Niche Marketing strategy and The Lean Start-up Strategy - Apothen Corporation - Free Essay Example

Apothen Corporation needs to adopt the Niche Marketing strategy and The Lean Start-up strategy We are writing to you to recommend a few startup strategies. We did thorough market research in the technology start-up sector and conclude that Apothen Corporation needs to adopt the Niche Marketing strategy and The Lean Start-up strategy; these strategies possibly enable Apothen to minimize losses, agilely learn about the market, and sustain itself from the very beginning. Self-sustainability is crucial to technology start-ups. There have been countless cases of companies who had brilliant business ideas and disruptive innovations, yet still failed because they ran out of funds. It is usual (even expected) for technology start-ups to incur losses in their early years, as there are unavoidable expenses in developing, producing, servicing, and marketing activities. However, if a start-up is not capable of keeping up finances in line with expenses, it will become bankrupt before launching its product. We recommend strategies stated above because we recognize the two business trends that are changing the way start-ups are structured and the momentum in which these new enterprises transform their business. The trends have almost the exact same name as our recommendation: the Niche Marketing trend and the Lean Startup trend. The Niche Marketing trend, as H. R. Yim wrote, is a entire new business trend created by several technology giants such as Microsoft, Qualcomm and Oracle. Yim stated that of the 2004 Fortunes Most Admired Firms Index, 13 (81.3%) of the firms registered were rapid growing startups that adopted the Niche Marketing strategy. The Lean Startup trend, as Steve Blank wrote in a Harvard Business Review article, is the newly emerged Lean Startup movement. Steve describes the movement as a new startup method to experiment and acquire feedback continuously by building scrappy products and changing them, rather than using the traditional and expensive method of launching an elaborate product after carefully perfecting it. To ensure great start-ups with lesser funds can also flourish, entrepreneurial professionals studied many technology start-ups and developed successful guides to understand the startup trends. We will further explain the step-by-step guide to take advantage of these new trends. Securing a Position in the Marketplace by Niche Marketing In his book, Crossing The Chasm, Geoffrey Moore coined the term Technology Adoption Life Cycle and explained five types of people who comprise this cycle. Innovators technology enthusiasts who immediately see value and advantages in your product and excitedly purchase it, even if testimonials did not exist. Early Adopters visionaries who dreams about high business achievements and purchase your product before the majority does, hopefully to achieve the goals from it. Early Majority realistic, price-sensitive prospects who ensure the products functions and extended existence. They will only buy if they see added-profit. Late Majority conservative people who only purchase when your product is fully mature just to keep up with the early majority. Laggards skeptics who seldom buy. Moore then defined the chasm as the difficulties in transitioning early adopters into early majority, meaning that a product sales amount can vary but may never enter the majority markets. In order to crossing the chasm, Moore suggests the start-up to be laser-focused about choosing the product target group, penetrating a niche market, then dominating it. By doing so, the start-up can: specialize in a niche market, therefore gaining market powers and market shares. allocate its assets well, and prevent inefficient and wasted spending. create a more stabilized source of revenue, and securing the financial position of the firm. Below is an approximated re-creation of the famous Technology Adoption Life Cycle Bell Curve. Establishing a Self-sustainable Business by Being Lean In his book The Lean Startup, Eric Ries defined the whole Lean Start-up strategy as a series of steps: Vision Steer Accelerate In the Vision stage, achieving validated learning is crucial. Validated learning is the process to identifying and eliminating the functions a customer doesnt need, and keeping those which are wanted. The identifying process then requires the firm to not only ask customers whether a function is desired, but to actually individually experiment the new function on the users and to record and analyze their usage behavior. In the Steer Stage, the firm first lists out the assumptions it has previously made for the consumers and tests each of the assumptions independently. If the customers behavior meets predictions, the assumption then is deemed to be true. You should keep testing assumptions in small batches, yet keep them independent: that is, design the assumptions tested and make sure only one variable exists in each test. If an assumption turns out wrong, then simply change it. Once changes have been made, the firm enters the Accelerate stage. In this phase, not only should y ou test assumption in small batches, the audiences being tested on should also be a small size in case the firm messes up. Facebook has done it with the Timeline feature in 2011: Only a small size of selected users were affected and examined by the new social network feature at first. Business growth is then measured to see if the firm successfully implemented the new function with desired growth rate. In the case of Facebook, as the social media giant saw Timeline helped its users to better organize the overwhelming social media content, Facebook then applied the feature to all users. All three steps to a growing lean start-up serve crucial purposes. The Vision stage emphasizes validated learning, the Steer stage provides you with tools to test assumptions, and the Accelerate stage allows you to achieve the needed growth rate without wasting excessive funds even if the implemented change fails. What It Means for Apothen As we get familiarized with the Niche Market and Lean-Startup strategies, we will discuss here the specifics for Apothen Corporation. Apothen Corporation intends to build a cloud-based point-of-sale (POS)software system for installation on Android tablets and usage in the restaurant industry. The software will gather valuable information (i.e. customer feedback, ratings, reviews) to convert into valuable products (i.e. restaurant promotions).Apothen specified the product functions to utilizing online to-go orders, creating a transaction-based rating/review system, implementing a customer loyalty program, inventing a customer-restaurant interacting feedback system, integrating social-media, alternate payment method other than credit cards, and developing an app. Although Apothens idea of this POS system is innovative and possesses the potential to revolutionize the restaurant business, we recommend you first find a niche market to penetrate and secure market share. We have analyz ed the 2013 Restaurant Industry Forecast and the 2010 Restaurant Industry Operations Report and found that limited-service restaurants have the highest income before income taxes per dollar of 5.9 percent, compared to that of full-service restaurants, ranging from 1.8 percent to 3.5 percent, depending on the average check per person. Given the fact that Apothens product will position as a high-cost system and has finalized the license fee to customers as $500 USD a month or a small percentage of their monthly revenue, we recommend you target the limited services restaurants for their higher income margin. We specifically recommend you to focus on limited service restaurants with mainly made-to-order and high-priced beverages, such as high-end, modern coffee shops. We also believe that the initial product you are trying to create incurs high costs, which could possibly be avoided with the Lean Start-up strategy. We recommend implementing a maximum of three independent assumptions. While we also examined diners demands in consumption at restaurants in the 2013 Restaurant Industry Forecast, we have structured a two-step assumption testing procedure based on the available information. Preliminary assumptions Restaurants are willing to use POS on a tablet computer Restaurant goers are willing and able to sign up membership (security concerns) Restaurants are willing to have transactions stored in the cloud Tested functionality assumptions Restaurants need to implement a to-go function with a viewable online menu Restaurants see the need for a more accurate and transaction-based rating/review system Restaurants with existing POS systems are willing to switch to tablet-based POS system It Is Now In Your Hands We have tailor-made these recommendations and strategic advice for Apothen Corporation. We believe the Niche Marketing strategy and the Lean Startup strategy can jointly help your business to excel if used appropriately. While starting-up can be extremely challenging and competitive, to be agile, lean, laser-focused, and to continuously adopting validated learning are the four main aspects that we believe will flourish your start-up. We wish you the best of luck and look forward to the next time we cooperate and build a closer relationship. Works Cited Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup: How Todays Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York: Crown, 2011. Moore, Geoffrey A. Crossing The Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. National Restaurant Association. 2013 Restaurant Industry Forecast. National Restaurant Association Research and Knowledge Group, Washi ngton, DC, 2013. Retrieved, January 30, 2014, from https://www.restaurant.org/News-Research/Research/Forecast-2013 National Restaurant Association. 2010 Restaurant Industry Operations Report. National Restaurant Association Research and Knowledge Group, and Deloitte. Washington, DC, 2010. Retrieved, January 30, 2014, from https://imis.restaurant.org/store/detail.aspx?id=OPSRPT2010 Harvard Business Review. Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything. Steve Blank. 2013. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything Yim, Hyung Rok. A Strategic Pathway to the Rapid-Growth of New Startups: Niche Marketing and Strategic Investment. ProQuest. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.

Child Pornography Is An Acceptable And Unavoidable Work...

People in the adult film industry are exposed to sexually transmitted infections in the workplace. There are no other legal occupations in America where the exposure to diseases is an acceptable and unavoidable work practice. This paper will go into depth about some of the risks that adult film workers face, the prevalence of STIs in the adult film industry, whether or not the industry should be regulated, and some potential policy implementations for the future health of adult film workers. Every year up to 11,000 adult films are made in the US alone. It is a multi billion-dollar industry that employs approximately 75% women. In California, where most adult films in the US are made, there are up to 1,500 adult film workers. There†¦show more content†¦Only 3% of penile-vaginal sex scenes and 9.5% of penile-anal intercourse in heterosexual films showed condom usage. In homosexual films, the researchers noted that 80% of penile-anal sex scenes showed condoms. In both homo sexual and heterosexual movies, there was 0% of condom usage for penile-oral contact (Grudzen, et al. 2009). These statistics suggest that condom usage among male homosexuals is more socially acceptable because of the higher prevalence of HIV in that community. The low usage of condoms in heterosexual films also suggests that OSHA compliance in the Californian adult film industry needs to be more heavily regulated (Grudzen, et al., 2009). In 2004, there was a cluster of HIV infections in the Californian adult film industry. Although adult film workers are supposed to voluntarily get tested monthly for HIV and other STIs, there is still a window of time where the HIV virus is not detectable by test. It was during this window that a man infected 3 female adult film workers with HIV. He had his monthly test on February 12, 2004 and on March 17th, 2004 and was negative both times, yet he tested positive on April 20th 2004. The adult film actor experienced a flu-like illness while f ilming in Brazil, but it resolved after he flew back. While he was back in the US, he had unprotected sex with 13 women, and 3 of them later tested positive for HIV after testing negative the previous month. Thankfully,

Prayer By Thomas Keating, Contemplative Prayer - 1515 Words

Introduction According to Thomas Keating, â€Å"Contemplative prayer is a conversation initiated by God and leading, if we consent to a divine union. It is the way to pure faith.† Unlike with vocal prayers, in which we call out to God asking for things we need, with contemplative prayer our role is to allow God to be God. In other words, God directs Contemplative prayer, His grace opens our hearts and minds to the His presence inside us. Consequently, contemplative prayer begins with a centering prayer, which is a silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer. Keating noted that, â€Å"Centering prayer is an effort to renew the teaching of the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer.† Similar to other methods of prayer, the foundation of centering prayer is the Triune God. Keating noted that, â€Å"The practice is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.† The scripture reads, â€Å"But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you† (Matt. 6:6). Practicing contemplative prayer will strengthen our spiritual commitment and enrich our personal lives. I will discuss the origin, methods and benefits of contemplative prayer. Origin of Contemplative Prayer For centuries, the definition for contemplation evolved. According to Keating, â€Å"Gnosis was used by St. Paul in the Epistles to represent the knowledge of God proper to those who

Wireless Networking Communication Management-Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Wireless Networking Communication Management? Answer: Introducation IT is commonly known as Yagi Antenna and it is an antenna of directional type. Yagi antenna has multiple parallel elements in a particular line (Yin et al., 2013). It has mainly three part, a reflector element, some directors. The reflector element has a longer size than the driven dipole and the directors have a smaller size. For this kind of design it has higher gain and better directivity. Strengths It has a higher directivity. It has lower power consumption. It has a low maintenance cost. This type of antenna has a larger frequency range. It can achieve very high magnitude of gain. Weakness It has a limited bandwidth and frequency level. Noise and environmental changes can affect the Yagi antenna. Applications The Yagi antenna is mainly used to achieve high value of gain and directivity. It is used in case of frequency modulation for narrow band region. Horn Antennas Horn antennas are also well known as the microwave antennas (Yang Marzetta, 2013). It has given this type of name as it is consisted of a flaring metal waveguide that has a shape like horn. It functions over a frequency range of 300 MHz. The main advantage of the Applications It is used mainly in case of speed enforcement cameras and also it is used in small distance radars (Yin et al., 2013). Cellular antenna Cellular antennas are those which are mainly used in the mobile phones and the cell phones (Inui et al., 2015). Cellular antennas are useful in case of long distance communication. Strengths The cellular antennas are used for the communication along very long distances and it is approximately 45 miles. The capacity of data transfer is very high. It can achieve the connection among any places among the globe. Weakness The main issue regarding the cellular antenna is the connection problem. The size of this type antenna is very big. The number of antennas in every base station has increased value. Applications Cellular antennas are used in mobile phones. It is also used for long distance communication. These antennas are used in the cellular base stations. Selection of antenna type for medium and long distance In case of long distance communication cellular antennas are used in a wide range. In case of global communication this type of antennas are used (Sarkar, Srivastava Saurav, 2014). This type of antenna has a very suitable value of bandwidth and gain. Comparison and contrast of FDMA and CDMA CDMA refers to code division multiple accesses and it is a method that has the access of different channels and it is a blend of several radio communications (Lo Lee, 2013). It is created by spreading the codes using orthogonal codes. It is a suitable example of multiple accesses. FDMA refers to Frequency Division Multiple Access and it is a method that utilises the channel for accessing and it also acts as a channelization protocol (Yang Marzetta, 2013). It provides the users several bands of frequency and is mainly used in satellite communication. CDMA FDMA It has no absolute limit of channel capacity. Cell capacity is limited. It distributes orthogonal codes in the main channel. In case of FDMA the frequency band is consisted of several disjoint sub bands. All terminals can act simultaneously. Individual frequency level is present in every terminal of FDMA. It is flexible and needs less frequency planning and soft handover. It is simple, established and robust. The transmission is simultaneous in nature and each user uses different band of frequencies. When the channel is inactive, it is also inactive. Most recent advanced wireless technologies RFID or Radio Frequency Identification detector is used to keep track of several objects (Han et al., 2015). The RFID acts on the principle of radio frequency which has a range of 134 KHz and for high frequency RFID systems; the value is almost 13.56 MHz Strength RFID is very useful in case of using in inventory management system. RFID is very helpful in case of tracking vehicles. RFID is used in automated tracking system and more advantageous in case of logistical tracking. Weakness The range of RFID is limited and it is not more than 100m. As RFID is a very new technology, people should be aware about it and should have proper knowledge about RFID. Best type of Antenna for future applications Antennas take an important role in wireless communication. Antennas are of different kinds and different types which are already discussed above (Ding et al., 2015). According to the types of antennas the applications are also different in nature. In future the main field of communication will be based on long distances and faster response (Aouani et al., 2014). In that case the cellular antennas will be most effective in terms of gain, bandwidth and directivity. References Aouani, H., Rahmani, M., Navarro-Ca, M., Maier, S. A. (2014). Third-harmonic-upconversion enhancement from a single semiconductor nanoparticle coupled to a plasmonic antenna. Nature nanotechnology, 9(4), 290-294. Ding, Z., Zhong, C., Ng, D. W. K., Peng, M., Suraweera, H. A., Schober, R., Poor, H. V. (2015). Application of smart antenna technologies in simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. IEEE Communications Magazine, 53(4), 86-93. Han, S., Chih-Lin, I., Xu, Z., Rowell, C. (2015). Large-scale antenna systems with hybrid analog and digital beamforming for millimeter wave 5G. IEEE Communications Magazine, 53(1), 186-194. Inui, T., Koga, H., Nogi, M., Komoda, N., Suganuma, K. (2015). A miniaturized flexible antenna printed on a high dielectric constant nanopaper composite. Advanced Materials, 27(6), 1112-1116. Lo, Y. T., Lee, S. W. (2013). Antenna Handbook: theory, applications, and design. Springer Science Business Media. Sarkar, D., Srivastava, K. V., Saurav, K. (2014). A compact microstrip-fed triple band-notched UWB monopole antenna. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 13, 396-399. Yang, H., Marzetta, T. L. (2013). Performance of conjugate and zero-forcing beamforming in large-scale antenna systems. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 31(2), 172-179. Yin, H., Gesbert, D., Filippou, M., Liu, Y. (2013). A coordinated approach to channel estimation in large-scale multiple-antenna systems. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 31(2), 264-273.