The Global Fast-Food Industry

Colonel Harland Sanders signed up his outset franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1952. In 1956 he sold the Corbin, Ky. eating house he owned, and began traveling across the United States to sell new franchises. by and by that class he sold his first global franchise in Canada. By 1960 there were more than 200 Colonel Sanders Recipe Kentucky Fried chicken (KFC) issuances. In 1963 revenues were everyplace $500 one thousand thousand and the frame of outlets had increased to over 300. In 1974 at the age of 74, he sold the line of merchandise to jackfruit Massey and John Brown for $2 million, one of the great bargains in ancestry history. The Colonel stayed on with the company in a ceremonial role, often circumstances to open new franchises.Brown and Massey grew the business end-to-end the United States over the close several(prenominal) forms and in 1966 took the company public, listing it on the New York Stock Exchange and the Colonel was all toldowed to purchase th e first 100 sh atomic account 18s. The year 1969 was a crucial one in the history of the company with the first major penetration into international grocery stores outside North the States by acquiring franchises in England and Japan. By 1971, there were more than 2400 franchises and 600 company-owned restaurants spread through and throughout the United States and 47 separate countries.1971 became an early(a) key year in company history with the sale of KFC to Heublein. This was Heubleins first authoritative penetration into the restaurant business and it did not go smoothly. By 1977 restaurant tint had declined and the Colonel was upset. Only about 20 new restaurants were being undetermined per year. In response, Heublein implemented a new strategy emphasizing clean restaurants, crossroad consistency across franchises and better service. Old franchise buildings were remodeled.In 1982 R. J. Reynolds Inc. (RJR), in an attempt to diversify beyond the tobacco business, acquire d Heublein for $1.2 billion. KFC was profitable and growing again, notwithstanding Colonel Sanders never saw the end result of Heubleins strategy in the late 1970s, because he died in 1980. RJR continued to run KFC as an self-directed business for several years. In 1985 it acquired Nabisco and in 1986, in preparation for the later(prenominal) move to take RJR Nabisco private, it sold KFC to PepsiCo Inc. for $840 million, over the objections of former Heublein chairman, Stuart Watson. Also this year the Colonel Sanders Technical Center in Louisville, Kentucky was established.The acquisition by PepsiCo was a significant turning point in the companys history. In introductory acquisitions by Heublein and RJR, KFC had been operated as a separate entity, although in different ways. Heublein tried and true to use its own managers to operate KFC, while RJR adopted a only hands off approach. PepsiCo was looking to the acquisition of KFC to create some synergy within its other operation s. Recently restructured into three major divisions, soft drink, insect bite foods and restaurants, PepsiCo could cross-pollinate between divisions, for instance by selling its soft drinks in restaurants. PepsiCos culture was also much different than KFC. PepsiCo placed a healthful emphasis on employee performance, while KFCs culture was more laid-back in the southern tradition.In 1991 a change was make that was to have unintended consequences. Kentucky Fried chickenhearted decided to change their wee-wee to KFC for several reasons, according to the web site Snopes.com,A move to de-emphasize chicken because KFC planned to offer a varied menu that include other types of food. (The Boston wimp corporation took the alike approach for the same reason, changing their constitute of their retail food outlets to Boston Market.)A passion to eliminate the word fried, which has negative connotations to the increasingly health-conscious consumer mart.A recent social movement towards t he abbreviation of long commercial titles, as demonstrated by other companies employing shortened forms of their names, such as The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and Howard Johnsons (HoJo).As a result of this name change, rumors later began circulating throughout the internet that the organisation had forced KFC to change its name because it was no longer using chickens. consort to the rumor, KFC was producing a genetically altered chicken with more than the normal numerate of appendages. In spite of the fact that some of these claims, such as chickens without beaks, feathers or feet, ar beyond scientific capabilities, the rumors have persisted.Over the next several years, KFC continued to prosper and undergo changes. It refocused its strategy to increase the traffic in individual franchises by dramatiseing the menu to appeal to a larger concourse of consumers. In 1993 the company added non-fried chicken to menus in the U.S. and Australia, and in 1994 KFC officially opened its 9,000th restaurant in the world, in Shanghai, China, and announced a $200 million investment over the next four years for 200 restaurants in 48 Chinese cities.1995 saw the introduction of Colonels Crispy Strips and Chunky Chicken Pot Pie. The first KFC restaurant in Moscow was opened. In 1996 KFC introduced natural Roast chicken pieces and brought back one of the worlds most recognized packages, the bucket, and in 1997 the company introduced Honey BBQ-flavored Tender Roast, Spicy Buffalo Crispy Strips and Chicken Twister, which are wrapped up chicken and vegetables.In spite of all these innovations and improvements, PepsiCo had become increasingly unhappy with the restaurant division. Aging facilities were requiring much of the resurrect companys revenue to be spent on remodeling restaurants and thereby neglecting investment in the soft drink and snack food businesses. In an attempt to return to its roots, PepsiCo spun off the entire restaurant division into a publicly traded company, Tricon Global eating places in October 1997. In May 2002, with the acquisition of A&W and Long John Silvers, Tricon changed its name to Yum.One of the main strategic produces presented in this case is the question of whether or not KFC should continue to expand globally and where. Since the early days of its inception, KFC has been involved outside the United States, having spread out to Canada in 1956 and then in a major move in 1969, to Japan and England. As of 2000, of the thirty-five largest fast-food chains, KFC was second only to McDonalds in the number countries penetrated. It is an arena where KFC has had enormous success and should continue to be involved.As of 2001 KFC had more than 500 outlets in China compared to only about 400 for McDonalds. KFC sting McDonalds to China by five years, opening their first outlet in Beijing in 1987. Market surveys in China by AC Nielson have indicated a preference for KFC over McDonalds, both in terms of products and t he outlets themselves. In addition, the Chinese have cultural bias in favor of chicken over beef. This is receivedly an area where KFC should continue to execution its expediency.Latin America is another global area where KFC has a strong bearing. In the Central American, Caribbean and Mexican area, KFC is very competitive with McDonalds and Burger male monarch in terms of number of outlets. It has a particularly strong heraldic bearing in Mexico and the Caribbean. Only in the Southern part of Latin America does KFC fall sharply behind McDonalds.With the advent of the North American assuage Trade Agreement (NAFTA) the milieu has changed in Mexico. A helpful constituent is that one of KFCs major suppliers, Tyson Foods, has major chicken facilities in Mexico. The political environment has changed with the election of Vicente Fox. KFCs already strong presence should be expanded aggressively. They should also use this carnal in Mexico as a means of investing capital to further expand the franchise base throughout South America, in order to negate a first-mover expediency by McDonalds and Wendys. Franchise outlets require less capital than company-owned restaurants, and are thus a faster way in which to expand.Anther strategic issue facing KFC is the decision to franchise or expand by company-owned restaurants and whether to refranchise. The authoritative strategy of Colonel Sanders and his immediate successors was to franchise and not build company-owned restaurants. This allowed them to grow quicker than they would have if KFC had primarily invested in company-owned restaurants. This strategy continued until the purchase of KFC by PepsiCo. Because of a clash in corporate culture between KFC and PepsiCo, and the presence of a strong franchisee group within KFC, PepsiCo embarked on a strategy of repurchasing weaker franchises and running them. At the time of the spin-off of KFC and the restaurant division into Tricon Restaurant Group in 1994, the percen tage of company-owned restaurants was about 40%.After the spin-off, Tricon precaution began to divest of many of the company-owned outlets. This was the result of a change in attitude on the part of Tricon management. They did not believe in absolute guard of all aspects of the local business and were willing to admit that the franchisees knew the local business better than they did. By the year 2000, the number of company-owned outlets had dropped to 27%.As shown in the SWOT analysis below, there are a number of factors in the external environment that KFC should consider when formulating and implementing strategies. Some of the more important aspects are brand name awareness, global market expansion, shrinking resources available to outlets and attacks by activistic groups such as PETA.On the positive side, the brand name awareness is a tremendous asset for KFC. The move in 1996 to pull in back the bucket was one of the best decisions in its history. Likewise, global market e xpansion presents an enormous opportunity to KFC to grow. They should build on their existing international base and continue to grow franchises.On the negative side, KFC, along with other fast-food companies, is facing a shrinking of the available potential outlet locations. The proliferation of fast-food outlets in this country has absorbed many of the prime locations. This is another reason to exempt continued overseas expansion, where many prime spots remain. Just as potential locations have dwindled, so too has the labor pool. In spite of increased unemployment since 2000, there is still a problem attracting workers in the xviii to twenty-four year old range.An interesting aspect of the external environment that has negatively impacted KFC has been the virulent attacks on KFC by People for the ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other similar groups. A number of celebrities have coupled the campaign against KFC, which is focused on trying to force them to change the tra nsit of defeathering chickens. KFC has consistently refused to meet with the animal rights group for years, but because of concerns of losing market grapple in the inner city, has recently attempted to mediate this dispute through the offices of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and the Reverend Al Sharpton.Examining the list of top cubic decimeter U.S. fast-food restaurants for those sectors and companies that might be beneficial investments we observe several companies that have a dominant position in their section. McDonalds has a 35% market tract among sandwich chains, Pizza Hut has a 44% share among pizza chains, KFC a 55% share among chicken chains, Golden shut in a 32% share among grill buffet chains and Dunkin Donuts a 43% share among non-dinner concepts. Each of these companies would seem to be a good investment over the near term because of that dominant position in their sectors. In addition, financial data available for these companies confirm that the reason from each one is dominant in their sector is because they consistently produce above just financial returns.KFC continues to have a bright outlook for the future. It is well-positioned both domestically and international for continued growth. While it is unlikely ever to overtake McDonalds, both in the domestic or overseas market, it is dominant in certain countries such as China and Mexico, and should be able to leverage this advantage to fend off other competitors, like Wendys and Burger King. Over the next five years look for KFC to have a strong number two position in the industry, particularly if it can address the problems with activist groups.

DropBox it just works

I was hunt clubing for a mod opportunity that was to a greater extent knock down client softw ar to a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC or to an ph hotshot and only(a), pad, Blackberry, or Android mobile device, the software created a local rove folder for accessing institutionalizes of any size or fibre via an encrypted net profit tie-in from other pickpocket-en suitabled devices or from any tissue browser. The client software bring in changes in real- metre to any show in the subr bug outiners local dangle folder, then instantly synchronized a copy of the file on misssys servers, modify only the portions of he file that had changed, in order to tho bandwidth and time.Likewise, wi slight milliseconds, copies of the file were synchronized in local give folders on solely other devices connected by dint of the users account. We planed exculpate so it salutary worked, alwaysy(prenominal) of the time, Drew explained, We supported all the major operating organisations a nd handled all kinds of obstacles, from flaky wireless connections to corpo station firewalls, which was non an easy task. The telephoner adoptive a fermium lineage model, that is, it eat upered twain throw in and premium accounts.Users got 2 gigabytes of transshipment center for bounteous and had the option to ay $10 per month for 50 gigabytes or $20 per month for degree Celsius gigabytes. constancy observers estimated that 2% to 3% of go offsys users were paid nodes, which implied a $10 million to $15 million yearbook tax point rate in mid(prenominal) 2010. 1 At that time, the participation had 25 employees, just about of whom worked in plan or support functions. give notice had brocaded $7. 2 million in two rounds of venture detonating device funding from Sequoia Capital and prison cell Partners.Market Overview Drop was a belated entrant to the fiercely competitive online business and computer storage operate space. The rootage firms in the space, whi ch had small companies as clients, ere launched in the late asses by startups pass outsourced storage at remote de extirpateureters. As apostrophizes declined, services excessively became available for consumers conditionking to backup their info online. Most early users were nearly adept, for example, college students downloading music from peer-to-peer file sharing services.Few firms in this start-off wave of services survived the dot. Com crash, entirely by late 2006 the grocery store was crowded again with rising competitors. In July 2007, the tech blob Amassable create a list of more(prenominal)(prenominal) than 80 online backup and storage services. 2 Market research vendors the like DC fueled the hype by predicting that the landwide market for online backup services would grow to $71 5 million by 2011. 3 Investor interest in online storage surged when addled was acquired by EMCEE for $76 million in late 2007.Houston was confident that Drop could succeed in the face of intense competition. He legal that Drop would be able to collect r until now soue from well-nigh users, because consumers largely understood that storage personify money, whether it came in the form of a physiological guide or an online service. When challenged by endure outstandingists to explain why the world needed other profane backup go with, Houston asked them, How many of those services do you personally use? The dish from Vs. was almost invariably, None of them. 4 Houston pullulate a firm stand that direct sire with oppose services, which often failed to transfer data crosswise firewalls and sometimes balked with turgid files or voluminous consequences of files, was helpful in innovations that contri thoed to these advantages 2 The number one genesis of cloud storage services was found on a simple-minded model, where file accesses were redirected everyplace the Internet quite of to your electronic computers stern rive. Your operatin g system and all your applications assume that accessing your hard receive is cheap and fast, and when these requests are instead routed to a server thousands of miles a trend, they can take an order of magnitude longer.This subtle but critical musical note explains why when working remotely, even simple actions like browsing a directory can freeze your computer for seconds at a time. We needed to take a completely unlike lift by storing files locally and updating the cloud copy in the background using a number of time- and vindications optimizations. forwarding Drop Its hard to imagine Tom Cruise in Minority Report send himself files via Gamma or lugging around a USB thumbprint. ? Drew Houston After his cross experience on the bus, Houston started working on Drop full time in late 2006. He tell I needed it bafflingly. I worked on multiple desk returns and a laptop computer and could neer remember to animation my USB drive with me. I was drowning in email attachments s weating to share files for my front startup. My home desktops power supply literally exploded one day, kill one of my hard drives, and I had no backups. I tried everything I could find but each point of intersection inevitably suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or Just made me call too much. To help with the project, Houston recruited prime Overdose, who dropped out of MIT and later became Dropsys co-founder and chief plan officer. The pair spent the succeeding(prenominal) four months coding a type in a petty Cambridge apartment. With a working prototype in hand, Houston came up with an innovative approach for testing direct for a lower limit viable product. He had produced divers(a) recruiting picture shows for his college fraternity with this know-how he created a three-minute crassest of a product demo and uploaded it to cyber-terrorist News, a popular forum for developers. l did this out of necessity.There was no way I could ask for mints f iles before we were 100% sure our code was reliable. nonwithstanding I had a prototype that showed off the products trump feature articles. 7 Houston utilize the screens to recruit genus Beta testers and to solicit feedback on features that Drop might include. He added, Not launching is painful, but not learning can be fatal. We got a lot of feedback by with(predicate) that video, so we were learning while we were building. Houston had another reason for posting the video on Hacker News he hoped to ND selective Y combinatorial clip out fund and brooder course.He recalled, l had Just submitted my application to Y combinational and as a gambit to jack off their attention, I submitted the video to Hacker News. I hoped it would work. 8 It did in April 2007, Drop received $15,000 in funding from Y combinational (see Exhibit 1 for excerpts from Dropsys Y combinational application). In exchange for a small percentage of a startups green equity-?usually 2% to 10%-?Y combina tive supplyd up to $20,000 of seed capital as sound as mentoring, workspace, and introductions to other advisors ND investors over a three-month period.Many startups applied to Y Combinations program, which had a track record for interconnected strong technical groups with selected venture capital firms. 3 Upon induction of the Y Combinatory program in September 2007, Drop raised $1. 2 million of interchangeable debt from Sequoia Capital. We fit into Sequoias sweet roll in the hay we were two young technical founders, working out of an apartment, targeting a big market. It helped that we were ranked at the top of our Y Combinatory cohort, Houston recalled.He and Overdose travel to San Francisco to continue building the many, but despite the capital infusion, they continued to transcend lean. Drop delivered its service through with(predicate) Amazons SO cloud storage platform, avoiding the need for infrastructure investments and positioning the community to scale rapidly. The co- founders created a private important program for a limited group of users who registered through a simple landing rapscallion. The foliate contained a unawares description of Drop and pass along an email address from visitors implicated in participating in the of import test (Exhibit 2).Houston chin-wagginged Theres a spectrum of reasoning(a) opinions about when to launch your product. At one end, Paul Graham tells entrepreneurs, Launch early and often to accelerate learning. At the other end, respected software guru Joel flighty says, Launch when your product doesnt completely suck. We were managing wads files, and its a big deal if you pull back or ruin them. That meant moving toward neural end of the spectrum and keeping our beta test small. Next, Houston devised ways to generate demand for the beta service.In a guerrilla market move, he produced another short demo video and stick on it in March 2008 on Dig, a site that showcased web satisfy deemed pop ular by Digs users. Houston mat it was essential to communicate in an authentic manner with the tech enthusiasts who frequented Dig. He sprinkled Easter eggs into the video, for example, references to umber Rain (a Youth phenomenon), TIPS reports use in the characterisation Office Space, Mitts Gillian Hall, and the 09 IF primaeval for decrypting Blurry disks (dissemination of which, in the face of movie studio legal threats, was a hacker crusade).With this tongue-in- cheek nod to its tech-sway audience, the Drop video soared to the top of Dig, hardly a(prenominal) days. Overnight, the list for Dropsys private beta Jumped from 5,000 to 75,000 Ames, farthest exceeding the team ups expectations. Building the caller-out Make something people want. -? Y Combinatory motto Based on consumer response to the second video, it appeared that the promise butt end Drop-? It Just works-?resonated with likely early adopters, especially those who were familiar with the surgical procedure l imitations of existing online backup/ storage services. Houston shifted his focus to product maturement.The Drop team was comprised almost entirely of engineers during the first two years of the firms existence. Early on, plug-in members tasked Houston with hiring a reduce four-in-hand to help coordinate engineering science efforts and order features. Houston reflected If you ask ten people what a product manager is, youll get ten different answers. They list to fall on a continuum with the end points being poet and librarian. A librarian is focused on blocking and tackling, coordination, and facilitating communication. This type of PM is inherently nonionic and follows up drearyly.A poet PM listens to the voice of the customer during usability tests and focus groups and based on that insight formulates an aesthetic vision, a noble strategy, and a product roadman. Our first product manager was 4 more of a librarian than a poet, because we needed a librarians discipline e ven today we dont have sufficient of that DNA in the troupe. But he Just drove people nuts. It was painful, but we had to let him go afterwardsward(prenominal) six months. For the next year, until Drop hired another product manager, the company relied on Houston and Overdose to drive the product roadman.Development proceeded more slowly than Houston had earlier expected. In his April 2007 Y Combinatory application, Houston had projected availability of a magnetic variation that he could charge for thin 8 weeks, but launching Drop to the existence actually took 18 months. Houston said, As a result of doing a few things thoroughly, we left a lot of other things behind. We had no business people, we were terrible at get mainstream PR, and running fast and loose didnt flummox for the most predictable engineering organization. 9 Public Launch Drop opened its beta to the public in September 2008 at Outstretched, an annual competition showcasing high-potential startups. Drop was one of 50 startups selected to present at the event from a kitty-cat of over 1,000 applicants. ND to a fault provide a product development deadline for the team. Houston mused that since Drop was follo bring home the bacong a tried-and-true radiation diagram for launching a consumer Internet service, his next step would have to be devising a market plan. Drop retained an online market consultant to help with this task.Houston said, What do most web companies do? Apply to Outstretched, check. demoralize Towards, check. Get real marketing people, check. 10 Early on, Drop attempt to acquire new customers through paid search advertising. However, incumbents had bid up the cost per click for open-and-shut search keywords. As a result, it cost Drop more than $ccc to acquire a nonrecreational customer (Exhibit 3). This was not sustainable, since an annual subscription for 50 KGB service was priced at $99. Drop had tweaked its sign-up process to incr quietus the conversation rate f rom free user to paying customer.The company also experimented with hiding the free service option for visitors who arrived via search ads. Houston recalled, Our bonnie encyclopedism cost per paying customer went from thousands of dollars to hundreds, but we still had a problem with our economics. And we didnt feel good about doing sneaky things to our users to get them to pay. 11 Sequoia Capital and cellphone Partners subsequently led a $6 million Series A round of financing in October 2008, but even with additional capital in the bank, relying on paid search would not be a viable long- term option.In addition, the team had experimented with boasting ads and affiliate programs, but these efforts also yielded unacceptably high acquisition be per paying customer. Houston realized that with a fermium strategy, optimization of marketing messages and set would be critical to Dropsys victor consistent with this priority, the company hired an analytics engineer as its eighth employ ee. divine by the Backbone growth team dedicated to user acquisition and engagement, Houston later assigned 30% of engineering resources to optimizing customer acquisition efforts.This team nextly introduce poetic rhythm crossways Dropsys conversion funnel by cohort,a for example the percent of landing page visitors who registered as free users the percent of registrants who still were active free users after X months and the percent of free users who upgraded to paid subscribers after Y months. Houston said, We run our business based on the Startup Metrics for Pirates framework developed by investor Dave McClure. He says firms should a A cohort was a set of prospects or users acquired at the analogous time and/or via the same marketing method. Closely track metrics around the acquisition of landing page visitors activation of those visitors into users retention of users referral of new visitors by satisfied users and revenue pull in from users. The team used A/B testing to fine aura page layouts free storage given to users. Analytics showed that gigabytes were not necessarily the best measure of value for Drop users. We had all kinds of people paying us for Drop but not even bumping against their quota, Houston said. Analytics likewise revealed that few users were accessing preceding(a) versions of their files, all of which-?including deleted files-?were being for good stored by Drop at a significant and rapidly ontogenesis cost. The company change its policy, offering 30 days of undo storey free of charge and making unconditioned undo history a premium option. Houston said, Just a 10th of a percent onward motion in conversion rates, or a small decrease in the cost of serving a customer can have a huge impact on profitability. agio is a spreadsheet game-?one you win with lots and lots of little moves . 13 Fourteen Months to the EpiphanyDespite improvements through analytics, Houston and his colleagues struggled to hold the company marketin g programs profitable. Nevertheless, the service grew rapidly, stretchability 200,000 users ten days after launch and 1 million users septet months later. The vast majority of these users were acquired through word-of-mouth referrals and viral marketing efforts, rather than paid advertising. A relentless focus on ease of use and reliability had paid dividends in the form of loyal users who encouraged friends, family, and co-workers to try Drop. Houston commented, The power of focus cant be understated.If you look at a feature matrix of Drop versus everyone else, we would never come in first. We would rather do a few things well rather than present Drop in a confusing way. 14 To identify ways to improve ease of use, the Drop team tracked support forums closely. Houston said, We get feature requests for things we already have. These are particularly bad because it means that even though weve utilise something, our users cant find it. We pay close attention when that happens. 1 5 Th e company also maintained a Vote on its site, allowing users to vote and comment on treasures they would like to see added.Since the team gained insight on users preferences through support forums and the Vote, the company did not remove regular consumer surveys, but it did conduct occasional usability tests. In one instance, the entire team watched as not one of quintuple natural consumers recruited from Scraggliest could successfully install and interact with the application. Houston recalled observance them fail was excruciating. Imagine if your cocoa bean maker Just spit coffee all over the reply every third time you used it or your car stop in the middle of the road. Thats the computer experience for a normal person.The PC is always conspiring against you to lose your stuff or break in some weird way. You have no melodic theme what happened or what you did wrong. Watching those five consumers struggle to try to figure out how to use our product was in all probability t he most painful day we ever had as a team, but afterward, we created a list of 70 things to fix. B A/B tests dual-lane a set of similar individuals into a control group that go through a status quo product and a test group that undergo a product with one modified element, to determine if the modification yielded a statistically significantDropBox it just worksI was searching for a new opportunity that was more Drop client software to a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC or to an phone, pad, Blackberry, or Android mobile device, the software created a local Drop folder for accessing files of any size or type via an encrypted Internet connection from other Drop-enabled devices or from any web browser. The client software tracked changes in real-time to any file in the users local Drop folder, then instantly synchronized a copy of the file on Dropsys servers, updating only the portions of he file that had changed, in order to save bandwidth and time.Likewise, within milliseconds, copies of th e file were synchronized in local Drop folders on all other devices connected through the users account. We engineered Drop so it just worked, all of the time, Drew explained, We supported all the major operating systems and handled all kinds of obstacles, from flaky wireless connections to corporate firewalls, which was not an easy task. The company adopted a fermium business model, that is, it offered both free and premium accounts.Users got 2 gigabytes of storage for free and had the option to ay $10 per month for 50 gigabytes or $20 per month for 100 gigabytes. Industry observers estimated that 2% to 3% of Dropsys users were paying customers, which implied a $10 million to $15 million annual revenue run rate in mid 2010. 1 At that time, the company had 25 employees, most of whom worked in engineering or support functions. Drop had raised $7. 2 million in two rounds of venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital and Cell Partners.Market Overview Drop was a late entrant to the f iercely competitive online backup and storage services space. The first firms in the space, which had small companies as customers, ere launched in the late asses by startups offering outsourced storage at remote decanters. As costs declined, services also became available for consumers seeking to backup their data online. Most early users were technically adept, for example, college students downloading music from peer-to-peer file sharing services.Few firms in this first wave of services survived the dot. Com crash, but by late 2006 the market was crowded again with new competitors. In July 2007, the tech blob Amassable published a list of more than 80 online backup and storage services. 2 Market research vendors like DC fueled the hype by predicting that the worldwide market for online backup services would grow to $71 5 million by 2011. 3 Investor interest in online storage surged when Muzzy was acquired by EMCEE for $76 million in late 2007.Houston was confident that Drop could succeed in the face of intense competition. He reasoned that Drop would be able to collect revenue from some users, because consumers generally understood that storage cost money, whether it came in the form of a physical drive or an online service. When challenged by endure capitalists to explain why the world needed another cloud backup company, Houston asked them, How many of those services do you personally use? The answer from Vs. was almost invariably, None of them. 4 Houston asserted that direct experience with rival services, which often failed to transfer data across firewalls and sometimes balked with big files or large numbers of files, was helpful in innovations that contributed to these advantages 2 The first generation of cloud storage services was based on a simplistic model, where file accesses were redirected over the Internet instead of to your computers hard rive. Your operating system and all your applications assume that accessing your hard drive is cheap and fast, but when these requests are instead routed to a server thousands of miles away, they can take an order of magnitude longer.This subtle but critical distinction explains why when working remotely, even simple actions like browsing a directory can freeze your computer for seconds at a time. We needed to take a completely different approach by storing files locally and updating the cloud copy in the background using a number of time- and vindications optimizations. Launching Drop Its hard to imagine Tom Cruise in Minority Report sending himself files via Gamma or lugging around a USB thumbprint. ? Drew Houston After his frustrating experience on the bus, Houston started working on Drop full time in late 2006. He said I needed it badly. I worked on multiple desktops and a laptop and could never remember to keep my USB drive with me. I was drowning in email attachments trying to share files for my previous startup. My home desktops power supply literally exploded one day, killing o ne of my hard drives, and I had no backups. I tried everything I could find but each product inevitably suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or Just made me think too much. To help with the project, Houston recruited Rash Overdose, who dropped out of MIT and later became Dropsys co-founder and chief technology officer. The pair spent the next four months coding a prototype in a tiny Cambridge apartment. With a working prototype in hand, Houston came up with an innovative approach for testing demand for a minimum viable product. He had produced various recruiting videos for his college fraternity with this know-how he created a three-minute crassest of a product demo and uploaded it to Hacker News, a popular forum for developers. l did this out of necessity.There was no way I could ask for peoples files before we were 100% sure our code was reliable. But I had a prototype that showed off the products best features. 7 Houston used the screens to recruit beta tes ters and to solicit feedback on features that Drop might include. He added, Not launching is painful, but not learning can be fatal. We got a lot of feedback through that video, so we were learning while we were building. Houston had another reason for posting the video on Hacker News he hoped to ND selective Y Combinatory seed fund and incubator program.He recalled, l had Just submitted my application to Y Combinatory and as a gambit to get their attention, I submitted the video to Hacker News. I hoped it would work. 8 It did in April 2007, Drop received $15,000 in funding from Y Combinatory (see Exhibit 1 for excerpts from Dropsys Y Combinatory application). In exchange for a small percentage of a startups common equity-?usually 2% to 10%-?Y Combinatory provided up to $20,000 of seed capital as well as mentoring, workspace, and introductions to other advisors ND investors over a three-month period.Many startups applied to Y Combinations program, which had a track record for match ing strong technical teams with elite venture capital firms. 3 Upon conclusion of the Y Combinatory program in September 2007, Drop raised $1. 2 million of convertible debt from Sequoia Capital. We fit into Sequoias sweet spot we were two young technical founders, working out of an apartment, targeting a big market. It helped that we were ranked at the top of our Y Combinatory cohort, Houston recalled.He and Overdose moved to San Francisco to continue building the many, but despite the capital infusion, they continued to run lean. Drop delivered its service through Amazons SO cloud storage platform, avoiding the need for infrastructure investments and positioning the company to scale rapidly. The co- founders created a private beta program for a limited group of users who registered through a simple landing page. The page contained a short description of Drop and requested an email address from visitors interested in participating in the beta test (Exhibit 2).Houston commented There s a spectrum of well-informed opinions about when to launch your product. At one end, Paul Graham tells entrepreneurs, Launch early and often to accelerate learning. At the other end, respected software guru Joel Spooky says, Launch when your product doesnt completely suck. We were managing peoples files, and its a big deal if you lose or ruin them. That meant moving toward Spooky end of the spectrum and keeping our beta test small. Next, Houston devised ways to generate demand for the beta service.In a guerilla marketing move, he produced another short demo video and posted it in March 2008 on Dig, a site that showcased web content deemed popular by Digs users. Houston felt it was essential to communicate in an authentic manner with the tech enthusiasts who frequented Dig. He sprinkled Easter eggs into the video, for example, references to Chocolate Rain (a Youth phenomenon), TIPS reports used in the movie Office Space, Mitts Gillian Hall, and the 09 IF key for decrypting Blurry d isks (dissemination of which, in the face of movie studio legal threats, was a hacker crusade).With this tongue-in- cheek nod to its tech-sway audience, the Drop video soared to the top of Dig, few days. Overnight, the list for Dropsys private beta Jumped from 5,000 to 75,000 Ames, far exceeding the teams expectations. Building the Company Make something people want. -? Y Combinatory motto Based on consumer response to the second video, it appeared that the promise behind Drop-? It Just works-?resonated with potential early adopters, especially those who were familiar with the performance limitations of existing online backup/ storage services. Houston shifted his focus to product development.The Drop team was comprised almost entirely of engineers during the first two years of the firms existence. Early on, board members tasked Houston with hiring a reduce manager to help coordinate engineering efforts and prioritize features. Houston reflected If you ask ten people what a product manager is, youll get ten different answers. They tend to fall on a continuum with the end points being poet and librarian. A librarian is focused on blocking and tackling, coordination, and facilitating communication. This type of PM is inherently organized and follows up relentlessly.A poet PM listens to the voice of the customer during usability tests and focus groups and based on that insight formulates an aesthetic vision, a grand strategy, and a product roadman. Our first product manager was 4 more of a librarian than a poet, because we needed a librarians discipline even today we dont have enough of that DNA in the company. But he Just drove people nuts. It was painful, but we had to let him go after six months. For the next year, until Drop hired another product manager, the company relied on Houston and Overdose to drive the product roadman.Development proceeded more slowly than Houston had originally expected. In his April 2007 Y Combinatory application, Houston had proje cted availability of a version that he could charge for thin 8 weeks, but launching Drop to the public actually took 18 months. Houston said, As a result of doing a few things well, we left a lot of other things behind. We had no business people, we were terrible at getting mainstream PR, and running fast and loose didnt make for the most predictable engineering organization. 9 Public Launch Drop opened its beta to the public in September 2008 at Outstretched, an annual competition showcasing high-potential startups. Drop was one of 50 startups selected to present at the event from a pool of over 1,000 applicants. ND also provide a product development deadline for the team. Houston mused that since Drop was following a tried-and-true blueprint for launching a consumer Internet service, his next step would have to be devising a marketing plan. Drop retained an online marketing consultant to help with this task.Houston said, What do most web companies do? Apply to Outstretched, check. Buy Towards, check. Get real marketing people, check. 10 Early on, Drop attempted to acquire new customers through paid search advertising. However, incumbents had bid up the cost per click for obvious search keywords. As a result, it cost Drop more than $300 to acquire a paying customer (Exhibit 3). This was not sustainable, since an annual subscription for 50 KGB service was priced at $99. Drop had tweaked its sign-up process to increase the conversation rate from free user to paying customer.The company also experimented with hiding the free service option for visitors who arrived via search ads. Houston recalled, Our average acquisition cost per paying customer went from thousands of dollars to hundreds, but we still had a problem with our economics. And we didnt feel good about doing sneaky things to our users to get them to pay. 11 Sequoia Capital and Cell Partners subsequently led a $6 million Series A round of financing in October 2008, but even with additional capital in t he bank, relying on paid search would not be a viable long- term option.In addition, the team had experimented with display ads and affiliate programs, but these efforts also yielded unacceptably high acquisition costs per paying customer. Houston realized that with a fermium strategy, optimization of marketing messages and pricing would be critical to Dropsys success consistent with this priority, the company hired an analytics engineer as its eighth employee. Inspired by the Backbone growth team dedicated to user acquisition and engagement, Houston later assigned 30% of engineering resources to optimizing customer acquisition efforts.This team closely tracked metrics across Dropsys conversion funnel by cohort,a for example the percent of landing page visitors who registered as free users the percent of registrants who still were active free users after X months and the percent of free users who upgraded to paid subscribers after Y months. Houston said, We run our business based on the Startup Metrics for Pirates framework developed by investor Dave McClure. He says firms should a A cohort was a set of prospects or users acquired at the same time and/or via the same marketing method. Closely track metrics around the acquisition of landing page visitors activation of those visitors into users retention of users referral of new visitors by satisfied users and revenue earned from users. The team used A/B testing to fine tune page layouts free storage given to users. Analytics showed that gigabytes were not necessarily the best measure of value for Drop users. We had all kinds of people paying us for Drop but not even bumping against their quota, Houston said. Analytics likewise revealed that few users were accessing past versions of their files, all of which-?including deleted files-?were being permanently stored by Drop at a significant and rapidly growing cost. The company modified its policy, offering 30 days of undo history free of charge and making unlimit ed undo history a premium option. Houston said, Just a tenth of a percent improvement in conversion rates, or a small decrease in the cost of serving a customer can have a huge impact on profitability. Premium is a spreadsheet game-?one you win with lots and lots of little moves . 13 Fourteen Months to the EpiphanyDespite improvements through analytics, Houston and his colleagues struggled to make the company marketing programs profitable. Nevertheless, the service grew rapidly, reaching 200,000 users ten days after launch and 1 million users seven months later. The vast majority of these users were acquired through word-of-mouth referrals and viral marketing efforts, rather than paid advertising. A relentless focus on ease of use and reliability had paid dividends in the form of loyal users who encouraged friends, family, and co-workers to try Drop. Houston commented, The power of focus cant be understated.If you look at a feature matrix of Drop versus everyone else, we would never come in first. We would rather do a few things well rather than present Drop in a confusing way. 14 To identify ways to improve ease of use, the Drop team tracked support forums closely. Houston said, We get feature requests for things we already have. These are particularly bad because it means that even though weve implemented something, our users cant find it. We pay close attention when that happens. 1 5 The company also maintained a Vote on its site, allowing users to vote and comment on treasures they would like to see added.Since the team gained insight on users preferences through support forums and the Vote, the company did not conduct regular consumer surveys, but it did conduct occasional usability tests. In one instance, the entire team watched as not one of five typical consumers recruited from Scraggliest could successfully install and interact with the application. Houston recalled Watching them fail was excruciating. Imagine if your coffee maker Just spit coffee all over the counter every third time you used it or your car stopped in the middle of the road. Thats the computer experience for a normal person.The PC is always conspiring against you to lose your stuff or break in some weird way. You have no idea what happened or what you did wrong. Watching those five consumers struggle to try to figure out how to use our product was probably the most painful day we ever had as a team, but afterward, we created a list of 70 things to fix. B A/B tests divided a set of similar individuals into a control group that experienced a status quo product and a test group that experienced a product with one modified element, to determine if the modification yielded a statistically significant

Masterpieces of English Literature

The world of English literature has produced many an(prenominal) diverse and astoundingly amazing whole kit. Two of the to the highest degree hailed establishs of literature to have graced the lives of readers passim the ages are Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the spirt Knight. These cardinal verse forms have been around for a expectant number of years and have created many ripples across the lake of prison term. Despite its old-fashioned roots, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the kilobyte Knight strain to be regarded as two the superlative master valets of English literature.This essay will try to show the impact that these two disparate poems have had on English literature. It will show that in spite of the age of both poems, they embrace to be relevant up to this in truth day. This essay will show that it is genuinely much most-valu fitted to continue the reading, the shoot and the appreciation of these whole kit and caboodle, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the common l and Knight, as well as the early(a) masterful objet darts of English literature that have been available to schools and readers for a rattling long epoch.BeowulfLet us first dissect the desperate poem, Beowulf, before we continue with the discussion of the importance of these two pieces. Beowulf was believed to have been write around the epoch 700 A.D. by an Anglo-Saxon poet. To this day, no one truly knows who wrote the poem further the last surviving manuscript of the poem was found to date stick out to the time 1000 A.D. and was speculated to have been in the hand of two different scribes. The original manuscript of Beowulf was written in the vernacular, Old English. (Melissa, 1997)The importance of this piece to the entirety of English literature is both very simple and complex. To indue it straightforwardly, Beowulf is the oldest surviving poem to have been written in Old English. This is of bully importance because all of the poems recovered from that era were found to have been written in Latin. (Anonymous, 2006)The importance of Beowulf in English literature, and in fact to the tout ensemble of world literature, is very clear even up to this very day. Because of the wars and battles uncivilised across Europe in those earlier decades, very few literary manuscripts were able to survive. Beowulf, in fact, is the beacon and representative of the meager ten percent of the poetry written in Old English that have survived up to today. (Meyerhoff, 2006) What sets Beowulf apart from its otherwise very few Old English counterparts is that it is an larger-than-life poem. In Britain, it has been accepted as a national epos. This is despite the debates and contestations regarding its meritoriousnesss as an epic poem.The mere fact that Beowulf has survived time and history and is available to us today among the very small population of Old English works is enough to prod us to continue in our appreciation and study of the piece. But another importanc e of the literary piece remains in just that fact, that it has survived an era from which only very few literary works have. This suggests that scholars and even simple individuals are able to take a glance at the culture and traditions of that time.Through Beowulf, we are able to recover what these individuals held as important and what factors, both literary and in reality, they took into consideration. We say this not in a mode that will suggest taking Beowulf word for word as a historical timeline but rather in a manner that suggests reading deeper into Beowulf and understanding the thoughts and the emotions of the author. One such aspect of the epic poem that sheds light upon the culture of the said time is its constant use of the fundament of Christianity. Although it is supposedly written in a pagan setting, the Christian melodic theme in the poem is highly evident and unmistakable to any of its readers. (Yeager, 1999)Perhaps the most amazing part about Beowulf as an epi c poem is its resilience as a literary piece. Even though it has much merit as an aged piece and as a standard letter carrier of Old English poetry, Beowulf would not have survived throughout time if it did not have any other merits. The most important aspect of the epic poem, to my mind, is the fact that despite its age, it quiet down continues to strike every reader deeply. It still calls forth the identical emotions among its readers.This is perhaps due to the way it was written. Although the events and places seen in the epic are strange to us, at the very core of the story, we find the same values and interests that are inherent in us even to this very day. Beowulf is so well-written that even to this day, it continues to enthrall and connect with its diverse readership. No offspring how old you are, no matter what country you come from, you are able to recognize the masterful workmanship put into creating Beowulf.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightAnother much acclaimed piece of English literature is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It was believed to have been written some time during the fourteenth century. It is considered to be a metrical romance, a romantic in the buffs report written in poetic form, about the life of Sir Gawain. (Weston, 1900)Gawain was one of the more(prenominal) talked about characters of the Arthurian tradition. He far outstrips many of King Arthurs knights in the number of romantic exploits written about his character. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knigh, Gawain exemplifies many of the virtues considered to be important in men of his stature. (Harper) This adds to the importance of the piece itself. With the different virtues that Sir Gawain is seen to have in the romantic poem, readers can easily see what the culture of the 14th century was like.The virtues and culture held to be of importance during that time are extolled clearly in the character of Sir Gawain and can easily be identified through his various actions and desc riptions in the poem. This is in contrast to other poems and literary pieces written about Gawain wherein he was portrayed as a flawed and even sometimes brutish character.The importance of this piece whitethorn lie in the fact that its author was able to keep up a play of words wherein the reader can derive some(prenominal) different interpretations. This allowed for many different reactions and critics regarding the piece. (Goodlad, 1987)This is probably what kept the piece vivacious for so long. With regards to literature, it has opened the way for readers to regard different pieces with more wariness, think these pieces as perhaps holding more interpretations than that initially viewed.It also holds much importance as a literary piece that defied the genre from which it came. alternatively of relinquishing to the trend of producing literary pieces that were straightforward and direct in their innovation of storylines and themes, Sir Gawain and the Green Knights wordplay and alliterative presentation brought a new style of writing to the fore. To this day, we can witness many new pieces of literature that have taken tot his style of writing providing readers with much more thought-provoking and reflection-inducing pieces. It is safe to say that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has through with(p) much to enrich English literature.ReferencesAnonymous. (2006). Beowulf. Spark Notes Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.sparknotes.com/lit/beowulf/context.htmlGoodlad, L. (1987) The Gamnes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Comitatus A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 18(1), Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//repositories.cdlib.org/cmrs/comitatus/vol18/iss1/art4Harper, R. Gawain. The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stmMeyerhoff, S. (2006). The Question of Genre in Byliny and Beowulf. The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies, 4, Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=629&print=1Snell, M. (1997) Beowulf. About.com Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//historymedren.about.com/od/beowulf/p/beowulf.htmWeston, J. L. (1900) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/sggk.htmYeager, R. (1999) Why Read Beowulf? Humanities, 20(2) Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.neh.gov/news/ humanistic discipline/1999-03/yeager.html

The erl-king

WHO rides there so late through the night dark and unforgiving? The father it is, with his baby so dear He holdeth the boy tightly claspd in his arm, He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm. My son, wherefore chatkst thou thy face gum olibanum to hide? Look, father, the Erl-King is close by our side Dost see not the Erl-King, with chapiter and with train? My son, tis the mist rising over the plain. Oh, come, thou dear infant Oh come thou with me Full many a game I will play there with thee On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,My mother shall lard thee with garments of gold. My father, my father, and dost thou not hear The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear? Be calm, dearest minor, tis thy fancy deceives Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves. Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there? My daughters shall slant thee with sisterly care My daughters by night their glad festival keep, Theyll leap thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep. My father, my father, and dost thou not see,How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me? My darling, my darling, I see it aright, Tis the aged grey willows deceiving thy sight. l love thee, Im charmd by thy beauty, dear boy And if thourt unwilling, then force Ill employ. My father, my father, he seizes me fast, Full sorely the Erl-King has hurt me at last. The father now gallops, with terror half wild, He grasps in his armor the poor shuddering child He reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread, The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead. The erl-king By wnguyenp

Chick Fil a – Performance Management

MGT 760 Chick-fil-A Performance Management and central Business Factors Performance Management is a process for establishing a dual-lane understanding about what is to be achieved and how it is to be achieved. It is an approach to managing bulk that increases the opportunity of achieving achiever. In regards to the definition, Chick-Fil-A has a consistent and calibrated cognitive operation management process. They shit been focusing on how to develop enough attracters, fast enough to have healthy growth. Leadership is the main part of the companys success formula.They have a do-it-yourself attractions development culture. First of alone they defined leading at Chick-fil-A. They interviewed leadership within the company. After discussions they realised they needed more information. They decided to supplement their internal interviews with a surveil of global best practices. As final part of process they immortalise 200 books on leadership. They had a picture of leader ship definition which is alike to iceberg. According to this model, like icebergs 90 percent is underwater, leadership character is hard to see. 0 percent is represents the skills of leaders. And they compulsion to combine leadership and characteristic skills. They have seen character is 90 percent of what makes a leader. They compulsion to do their best to contract men and women of character and focus on helping them develop their skills as leaders. After that, they identified best leader skills. These atomic number 18 1- See the future It is the vision skill, ability to improve transmission line for future. 2- Engage and developed some others They want managers reach and develop their employees potential. reinvent continuously It means that the leader is the catalyst for continuous improvement and innovation. It involves the leaders continued growth and development. 4- Value lead and relationship They reconcile the liking that results are critical. But also they believe that results alone not sufficient. They want to maintain tension between results and relationship. 5- Embody the values The leaders that know their values, share their values and live their values earn the affirm of pack. Their actions become an historic shaping tool in the culture.As a result of definition of leadership and defining the skills that a leader should has, their goal is to select the right people, provide them the skills they need, and challenge them to guard their motives. In addition to consummation management process, Chick-fil-A has successful business practices. They escaped the effects of recession well. single of the key factors that they were not affected by recession is the ability to launch and pollinate great ideas. They could find very useful but woo nothing ideas. They have been always trying new-fangled things and experiments.As an example, he mentions the idea of inviting the first 100 customers who come in when they opened a new store to eat at Chick-fil-A for a year. That created millions and millions of dollars worth of publicity for Chick-fil-A. similarly that, they have a very rigorous hiring process. They are looking for competence, character, and chemistry. competency is the knowledge and skills to do the job. As mentioned before, in the evaluation of character, moral choices and decisions are very important. In chemistry, they are looking for the ability to inspire, excite, and motivate other people.The company has a 97 percent retention rate. They have allay food, free fitness center with hot showers, towels and child care center. When an employee has a problem, they try to help and got him or her into a rehab program. They influence on peoples life. They do a review annually with their executives committee. Everyone has a performance assessment. They look at fast trackers and people who need extra mentoring to be sure that they are developing them at the right rate. They change with changes. They sawing machin e a big shift in 1990s and they simulated what the wholly operation would be like. It helps them to be ready for changes.Innovation is a very important topic for them. They are getting ready to open an innovation laboratory. They want everyone to be a part of the innovation process. To improve customer service, they had conversations with people outside their industry. When customers pay them $6, they get what they really want and they feel near(a) about the transaction. And relationship follows the service. Also they see social media as leverage influence. In conclusion, their corporate purpose is glorifying God by being a faithful steward. The long view and the purpose of this whole enterprise is to positively impact peoples lives.

Pinoy Youth’s Preference for Kpop Music

Pinoy Y out(a)hs option for KPOP (Korean bulge) unison How does it furbish up their attempt for OPM ( received Pilipino medicament)? CHAPTER IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This particular research training aims to realize the Pinoy Youths druthers for Korean Pop medical specialty and how does it travel their taste for victor Pilipino euphony (OPM).Regarding this, the research workers go a counselling seek to know whether computes akin rhythm and harmony written material of Korean familiar practice of medicine sincerely affect the Pinoy puerilers discernment towards pilot burner Pilipino melody In addition, the tecs want to lie with the respondents ( effeminate residents of the University of the Philippines Cebu College Dormitory and different chosen learners in UPVCC) view toward Korean Pop melody as healthy as their outlook in the Original Pilipino medical specialty (OPM).More everywhere, this study would identify if the students symphony taste would affec t their soul of nationalism. In doing this, the detectives take oned in chassisation which go away answer in achieving the address of the researchers. This would serve as support to the current research study. RESEARCH surround This study will be conducted at the University of the Philippines Cebu College (UPVCC). The location will be the University of the Philippines Campus in Gorordo Avenue Lahug Cebu City. The place is accessible to the researchers for they would not spend oft period travelling.The researchers choose the locale since matchlessness of the researchers is currently residing in the manse and because it is more(prenominal) accessible in terms of distri furthering the survey questionnaires. RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS The major(ip) concern of choosing respondents would be the residents staying in the UP dormitory which consists of 9 rooms with 53 student residents but the researchers respondents argon on to chosen egg-producing(prenominal) person dormers only . On the other(a) hand, there will to a fault be whatever respondents who do not stay in the dormitory but good-tempered female students in the University of the Philippines Cebu College.RESEARCH INSTRUMENT Simple random sampling was through with(predicate) for the sample selection. This sampling method is conducted where each member of a tribe has an equal opportunity to become part of the sample. As each members of the nation need an equal chance of becoming a research participant, this is verbalize to be the close efficient sampling procedure. The researchers will list round off all the names of the female respondents. After that, the researchers will use the fishbowl proficiency and will randomly pick 15 out of these 32 respondents including the chosen respondents not staying in the dormitory.The researchers decided to use this fishbowl technique since all the respondents ar females and would only choose by mode of guide on by lots. This method involves the selecti on of the sample at random from the sampling frame through the use of random number tables (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003). be were assigned for each respondent in the master list. These numbers were written on pieces of paper and drawn from a box the offshoot was perennial until the sample size was reached. This research study will use a survey questionnaire as a research tool.The survey will be arranged basing on the factors that affect the respondents orientation toward Korean Pop practice of medicine and how it affects their taste to Original Pilipino symphony (OPM). There argon 4 factors that the researchers consider. These are the respondents outlook towards the per bounceers of the Korean Pop melody and Original Pilipino medication, the rhythm of practice of medicine that K- bolt down and OPM unison brings, as well as symphonys composition and the message being delivered by both K-pop and OPM practice of medicine. E actually factor will be claimd in a form o f table.The researchers prepared an earlier part for survey consisting of 3 questions involving whether the respondents are into K-pop melody or OPM Music. angiotensin-converting enzyme of the questions receives what medicinal drug does the respondent like from the two prime(prenominal)s, the Korean Pop Music or the Original Pilipino Music. The warrant question is dear colligate to a supporting answer to question number one in which the choices pertains to the age that the respondents often listens to her preferred unison. down the stairs the introductory question will be 2 tables, one for K-pop practice of medicine and the other one is for OPM melody. The two tables are divided into 5 columns.These columns would serve as the respondents ratings from 1 to 5 and 5 as the most appreciated towards K-pop and OPM Music. Each factor consists of 3 phrases link up to the factor revealed. As mentioned earlier, one factor that affects the respondents choice toward music is the performers. The second factor involves the pattern of beats that the music contains. The third one relates to the lyrics of the music and how the message is being delivered to the listeners or audience. The researchers provide a survey questionnaire with a letter of permission to the chosen respondents.If the respondents approved the letter, they would answer the questionnaire automatically. If not, the researchers would pick some other respondent and will answer directly to the survey questionnaire after approval. The respondents would still directly answer the questions with no time limit. After the respondents give up accomplished answering the questions, the questionnaire will be collected. DATA ANALYSIS The researchers would then strike the results obtained. The results will then be tabulated. After that, radical analysis should be done and the results would then be interpreted.This will be done by calculating the results using the Chi-Square Test for Independence. The r esearchers decided to use this persona of tryout for it is applicable whether there is a congenatorship amongst two covariant quantitys. In this study, the relationship amid Pinoy Youths Preference towards K-pop Music and OPM Music is being described. This type of test actually involves statistics. As s concern earlier, the chi-square test is utilize to determine whether there is a signifi sightt difference between the normal frequencies and the experimental frequencies in one or more categories.The Chi-Square statistic compares the tallies or counts of categorical retorts between two or more independent ag groups(Maben, 2009). In so doing, the researchers would be helped by the Chi-Square test in determining Pinoy Youths Preference for Korean Pop Music and how does it affect their taste for Original Pilipino Music (OPM). CHAPTER III THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Several theories have been gathered and examine in this research study to help determine the factors causing an ite m-by-item to affect his/her stance due to the type of music he/she prefers.A system of Rudolf Radocy and David Boyle (2003) contends that musical preference is more than an interaction of inherent musical pillow slipistics and private psychological and social variables (p. 371). They cite the work of Abeles (1980) who, after a thorough review of the pertinent literature, concluded that constitution factors and emotional states were related to preference, but not in a clear cut aspect. Moreover, Radocy and Boyle (2003) stress out that music preference might be influenced by the factors of milieu much(prenominal) as institutions, dates, group gatherings, self-concept, potentiometer media and among other things.Another theorist, Warren Prince (1972) developed a paradigm for music audience with a major premise that a listener is capable of more than one solvent pattern and more than one type of listening experience (p. 446). His paradigm is proposed as an sign effort to bui ld a framework base on decisive decisions on what variables and what relationships between variables are to be investigated (p. 446). In addition, his paradigm gives a g tiphic re amazeation of the variables in the listening demonstrate.Princes paradigm has one-third categories the listener variables, response patterns and a group of finding process variables. The variables in these three categories are interrelated indicating causal relationships. Below is the diagram version his paradigm. Figure 1. 5 Figure 1. 5 shows the flow of Princes Music Listening Paradigm with the (1) listener variables that are located at the pass off which are directed through the listeners general state of attention, (2) response patterns at the center and the learning process variables are located at the bottom, and mostly has the function of feedback into the responses.Moreover, the reason why the listener variable is located on the top is that, it determines its behavior according to the infl uence that the environment is causing it. From here, these listeners pilenister be able to provide their own response patterns (e. g. music materials) from what they get from the environments influence. This then makes the learning process variables take place giving the outcome and effect from what the listeners prefer. Another music listening preference scheme was developed by Albert LeBlanc (1982). LeBlancs theory conceptualizes musical judgment as a hierarchical process.LeBlancs music listening preference theory covers a whole system of input signal information. He explains that a persons decision on music listening preference must follow unavoidable time sequence. He asserts that music is differently processed at different aims, which one involves personality characteristics. When Prince built his music listening theory, he considered his theory as an initial paradigm. He mentioned that an initial paradigm re depicts theoretical considerations not yet substantiate yet t hough they may be supported strongly by research evidence. A later paradigm or theoretical abstract may emerge as a result of many another(prenominal) studies found on the initial paradigm. (p. 446) LeBlanc (1991) stated that his model has a different centering (music listening preference) from that of Prince (music listening). However, LeBlancs music listening preference theory can be classified as a later paradigm of a more specifically developed theoretical model for music listening paradigm. The theory developed by Robert go-cart (1980) similarly characterizes musical preference as only indirectly related to personality and/or spot factors.Walker asserts that liking is directly influence by musical complexity. He assign out the idea that preference is modeled by a bell-curve which means that there is an optimal level of complexity that is most enjoyable. Both very low complexity and very high complexity are little enjoyable (p. 105). Individuals have particular optimal complexity levels, with deviations in any direction decreasing liking. Simplistic music might produce tedium while overly complex music requires extensive processing that can decrease the likelihood that an individual will continue attending to the music. (Perkins, p. 5) Walkers idea stresses out the fact and/or assertion that an individual, when introduced to a new considerate of music will probably like and wantonness the previous preference or he/she would have the identical level of likeness to the both previous and new kind of music. This, then leads to the signalize where the individuals personality and/or attitude is greatly abnormal and influenced by the preference he/she chooses resulting to the creation of different views of the individual. Below is the diagram of the Theoretical FrameworkConceptual Framework Base on the ideas of the theories that were combined, the researcher came up with the above conceptualized framework. The music environment variables which incl ude the institutions, experiences, group gatherings, self-concept and mass media are located at the top of the framework, followed by the second variablestudents that become affected by the music environment. From this, the second variable could experience the exposure of the third variable which is considered to be the various types of music materials and response patterns.Then, they can assess their response patterns by weighing the dominance of the dominating music which becomes the fourth variable in the framework. Upon weighing the dominance, the students will learn to choose and prefer the more dominant kind of music which then, formulates their views on it and the effect comes after. The variables in this framework are considered the stipulate factors following the points and ideas from the theories mentioned. In addition, the frameworks flow is also ground on the things that the theories pointed out. Below is the diagram of the Conceptual Framework available Framework The variables featured on the operational framework as showed below are the most specified factors that become a background flow of the research study. Home, UP Grounds, television, palsvariables imbed at the top of the framework are part of music environment which functions as the ones brinyly influencing the second variablethe selected UP Female Students. This student variable now becomes the dependent variable in a way that its reactions depend on a certain situation due to the process that takes place in the music environment.In reacting to the environment variable, students tend to enumerate in their minds the response patternsKPOPs beat, rhythm, composition, styles and performersthat they get from the influence of the music environment. Having the response patterns settled, students will have a selection of one type of music departure the other type. Appearing in the framework, the dominance of KPOP music on the preference of Pinoy Youth becomes the outcome gained from the respo nse patterns.The dominance of KPOP music can maybe be assessed that Pinoy Youth will end up selecting and/or preferring KPOP music over OPM (original Pilipino music), which is another variable based on the framework. The effect of selecting Kpop over OPM by the Pinoy Youth will probably lead to the effect on their personality and/or attitude questioning now their sense of nationalism. In accordance with these analyses, the specific flow of ideas showed in the framework is only based on the points pondered by several theories provided in the previous pages having the views of the theorists, respectively.Below is the diagram of the Operational Framework CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE The new multiplication today has been exposed already to the different kinds and genres of music. From time to time music has been improved and made more entertaining than before. This has evolved from the native type of music to the modern kind of music in which most of the teenagers at presen t seems to like and appreciate. Most of the music nowadays are already been combine up.Some music are from other countries that become favorite and known to other beside countries and is still getting much favoriteity worldwide. Butler (2006) defines music as an art of arranging across time. Music is part of just just about every culture on Earth but it varies widely among cultures in means and structure. Music is a language of human figure of converse with well developed rules of structure much like a form of sentence structure. An individual through music would be making interpretations based upon speech patterns like loud or soft rapid and bitten off, bleak or smooth.According to Greeks (20th century), the beginning of music can be solved by thought where ancient people make up chants of religion, war, love and demolition through direct organization of words with the combination of body fronts. Greek philosophers assumed that listening to music based on certain modes i n use at that time was beneficial to the enhancement of the late persons character. With music, an individual can develop ones probable and positive outlooks in life (Butler (2006). Music is a mode of thought, a way of thinking in tones. In addition, the usical mode of thought is a complex means of expressing a thought for the suggestion of ideas of beauty and emotions (Ferguson, 1959). With the help of rhythm, the message in music is delivered conveniently for rhythm contains everything that pertains to the forward movement of music in time. Rhythm is the pattern of beats in a piece of music. Mayol (1990) stated that music has existed from time immemorial archaeologists have unearthed traces of music in the most ancient society, ethnomusicologists have found it in level(p) the most primitive tribal culture and scientists have claimed it present in space.Yet, no one has been able to established precisely when, where, why or how music originated. Mayol (1990) also claimed that the re are recent theories proposing that in all cultures, music originated in a similar manner which was from a oecumenical source (monogenesis) (p. 3). Ordinary people became uninterested with its beginning that for them it is a nonmeaningful and worthless. But as time pass by, its implication and origin have brought sensation to their lives.And so, this made them vary their preferences towards the different kinds of music leading to other individuals conducting research and other related studies regarding with these behavior and choices. At present, there are already many types of music known to be famous. One of which is the popular music. Popular music pertains to a kind of music that is produced for a broader audience. This includes jazz, jolt and roll, rap music and many more. Popular music has three of the most distinguished elements and these are language, beat and tune.This popular music originated in America in the year 1850-1950 (Yudkin,1996). In addition, popular mus ic is typically vocal where everybody can sing more or less, and it has no formal training because it is mean to appeal to the widest possible audience. Until now, this particular music is still being acknowledge and appreciated worldwide including Philippines as well as other European countries. (Yudkin,1996). Regarding this popular music, Korean Pop or known as K-Pop is one of todays hits and famous music worldwide.Korean pop music is the well kind of music in the country of South Korea today. K-pop music is just similar to occidental music. The only difference is their lyrics which are in the form of Korean. Hallyu is the word that means Korean wave. Part of the Korean wave is their whelm success not just in music but as well as in South Korean dramas and movies. The term Korean pop music does not only pertains to music but with support of movement that makes South Korea popular in Asia and neighboring countries from 1990s until present (Villano,2010).According to Hicap (201 0), the making of Korean pop music also involves attractive young stars and their unique moves in dancing accompanied with how they dress up. One of the newest and most famous is Rain, the male singer who became artist after his shooting in the Korean Drama Full House with the actress Song Hye Kyo. BoA is one of Koreas top female singers who has topped the charts in Korea, then lacquer and released an album in US. BoA worked in partnership with western artists and was cited as an influential artist in the 2004 MTV Asia awards.Others are bands and groups which are todays most known. One of them is the female group 2nel having a member who became famous in the Philippines before she reached her fame in Korea. Her name is Sandara Park. The next known group is the Wonder Girls, also a female group who was famous for their popular hit Nobody which was loved by many Filipinos. Other group includes SS501, a male group that become famous after the inclusion body of some of their poesys i n the soundtrack of the popular Boys Over Flowers and having their member Kim Hyun Jung.Todays known female group, the Girls Generation who were trained in various aspects of the performing arts, has its own TV Series and they endorse products in Korea. There are still many known groups and artists that contributed to the success of the Korean Pop Music such as the Super Junior and Shinee group. These bands and groups made Korean Pop music be known (Hicap, 2010). Younger Korean musicians have already gained reputation, much popularity and judgment as top performers in both concert and entertainment fields.In relation to this, youth around Asia especially Filipino youths have been affected by the outstanding effect not just to the K-pop music but also to other music from other countries (Kim,1985). A study by Fritzie enjoyment J. Dungog (1997) distinguishes the influence of Pinoy alternative music to the attitude of students towards local disposal officials. Dungog used a three pa rt questionnaire that asked questions pertaining to personal data, exposure questions and an attitudinal test. The questionnaire was distributed to 284 respondents.Based on the questionnaires she gave to the 284 respondents, the researcher found out that the respondents showed a high level of exposure to Pinoy utility(a) Music and that the majority of respondents exhibited a positive approach towards their city government officials. The study also revealed that there were no significant relationship between the attitudes of respondents toward their city local government officials and the frequency exposure to Pinoy Alternative Music(Dungog, (1997)). Dino Arnaldo A.Karganilla (1994) determines the effect of exposure to foreign music in FM move on the perception of high school students towards Filipino music. The study cover a sample size of 111 fourth year U. P. College soaring tutor attendees through a two-page questionnaire which were given to those 111 respondents. The instrum ent that Karganilla used in his study was a two paged questionnaire composed of three sections with an additional information part. The researcher discovered that the respondents had a low level of exposure to foreign music and that the respondents had a favorable insight towards Original Pilipino Muisc (OPM).There was no connection between the respondents sexual category and rank of exposure that could influence their view towards Original Pinoy Music (OPM) and in turn, the exposure to foreign local FM post did not bear a negative impact of the respondents toward Original Pilipino Music (OPM). A supplementary research study by Jessica Servande Losorata (2008) verifies whether Cebu local rock music airplay on Monster radio BT 105. 9 has either a positive or a negative impact on selected rock bands that have played for Harakiri Mosh Production. A Focused root word Discussion (FGD) with selected ock bands that have played for Harakiri Mosh Production was the main method in gatherin g the data. A separate Focused conference Discussion (FGD) with Monster Radio BT 105. 9 listeners and online interviews with the stations manager and a representative of Harakiri Mosh Production were also conducted to gather additional information (Losorata, (2008)). The researcher found out that the respondents were not dedicate clients of radio. They had a low level of exposure to radio but their brain of its Cebu local rock music airplay was positive.The results of the study was been supported after the researcher interviewed Paolo Valera, known as Paolo Walker, the station manager of Monster Radio BT 105. 9 together with Shanette G. Mancao, one of the founder of Harakiri Mosh Production. For the respondents, the interviews and interactions were done through internet because of the interviewees schedule and activities. Another study by R. S. Holganza (1987) was all about the relationship between the exposure to foreign music in FM stations and the attitude of fourth year high school University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) students towards Original Pilipino Music (OPM).This particular research was conducted to determine if there is a connection between the exposure to foreign music in local FM stations and the attitude of fourth year USJ-R students toward OPM. The research was conducted inside the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) High School campus using 100 fourth year male and female respondents from the different economic levels. The respondents exposure to foreign music was determined by the number of hours spent listening to FM stations while the respondents attitude was measured by four OPM-related statements.The respondents in this specific study belonged to the same age level which was 16 to 17 with same educational advancement (fourth year high school). The researcher found out that the respondents were exposed to local FM stations whose programming was more on foreign music but the playing of foreign songs in FM stations seems not to decrease or slow down the popularity of the Original Pilipino Music (OPM). The come up of exposure to FM stations influenced the respondents liking of Filipino songs and the respondents over-all choice of song as verified by the results of the chi-square test was the Original Pilipino Music (OPM).A related study was conducted by Minni K. Ang and Miranda P. Yeoh (year) concerning the music preferences of Malaysian students and KBSM Curriculum implications (explain). Ang and Yeoh organized this by preparing ten selection of heathenish-based Malaysian music and twenty selection of non ethnic related music consisting of ten popular music selections and ten western art music selections were used. Ratings of preferences, familiarity and musical training were gathered from 139 randomly selected teenage students of two public schools in Serdang, Malaysia.The researchers discovered that the respondents preferred non-ethnic related music especially popular music. In addition, the interprete d results proved that the main factor affecting their preference for both ethnic-based Malaysian music and non ethnic-related music was their familiarity of the music (M. K. &Yeoh, 2002). These past studies serve as a basic foundation to this recent research which determines if factors like rhythm and music composition of Korean Popular Music really affect the Pinoy teenagers preference towards Original Pilipino Music and if this would affect their sense of nationalism.According to Malm (1977), there are explanations about the behavior observed with regards to the preference of Filipino youth. Malm said that early in the history back to the time where Philippines was colonized, the Filipino music traditions were mixed with Spanish-type of music which was distributed into the country. The Spanish influence becomes even stronger as one move toward Philippine urban culture Malm (1977). Malm (1977) claimed that Filipino possesses an attitude which comes from the experience of colonizati on, wherein it has adapted many music cultures from different neighboring countries in the history.Through this fact, it can now be related to the issue of choice of music that Filipino youth is experiencing with interest, specifically its fascination towards Korean pop music. Additionally, they ought to love the unfamiliar type of music with amazement and astonishment to that kind of music. Regarding this concept, the popularity of the native music will declined slowly until it will no daylong be known. According to Mayol (1990), the shifting of the Youths musical preference is due to the musics influential power that serves as a shaping force in determining the nature of the moral character of the populace.The power of music affecting a person was derived from its structure. The above mentioned cases and studies have shown that there is an effect or impact regarding the preference of Pinoy teenagers toward music. And the above researches would aid the current researchers to accom plish their study about the Pinoy Youths Preference for Korean Pop Music and how does it affect their taste for Original Pilipino Music (OPM). This would serve as guiding principles in this latest study. Bibliography Books Hoffer, C. R. (1989). The Understanding of Music (sixth edition) Personal Preference in Music.United States of America. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc. Kim, E. (1985). Facts About Korea Music and Dance. Seoul, Korea Malm, W. (1997). Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East and Asia (second edition) Philippines. Eaglewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Mayol, P. (1990). The Development of Western Music Heritage from Antiquity. United States of America. Wm C. Brown Publishers Yudkin, J. (1996). Understanding Music Popular Music. fastness Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Unpublished Materials Ang, M. K. & Yeoh, M. P. 2002). Music Preferences of Malaysian Students and KBSM (Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah or co-ordinated Secon dary School Curriculum) Implications. Serdang, Malaysia. Retrieved December 2, 2010 from http//www. musicmall-asia. com/minni/Educ/2002. pdf Dungog, F. J. J. (1997). Influence of Alternative Music on Students Attitude Towards Local Government Officials. Unpublished undergrad Thesis. University of the Philippines Cebu College Holganza, R. S. (1987). The Relationship betwixt the Exposure to Foreign Music in FM Stations. Unpublished undergraduate Thesis.University of the Philippines Cebu College Karganilla, D. A. A. (1994). Relationship Between the Exposure to Foreign Music and the Perception of one-fourth Year UP High School Students Towards Filipino Music. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. University of the Philippines Cebu College Losorata, J. S. (2008). The Impact of Cebu Local Rock Music Airplay on Monster Radio BT 105. 9 on Cebu Rock Bands. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. University of the Philippines Cebu College Online Periodicals Hicap, J. (2010). Filipinos Get pendent o n Kpop Craze. Korea Times.Retrieved December 7,2010 from http//koreatimes. co. kr. /www/news/nation/2009/09/117_51347. html Villano, A. (2010). The Korean Pop Invasion. The Philippine Star. Retrieved December 12, 2010 form http//dancepinoy. com/forum/music-lifestyle/k-pop-invasion-in-the-philippines-2 Internet Sources ______. (2006). Kpop report and Globalization. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from http//encyclopedia. thefreedictionary. com/korean+pop ______. (2007). Music of Korea. Retrieved November 24, 2010 from http//encyclopedia. thefreedictionary. com/korean+music ______. (2008). Kpops history and Definition.Retrieved November 27, 2010 from http//www. asiafinest. com/review/kpop. htm ______. (2007). Korean Music Popularity. Retrieved November 27, 2010 from http//www. chinatownconnection. com/korean-music-popularity. htm ______. (2009). Korean Pop (K-pop). Retrieved December 1, 2010 from http//www. 123helpme. com/preview. asp? id=35074 Xiong, Y. & Li, S. (2007). Effect of South Korean Pop Culture on the electric potential Tourists from Chinese Mainland. Retrieved December 16, 2010 from http//www. docstoc. com/docs/19647133/ effect-of-south-korean-pop-culture-on-the-potential-tourists-from.

The fundamentals behind London’s current housing crisis and potential solution?

IntroductionThe c one timession go out consider the trapping fundsmaking(prenominal)ise within capital of the United Kingdom, fabricateing close attention to the accommodate policy and macro-economic conditions that name take to the current crisis within the citys lodging trade. It could be argued that a current lightage of housing maturements, importantly in the more(prenominal) in big-ticket(prenominal) range, coupled with a scend in international real-estate investment funds in the city has caused a major shortage, leading ultimately to bell step-ups and so a divergence from housing markets within the North of the UK (Dyson, 2014) Online.This assignment go out first touch upon the policies that nominate led to this problem ahead looking into the recent macro-economic trends which have aggravated the issue, get-up-and-go into the spotlight.The UK housing market has for some time been impacted by poor housing policy, with many a(prenominal) arguing that lev els of pertly construction have been unable to meet the surge in population growth and so guide for new houses. small-arm this has become a more national problem, the south of Eng prop up, most notably capital of the United Kingdom has witnessed the greatest affect (Myers, 2012). space Overview succession the population of capital of the United Kingdom has continued its growth devoted its rise in status as a spheric business hub, housing developments have been unable to tot the market with enough new properties, as soundly as properties which locals take hold cheap. composition it can be noted that there are currently some significant developments within capital of the United Kingdom such(prenominal) as the Battersea Power Plant regeneration, many have commented that these ?Million properties are organism built with the wealthy oversea investors in mind over local buyers granted that the expenditures asked are far out of reach of many workers (Renshaw, 2013) Online. Wh ile local councils have assay to resolve this issue by pushing all developers to include a percentage of affordable homes in their plans to succeed planning permission, many of these new developments are still primarily accommodate at the high-end of the market with many developers advertising their properties in international markets (capital of the United Kingdom First, 2014). This, on with major regeneration plans in some areas which has prioritised mercenary/ retail space over residential, has seriously restricted the capableness for new housing for the local market and supported the monetary value increases seen over the geezerhood. Furthermore, the profound boroughs of London are similarly restricted by the availability of land to develop new homes, with new developments pushing higher for greater root word space. While this has become a popular method in London with new skyscrapers such as The Shard, these developments have usually favoured office and retail space o ver residential (Ball et al, 2012). What could be considered here is the desire by boroughs within London to re-generate and effectively create local centres to compete with the main areas of London. There has been significant discussion over the years regarding the downfall of the UK high-streets as out of town competition and online obtain reduces the posit for typical bricks-and-mortar memorys in London the main issue for some could be the easy accessibility into the city centre and so the main shopping and entertainment districts. With this, local boroughs have prioritised the development on new commercial and office space in a bid to realise the one-on-one investment that would be needed to support larger regeneration plans and attract more people into the area, however as mentioned previously given the short release of available land in some central boroughs this has led to an opportunity cost between residential and commercial development.London CrisisThe main issue for the market is a simply supply and penury crisis basically the market is severely under supplied, with prices been pushed up by the consumers allow foring to pay a higher price for the blank space. This has created a situation where the supply of affordable housing is quite inelastic and so any notable increase in demand will only result in the price moving higher. This has withal led to another affect whereby prices have as well as increased strongly in the wider due south-East area as commuters test property in lower price areas with strong transport connections into London.The supply crisis has also been heightened by another issue namely strong international demand for property in London as an investment opportunity and store of wealth (Tower Hamlet Citizens, 2014). In 2008, the financial crisis hit global political economy and memory board-markets. With this, investors sought for new safe-havens for their wealth as global stock markets remained volatile and the value of other havens such as favourable fell. spot or investments in brick-and-mortar have always been popular, especially in economies corresponding the UK where the market has remained buoyant over a result of years (Berry et al, 2011). London especially appealed to investors given its stock of high-value properties, increasing population, global image as a destination for the wealthy, falling corporation tax as well as a weakening currency which made investment into UK property cheaper for international investors. The economics behind this move has largely been driven by the desire to reduce risk but maintain returns on investments given that London house prices were increasing at above 10%p.a (ONS, 2014), investors who had once favoured holding their cash in stock markets and commodities such as gold quickly moved their money into property as a store of wealth. This movement has recently been reversed to some extent as a strengthening ?GBP and improving global outlook have decrea sed demand for high-end properties in London at a time when a wave of new supply is hitting the market (Titcomb, 2014) Online.Potential SolutionsMoving forward, a make sense of factors have been put forward to help deal with the issue, management on new regulation and opportunities (London First, 2014). In terms of opportunity, London has been working(a) to improve transport connections with wider area in a bid to free up more areas to potential commuters, essentially increasing the stock of housing that is available to anyone working within London, (Emmett, 2014). This would then lead to an increase in supply, which should help decrease prices. Notable projects include the Crossrail development, an ?18Billion transport project that will decrease commuter times into central London for a number of local boroughs (Crossrail, 2014) Online. The proposed HS2-HS3 (high-speed rail) projects could also been seen as a new opportunity enceinte more businesses the chance to open offices, facilities in other major UK cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds etc. while still having access to London. The main advance on this is that it would move some business away from London as so reduce demand for housing from workers. Furthermore this project has also been seen as a way to reduce the heavily debated North/South divide within the UK, which in turn may help relegate align house prices between the two. In terms of regulation, a number of London boroughs have sought to effectively force developers to include affordable housing within their plans to be granted planning permission (Besley, 2010). inclined this, new developments such as the Battersea Power Plant have include some affordable housing within their plans, however as they only account for 15% of total home some have argued the legal community doesnt go far enough to solve the supply issues (Robertson, 2014) Online. In economic terms, local boroughs have identified the profitability that developments in London provide by asking developers to include some affordable housing within their plans they have affected the Net Present Value (hereafter NPV) or potential payback of the project, however given that projects are still creation announced in the city it appears that developments still remain profitable for these companies. It could be argued by some that these new demands from the local authorities could be seen as interference within the free market, effectively using the private arena to provide a good (e.g. new homes) that the public domain has failed to provide. What this search must also consider is that if that the public sector have through with(p) little themselves to attempt to resolve this issue, most probably down to a lack of capital and experience necessary to move forward with these large developments and so requiring the need for the involvement of the private sector. As mentioned beforehand, the private sector will be driven by the eventual profitability or NPV of these projects and so local authorities must ensure that they still cease these profits to be made while also attempting to resolve the housing crisis. According to data from the ONS, home prices in London are up 31.6% above their 2008 peak, while those in the North remain under the 2008 level, (ONS, 2014). gag law RemarksTo conclude the essay has shown that housing policy in London could have been seen as failing for a number of years as demand from a rising population has outgrown the level of new supply, pushing prices up much higher than the UK average (Savills, 2014). The issue has intensified recently as the global economic crisis increased the desire for international investors to hold their money in property, with London seen as a prime market given the weaker value of the ?GBP could with continuous price rises. While the essay has noted a number of initiatives underway to help increase supply and reduce demand, the potential impacts may be small and seen in a long- term scenario. While there is new infrastructure underway to improve the competitiveness and draw of a wider London and also wider UK area the Crossrail development will not come online until 2018, while the high-speed rail links are not current expected until after 2020. Furthermore, while local boroughs have attempted to increase regulation and push more affordable housing into development plans, these are only small percentages, with some people disagreeing on what will be deemed affordable. Moving forward the main issue for London will be developing the land that it currently has spare in the ruff way possible to accommodate its rising population but also its rising status as a global business hub in this case, higher residential housing prices may be needed for developers to confirm their construction over commercial or office space.ReferencesBall, M, Lizieri, C and MacGregor, B (2012) The Economics of Commercial Property differentiateets, London, Routledge.Berry, J, Deddi s, N and McGreal, W (2011) Urban Regeneration, Property Investment and Development, London, Taylor & Francis.Besley, T and Ghatak, M (2010) Property Rights and Economic Development. In Dani Rodrik and Mark Rosenzweig, Ed Handbook of development economics, London, Elsevier Publications.Crossrail, (2014) Online A world class railway system company, Available at http//www.crossrail.co.uk/benefits/, Accessed 29/10/2014.Dyson, R (2014) Online House prices fracture between London and the rest of the UK is highest in 40 years, Available at http//www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/houseprices/10738540/House-prices-gap-between-London-and-the-rest-of-the-UK-widest-in-40-years.html, Accessed 29/10/2014.Emmett, S (2014) London Infrastructure Outlook, London, Savills Research.London First (2014) 12 steps to solving Londons housing crisis, London, London First.Myers, D (2012) Economics and Property, London, Taylor & Francis.ONS (2014) Comparison of regional house price indices before a nd after the financial crisis, London, ONS Research.Renshaw, R (2013) Selling stampede at Battersea Power Station sets new record, Available at http//old.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Selling-stampede-at-Battersea-Power-Station-sets-new-records, Accessed 29/10/2014.Robertson, L (2014) Online No affordable housing in Battersea power adjust development, Available at http//www.insidehousing.co.uk/no-affordable-housing-in-gehrys-battersea-power-station-buildings/7003154.article, Accessed 29/10/2014.Savills (2014) Infrastructure and development must work together to accommodate Londons growing population, London, Savills Research.Titcomb, J (2014) London House prices tipped to fall, Available at http//www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10976395/Warning-London-house-prices-tipped-to-fall.html, Accessed 29/10/2014.Tower Hamlet Citizens (2014) A report on the housing crisis in one of Londons most expensive boroughs, London, Tower Hamlet Citizens.