Bargaining power of supplier Essay Example for Free

Bargaining power of supplier Essay Bargaining power of supplier is also known as the amount of control your suppliers have over the price of goods you purchase dictates whether this area is an opportunity or threat. This is driven by the number of suppliers of each essential input; uniqueness of their product or service; relative size and strength of the supplier, and cost of switching from one supplier to another. In this case, Minbaochong Sdn Bhd is the supplier of Eight Eleven, the largest chain of twenty-four hour grocery stores in Malaysia. MinBao brand is one of the most popular brands of bread in Malaysia which supposed to give Minbaochong Sdn Bhd a strong bargaining power. However the tremendous mistake made by Kelvin Tan, the sales manager of Minbaochong Sdn Bhd, closed a deal with Eight Eleven by offering them a price concession and allowing them to offer a 400 gram loaf of MinBao bread for RM3.00 instead of its recommended retail price of RM3.20. This strategy causes sales of MinBao bread in supermarkets and other outlets declined significantly and resulted Eight Eleven is now accounted for one-third of Minbaochong’s sales. Further, the company already burdened by debt acquired in its recent spin off was on the edge of bankruptcy lower the bargaining power of Minbaochong Sdn Bhd. The bargaining power is now with Eight Eleven as Eight Eleven controlling one-third of Minbaochong’s sales and even Minbaochong Sdn Bhd terminate the contract and stop supplying bread to Eight Eleven, it does not affect muc h to Eight Eleven because they have its own house brand or there is greater presence of substitute inputs for Eight Eleven means the extent to which it is possible to switch to another supplier for an input or a close substitute, thus it results the bargaining power of suppliers, Minbaochong Sdn Bhd become lower. Competitive rivalry The intensity of rivalry among competitors in an industry refers to the extent to which firms within an industry put pressure on one another and limit each other’s profit potential. Competitive rivalry affects the competitive environment and influences the ability of existing firms to achieve profitability. High intensity of rivalry means competitors are aggressively targeting each other’s markets and aggressively pricing products. This represents potential costs to all competitors within the  industry. High intensity of competitive rivalry can make an industry more competitive and decrease profit potential for the existing firms. On the other hand, low intensity of competitive rivalry makes an industry less competitive and increases profit potential for the existing firms. In this case, the competitive rivalry is low because competitors have unequal size. Eight Eleven was the largest chain of twenty-four hour grocery stores scattered all over Malaysia. By having nume rous branches of grocery store leads to the great advantages against other competitors. Besides that, Eight eleven had a strong strategy that preventing them to receive any threats from rival. â€Å"Every Day Low Price† Although the product selling by Eight Eleven is lack of differentiation and Eight Eleven have high fixed cost due to numerous branches in Malaysia, but Eight Eleven is well known among the market and able to offer a lower price compare to other grocery stores due to large number of stocks held by Eight Eleven. This will eventually enhance the brand loyalty of Eight Eleven’s customer as customer switching costs are high. Hence the competitive rivalry is low due to Eight Eleven is the main driver of the grocery stores and had established a strong market base in Malaysia.

Pips Shadow Parents in Charles Dickens Great Expectations Essay

Pip's Shadow Parents in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations Both Miss Havisham and Magwitch are powerful influences on Pip's life, in a psychological, and to some extent physical, manner. In this essay, I hope to explore these influences, and investigate what affects they have on Pip's development. Naturally, the fact that Pip is an orphan, and never knew his parents, means there is space for characters to come in and exact a definite, parental control. The novel echoes many of Dickens's own life experiences- he had a strained relationship with his parents when they were condemned to imprisonment for debt difficulties. The sense of abandonment and sudden awareness of the fragility of class distinctions he experienced during this time was to haunt him for the rest of his life, and this is mirrored by the great contrast in, "shadow parents." On the one hand we have the wealthy Miss Havisham, inhabiting a decaying yet grand mansion, and on the other we have a hardened criminal emerging from the gloomy marshes. The opening chapter gives the reader a powerful idea of how Pip is suffering from having no identity, as Pip seeks to find his role in an inhospitable world. The windswept, barren place of mud, mist and water provides the perfect setting for a frantic convict to emerge. In his search for his origins, Pip seems to have created "a second father" in Magwitch, who turns him upside down metaphorically as well as literally, and places him on his parents' tombstone. In the short term, the introduction of Magwitch gives Pip a sudden responsibility, which makes him confront the violent methods of discipline employed by Mrs Joe as h... ... criminal, violent attributes, and return to menace Pip, and Miss Havisham to be his saviour and helper in his quest to become a gentleman. In a journal format, Dickens needed to employ many plot twists, as Magwitch turns out to be the mysterious benefactor, and Miss Havisham the manipulative monster who psychologically hurts and confuses Pip in so many ways. It is difficult to say who is the "best" shadow parent, because although Magwitch supplies the money which sees Pip through becoming a gentleman, in his own mind Pip is motivated by Miss Havisham and has visions of achieving great wealth and wedding Estella. If we look at the novel in hindsight, we can conclude that Magwitch is the superior "shadow parent" as he is clearly dedicated to helping Pip, where as Miss Havisham does nothing but psychologically twist him.

Result of Eva’s Story Essay

ohn Boynton Priestley was born in 1894 and died in 1984. He was famous for contemplating science and philosophy, and wrote many plays to put forward his socialist views. An Inspector Calls was one of these, and is about a wealthy upper-middle class family, the Birlings, and how their views on living change as a result of a visit from an inspector. The main characters are the Birlings, Inspector Goole and Eva Smith. Arthur Birling is a successful businessman; his wife, Sybil, is very pretentious; and their rather peculiar son, Eric, is an alcoholic. Eric’s sister, Sheila, has recently engaged to Gerald Croft, a gentleman of a slightly higher social class than the Birlings – Mr. Birling feels a little inferior because of this. We do not know a lot about the Inspector – he is given an air of mystery and importance – but it is possible that he could be an apparition of some kind or perhaps a figure to represent Priestley’s own views. Eva Smith is an absent character who nevertheless plays a huge part in the storyline. The play takes place solely in the dining room of the Birlings’ house, which is â€Å"heavily comfortable but not homelike†. This unified setting is beneficial in many ways. One thing is that it lowers the costs and requirements of the production of the play, meaning that it can be performed in a wider variety of settings and therefore be shown to more people. In addition, the audience will focus on the actors and the plot rather than the set so much if it does not keep changing, which helps retain attention to the play. The play begins as Gerald Croft and the Birlings are celebrating as a family Sheila Birling and Gerald’s engagement, when the evening is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole. The Inspector tells them the story of the tragic suicide of a young girl, whose name is Eva Smith, but she calls herself Daisy Renton after Mr. Birling sacks her, as an attempt to make a fresh start. He forces them to see how each of the people present contributed to her taking her own life by swallowing disinfectant. Gradually, he picks away at the protective, self-satisfied shell that the Birlings have built up around themselves, and eventually manages to pull apart the whole sense of the family. He then exits, leaving them to blame each other and argue amongst themselves. The play was written in 1945 but is set in 1912. I think this is to emphasise the point that rich people are not always right, as Mr. Birling in particular makes several predictions that we, as the audience, know to be incorrect. For example, he says, â€Å"You’ll hear some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say – fiddlesticks!† and â€Å"There isn’t a chance of war.† However, we know that two years later, WWI began. He speculates about Sheila and Gerald’s future – â€Å"In twenty or thirty years’ time – let’s say, in 1940 – you may be giving a little party like this – your son or daughter might be getting engaged – and I tell you, by that time you’ll be living in a world that’ll have forgotten all these silly war scares.† This is ironic because in fact in 1940 WWII took place. He also makes predictions about labour struggles when he says, â€Å"†¦there’s a lot of wild talk about possible labour trouble in the near future. Don’t worry. We’ve passed the worst of it,† and the Titanic, as he says, â€Å"Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable†, both of which we know are wrong. Mr. Birling is confident about all of these predictions, but we know how wrong he is. This is an example of dramatic irony, and I think J.B. Priestley used it to great effect in portraying Mr. Birling as someone who is entirely ignorant about what the future holds, though the other characters are unaware of this. In Act One, the family is celebrating the engagement of Sheila and Gerald. Sheila is presented as excitable and eager to please her family and Gerald: after she has received her ring she says, â€Å"(excited) Oh – it’s wonderful! Look – Mummy – isn’t it a beauty? Oh – darling – (She kisses Gerald hastily.)† She is also rather materialistic, as the stage directions, â€Å"(still admiring her ring)† imply, though she still shows empathy and compassion towards Eva – â€Å"SHEILA: (Rather distressed) Sorry! It’s just that I can’t help thinking about that girl – destroying herself so horribly†.  She plays up to Gerald, saying, â€Å"Oh – is it the one you wanted me to have?† and I think this suggests that she wants to keep on everyone’s good side, and avoid any conflict. She behaves in the same way to her parents, meekly saying, â€Å"I’m sorry, Daddy. Actually I was listening.†

Harmony and Howling †African and European Roots of...

Harmony and Howling — African and European Roots of Jamaican Music English colonial rule began in Jamaica in the year 1655. The growth of a plantation culture in the West Indies quickly changed the need for labor in the area. Between 1700 and 1786, more than 600,000 African slaves were brought to Jamaica. These slaves were required to work for their English colonial masters who would purchase them from slave traders at various ports around the island. Slaves were abducted from various regions of Africa, and brought over to the New World in large boats, packed to the teeth with the Africans. The slave trade over the Atlantic served as a connection between the West Indies- islands in the Caribbean, and what was to become the United†¦show more content†¦This association of slaves as animals was used more in the Caribbean than it was in America because Slaves and livestock were linked in the British West Indies. According to John Pinney, a planter slaves and livestock†¦.are the sinews of a plantation. On pens, or small animal ranches in Jamaica, slaves were treated on the same plain as a cow, or a chicken, or a pig. The whites did not even want to be with the slaves and animals at all, and were frequently absent from these situations until a law was passed in 1695 requiring at least one white to be in the presence of a pen. This shows how the slaves were looked at to be sub-human, and similar to an animal. A white would not want to hang around there because he considered it to be like hanging around with a bunch of cows, or pigs, or chickens. The average number of black slaves on these pens was forty three. Slaves on the island were seen as little more than moveable equipment with which to exploit in order to make money. Money, in both American and West Indian slavery is the heart of the matter. The entire slave trade over the Atlantic, and resulting degrading of the African dignity which still exists today was all in the name of making money. This is the climate that existed in colonial Jamaica (as well as throughout the New World) when African and European music first