Manu Soccer Essay Example

Manu Soccer Essay Soccer Academy Tom Owen, football fanatic, has been in a close personal relationship with the game his entire life. Owen came to the United States from the U. K. in 1998 after receiving a soccer scholarship. After graduating, his passion and desire for teaching the game to youth naturally has led him into the creation of a successful training camp. His Soccer Academy, MANU, has had great success in his Colorado hometown of Fort Collins. As we explore MANU we will look at many different factors – eventually advising Tom Owen on what his next actions in the market should be. By using the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis for the MANU Soccer Academy, Tom Owen will understand how to utilize the strengths and opportunities while avoiding the weaknesses and threats to its success. First we will review the strengths. The most noteworthy strength MANU Soccer Academy lies in their human capital, their instructors. Tom Owen himself has a natural talent for coaching, is very knowledgeable about the game of soccer, is charismatic, and has an easy-going personality that kids enjoy in an instructor. Tom Owen has been hiring instructors with similar qualities, thus creating a workforce that gives him a good competitive advantage and helps differentiate MANU’s services from other groups without such quality instructors. Another strength that MANU has is its market penetration in Fort Collins, population 110,000. Owen estimates that almost all competitive soccer players age 11 to 14 are aware of his program in the Fort Collins area. First let’s review the opportunities. The external opportunities for MANU are extensive. Soccer is the largest participation sport for kids and Fort Collins is a soccer â€Å"hotbed. There are also several cities (Loveland, Greeley, and Longmont) totaling a population of about 220,000 people within 25 miles of Fort Collins that have very limited soccer training camps currently. These are markets that would offer low levels of competition with MANU. Next we will review the weaknesses. MANU’s greatest weakness is its dependence on To m Owen for the leading and execution of duties in its task environment. This makes it more difficult to expand into distant markets because Owen can only be in one place at a time. Lastly, we will look at the possible threats. We will write a custom essay sample on Manu Soccer specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Manu Soccer specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Manu Soccer specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Fortunately, because of MANU’s niche market in their current location, their external threats are somewhat limited. Most of MANU’s threats come from the external environment such as the economic environment. Parents may regard soccer camp as a relatively elastic service and be willing to go without it because of the economic downturn and growing unemployment. This may be looked at as a luxury that can be done without. The analysis provided an overview for MANU Soccer Academy and seems to show that MANU is completely prepared to go ahead with the expansion. The main issue that could impact the success of MANU’s expansion lies in the economic environment. The economy is currently in a recession. A large portion of MANU’s customers live in the immediate area. There are also several largely populated area around this area. This makes way for MANU to expand the coverage area. There is relatively low direct competition for MANU in Tom’s immediate or surrounding area. The target buyer for the services that MANU provides is competitive soccer players ages 11 to 14. However, the ultimate buyer is the mother of the soccer player. One must market to both mother and child. Tom Owen wants to expand his business, but he must take into consideration the issues that he may be faced with and decide what method would be in his best interest. Tom listed a few of his thoughts. Tom Owen’s current customer retention rate is pretty high: about 80 percent. However, when the kids reach 14 or 15 years old, other high school sports and activities make them less interested in extra soccer training. One option is to try to increase retention by developing programs targeted at kids over 14. He could also try to develop a marketing strategy that would encourage his current customers to buy more. He wonders if they have other needs that he might be able to serve. Owen could try to grow the business by entering new markets and acquiring new customers. His market penetration with kids 6 to 9 is still quite modest. He might develop new programs to better meet this group’s needs. Yet another option for Tom would be to serve more kids from Loveland, Longmont, and Greeley. Basically, Tom has come to the conclusion that he must increase sales and profit by either changing or offering new products to meet the needs of different customers, or by keeping his product as is and enter new geographic markets. I personally think that Tom’s best option would be to try and expand the area of coverage for the product without changing a product that is currently working. I feel that there is no need to reinvent the product or divert focus to new products. MANU has a product they know works and they are very efficient at producing. Tom Owen knows he and his staff is well suited to teach 11 to 14 year old players. By concentrating on this target market they eliminate the risk associated with offering a new altered service. There is also no diversion of focus from their intended target market of 11 to 14 year-old competitive soccer players.

The Screen Time Rules You Really Should Enforce Th Essays

The Screen Time Rules You Really Should Enforce Th Essays The Screen Time Rules You Really Should Enforce This Year The Huffington Post |By Rebecca Adams Posted:09/08/2014 10:59 am EDTUpdated:09/08/2014 4:59 pm EDT While parents grapple with how much screen time is too much for children, new research now supports their suspicions: An excess amount of time in front of screens is bad for kids. The Learning Habit study, published this month in the American Journal of Family Therapy and in a book titled HYPERLINK "amazon.com/Learning-Habit-Groundbreaking-Approach-Parenting/dp/0399167110/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1406239414sr=1-1keywords=the+learning+habit" \t "_hplink" The Learning Habit , examined family routines in 46,000 U.S. homes of children in grades K-12 via an online survey. Conducted by a research team from Brown University School of Medicine, Brandeis University, Children's National Medical Center and New England Center for Pediatric Psychology, the three-year study worked with WebMD, The Huffington Post/AOL, The National PTA and Parents Magazine to assist with national outreach. The key findings shed light on how all of these smartphones, tablets, televisions and computers are affecting kids: Children feel the effects of screen time in all aspects of their lives. After just 30 minutes of screen time a day, researchers saw that children's grades began a steady decline. After two hours of it, researchers observed a dramatic drop in grades, and after four hours a day, the average GPA fell an entire grade level. This effect was seen particularly in middle schoolers , who weren't able to achieve A's in mathematics or English language arts after four hours of screen time. Even if more screen time led to more time spent on homework (many kids used computers and other devices to help complete homework assignments), children still suffered a decline in grades. Plus, all of that time spent consuming media led children to have trouble falling asleep those who spent four hours of screen time a day took an average of 20 minutes longer to fall asleep than children who had more limited screen time. More time on devices also led to increased social-emotional volatility in kids. Many parents have inklings of these effects, Rebecca Jackson, co-author of The Learning Habit book, told The Huffington Post. However, there seems to be a "disconnect" between this generalized intuition and parents' own children. "There's a difference between knowing something and suspecting something," Jackson said. "We are aware that the average American child spends eight hours in front of a screen, but we often don't associate those numbers with our own children. Those numbers tend to be about somebody else's child." Despite what kids think, less screen time and more time doing chores makes them happier. One thing that parents often overlook when it comes to screen time is grit, said Jackson. The researchers found that grit defined in the study as the ability to perform a strenuous or difficult task without giving up decreased as children's screen times increased. When children in the study had limited screen time and were given chores to do, they performed better academically, socially and emotionally. Household tasks, like laundry, cooking or taking out garbage, made children feel a sense of self-worth and responsibility. "It's exciting because this is something that parents and educators can build," Jackson said. "They can develop it, and it is directly related to the amount of screen time, or media use, a child has." Make sure kids aren't spending too much time on homework that's often screen time, too. All work and no play isn't the answer, though. While 10 minutes of homework per grade in school was positively correlated with children's GPAs, more time than that spent doing homework showed nearly no benefits. (This is something HYPERLINK "sedl.org/pubs/sedl-letter/v20n02/homework.html" \t "_hplink" researchers have seen in the past .) Jackson said that excessive homework can even harm children, especially as "homework" becomes increasingly synonymous with "screen time," a trend that the researchers noticed. But since homework is still an important part of a child's routine, she also suggested that parents not make it a punitive activity. "The goal for parents is to help our children have a balanced life," Jackson said. "It's not a child coming home and a parent having to enforce homework one night and then a child doesn't have homework another night so they're

Management , society and new forms of work Essay

Management , society and new forms of work - Essay Example As such, Marazzi divided his thoughts on the subject of capital and language in four chapters: the transformation of economy from Post-Fordism to the New Economy, an account of the dot-com crash in 2001, the monetization of surplus value and the current trends, or the War Economy, in the business cycle as economic crisis continues to generate havoc throughout the global economies. The changes in working practices and patterns through the transition from Post-Fordism to the New Economy arose in the late 1980s and were fully established with the flourish of dot.com companies of the 1990s. The period of the dot-com bubble or the Information technology Bubble was marked by the formation of new Internet-based companies that maximized the use of steady commercial growth of the Internet. Several companies invested in ______________________ 1Haiven, M. 2009. In-Credible Wealth and Panic in the â€Å"New Economy†. Criticism. 51 (1): 165. using the e-prefix which increased the confidenc e of stock prices and future profits. Unfortunately, the bubble collapsed in early 2000s as large portion of market capitalization of numerous companies failed or declined dramatically2. With Post-Fordism being agreed as the transformation of the nature of work, the New Economy settles on the importance of finance specifically on the stock market. Marazzi relates work and finance through language by stating, †¦in the New Economy language and communication are structurally and contemporaneously present throughout both the sphere of the production and distribution of goods and services and the sphere of finance, and that it is for this very reason that changes in the world of work and modifications in the financial markets must be seen as two sides of the same coin3. Post-Fordism produces numerous goods and services that are set to the diversification of commercialized values and way of life. However, the centrality of communications and information technology in the United State s and other Western countries has delivered a new breed of expensive managers and technicians. Increased worker participation and elastic work schedules are applied in production to maximize efficiency and flexibility while eroding job security through the employment of contract and outsourced labour4. Finance was first examined by the author, from its beginnings to the concerns of the ______________________ 2Lowenstein, R. 2004. Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and its Undoing. Penguin Books. p. 114. 3Marazzi, C. 2008. Capital & Language: From New Economy to War Economy. Semiotext(e). p. 14. 4Holland, J. 2005. Fordism/Post-Fordism. Globalization & Autonomy Glossary. p. 2. http://globalautonomy.ca/global1/servlet/Glossarypdf?id=CO.0021 (Accessed November 9, 2012). financialisation of the economy. He noted that if savings had been focused in household economies before, the New Economy has shifted this habit into using the collective savings and pension schemes of individuals as investments for their financial future. In the past, labour was affected by economic crises through the loss of jobs and the cutback of public spending. However, labour is now directly invested in the performance capital making contemporary financial crises different from past ones. Hence,