Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Fast food restaurant Essay Example for Free

Fast food restaurant Essay Description of Great Burger GB is the fourth largest fast food chain worldwide, measured by the number of stores in operation. As most of its competitors do, GB offers food and combos for the three largest meal occasions: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Even though GB owns some of its stores, it operates under the franchising business model with 85 percent of its stores owned by franchisees (individuals own and manage stores, pay franchise fee to GB, but major business decisions (e.g. , menu, look of store) controlled by GB). McKinsey study As part of its growth strategy GB has analyzed some potential acquisition targets including Heavenly Donuts (HD), a growing doughnut producer with both a U. S. and international store presence. HD operates under the franchising business model too, though a little bit differently than GB. While GB franchises restaurants, HD franchises areas or regions in which the franchisee is required to open a certain number of stores. GBs CEO has hired McKinsey to advise him on whether they should acquire HD or not. 1. What areas would you want to explore to determine whether GB should acquire HD? The team started thinking about potential synergies that could be achieved by acquiring HD. Here are some key facts on GB and HD. Exhibit 1 |Stores |GB |HD | |[pic]Total |5,000 |1,020 | |[pic][pic]North America |3,500 |1000 | |[pic][pic]Europe |1,000 |20 | |[pic][pic]Asia |400 |0 | |[pic][pic]Other |100 |0 | |[pic]Annual growth in stores |10% |15% |. |Financials |GB |HD | |[pic]Total store sales |$5,500m |$700m | |[pic]Parent company revenue |$1,900m |$200m | |[pic]Key expenses (% sales) | | | |[pic][pic]Cost of sales |51% |40% | |[pic][pic]Restaurant operating costs |24% |26% | |[pic][pic]Restaurant property equipment costs |4. 6% |8. 5% | |[pic][pic]Corporate general administrative costs |8% |15% | |[pic]Profit as % of sales |6. 3% |4. 9% | |[pic]Sales/stores |$1. 1m |$0. 7m | |[pic]Industry average |$0. 9m |$0. 8m | [pic] 2. What potential synergies can you think of between GB and HD? 3. The team thinks that with synergies, it should be possible to double HD’s U. S. market share in the next 5 years, and that GB’s access to capital will allow it to expand the number of HD stores by 2. 5 times. What sales per store will HD require in 5 years in order for GB to achieve these goals? Does this seem reasonable? Use any data from Exhibit 1 you need, additionally, make the following assumptions: †¢ Doughnut consumption/capita in the U. S. is $10/year today, and is projected to grow to $20/year in 5 years. †¢ For ease of calculation, assume U. S. population is 300m. 4. One of the synergies that the team thinks might have a big potential is the idea of increasing the businesses overall profitability by selling doughnuts in GB stores. How would you assess the profitability impact of this synergy? 5. What would be the incremental profit per store if we think we are going to sell 50,000 doughnuts per store at a price of $2 per doughnut at a 60 percent margin with a cannibalization rate of 10 percent of GBs sales? Exhibit 2 |Sales and profitability per store | | |Units of GB sold per store |300 thousand | |Sales price per unit |$3 per unit | |Margin |50 percent | | | |Units of HD sold in GB stores |50 thousand | |Sales price per unit |$2 per unit | |Margin |60 percent | |Cannibalization rate of HD products to GB products |10 percent | 6. You run into the CEO of GB in the hall. He asks you to summarize McKinsey’s perspective so far on whether GB should acquire HD. Pretend the interviewer is the CEO–what would you say?

Monday, January 20, 2020

Romantic Period :: essays research papers

Dr. George Boeree best describes the Romantic Movement in the following, â€Å" Reason and the evidence of our senses were important no doubt but they mean nothing to us unless they touch our needs, our feelings, our emotions. Only then do they acquire meaning. This ‘meaning’ is what the Romantic Movement is all about.† There were many changes that made this movement. The Romantics turned to the poet before the scientist to harbor their convictions. They found that Science was too narrow-minded, and held no room for emotion or feelings. In England, there was a resurgence into Shakespearean drama, and numerous techniques and styles such as Sturm and Drang, a style of writing in Germany, and in art the title sublime to describe the power of natural disasters that developed in the Romantic period. The perception that the Enlightenment was destroying the natural human soul and substituting it with the mechanical, artificial heart was becoming prevalent across Europe. Also another thought that was at the wake of romanticism were the words of the French revolution emphasizing liberty, freedom, and individuality as well as the need in England to escape what the industrial revolution was doing to the country. There are many people and expressions either art, thought, or music that made the romantic period what is was. There are however key people who are involved in cementing certain expressions. Many writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and George Gordan, Lord Bryant, classified the Romantic period. One writer however Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of Germany really expressed this movement with "The Sorrows of Young Werther", which epitomized what Romanticism stood for. His character expressed feelings from the heart and gave way to a new trend of expressing emotions through individuality as opposed to collectivism. He was also known for the Sturm and Drang style that was popular in Germany. This style was the free spirited answer to the restraint of the classical period. Another popular writer was Mary Shelly. To go without saying her book Frankenstein which describes a man (Frankenstein) who lets science get out of control and creates a being that eventually hunts down and kills him was revolutionary at the time. This book was clearly is a revolt against the scientific happenings that caused the Romantic Movement. The aspect of philosophy on Romanticism can be attributed to two great thinkers. G. W. F. Hegel, a German philosopher, rejected philosophy of the 18th century because he believed in "Idealism".

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Casablanca Film Review

CASABLANCA FILM REVIEW 1. How did the practical constraints imposed by World War II affect this movie? (Give 2 examples. ) Hollywood shifted from an outspoken denial of any overt promotion of the U. S. involvement in the war to an active on-screen support of that involvement. The cast was very international, of all the principle and supporting actors in the film came from Europe, only Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson were born and raised in America. The rest of the actors either cam to U. S. for work or as refugees from the Nazis.By using characters of different ethnic races from other countries allowed the film to give it more of a historical accuracy. Other war time limitations were that of Ingrid’s fashions. They wanted to give her a look that was quite different. Fashions were simple and clean. There was very little outdoor filming due to high costs and a larger concern that the film could reveal important landmarks for the opposition to bomb. Most of the filming was down in soundstages, or on the Warner Brothers lot.Warner Brothers had to use models instead of the real thing, for example in the last scene where they are at the airport, the plane in this scene is actually a model and they skillfully used midgets to make the plane to appear bigger. Also Hollywood accommodated the war effort by having stars sell bonds or provide publicity photos with service man. They even built a canteen for the serviceman to go to so that the stars would serve them their coffee and donuts. Warner Brothers also produced some six hundred training and propaganda films under the supervision of Owen Crump. 2.What message does the film send about neutrality and America’s role in the war? Casablanca was used as a propaganda vehicle which was designed to support U. S. participation in the Allied Forces’ struggle for global justice and democracy at a time when most Americans believed that U. S. foreign policy should have promoted isolationism and neutrality. Th e film exploits wartime patriotism and the traditional â€Å"American values† of freedom, liberty and equality to shape the audience’s perception of the war. Rick Blaine’s character represents the American political ideals; anti-fascism, alliance nd intervention in the war. His role seems to inject resistance to the evil forces a foot in Europe. By the time Casablanca premiered in November 1942, Pearl Harbor had already occurred, and the U. S. had been at war for nearly a year. Many Americans during this time continued to support an isolationism foreign policy and were uneasy about the U. S. participation in a war that was thousands of miles away. The U. S. Government took an active role in the screening of such propaganda films and made sure that the studios would follow the BMP Codes so that the films would â€Å"benefit American morale.The codes were: Glorifying the â€Å"American way of Life;†, â€Å"Depict the enemy and their philosophy;† â⠂¬ Reflect well on our Allies;† †Portray the industrial war effort at Home;† †Illustrate what individuals could do on the home front to support the war Effort,† and show â€Å"Our fighting forces at Work. † Casablanca was designed to illustrate that personal desires must be subordinated to the task of defeating fascism by showing the chaos and misery which fascism and the war had brought. 3. How did World War II and events in Europe affect the cast of this movie?World War II had engulfed Europe, reaching all the way to Rick Blaine’s Cafe in French held Morocco. The Nazis had overrun France and all kinds of people are trying to escape by way of Casablanca. In this city, there was human trafficking with Rick’s Cafe being the main place individuals could be bought and sold through a lucrative refugee trade. Men and women were commodities. It was normal for people who used to be of wealth and fortune to end up accepting menial position s and the selling of their most treasured belongings. Some people gambled in order to obtain visas and some women resorted in the selling of their bodies.These kinds of actions were necessary to obtain a visa and escape. This would be evident in the scene when a young woman asked for Rick’s assistance in escaping. She and her husband were desperately searching for visas to the U. S. , when they were approached by the corrupt Captain Renault. Rather than allowing her to obtain the visas by selling her body to Renault, Rick rigged the roulette wheel so the couple could win the money to buy their passage to the U. S. Rick's actions seem to represent the power of American virtue over Vichy corruption.In a conversation between Rick and Ferrari, Rick’s liberal political leanings were apparent when Ferrari offered to buy Sam's contract, to which Rick replied: â€Å"I don't buy or sell human beings. † This conveyed the point that Rick (an American) was above the fascist practice of trading human beings. In another scene, Rick refused to serve a German patron, tearing up his invitation, which would have presumably allowed him to receive â€Å"special treatment 4. In what ways, if any, can you tell that this was a Warner Bros. film? Warner Bros were usually anti-Nazi, but when Confessions of a Nazi Spy was released it broke the code of remaining neutral.The Warner Brothers were Jewish. Koch and the Epstein’s saturated Casablanca with powerful assertions of German dominance in order to place the Nazi threat close to home. For example; The Nazi soldiers were given the best tables at Rick’s cafe because they were â€Å"German and would take (them) anyway,† just like they did most of Europe. Strasser’s duty was to expand the domain of the Third Reich and he made his intentions clear when he made the statement: â€Å"We (the Germans) have to become accustomed to all climates – from Russia to the Sahara,† and aga in when he explained to Rick that the Germans planned on invading London and New York.Casablanca wasn’t just another Warner Brothers picture, because it exploited wartime patriotism in an effort to shape American’s perception of the war. 5. Additional Comments (always complete this). Casablanca was more than the sentimental theme of lost love and redemption rather it was to represent the complex political and social issues on the early days of World War II. The product of a decade when studios were routinely producing â€Å"a movie a week. When Hal Wallis was hired to oversee the Casablanca project he prescribed a theme – United Nations –Conquered Nations Drama, and Enemy – Military Drama. Casablanca was to illustrate those personal desires cannot outweigh the task of defeating fascism and patriotic duty. This relates to the character of Rick Blaine. Casablanca was a chaotic and dangerous place that had Nazi-Vichy intimidation, corruption and cont rol. Many innocent people became victims of senseless rimes from being pick pocketed or being rounded up as a usual suspect, only to be stranded in such a place without hope. These people were refugees who were forced onto a treacherous journey to freedom, beginning from Paris then to Marseilles, Oran, Algeria landing in Casablanca. Here they would have a strenuous wait until they could secure their exit visas that were necessary for travel and could venture to the â€Å"democracy and freedom of the America’s that was a safe haven from the cruelty and death of fascist Europe.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Agency Of Public Health Paper Based Health Management...

The Ministry of Public Health paper based Health Management Information System (HMIS) has been established as an emergency solution to lack of a data collection system in 2002. However, the increasing need for various type of data and accumulation of large dataset over past 16 years has resulted in severe inefficiency of the system. In addition, the paper based system takes unacceptably long time for health decision making. Therefore, an online data management system will provide unlimited data storage, real-time data collection, reporting and feedback and interactive usage of data at various management level in the health system. DHIS2 is an online open source, customizable, free, international used data management system that has proven†¦show more content†¦In the resource limited settings like in the developing organization, evidence based decision-making is important to serve for the available resources. In ministry of public health Afghanistan, geographical reasons have hindered the availability of potential health data. These barriers have affected the data collection methods, which are mostly manual, and paper based. Data collected through these manual methods are not standardized and therefore these are difficult to process for analytical and data mining purposes. In recent years’ human population in the provinces has been reported to grow in high rate due to several factors such as improvement of health services, especially maternal health which has been the impact of foreign aid. This growth of human population has raised more challenges to health sector’s staff in dealing with large volumes of health data. Health data processing between different levels of health care systems have been affected by this growth as manual aggregation of large volume of data is now a tedious work and has high error rate. In addition to that, the critical shortfall of the health workers in these provinces affects the effort of improving the data collection and analyzing process. Poor data collection methods have led to lack of clear understanding of the flow of health data. If the flow of health data is not clearly understood by the decision makers, fulfillment of theShow MoreRelatedA New Dimension Of M Government1528 Words   |  7 Pagesalso using ICT even if having fewer ideas about the systems. The notable thing is they can use it. The overview of my report isn’t describing all the aspects of ICT. In this report, my objective is to magnify the concepts and effe cts of digital procurement (e-purjee) system by sugarcane growers in rural Bangladesh. It is a SMS-based purchase order system replacing than that of a paper-based. 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