptin thinks he can control Gulliver and has him chained and guarded by soldiers. â€Å"The emperor is both a satire of the autocratic ruler and a strangely serious portrait of political power. †(Sparknotes. com). Swift uses The Emperor to represent King George I. Just like King George, The Emperor abuses his power and hires his ministers on how well he likes them rather then their suitability, wisdom, or virtue. The Emperor of Luptin also loves war and wants to use Gulliver’s size to enslave the neighboring island Blefuscu. Although Gulliver refuses to do so, this can be compared to King George I war on Spanish Succession. The Brobdingnagians could dominate with their superior size if they wished but for the must part they do not. Gulliver is taken by a farmer when he lands on the island of Brobdingnag who Gulliver estimates is around seventeen foot tall. The farmer at doesn’t take advantage of his great size but he eventually uses Gulliver as a display around Brobdingnag for money. In General the Brobdingnagians do not abuse their power. The King of Brobdingnag is offered the secret of gunpowder but he refuses to take this, even though gunpowder could vastly increase the power of his nation. The Queen of Brobdingnag finds Gulliver and buys him off the farmer for a thousand pieces of gold. The Queen finds Gulliver quite interesting and thinks of him not as a pet but as fellow Brobdingnagian. Throughout the story Swift likes to draw questions through his characters on why people hold power over others. A key example of this is how The Laputan King thinks he has the right to hold power over the Balnirbarbians simply because he is more devoted to abstract and theoretical knowledge then they are. A more ambiguous example of this power is how the Houyhnhnms control the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are intelligent, moral and virtuous people but it is still questionable on whether they should rule the Yahoos. â€Å"The Yahoos are greedy, beastlike humans who will fight over anything valuable and will eat enough food for ten. †(shmoop. com). Even though the Houyhmhnms are great creatures it is still inhuman that they should take control of the Yahoos who are less fortunate than them. Might vs. ight or, abuse or use of power, is a reoccurring theme in Gulliver’s Travels. Swift uses this theme to draw a deeper meaning into the story. The question of why people hold power over others is one that is asked throughout the novel. Swift puts you into each of leaders shoes and gets the reader to think of what they would do if they were in this situation. Would people use to power that was given to them to do great things or would people abuse their power to control and strip freed om from others.

Operation Management And Strategies Starbucks And Cocacola Marketing Essay

Operation Management And Strategies Starbucks And Cocacola Marketing Essay In this present document we are going to analyze several aspects of operation management and strategies considering two companies: One from the service industry, Starbucks and one for the manufacture industry, Coca Cola. We will study their supply chain and assess its impact on both companies success and profitability. Then we will analyze their operational strategy to determine in which measure it contributes to their competitiveness and we will strive to provide ways in which challenges of the different companies could be overcome so that they can strengthen their own competitive advantage. Finally we will establish a location analysis in order to identify the best place for the companies to implement a new operation. The supply chain refers to the way that materials flow through different organizations, starting with basic raw materials and ending with finished products delivered (Gaither Frazier, 2002). This involved many activities and therefore we have to think about the best way to manage it in order for a company to be successful and profitable. We can then define the supply chain management as a set of approaches utilized to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and stores, so that merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities, to the right locations and the right time, in order to minimize system wide costs while satisfying service legal requirement. (Simchi-Levi, Kaminski, Simchi-Levi, 2003) The Starbucks supply chain is made of the following activities which are either external or internal to Starbucks organization: Coffee producing, importing, manufacturing and roasting, distribution to retail shop, marketing, delivering to the consumer. Supply Chain Starbucks Activities involved from the coffee production to the roasting are external to the company. They can involve many counterparts such as the small coffee producer, the processor, the exporter, the broker and the importer. To optimize these activities Starbucks manage them in many ways emphasizing its commitment to ethical coffee sourcing and fair-trade and global responsibility. Starbucks establishes relationship with growers and distributors and deal directly with farmers. It offers high prices to ensure that poor coffee growers have enough money to cover their production costs and their family needs. It uses fixed prices purchase commitments to limit its exposure to price fluctuations and purchase future contract to provide price protection. Moreover, to spread companys risk linked to the weather and the political and economical issues, Starbucks sources bean from multiple geographic areas. Starbucks commitment to ethical sourcing (it introduced the C.A.F.E program Coffee And Farmer Equity in 2004) allows having a better quality of product, a greater visibility in the supply chain and better relationship with farmers which contribute to reach success and profitability, that is to say to reach its objectives and generate wealth. Activities involved from the roasting to the delivery to the consumer are part of internal elements to the supply chain. They involve many activities such as the manufacturing, the planning, the inventory, the transportation and distribution. The key to reach success and profitability for Starbucks is to set an integrated supply chain operating system based on managing the flows. They manage the materials flows through DRP (Distribution Resource Planning) and TRP (Transportation Requirement Planning). They also put the emphasis on the information flows management to share the relevant information and to detect the supply chain opportunities at different level. The management of the marketing plays also an important role in developing the awareness of the fair trade initiative that helps justify Starbucks premium prices. The Coca Cola supply chain involves many activities namely, the supplies of raw materials and packaging, the manufacture and production of beverage concentrate, the sales to the bottlers and distributors, the Research and Development and the delivery to customer and ultimate consumer. Supply Chain Coca Cola The internal activities of the companies are limited to the manufacture of the concentrated syrup, the selling to the bottlers, the owning of the brands and the consumer branding initiatives. Therefore the companies can focus on its core competencies such as the production of syrup and the brand development to achieve its objectives and reach success. The fact that the bottling is outsourced allows the company to focus on its core competences and therefore ensure certain profitability. The others activities are part of the external supply chain but Coca Cola strives to integrate all the supply chain activities developing a strong partnership with its bottling partners. They are in charge of manufacturing the final product, packaging, distribution and merchandising the beverage to the customer and vending partners who then sell the product to the ultimate consumer. The supplies of raw materials are mostly linked to specific nutritive and non nutritive sweeteners which are available either within the United States or outside. There are numerous sources of raw materials and they are often subject of prices fluctuations. So Coca Cola has a wide choice of raw materials suppliers so that it can spread the prices fluctuation among them and therefore control its supply chain. The procurement suppliers and bottler partners have to meet certain standard to deal with Coca Cola Company and have to commit to guide principles and incorporate sustainability. Consequently Coca Cola can achieve its objective of quality and control. The Coca Cola supply chain organization allows to enhance customer service and to optimize cost and investment. How does each companys operational strategy improve its competitiveness? According to the Competitive Advantage Model of Porter, a competitive advantage refers to the adoption of offensive or defensive action to create defendable position in an industry in order to cope with competitors and generate a superior return on investment. The basis of above average performance within an industry is sustainable competitive advantage which can be either cost leadership or differentiation. Both of the companies we are analyzing have adopted the differentiation strategy. Furthermore the operation strategy is aimed at providing competitive advantage through its performance at the five competitive objectives namely, the quality, the speed, the dependability, the flexibility and the cost. Starbucks operational strategy improves its competitiveness through different ways. First of all Starbucks has understood that developing successful partnership would be a strength to develop competitive advantage first to ensure quality of product and secondly by adopting fair trade and ethical sourcing of coffee. Indeed Starbucks used to develop relationship with the countries it exports the coffee beans from. For example it collaborated with a small town of Pasto where they set up a special operation to grow the particular Narino Supremo bean and Starbucks committed to buy the entire yield which allow to be the exclusive Narino Supremo , one of the best coffees in the world and therefore to build a competitive advantage. The ethical commitment is a strong part of the operational strategy to develop specific partnership with small farmers and strengthen competitiveness. Starbucks has developed a shared planet program where it establishes environmental, social, economic and coffee quality principles to comply with C.A.F.E (Coffee And Farmers Equity) principles guid elines. This program enables Starbucks to differentiate from its competitors. Secondly Starbucks operational strategy tends to expand its market through a number of channels such as licensing stores but also with hospitals, bank, office buildings, supermarkets, shopping centers, hotel and airlines. The strategic operation model of Starbucks is to blanket an area completely even if one store cannibalizes another one because the Starbucks every-where approach cuts down delivery costs and increase the foot traffic in the area (Mr. Coffee, 2003). It develops partnership using local partner licensee who have experience in retail and restaurant in order to provide a good service to customer and fit the corporate culture of the company. Starbucks strives to develop good relation with the partner licensee to help it recruiting talented employee and put the emphasis on the customer service to build sustainable competitive advantage. The key to successful partnership for Starbucks is to share relevant information and communicate on supply chain opportunities to optimize processes. Added to this Starbucks operational strategy focuses on developing a strong corporate culture which enable to strengthen its competitiveness. Starbucks strategy is to empower employee culture through benefits program, employee stock ownership plan and staff and management training. The management staff is trained to understand how every activities of the supply chain fit together so it can be more effective and competitive. Finally Starbucks operational strategy aims at putting the emphasis on the marketing operations in order to differentiate the format. Indeed Starbucks marketing actions have to develop a given image of a small scale and high quality roaster in ethnic culture enclaves who sells not only quality coffee but also an atmosphere, a personality, an escape, the self esteem and therefore an interpersonal relation. This image reflects Starbucks personality and consequently enables the differentiation. Coca Colas operational strategy is aimed at building its competitiveness in many ways. First its operational strategy is customer focused striving to take into account customer needs and providing a response to it in a right way and in a right time. The company sustains its success and competitive advantage by creating new ways to deliver value through innovation responding to customer and consumer needs in a fast way. For example Coca Zero refers to a new consumer need. Secondly Coca Cola put the emphasis on the differentiation to strengthen its competitiveness by building global brand. It invests in marketing campaign to develop a strong image, improve its fame and impose its brand in a global basis. Therefore consumers have developed a loyalty to the brand and Coca Cola owns several brands that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for it. More over it has developed so much economies of scale through global networks that the emphasis on marketing and advertising fix important barriers to entry for potential competitors. Coca Cola also improves its competitiveness by adopting a collaborative approach to work with their suppliers to green their supply chain. It invests in new technologies and innovation to help their suppliers who do not have the ability to do so, for example in investing in new technologies vending machines which are better for the environment. Therefore it gains competitive benefits not only because of the energy savings but also from a corporate social responsibility point of view. Coca Cola has understood that integrate its suppliers would lead to supply chain excellence and therefore to sustain a competitive advantage. Consequently the Company has created Coca Cola Supply which invites all the bottlers partner to participate. The purpose is to provide a system wide leadership to control supply chain through integrated planning, joint initiatives and best practices processes. According to Coca Cola Supply, they are transforming the supply chain from a series of discrete, inconsistent activities to a single, harmonious and sustainable system (Coca-Cola Supply Created to Drive Supply Chain Innovation, 2009). Polar diagrams performance objective of Starbucks and Coca Cola What challenges do the operational strategies present and suggest ways in which they can be overcome. Operations strategy is the decisions which shape the long term capabilities of the companys operations and their contribution to overall strategy through the on-going reconciliation of market requirements and operations resources. Regarding Starbucks operational strategy many challenges could be addressed according different issues in order to be more profitable and to sustain a competitive advantage. The first thing is to always meet the customer needs for value and quality in identifying the best ways of quality processes. This implies that Starbucks has to find more suppliers quality and stability by developing partnership with different coffee farmers in order not to be dependant of only few suppliers. The quality implies also to control more and more of independent vendors, partners and licensees. Indeed the quality is one of the core value of Starbucks and reach it allows first the differentiation and secondly the conformance with customer expectations and avoid customer complaints. Starbucks has to keep developing ethical sourcing which benefits to the companys quality and image. Starbucks should assess the risk of its supply chain especially in raw materials procurement in the different countries and asses the political, geographical, natural, infrastructural risk of each country. Indeed if an incident happen in one of the procurement place Starbucks must not be dependant of few suppliers and should react quickly. It is therefore really important to develop the partnership with different countries in order to prevent late delivery and save costs. One of the challenge Starbucks will have to face is a potential saturation of the US market. Consequently a globe expansion in key market is an operational strategy Starbucks has to develop. The international expansion of the concept involves prospecting efficiently new markets and assessing the potential of success in each market. The key is to find local partner to grow the number of licensed store and impose Starbucks as a global brand. The partner have to share the same values as Starbucks and the company have to help them finding the best talent and train them in order to strengthen more and more the corporate culture. Developing new product is also an important challenge for Starbucks. Indeed the concept is mostly based on a few products which do not allow very much flexibility. Reaching flexibility will enable Starbucks to be more reactive in case of potential change from the market. Consequently the company has to develop innovative product and service while keeping its strong value of quality. For example it should be interesting to develop co-branding with other brand which presents the same value as Starbucks in order to launch new product like the company did in 2004 with Hewlett Packard when they create a CD service burning in a store in California. Coca Cola is one of the biggest brands in the world but even if its renown and profitability is well established there remain important challenges that the company has to cope with. First of all Coca Cola Company possess many brand but one of them generates around 50% of the total revenue. Therefore the company is in way dependent of one brand which can be a limit to its flexibility even if the customer loyalty to the brand is well established. Indeed Coca Cola needs more flexibility in case of market change and especially in case of consumer behavior changes. Besides we can notice a new trend where people become more and more health consciousness and look for nutritive drinks without calories. Therefore a threat of substitutes appears. In order to cope with the potential market change Coca Cola has to put the emphasis on innovation with new brands, products and packaging more adapted to consumers needs and demand. Secondly Coca Cola have to develop ways to be always more and more profitable and efficient. The key is to reduce the cost in order to increase the margin. The areas where the company could reduce these cost is the transportation and the production. Consequently Coca Cola has to identify the best places to buy, make and distribute the product. It has to monitor each region and each country comparing different parameters which will affect the supply chain such as the weather, the port and transportation, the fuel prices, the labor rates and the internal regulations of each country which can provide opportunities. Finally Coca Cola Company has to continue the effort put on green and environmental development. Indeed the company has often benefited from a negative image of a multinational company which tries to reach profit to the detriment of the planet well being. Therefore it has to keep investing in green technologies and support sustainable development with the suppliers in order not only to save energy costs but to benefit from a corporate social responsible company. Each of your company is considering locating a new operation in one of Japan, Thailand and Singapore. Source information on each of these three countries and based on the information found and using the relevant location analysis tools select which country to locate in and support your choice. You need to define why they wish to locate an operation there i.e. what market are they servicing. You should include demographic, infrastructure, cultural, geographic information, etc. Starbucks wants to locate a new operation in Japan, Thailand or Singapore. Indeed the company wants to expand its market on a global basis to cope with a potential saturation of the United States market. Therefore Starbucks wants to develop licensed stores operation in one of these countries. The key factors in such operations are the demographics, the branding and the potential revenue that each country could offer to the company. Therefore the main factors in the decision factors are the following: Quality of life issues in the community: indeed Starbucks targets a relatively high living standard consumer. Worker education and skills: the emphasis of the quality of the staff is really important to strengthen Starbucks Corporate Culture. Site costs: The rent is part of the profitability of the stores. Cultural abilities to modern changes: Starbucks is an American company, and its values have to fit with those of the country choose. Labor availability: It is important for Starbucks to find available talent. Coca Cola Company would like to improve its competitiveness and reduce the cost of transportation and production. Consequently the company would like to set up a new manufacture of syrup in Japan, Thailand or Singapore to reach this objective. Therefore Coca Cola has to monitor each country to assess the potential opportunities it could offer. The main factors in the choice of the location are the following: Proximity to raw materials and suppliers: As a manufacture of syrup, it is important to be closed to the suppliers to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Labor costs: The cheaper is the workforce the greater is the margin. Transportation availability: The products have to be imported to the different bottlers and it is therefore important to optimize the transportation cost. Site costs: The fixed cost linked to the rent should be the least in order to increase profitability. Government fiscal policies: all incentives or taxes impact on the cost. In order to compare each country we will set up a brief overview of each countrys characteristics. Japan has a population of 128 million of inhabitant and is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. With a nominal GDP of about $4,9 trillion in 2008, it is the second richest country in the world. Moreover, with an HDI (Human Development Indicator) of 0.96 it is the tenth highest standard living country. The government is a parliamentary democracy and put the emphasis on the environmental and sustainable development. The infrastructures are well developed and Japan is open in the world. According to the Big Mac Index Japanese people have the highest salary per hour in the world and the unemployment is low with a rate of 4%. Education is quite competitive and 75% of high school graduates attend a university. The culture has seen deep change from a very traditional to contemporary one. It influences by Europe and North America. Japanese people are quite open to modern changes. Thailand has a population of 64 million of inhabitants and a nominal GDP in 2008 of about $273 billion and a medium HDI of 0.783. Thailand has been ranked by the Global Competitiveness Report of 2008 34 out of 125. The quality of education is medium but tends to improve through the private education. The cost of labor remains quite low and unskilled. The government has seen many changes since the last few years but tend today to be stable. It supports today through the National Science and Technology Development Agency the research in science and technology and encourage foreign private investment in this field. Thailand remains a very traditional country where tradition is strongly established. Concerning Singapore, with a population of 5 million of inhabitants and a nominal GDP of 182 billion in 2008 it presents a high standard of living with a HDI of 0.944. It is the least corrupt country in Asia and is a highly market based economy (one of the four Asian Tiger). Singapore has developed free trade agreement with USA in 2003. The unemployment is low and is about 5% and we can notice a shortage of skilled workers. Manufacturing constituted 26% of Singapores GDP in 2005. Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world and is the worlds fourth largest foreign exchange trading center. Singapore is a major international transportation in Asia. Singapores culture is still very traditional society. In order to choose in which country we will operate we are going to use the Factor rating method which is useful for service and industrial location and which is one of the most widely used location technique. (C1= Japan, C2=Thailand, C3=Singapore) STARBUCKS FACTOR RATING METHOD Factors Weight Rate C1 RateC2 RateC3 ScoreC1 ScoreC2 ScoreC3 Quality of life issues in the community 30 90 60 75 2700 1800 2250 Worker education and skills 20 80 50 65 1600 1000 1300 Site costs 15 60 70 65 900 1050 975 Cultural abilities to modern changes 25 80 50 60 2000 1250 1500 Labor availability 10 85 60 70 850 600 700 Total 8050 5700 6725 According to the Factor rating Method, Starbucks should implement its new operations in Japan in order to be successful, profitable and therefore achieve its objective of expanding in new markets. COCA COLA FACTOR RATING METHOD Factors Weight Rate C1 RateC2 RateC3 ScoreC1 ScoreC2 ScoreC3 Proximity to raw materials suppliers 25 60 55 65 1500 1375 1625 Labor costs 20 55 80 70 1100 1600 1400 Transportation availability 25 70 55 85 1750 1375 2125 Site costs 20 60 70 65 1200 1400 1300 Government fiscal policies 10 60 60 70 600 600 700 Total 6150 6350 7150 According to the Rating Factor Method Coca Cola should implement its new manufacture in Singapore in order to reduce its costs of production and transportation. Indeed that is the country which offers the most opportunities to do so in term of proximity to suppliers, transportation costs and labor costs.