Understanding of Chinese Paintings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Understanding of Chinese Paintings - Essay Example The essay "Understanding of Chinese Paintings" examines he ways that written texts such as poems, inscriptions, or theoretical writings can change our understanding of Chinese paintings. The great monumental landscape Autumn Mountains at Dusk, attributed to Guan Tong, was one such an example. This work was a visual representation on one of the famous Tang poets Li Bai's poem The Road to Shu is Hard. Paintings and written texts are used together to give more meaning and interpretation to the paintings, which could otherwise be interpreted. While considering the poem above, poetry could be considered as a vocal painting while painting could be considered as visual poetry. Viewers could feel about the winding and steepness of the road to Shu. From the poem, readers could get more information. The hard road to Shu is a metaphoric representation of the hardness of engaging in politics and the turbulence faced by the Empire. These indications could not easily be noticed by just looking at the painting. Some paintings were created to take record of important events. For this kind of paintings, there usually were inscription beside to indicate the event. For example, Cranes of Good Omen attributed to Emperor Huizong. This was a handscroll of both painting and inscription on it. This was an event of 20 cranes appeared in the sky. Even two of them standing on the top of the building. Huizong recorded this kind of miracle day by himself using both inscription and painting. Readers could get the information.

E-Business Versus Traditional Retailing

E-Business Versus Traditional Retailing Abstract As the Internet access becomes widespread, both businesses and consumers worldwide used web as a main tool for marketing and shopping. As a result, the impact on retailers and consumers are relatively significant with the rise of the E-business. This project looks into the advantages and disadvantages of E-business and traditional retail stores, and then by comparing the two different business modes concludes an integrated business, which is more adapted by public. Further, an analysis of Amazon.com and Wal-Mart also support the notion that multi-channel retail seems to be more satisfy the need and want of retailer and consumers. Introduction The origin of e-business was 20 years ago. In the 1990s, the definition of e-business was used by one of the first supplier, IBM, in its advertising campaign. It was defined as the transformation of key business processes through the use of Internet technologies. (Li ,2007:9) Today, the meaning of e-business is much broader. According to Cunningham (2002) E-business refers to the transactions, processes, and systems that support the act of doing business through electronic networks. Businesses in industries such as banks, automobiles, travel, and many others are undergoing a significant transformation. In the past, traditional retail stores were constrained by geography, location, and size; on the other hands, in the age of information, these are not important anymore. Although the Internet has a great influence on the growth of E-retail, there is one thing of concern, it also presents with threat and opportunity. The aim of this project is to compare and contrast E-Business and traditional business in retailing across a variety of criteria from customers and retailers perspectives, and then to analyze the two biggest retailers in the world in terms of E-retailer and physical retailer and then conclude which business is better adapted to e-commerce. Firstly, the project will consider advantages and disadvantages of E-business from retailers and consumers view, then analyses Amazon.com and Wal-Mart by the means of SWOT analysis (which can be defined as Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) and finally will forecast future retail developments. E-Business Versus Traditional Retailing There are numerous opportunities for businesses to reach new markets on the Internet across nations, lower costs, and relationship-build with customers. For most businesses, opening a virtual retail seems like to be filled with opportunities as well as challenges. The rest of this project will address these opportunities and challenges. The opportunities in E-Business Market There are a number of advantages for e-business. First, with regard to the location, it is clear that online business have the opportunity to access farther than physical stores. According to Dennis and Harris (2002), the three most important elements in retail are location, location and location. Without constraint on geography, the Internet has provided the e-retailer with a store in every home all over the world. Almost every product and service on the Internet has an opening to be sold globally. In other words, e-business sells equally well to anywhere in the country and even overseas, compared to traditional stores. Since building a business online does not need to lease a building on a specific place, which saves a great deal of money on rent. Compared to the existing stores, running a business need to situate on one street, town and country, which is the most expensive part due to paying high-priced rent monthly as well as tax. In addition to location, another factor needs to concern is size. In the past, size of stores was principal when competing with other stores. A large store has the capacity to stock as many products as it can; however, there is a limitation of quantity for those small stores. Thanks to the invention of the Internet, even a small e-business has the chance to vie with large traditional stores. Secondly, as far as the number of consumers and opening time are concerned, online business can reach a larger number of consumers than the traditional stores. Without boundary on the Internet, everyone in the world have equal chances purchasing online. Especially for overseas shoppers, could easily reach web sites in which they are interested. Additionally, with fewer barriers in both time and limitation of consumers, online businesses have a better opportunity to market their product on the Internet. In other words, the problems of time difference between nations and nations have been solved. In contrary, it is difficult for traditional stores to sell further, when considering the limitation of time and geography. In the past few existing stores are opened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, since online business is on the web all the time, consumers with different shopping habits do not have to worry about the opening and closing hours of physical stores. There are many other advantages regarding to online business. Usually, building a traditional store need to concern the expenditure of ongoing costs, including renting, tax, electricity. In addition, for those traditional stores reaching consumers either face to face or by telephone, have to pay for a significant additional cost. On the other hand, for those businesses that open e-shops could save a great deal of money on the wages costs of face-to-face salespeople and the costs of premises. Furthermore, a virtual store may save budget on all the other needless expenses, such as additional training requirements. Many studies have shown that many online stores in the existing marketing making a big profit on account of reduced costs and increased sales. Furthermore, The Challenges in E-Business Market Generally speaking, although there are many advantages for e-business, considering about disadvantages is also needed. First of all, online business is less powerful than face-to-face selling in many ways. In the traditional stores, salesperson with high skill of convincing shopping can be a part of reasons influencing consumers to shop. For example, when going shopping we are always easy to be persuaded by people around us who support for purchasing. On the other hands, due to fewer impulse of salesperson online, it is easier to say no to a computer. Consumers are totally decide buy or not to buy. Moreover, e-Selling is also less powerful than face-to -face selling. For example, for certain products, it is difficulties with products not sold by touch, feel, and smell. E-businesses are lack of theses advantageous positions. A further disadvantage is that consumers have a perception of lower prices online. They expect online prices to be lower than prices in traditional stores. This puts pressure on margins for online business, and can lead to shoppers expecting consistent how prices in store. Looking for low prices online is one of major factors affecting consumers to shop on the Internet. However, such a perception across all product categories may be unwarranted. Only in some areas such as airline tickets and books can find much lower prices on the Internet. Also, there is a limitation for selling products online. Not everything could be selling on the Internet, such as daily products and fragile items, which limit consumers product selection. In addition, cost in Internet customer contact and maintaining technology could be expensive. Although a beneficial thing for e-business is save the costs of wages of salesperson and rent, the system requires regular maintenance to ensure customer satisfaction. Compared with traditional stores, they do not have to pay the extra maintenance fee on system due to most of they are lack a sophisticated computer system. Finally, after-care can be difficult, especially if the shopper is overseas. It is always not easy to collect those unwanted products which have been return by online shoppers. When ever any of products have technique problems, it is a trouble to return it back to e-shop, especially for those overseas customers.Because not only consumers require to pay the delivery fee but also the online shop, which is a burden for both consumers and e-retailer. Drivers of Consumers Adoption There are considerable potential benefits for consumers to shop online. The main reason for consumers to buy online is to save money. In some given products categories, online prices are significantly cheaper than existing stores. On the Internet, shoppers could always get good value of bargains. Furthermore, consumers could also save the cost of traveling to the existing stores, the cost of finding a parking space, parking, walking through the mall to the stores, finding the item in the store, waiting in line at the checkout, Internet shopping provides in-home access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which enhances convenience by minimizing many of these costs. The other advantage for online shopping is the convenience of shopping at any time of day. On the Internet, the stores are opened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Consumers could never worry about missing the open hours of the exiting stores. The other good thing about e-shopping is that the webs offer older consumers, those with disabilities, and those live in remote areas to access to information and services. The other motivation for people to accept shopping online is that consumers could make a purchase at home instead of leaving from house. In addition to convenience, consumers could not only save more time on the travel time, but also save the time on walking through all the stores to find what they want, especially when at the height of the holiday. Whether on booking a ticket for an event, purchasing a book, or registering and paying for a fee, the Internet saves time. With regard to breadth and depth of products, consumers could find a great variety of products on the Internet than in any one single store or mall. Rare items can be purchase easily by simply click a mouse; the web sites can take shoppers from one online store to another. The benefit of online shopping is even greater when purchasing foreign-made products. Many traditional businesses will shift a significant part of their operations and selling to the Internet. Growth in the consumer segment is likely to be slower. Security concerns regarding online transactions and the difficulty of modifying consumer behavior can explain the slower pace of growth in the business-to-consumer marketplace. Barriers to Consumers Adoption Although shopping online can by easy, there are a variety of reasons related to security deters online shoppers from making a purchase. Dennis indicated that Security fears as the number one barrier to more consumers shopping online (Dennis et al. 2002). Safety of credit card and other private information are key issues that discourage many consumers e-shopping. A study sponsored by the Better business Bureaus Online found that over 80 percent of users had some concern about security online. (Better Business bureaus, 2005) Most web sites today require users to create personal accounts and provide a lot of personal information. Some consumers are afraid that personal information may be broken in by website hackers or be access by unauthorized organization; moreover, personal accounts provided to online vendors may have a risk to be rejected due to service attacks and human error. Therefore, security of credit card information is quite negative for online consumer. The inability to talk to a live salesperson is another concern for consumers. Even though the Internet brings the world into our homes, customer may still wish to speak to someone to seek advice on the product when shopping online. Also, for older consumers, and those who are relatively new to Internet shopping, exceptionally need a live salesperson to get information they are interested in. However, many of online business have not provided customer service for online shoppers reached by phone, live chat. A report by Data Monitor (www.datamonitor.com) found that only 8 percent of the over 60000 call centers in the US were Web-enabled, and only 1 percent of Web sites currently offer live customer assistance (Venkat, 2001:307). Additionally, the difficulty in returning products is major reason for a large number of consumers not shopping online. BizRate.com, a company that measures post-purchase satisfaction found that in a survey of 9800 consumers, 89 percent said that return policies influence their decision to purchase online. (ibid: 2001:304) Above all, the reason why returns sometimes are difficult may say is because of the lack of face to face negotiations. In addition to returning, the cost of shipping is another concern for consumers. A survey by Greenfield Online revealed that 32percent of consumers surveyed mentioned high shipping costs at the reason for not shopping online (Greenfield, 2002) Most consumers perceive online prices to be lower than prices in conventional stores. It is true; however, sometimes shipping costs can negate other price advantages. Although various products sell at a discount online, when adding into the shipping rate, the consumer may end up paying more than traditional store. Many consumers are still uneasy with online shopping because they prefer to see and touch the goods. Plus, some products are difficult to buy on the Internet. Take clothing for example, it is impossible for online shoppers to feel the fabric. When buying clothes, most people still like to try them on. Online shopping provides a lower sensory stimulation (through smell, touch, music, in-store decorations, etc.) than does offline shopping. (Fernie, J. 2005:106). People incline to use five senses in developing beliefs and bias towards various products. However, on the Internet, only three of these senses can be used. Case Study of Amazon.com and Wal-Mart There are a range of criteria of SWOT Analysis about Amazon.com and Wal-Mart, and this paper will only focus on the areas related to the above sections based on current developments and future developments in how e-retail and traditional retail adapt to e-commerce. SWOT Analysis of Amazon.com With regards to strengths, according to Harris and Dennis (2002:258), Amazon as a US-based multinational e-business company, is the biggest online retailer all over the world. Over the years since it opened its online bookstore in 1995, has established a customer around 30 million people. Besides books, now has launched various products including electronics, computer software, toys, video games and home improvements, apparel, furniture, and food. In addition, Amazon has created different website pages in the USA, the UK, Europe and Far East. It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products. The major weakness for the company is that it heavily depends on external delivery companies, which may tackle a major problem. Due to the rising fuel and vehicle taxation, a potential increase costs should be concerned. As a consequence, the increasing shipping fee may lead consumers rather to visit a local retailer than purchasing online. It is realistic that the rise of Amazon.com has had a profound influence on virtually every sector of business in the world. There are many opportunities for Amazon.com to expand further. One of the priorities is to open exiting stores to solve the disadvantages of E-business. As far as threats are concerned, it is easy to attract competition on the Internet. Since Amazon.com markets similar products as physical retail, it pose a negative impact on Amazon.com within the price competition between e-business and traditional stores. SWOT Analysis of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. It is famous for its convenience and a wide range of products all in one store. The retailing giant has annual revenues of over $ 100 billion. According to Grant (2002) the Fortune 500 ranking list, published in 2002, showed that Wal-Mart was the worlds largest public corporation by revenue. These years, Wal-mart has experienced global expansion to 3,600 stores and more than 750,000employees worldwide. Although Wal-Mart stores, Inc. has expanded to the global market, they have a presence in a relatively small number of countries Worldwide. They only focus on the market in the UK, but their competitors are grown in the other countries. Besides, Wal-Mart has a risk in the location of their stores. Since Wal-Mart is the leading physical retailer in the USA, it has a magnificent opportunity to become the largest retailer in the world. Therefore, international expansion will be a huge opportunity for Wal-Mart. Although the stores are currently only trade in relatively few overseas there are many opportunities for future business in expanding consumer markets online. A major threat to Wal-Mart is the intense price competition with online business. Being a leading retailer also represents being the target of competition locally and globally. How to compete with e-retail in the international market will be a major question for Wal-Mart. Evaluation From the SWOT Analysis, it is clear that both mazon.com and Wal-mart have its specific strengths and weaknesses. This evaluation concluded that, based on the criteria mentioned above, the e-retail has competitive advantages over e-retail stores while physical retail stores have advantages over e-retail. With regard to disadvantages, online retail faces many difficulties compared to existing stores. For online retailers, the major challenges are face-to-face interaction and immediate delivery, and this is an area where traditional stores have an advantage. On the other hand, online retail also affects opportunities of traditional retail to certain extents. Take location and opening hour, for example, E-retail outweighs traditional retail stores. Many consumers are willing to select products on the Internet, but would not want to wait for delivery. Due to the need of consumers, it stimulated the boom of multi-channel retail (physical stores plus e-retail) becoming dominant, which has both e-retail and physical retail stores components, provides consumers with a higher degree of satisfaction. Thus, more and more e-shoppers find online shopping and in-store pickup more attractive than pure E-railing and traditional retail stores. According to Harris and Dennis (2002:258), the proportion of e-shoppers preferring to shop from e-sites run by physical retail stores rather than Internet-only is soaring 9 up from 22 percent in October 2000 to 33 percent in April 2001. As a result, many E- businesses are attempted to establish physical stores, and just as traditional stores are also creating online business. That competition is not about E-business versus traditional business. Gandy (2000:122) claim Its about integrating both-pulling together the best of what is available through the physical distribution with the best of the Web world. As traditional companies begin to provide multi-channel services to combine online business and it would make sense for pure online businesses to offer services of physical stores. The example of Amazon.com and Wal-mart also support it. According to The Sunday Times, Amazon.com had planed to open existing stores to support its growing website. (Mashable, 2009) Similarly, Wal-Mart stores Inc. has continually increased the integration of its physical stores with its Internet business, in order to respond with the growing web-based stores. (Reuven, 2000) Conclusion Both e-business and traditional stores has its advantages and disadvantages in many criteria. Physical stores has the edge on criteria such as after-sell service and face-to-face selling, while e-business is beneficial on the wide-range of products, time saving and convenience. The project presented a comparative business channel to evaluate the two types of retails and concluded that whether e-retail or traditional retail stores is not in perfection, multi-channel retail stores which combine the best of e-retail and traditional retail may be more adaptable to the business environment in the future. The analysis of Amazon.com and Wal-Mart has also been highlighted, particularly with regard to integrating e-retail with existing physical stores. These can be summarized as multi-channel retail is becoming a dominant. In 1999, Andy Grove, Chairman and CEO of Intel, once have noted that all companies will be Internet companies or they will be dead. (Venkat, 2001) However, even though e-business is able to provide consumer greater service and choice in a variety of the product, the consumers adoption toward the Internet need to be concerned. It should be noted that a detailed examination of multi-channel retail lies outside the areas of this project and further work could be done in this area, which would be of particular interest to those business involved in this area.

relationships in pride and prejudice :: essays research papers

Relationship in Pride and Prejudice In the novel Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, several, if not all of her characters, can confirm the belief that in order to achieve happiness one must discard their pride and in turn, replace it with self-respect accompanied by some humility. In addition, acceptance and mutual respect must replace one’s prejudice. The novel reveals four couples that live through social inconviences. The setting, although the novel does take place in many different places, is mainly broadcasted from Longbourn, somewhere in England. It is set around the Bennet family, which consists of seven members. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, and their five daughters which of whom none are yet married. At this period in time, marriage was based a great deal upon money and reputation, not so much love and trust. When a single man entered town, he was called upon only if his financial situation was above normal. Marriage was based around land, family connections, and wealth. In many minor characters of the novel, pride is a common characteristic. Mrs. Bennet, for instance, is extremely proud when it comes to her daughter’s marriages of mercenary benefits. She is so concerned that her neighbors have a high opinion of her that her own vanity will not Proposal Scenes The first proposal scene deals with Mr. Collins's proposal to Elizabeth, this is a very odd occurrence as Mr. Collins is Elizabeth's cousin and he sort of appears from nowhere and expects Elizabeth to marry him. This is what is funny about this proposal because Mr. Collins expects Elizabeth to marry him because he is a clergy man and it would be right and proper for him to marry a lady like miss Bennett.When Mr. Collins, a tall, swarthy young man of twenty-five,arrives, he heaps indiscriminate praise on everything. He compliments Mrs. Bennett on her cooking and speaks highly of everything about the girls. In every way, he appears to be a peculiar figure. Mr. Collins asks Mrs. Bennett "May I hope, madam, for your interest with your fair daughter Elizabeth, when I solicit for the honour of a private audience with her in the course of this morning?"Mrs. Bennett agrees and tries to leave the room taking Kitty with her but Elizabeth stops her and says "Dear madam, do not go. I beg you will not go. Mr. Collins must excuse me.

Relativism versus Objectivism Essay

The moral debate of relativism versus objectivism is one that confronts a moral question that philosophers have been debating for many years. The ultimate question brought about in the debate is whether morality is based solely on individual choice and cultural approval, or are there universally valid moral principles. With this essay I will present the arguments for each view and I will also argue for the position I favor: moral objectivism. Relativism is the view that states that moral principles vary by culture (conventionalism) or by individuals (subjectivism). Conventionalists like Ruth Benedict argue that since different cultures hold different principles, one culture has no basis to judge another culture’s morals. She uses the argument of normality: each culture defines what behavior is normal to fit the behavior of the majority. The majority of that population then defines normality and lives by it, and only a small minority deviates from that normality. According to Benedict morality is just term that we’ve come to use for socially approved habits, and normal is a variant of the concept of good. Subjectivism is the extreme end of relativism. This view holds that morality is determined at the individual level, not a social or universal level. Therefore, the only moral principles that are valid are the ones you believe in, and basically all principles are equally valid. Criticism of these arguments starts with the judgment question: how can a society or individual judge the behavior of another if all socially accepted behaviors or personal moral principles are valid? The answer is that it can’t, but a few examples will show what tolerance can allow. From a historical standpoint slavery was considered normal by those who held slaves. Since slaveholders were the dominant culture in that area, the normal and therefore, the good behavior was to own slaves. According to conventionalism slavery was a morally right act at the time that it was popular, and only when conventions changed did it become wrong. Nazism was morally right, simply because the numerical majority of a population agreed with it. The terrorists of September 11 are definitely aberrant in Western culture, but in their own they are saints in paradise. If conventionalism holds true, then the actions of those men were absolutely correct because their society agreed with them. Louis Pojman goes further to ask, how large  is a population or a society? If he and a friend get together and decide to become criminals, is that a large enough group to count as a society? He accuses conventionalism of sliding toward subjectivism. He also asks if social reformers aren’t aberrant and therefore immoral. Since they swim upstream in their culture, and disagree with the majority, aren’t they committing a wrong act? While these kinds of issues arise at the conventionalist level, they are even more obvious at the subjectivist level. If subjectivism holds true, then any court system or law is useless, since the only standard by which a man can be judged is his own, and whether or not he upheld his own principles. Essentially, all behavior is correct to the subjectivist. Thus, the subjectivist cannot even disapprove of murder or terrorism because these acts are as valid and acceptable as love and altruism, so long as they are a part of the individual’s moral principles. Since all is permissible and every action is as good as another, where is the meaning? By removing value judgments from a person’s behavior he is left with no motive to behave in a moral fashion, because he can craft a moral principle to suit every behavior. Everything he does is as good as anything else, because there is no standard to measure his behavior. In Pojman’s essay, he argues further that subjectivism reduces morality to aesthetic individual tastes: if I like to murder, I will craft my morality to suit my taste for death. According to Pojman, â€Å"a contradiction seems to exist between subjectivism and the very concept of morality†¦Ã¢â‚¬  because morality is the â€Å"proper resolution of interpersonal conflict and the amelioration of the human predicament†. To the subjectivist then, there is no proper, and therefore no need for morality. Objectivism is the view that holds that certain moral principles are valid for all individuals and cultures. There are different levels of objectivism: the fixed view, which says that principles are fixed and do not change; the universal view, which includes the fixed view and adds that principles apply to all people everywhere; and the absolutist view, which includes the universal view and adds that certain principles are non-override able and true for all situations. People who hold this theory answer the question  Ã¢â‚¬Å"where do these principles come from?† in several different ways: from the essence or commonality of human nature, from natural reality (moral realism), from God or the divine, or from the intrinsic good within humans. Pojman bases his view of objectivism on the assumption that â€Å"human nature is relatively similar in essential respects, having a common set of needs and interests.† He then defines moral principles as â€Å"functions of human needs†¦instituted by reason.† Pojman is not an absolutist; he does not necessarily think that principles are non-overrideable. Instead, he argues that certain principles hold true across cultures and relativism comes in at the application stage. These principles, which form his â€Å"core morality,† are general and leave less important or secondary issues up to the individual or to society. He uses abortion as an example: the debate isn’t about the right to kill babies; it is about when life begins. Everyone could agree that killing babies is wrong, but what constitutes a baby and a life? Pojman concludes that the fact of someone disagreeing with a principle does not invalidate the principle; perhaps it is the person who is incorrect. When deciding which side of the argument suited me best, I found it to be a rather easy choice of objectivism. At its roots, relativism seems to be a fair argument for tolerance and for cultures to stay together. However, as I analyzed relativism deeper I decided its tolerance is too loose and leaves too much room for completely reckless and destructive behavior. Instead, objectivism makes more sense to me. I feel that humans across the globe are ingrained with common sets of needs, interests, and desires, and therefore there are principles that are universal and ingrained in human nature. Then those principles are interpreted by a culture and society, which then decides how it implements them into its existence. An objectivist society should still be leaving room in its moral philosophy for tolerance of other cultures and their practices, but not to the degree that conventionalism or subjectivism allows. Principles of morality that effect an entire culture or society should be based on a majority decision, not the beliefs of a few.

Budgeting and Business Planning Essay

In order to create the criteria for the committee we have to look at what they want from the project. Most businesses and organisations are in business to make a profit, however the committee has different aims and objectives compared to a normal business or organisation. They need to weight up the options of each proposal and decide which best relates to their aims and objectives. When the committee is considering which proposal to go with they should consider the following categories †¢Short-term Financial Benefits †¢Long-term Financial Benefits †¢Environment †¢Relation to aims Short-term Financial Benefits The committee needs to consider the short term benefits of each proposal. They don’t want to take on a proposal that has high start-up costs and doesn’t make a return on the capital within the first year. The committee does not want to be left in a high amount of debt if the proposal fails. If the committee is left with a debt they may not be able to fund other projects to further their three aims. Long-term Financial Benefits Long-term the proposals will give different outcomes. The committee needs to decide on how long they want to keep moult hall? If they want it as a long term asset which can help with their aims? Or do they want a longer term money making scheme to boost revenue which can be used in areas they already control. Environment Moult Hall comes with a huge area of woodland, they needs to consider the effects on the local plant life and wildlife that any proposal could have. They need to think, does it destroy plant life? Does it impact on wildlife habitats? Is their going to be any long lasting environmental damage? Relation to Aims The committee is based on three main aims. They need to consider these aims in making their decision, they can’t be making use of one proposal if it goes strictly against some of their basic aims. They have to consider their own image and brand, does a proposal give them a bad name/image considering their aims and objectives? Question 2 Jonathan and Ingrid’s proposal has some short term financial benefits, in the 30 week trial run moult hall turns over a small profit of  £1,646. When the committee takes their proposal in to consideration they should recognise this point, moult hall will be of no financial burden in the short-term 30 week trial. If the 30 week trial is to succeed then moult hall can have some structural work done costing  £20,000 which would close moult hall for four weeks after the trial. The structural alterations would increase the capacity of the site to allow up to 30 guests to stay at one time. According to Jonathan and Ingrid projections of a weekly cost per guest of  £66 and a weekly charge per guest of  £150 they are making  £84 profit per guest per week. With the structural alterations and the increase in capacity by 20 guests. The weeks after the alterations are finished they could make an extra  £1,680 per week, bringing their possible weekly total profit at full capacity to  £2,436 (allowing for one free space, 29 paying customers). Therefore they could justify the large  £20,000 outlay on alterations as moult hall would pay for these alterations in little over 8 weeks. So in the long-run moult hall could be a profitable project by the end of year one. The one drawback of this proposal is the loss of the usage of the minibus at weekends, which generated an annual income of  £1,040, however it can be argued that it is now being put to better use and that the money is being recuperated from moult hall. Break-even point Total expenses £63,880 Weeks until break-even47.3 Guests until break-even473 As we can see from the table above moult hall will have to attract 473 guests a year to break even when they can only hold 10 guests per week. Equally they would have to run for 47.3 weeks a year at full capacity to break-even. This gives them an average of 9 guests a week. If they were to structurally improve moult hall so that they can hold up to 30 guests a week then the figures would look very different as shown in the table below. Break-Even Point Total Expenses £63,880 Weeks until break-even point14.7 Guests until break-even point441 Although a similar amount of guests is required the amount of weeks at full capacity has drastically dropped from 47.3 to 14.7. Their average guests per week has dropped from 9 to 8. Although this is not a large drop, in comparison they only have to fill 8 out of 30 beds compared to 9 out of 10 beds in the 30 week trial. The environment and its protection are very important to the committee and are mentioned in their main aims. Jonathan and Ingrid’s proposal helps the environment and makes the most of moult hall, if a garden was to be kept at moult hall the guest could tend to this and grow vegetables and recycle waste in a compost, which in turn could be re-used on the garden making moult hall very self-sufficient and environmentally friendly. One of the major aims of the committee is to help and educate the young. Jonathan and Ingrid’s proposal does just this, by inviting young people from the surrounding area to come stay and learn about the countryside. The guests will be able to learn about different wildlife and plant life living in the moult hall woodland and surrounding areas. The committee has to consider how the proposal will relate to their own aims, with moult hall becoming a learning centre for the young the committee could promote the good work they are doing to increase t heir donations revenue and grow as a trust. Question 3 Winston’s proposal consists of turning moult hall into a quad bike track with lavish bedrooms in the house for guests. In the year one moult hall will turn over a profit of  £1,034,283.  £750,000 of this is guaranteed to the North West trust for the protection of wildlife and the other  £284,283 will go to Winston himself. Moult hall would be a great money maker for the trust with the guaranteed income of  £750,000 adding to the  £800,000 a year they receive from local donations and fund raisers, boosting their total revenue for the year to around  £1,550,000. Long-term moult hall will turnover similar amount each year as long as there is no dip in demand. In the second year when Winston doesn’t have any initial capital costs he will make a large profit himself of  £402,350. The funds the committee will earn from moult hall could be used in other areas to promote the protection of wildlife. Break-even Point Total Expenses £1,022,650 Weeks until break-even point35.9 Guests until break-even point538 From the table above we can see the break-even point for moult hall under Winston’s proposal. He would need to be operating at full capacity for almost 40 weeks a year to break-even this means he would have to attract 538 guests a year. On average to break-even Winston will have to have 11 guests a week. In monetary terms moult hall will be a very successful; however some parts of the proposal will go against the trusts main aims. The trust was set up for the protection of wildlife; one aim is to protect local wildlife and plant life. To make the quad bike track many mature trees will have to be removed in the grounds of moult hall. This will disrupt some of the habitats of animals in the woodland. One of the main habitats that could be disrupted is the nesting sites of the red kite. The red kite has only recently been re-introduced in to the United Kingdom after the success of similar projects in wales; the trust fully supports the work of the national charity that achieved this. The red kite was wiped out in the UK by modern farming methods which use pesticides to kill small rodents, which are the main food source of the red kite. The first aim of the Trust is to encourage farming methods that don’t hurt local wildlife and plant life. They have to consider how the disruption of the nesting sites would reflect on them if they took on Winston’s proposal. It may look bad as with one hand they are supporting the work of the charity yet they are making money at the cost of disrupting local nesting sites. Question 4a There are many different measures that to committee can use to measure the performance of moult hall such as: †¢Monthly financial reports †¢Committee inspections twice a year †¢Variance analysis – comparing budgeted figures with actual Variance Analysis The committee could use variance analysis; variance analysis is a comparison of the budgeted cost of running moult hall and the actual cost of running moult hall. They could see if the costs of moult hall are favourable or adverse. If the results are favourable then this means that moult hall is running at a cheaper cost than they originally budgeted. However if the results are adverse then this means that the cost of running moult hall is more than they budgeted, this could be due to higher food prices or a larger light and heating bill than first anticipated. Variance analysis will give the committee a good idea of how much difference there is between their original planned budget and their actual outlay. This will be useful in determining weather moult hall is a financially viable option. Monthly Financial Reports The committee could ask for the manager of moult hall to send them monthly financial reports so that they can keep track of the performance and see if they are making or loosing money. They could let the financial reports come in for a few months or even up to year. This way they can identify trends and high and low seasons. They may find that they have a slightly seasonal product, as more people will want to be outside in the summer compared to the winter. They can also see if over a year they are getting an increasing amount of interest month on month or if they are losing interest Committee inspections Committee inspections could take place two or three times a year, the committee could travel as a whole or send a few representatives to moult hall to assess the upkeep of moult hall and the grounds. The inspection could also be used to see how the guests are enjoying their time at moult hall. The inspection team will then feed back to the committee who will have meetings on how to improve moult hall based on the feedback from guests and/or any improvements or checks that would need to be made to ensure the performance of moult hall is consistent. Question 4b When the committee is assessing the performance of moult hall they can use different companies to assess moult hall for them. The Environmental Inspection Agency (EIA) can carry out Environmental impact assessments. The committee could use this agency to assess the impact that moult hall is having on the surrounding woodland and grounds of moult hall. The committee can use this information to track the environmental progress of moult hall and see if the project is having a damaging or positive effect on the woodland and grounds. The committee could also use a survey company to produce a survey which can be given to guests when they leave so that the guests can give their feedback. The survey company can then use these results to produce accurate feedback to present to the committee. This method would be better than the committee asking the questions themselves as it will give a better representation of the guest’s views on moult hall. One company that they could use is amplitude research, this is a company that specialises in market research, Amplitude research can create a standard survey for guests which will make the results more comparable and easier for the committee to act upon.