There is no set topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

There is no set topic - Essay Example Goodman Brown’s decision to come to the forest and meet with the devil is, on the one hand, mystical and, on the other hand, courageous. The major concern of the man is not the fact of meeting itself, but the thought of how others would think of him after that. Religious beliefs of Goodman Brown are interesting from psychological perspective, because this faith is based on his conviction that people around him are also religious. Unfortunately, protagonist’s faith is too weak and can be easily influenced by other people. Therefore, when a man gets to know that his close people like father, wife, grandfather, Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin, the minister are in friendship with devil, he makes up his mind to join the majority as well. People who joined devil used to be pious and respected in their village. Thus, Goodman Brown does not even question rightfulness of his decision concerning religious and faith matters. The protagonist simply does the same as everyone he knows we ll. Being inherently corrupted Goodman Brown is destined to lose his innocence, which is a symbol of transgression from the God’s world into the world of devil. From the very beginning it was Goodman Brown’s choice to go to the forest and meet with the devil. No one tells him to do so. Such an order of events is very convenient to the devil and he even facilitates Goodman Brown in his decision.

Dramatic devices Essay Example for Free

Dramatic devices Essay Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible for his beliefs in McCarthyism, rampant at that time. He was against it being a hunt of the communist figures, no matter how questionable they being communist in the slightest. It was sparked by a fear that Russia was going to take over the world. Making people scared and suspicious, Miller had to be subtle in expressing his anti McCarthyist views, so he used an allegory a play. This play used the Salem witch hunt, similar because of the unsupported accusations, the people encouraged to denounce their friends, and fear and suspicion. The Salem witch hunt was more brutal, with the witches being killed, with only peoples accusations as evidence. Miller had to recontextualize the story, to stop accusations against him. The first words spoken being My Betty be hearty soon?. The title is fitting as a crucible is a container where metals are purified after heating. It reflects how Proctor has been heated by his ordeal and came through to die, his conscience clear purified. I will explore the techniques used in creating the play, to create various moods in the mind of the audience, in Act I. In Act I we find Parriss and Mrs. Putms children Betty and Ruth, inanimate on their beds. People are jumping to the Devil and Parris is putting that off, scared for his name in the village. We find that Abigail and friends had been dancing in the woods. We do get clues that the girls are faking their illness, as Betty wakes up when Parris leaves the room, we find Abigail quickly becomes the leader; an expert is called in Mr. Hale. Abigail takes the chance to talk to John Proctor, who becomes the main character. Tituba. Parriss slave, as usual is blamed for witching the two children in the woods. This cause a lot of the girls to say they saw each other with the Devil. In terms of this plot tension is created within the audience. The secrecy and mistrust creates this. Talking behind peoples backs and the ducking and diving which takes place is the cause. How the plot thickens so quickly would make the audience more uneasy. The dramatic irony with the talking behind each others backs creates tension, and involves them more; they want to see what happens. The techniques used to create meaning for the reader, is the overture and the prose on the characters. The reader trusts the prose and they give information on the characters, they are there because there can be no nuances or subtext in the speech, creating a fast story, the prose slows it down, getting the reader more involved.  An audience wouldnt have these to guide them, it would be up to the actors to read the prose and interpret them in their acting. The play was performed when McCarthyism was at its peak, so it would be blindingly obvious to the American audience what it was about. The allegory would mean the audience would relate to it, creating tension when they think its about 1 thing, then realize its about something else. The time the story is set in is a somber time, spooky because of the black garments and archaic speech, immediately making the audience uneasy, the first words spoken being My Betty be hearty soon? This inverted language makes it seem more Biblical and legal, heightening the impact they have as does the syntax. The older time distances us, making the characters seem austere and quite oppressive. The double-negative furthers the tension by adding confusion, making it more farcical, which further distances us. Claustrophobia, furthers the tension as there is no escape for the characters, they are trapped which makes the audience feel trapped as well. The first thing we find is that Parriss room is small, with narrow windows and leaded panes like a prison this creates claustrophobia. Parris is trapped, making the audience more susceptible to panic. He is also kneeling he is suppressed by God, it bears down on him. Laws and limitations create claustrophobia as well. Not have permitted anyone to read a novel This shows how small minded the laws were, consequently making the people small minded. Not being able to explore themselves and their emotions, making them bland with no escape from reality. Their creed forbade vain enjoyment Shows how religiously they stuck to their beliefs, making their lives bland and boring, and possibly more excitable over the out-of-the-ordinary. The edge of the wilderness was close by The wilderness was the Devils land, they were locked in their town nothing else existed. It stood dark and threatening How they were held in place, scared to go further. They believedthey heldthe candle that would light the world Shows how small minded they were; the Devils land was irrelevant. Parris makes the audience feel angry and frustrated by the fact that he is supposed to be a leader. He is pompous then the Doctor must search on, unpopular and paranoid a faction to drive me from pulpit, unjust Out of my sight!, ambitious do not preach for children, cowardly they will hound me out of Salem, greedy not used to this poverty, hypocritical in defense of Abigail he calls others witches, overly pious send for Reverend Hale, dishonest and vain in covering truth Uncle the rumour of witchcraft is all about. So he is not a particularly pleasant person. If he denies witchcraft in his own home it could seem dishonorable and suspicious so he doesnt. Even so the audience would realize his difficult position, and give him room to breathe. Abigail is a big character, she schemes her way to becoming the leader of the witches Now look you, all of you. She is fearful of her name in the village Not I, sir Tituba and Ruth This gives her a good position, she can scheme to save herself and being manipulative Now if they be questioning us. The audience can relate to her to an extent, everyone can be a leader and scheme; this also makes her the baddie the audience will be interested in knowing what happens to her. Proctor is the character to which we can relate to, the main one. Through Proctor we have a medium in which we can see something and consider ideas. As does Hale, it put us in their shoes. Proctor sees Abigail as a child, strengthening our bond with him. He also sees through Parris, who we find being very greedy with his fire wood money. Also Giles sued him and he paid up although Giles just misheard him Ive paid you for it Proctor is very honest and just wants to get on with his life. The audience will have an affinity with Proctor. Conflicts between characters Abigail and Elizabeth both love Proctor, Proctor and Parris: Parris isnt godly and is a hypocrite etc. these conflicts are like smaller plots in their own way and add to the audiences excitement, also annoying us when they dont resolve, theocracy religion says the you cant, but they want to.  The structure is broken up with the overture and prose which the actors interpret and use the instructions to show it to the audience. This adds an extra dimension to the play, incorporating the prose, with its history and explanations. Intertextualism, the themes that link Salem and McCarthyism, spark questions it is years since the Salem trials but we still havent learnt, human character prevails. The questions dramatic devices that go unanswered, especially at the end with Proctor being hung, should he have been? He doesnt want to go back to the same society that tried to hang him a dramatic device, people are ready to persecute when that is what they are trying to escape irony. The irony, people went to America to escape and be free, supposed to have got better satiring the American Dream. These themes mean more to a 1950s audience, with the exact same one present.

Adolf Hitler Rise To Power History Essay

Adolf Hitler Rise To Power History Essay During the 20th century, the Germans faced a terrible economic depression during which time the people lost trust in their government, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Hitler rose to power. The Treaty of Versailles, established post World War I, led Germany to humiliation. They lost their land, military, respect, and a say in world affairs. Germany became isolated, and to the German people, Hitler was their ultimate savior. In a matter of years, Hitler quickly rose to power and boosted the economy. He had satisfied Germany, in the early years, and came to power in a legal manner. Along with the rest of Germany, Adolf Hitler was depressed after World War I due to the loss and the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler, still enlisted in the German military, was assigned undercover duty as an agent. His main task involved finding out who were Marxists, and on September 12, 1919, he investigated them at a hall in Munich, Sterneckerbrau, where a meeting took place. During the meeting, he gave an emotional speech that mesmerized his audience, and as a result, he was asked to join the German Workers Party, to which he accepted. Abandoning his undercover spy mission, he became enthusiastic about the group and came to be highly involved with their activities. In addition, he placed ads for rallies and public meetings in anti-Semitic newspapers. Soon enough, the German Workers Party was changed to National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI). For the partys platform, Hitler created the twenty-five points that involved nullifying the Treaty of Versailles, rev oking civil rights for Jews, confiscating war profits, and seizing land by decision of state. In addition, the Swastika (à ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ ) was adopted as the partys symbol. Hitler hoped that the party would allow him to gain national recognition as well as a respectable politician that the German people would favor. In addition, the party allowed Hitler to use Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts and this would help him gain support from the people. Deploying the Storm Troopers in rallies impressed the German people by raising nationalism. These Storm Troopers would be present in parades all across the country and during election rallies that would significantly influenced the vote of many. CITATION In addition, thousands would join the party because they were victims of hyperinflation and blamed the Jews for economic troubles. Joining the party would show that they supported Hitler and wanted serious changes in Germany, starting with the Jews. On November 8, 1923, Hitler held a rally at a beer hall in Munich, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, to declare a revolution, and he led over two-thousand men to overthrow the Bavarian Government. The men all wore Brown Shirts to emphasize how much they supported Hitler and his beliefs to make Germany better. CITATION However, the rally resulted as a disaster and Hitler was charged with treason. He was taken to trial, which he used to his advantage by promoting the Nazi platform, and he gained popularity. He was ruled guilty by the court and sentenced to prison for five years, however, he had only served nine months due to a recommendation from the governor of Landsberg who stated that his behavior conduct in prison was satisfactory. During the short time in prison, Hitler wrote the book, Mein Kampf, which made him rich by selling five million copies when published in 1927. The book spoke about his life and the future of Germany, which viciously attacked Jews as the root of Germanys problems. The Jews were attacked so much because they were believed to have caused economic inflation, political instability, unemployment, and humiliation from World War I. CITATION The book also discussed how Germans were superior, the need to take Russia, failures of Communism and Democracy, and the Fuhrer principal. Mein Kampf stated, The Jews ultimate goal is the denaturalization, the promiscuous bastardization of other peoples, the lowering of the racial level of the highest people as well as the domination of his mishmash through the extirpation of the folkish intelligentsia and its replacement by the members of his own people. CITATION By this statement, Hitler wanted to keep the German bloodline pure, and by this, he did not want intermarriage between Jews and Germans. The perfect Germans was known as Aryans, who were blond haired and blue eyed. Hitler marked Jews as enemies of Germany, along with Slavs, and labeled the Jews as an anti-race that would only harm the German people and destroy Germany as a whole because they were invading Germany. By invading Germany, Hitler believed they were stealing all business from the German people and started controlling Germany politically. After Hitler was released from prison, he no longer wanted to take power by force but in a legal constitutional manner. He knew how to speak to the German people because his oratory skills were spectacular. Therefore, he spoke to large audiences mainly addressing issues with Jews and Communism. He wanted to create the Third Reich, and wanted it to last one-thousand years. The Nazi party became powerful as wealthy industrialists supported Hitler due to economic circumstances. Hitler received support from Erhard Milch, Alfred Hugenberg, Fritz Tyssen, and Emil Kidorf. Hitler would use Erhard Milch to his advantage by chartering an aircraft from him to go around the country in hopes for political success. In April of 1932, Heinrich Bruening, Chancellor of Germany, banned the storm troopers in Germany to end the Nazi regime. The Nazis were outraged and wanted Hitler to fight the ban. However, on May 8, 1932, General Kurt von Schleicher held a secret meeting with Hitler to make an agreement to lift the ban. In addition to lifting the ban, the current government of Germany would fall, new elections would be called, and Chancellor Bruening would have no political value. In return, Hitler would support Schleicher in a conservative nationalist government. Soon everything went to play and Chancellor Bruening was labeled The Hunger Chancellor because of the economy and the unemployment rate of six million Germans. CITATION He looked like a Marxist by his estate proposals on dividing land to peasants, and eventually he resigned on May 29, 1932. Franz von Papen became Schleichers puppet and promoted him with the aid of President Hindenburg to become Chancellor of Germany. Hitler supported Papen and the ban on the Nazis was lifted as promised by Schleicher. The Nazis went on an all-out rampage across the country singing songs and causing fights with Communists. CITATION Papen was unable to form any coalition in Germany, and was forced to resign from his position. Schleicher believed that this was the right decision and a new Chancellor should be appointed. Hitler asked President Hindenburg to be Chancellor of Germany on many occasions and he always replied with rejection to Hitlers request because of the terrorizing behaviors of the Brown Shirts. Whenever President Hindenburg asked Hitler to cooperate with other parties, Hitler always replied with the same answer President Hindenburg gave him, no. Businesses and wealthy industrialists sent a petition to President Hindenburg to ask him to make Hitler Chancellor of Germany because it would be good for business. President Hindenburg did not know what to do, but he appointed Schleicher as Chancellor because he believed he could make the Nazis fall apart. Schleicher held secret meetings with a Nazi named Gregor Strasser, who was with Hitler since the beginning of the party. Schleicher offered Strasser the status Vice-Chancellor and control of Prussia, which was an appealing offer. However, Papen told Hitler all about this and was devastated. Hitler even became depressed and threatened to sh oot himself because Strasser resigned as a Nazi and went off to vacation in Italy. Schleicher became furious and wanted to declare a state of emergency to control the Nazis, and President Hindenburg rejected that proposal. Soon Schleicher would resign because he and President Hindenburg could no longer get along or make decisions together. President Hindenburg even heard rumors that Schleicher was going to arrest him for some sort of treachery, and after that, he never talked to Schleicher again. CITATION The Nazi party gained eighteen percent of the popular vote in the 1930 elections, and Hitler ran for President in 1932. He won thirty percent of the vote, which forced his competitor, Paul von Hindenburg, into a runoff election where a political deal was made. In this deal, Hitler could be chancellor of Germany in exchange of him supporting Hindenburg politically. Hitler agreed and was officially appointed to office in January 1933 as Chancellor of Germany. For a short time in 1932, the people believed that Hitlers rise to power would fail due to the number of seats in the Reichstag that decreased from two-hundred thirty seats to one-hundred and ninety-six seats between July 1932 and November 1932. However, President Hindenburg believed that the Nazi party could come to power and he did that by making Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Hitlers first act was to call for a new election, and to his advantage, the Reichstag building was burned exactly a week before elections took place. Hitle r publicized that Communists were to blame for this action and he persuaded President Hindenburg to sign a decree that gave power to the Nazis to jail all political opponents that could have been responsible for the attack on their parliament. He used this as an excuse to limit all civil liberties and the Enabling Act was passed to give him more power. President Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934 in his Prussian Estate, and Hitler was to be his successor. After taking the power of Hindenburg, Hitler made himself a dictator and eliminated all opposing parties and government institutions. Hitler named himself Fuhrer instead of President and gained huge appeal from the German people because he seemed as a World War I hero who would bring glory back to the country. After Schleicher resigned from his position as Chancellor of Germany, it only took Hitler fifty-seven days to rise to complete power in Germany. Hitler had successfully risen to power in Germany, and soon he would use the Mein Kampf as an outline for the German people. The economy was succeeding due to the industries prepping for war. Anyone against him was either sent to prison or executed because Hitler made sure that there were no faults to his plan. Hitler wanted to take all actions necessary in order to make Germany prosper, gain world recognition, take revenge from World War I, and please the German people. Hitler had successfully convinced the German people that Germany would regain its glory, and soon Hitler started prepping for treacherous tasks, world domination, and complete annihilation of the Jewish population.

The Metamorphosis of Grendel :: Grendel Essays

The Metamorphosis of Grendel The majority of John Gardner's Grendel revolves around a monster-like character named Grendel. The reader is allowed access to Grendel's subconscious and inner monologue, giving one the sense of a very close relationship with the main character. This tends to beguile one into sympathizing with him and thinking of him as a protagonist because historically in literature the main character of a novel has always been the "good guy." However, he proves himself to be very much the anti-hero in the novel many times over. Grendel's social contact with the world is extremely limited, but his persona is greatly influenced by each brief encounter with another character. The first major influential character Grendel encounters is The Shaper, a blind old wise man. The first mention of him is in Chapter 1 when Grendel is attacking Herorot. While all the town's men, women and children are frozen in awe and horror, The Shaper is able to think quickly and jump out the window of the building he was in and run away. Grendel admires him for his ability to think and act quickly, as well as for possessing vast knowledge he can only dream of ever acquiring. Grendel wishes he had the mind of the Shaper and begins to feel jealous, so he subconsciously tries to become more like him. The Shaper's songs teach Grendel a lot about the humans in the surrounding regions and how they think and live. Everyone loves and respects him, which makes Grendel want to be like him even more. As he realizes the Shaper's popularity and goodness, he begins to realize why people don't like him. Grendel spends a lot of time thinking and realizes the flaws in his ch aracter, subconsciously deciding that he doesn't really care if the humans hate him because he isn't a human and doesn't have to live by the same standards or expectations as they do. He was born a monster, and as a monster he has a job to do: to "frustrate all established order" and terrorize the humans. In Chapter 5, we meet the Dragon for the first time. Prior to seeing the Dragon, Grendel's mother was the only thing he had seen that was more powerful than him.

Culture and Gentrification Essay

Gentrification is a sensitive issue that brings different impacts to the people in a community. It is also taking over several neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn. These neighborhoods have undergone through gentrification for quite a long time to bring new people in. Others think this was good idea for the economic development while the residents feared that this could cause expensive housing, social out- casting, and loss of cultural value. Although change seems to be constant in this orld, but the changes that gentrification is bringing are not the changes that the people are looking forward to see. One of the negative impacts of gentrification is the expensive housing. â€Å"Since 2000, average market rents have doubled in Greenpoint-Williamsburg, and rent stabilized tenants face increasing pressure from landlords looking to flip their apartments to the affluent young people now flooding the neighborhood† (Paul 188). Every neighborhood that is undergoing through gentrification has these landlords who are ffering higher rentals in order to drive out these longtime residents and gain more profit from the developers and new people. These residents were left with no choice but to move out. These circumstances made them feel that gentrification is implying that they aren’t well of enough for their own neighborhood. When longtime residents are driven out from their apartments they felt the rise of social out-casting. â€Å"Since 2000, average rents have doubled in Williamsburg- Greenpoint and almost 40 percent of the Latino population has left the neighborhood ikely because of the housing costs (Paul 194). Due to the expensive rentals the residents were being displaced and some of them don’t even know where to go. Others are becoming homeless while the others are moving to more harmful places. Gentrification is putting a huge gap between low-income residents and the upper class people. As the upper class gets richer and richer, the low-income people stay the same. Gentrification is also making the community loss its cultural value. In Queens, Long Island City is the artistic community. The landmark, 5 Pointz, was known as a anctuary of graffiti where artists from different parts of the globe were able to freely express themselves at the same time the viewers were able to appreciate them. â€Å"The building is expected to be replaced by two residential towers- one 41 stories and the other 47 stories tall (Murray, Owner of 5 Pointz: ‘l whitewashed the building to stop the torture)†. It was wiped out in order to make room for luxury condos; the people were saddened by the lost of a significant symbol of graffiti.

Mikes Bikes Sample Final Report Essays

Mikes Bikes Sample Final Report Essays Mikes Bikes Sample Final Report Paper Mikes Bikes Sample Final Report Paper The report is intended to outline details of varying factors that have influenced each years decisions for Bikes Bikes Bikes, which have resulted in both negative and positive impacts. With continuous improvement , the business is increasing at a steady rate. The firms goal was not only to achieve the highest SHIP in comparison to our competitors, but was also to appeal to the maximum number of potential consumers and in result achieve the highest market share within the industry. Through our dedication, willpower, and ambition the company has successfully been able to achieve many of the goals that we had set out for ourselves. Bikes Bikes Bikes started out with a SHIP of $10. 82 and is at a current stance of $42. 37. It has also effectively acquired the highest market share of 28. 9%, surpassing he closest competitor by a significant 7%. As at the beginning of 2015, the strategy that our business had decided to implement was the specialization of producing high quality and high priced bicycles. This strategy came to be through the extensive research conducted by the firms management team in which they discovered that the first set of bikes mountain bikes, had a medium sensitivity to quality and price. As previously mentioned, our goal revolves around providing our consumers with a high quality bike. Moreover, Bikes Bikes Bikes management team also focused extensively on the firms brand awareness and advertising to induce ore value and provide incentive for future consumers. After the steady development of mountain bikes, a new line of road bikes were launched in 201 8, followed by the introduction to a second segment of the road bike in 2019, and lastly a line to appeal to the youth community in 2020. The team critically analyzed multiple strategies and made decisions over the course of the past six years with plans that looked upon maximizing aspects such as SHIP, market share, quality and efficiency indexes and minimizing aspects that could be of potential harm such as debt, wastage, and unnecessary expenses. Although the firm incurred challenges at times, he company was able to encounter an incline at a constant rate in which was a direct result of carefully planned meetings that occurred twice a week.. Moreover, Bikes Bikes Bikes management team created and maintained OF 26 strong relationships with the market by providing generous support distribution. A detailed elaboration on the various decisions made by my team and will be elaborated on in the following report. Sincerely, Wayne Hang president CEO of Bikes Bikes Bikes AFFIRMATION STATEMENT Please read the following items after the completion of your assignment Once you have verified these points, please complete the statement. All team members have referenced and footnoted all ideas, words or other intellectual property from sources, other than the data provided in the multi- player version of Mikes Bikes, used in the completion of this assignment. 2. A proper bibliography has been included, which includes acknowledgement of all sources used to complete this assignment other than data provided in the multi-player version of Mikes Bikes. 3. This is the first time that any member of the team has submitted this assignment (either partially or entirely) for academic evaluation. 4. Each member of the team has read the full content of the submission and is assured that the content is free of violations of academic integrity. Team discussions regarding the importance of academic integrity have taken place. . Each student has identified his or her individual contribution to the work submitted such that if violation of academic integrity are suspected, then the student primarily responsible for the violations may be identified. Note that in this case the remainder of the team may also be subject to disciplinary action. The listed team members listed below have participated in the preparation of this assignment and no other individuals have contributed to this assignment except as acknowledged. Name : Wayne Hang 20574871 Section contributed : Title Page, Letter to the Board of Directors, Introduction to 2018-2020, Strategies and Tactics, Every Years Summary Conclusion, Financing Template Name : Seems El-Bach 20583252 Section contributed : Table of Contents, Introduction to 2017, Strategies and Tactics, Key Performance Indicators, SOOT Analysis, Closing Recommendations, Accounting Template Name : Christina Aka Way Chain 20577525 Section contributed : Annual Performance Analysis for 2015-2020, Introduction to 2016 and 201 9, Marketing Template Name: Honoring Chin 20550322 Section contributed: Introduction to 201 5, Strategies and Tactics Date : Friday, November 28th, 2014 TA: Susan Wang World: S 002 croup 004 Team 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Strategies, Results, and Analysis: 2015 Marketing, Operational, and Financial Strategies Firm Results and Analysis Summary Conclusions Strategies, Results, and Analysis: 2016 6 Strategies, Results, and Analysis: 2017 11 Strategies, Results, and Analysis: 2018 15 Us Mary Conclusions Strategies, Results, and Analysis: 201 9 20 Marketing Operational, and Financial Strategies Strategies, Results, and Analysis: 2020 24 us Mary conclusions: 2015-2020 28 Performance Indicators SOOT Analysis Recommendations to Board Appendix 33 STRATEGIES, RESULTS AND ANALYSIS: 2015 In 201 5, the firm had introduced a brand new management team in hopes of approaching the business from a new and differentiated perspective. They constructed and proposed multiple strategies the firm could potentially implement to achieve outstanding results. At the point of entry, the firm had established a SHIP of $10. 82, on par with other competitors in the market. Many of the offered strategies revolved around the important central goal that involved maximizing SHIP. To do so, a consensus was reached to adopt a gig quality strategy for the firms existing mountain bikes. Reaching this goal involved steps such as setting the price of the bike, Dave, above market average. However, by natural economics, an increase in price causes a decrease in demand, and thus the company planned to increase spending in areas like advertising and PR. In 2015, Bikes Bikes Bikes faced fierce competition with competitors who adopted similar strategies and fell slightly behind from the extra emphasis placed PR expense, which the mountain bike is minimally affected by. However, the firm did incur an increase in sales, SHIP, ND market share, despite the fact that it didnt reach the initial goals set out. The proceeding analysis will provide more depth as to why the company could not reach the goals set out to the highest extent. With regards to the marketing strategy, the firms priority was to raise product awareness and develop a high quality image for the mountain bike that it currently offers. This resulted in an increased expense in areas of advertising and PR. Although a heavy investment, the future benefits that it is to propose; such as increased sales will outweigh the money invested, and will eventually bring back profit. Often, quality is correlated with price. Goods that are priced higher than similar substitutes are often to assumed to have a characteristic that bring upon the distinction, in which it is often quality. Therefore, the firm decided to increase the price of the bike to $750. The increase in expenditures with respect to advertising and PR can also be justified by the price markup. It is more difficult to sell higher priced goods and therefore an extra effort should be taken to minimize loss of sales. At this point in time, the management team did not have the clearance level to make decisions revolving around operations. However, based on reports, seniors believed that it would be best to maintain a constant production level, slightly differing from the 18, 100 units produced in the prior year. Although the production remained consistent, the ending inventory at the end of the year had increased by 58%, forcing the firm to incur expenses associated with inventory storage. At this time, this is all that can be reported with respect to operations. Once again, the financial decisions for 201 5 were made by higher up management. The firm had began with a debt to equity ratio of 30%, in which it was incapable of paying this year due to lack of funding. However, the increase in retained earnings resulted in an increase in shareholders equity, immediately decreasing the debt percentage by 9%, to 210/6. Although no action was taken during this period, the management team is placing emphasis on the repayment of the debt as soon as possible as it will limit our expenses, with specific regards to interest. Firm Results and Analysis For the firms sole product line of mountain bikes, Bikes Bikes Bikes decided to increase the price from 5700 to $750 following its decision to implement a high price, low volume strategy to increase our sales revenue by 10%. Thus, he companys bikes are sold at the third highest price overall (second to two firms with a set price of 5770). Comparing the prices implemented this year to the common price of $700 last year, it appears that most firms also imposed a high price strategy. With a higher price, product demand was expected to decrease, so the firm invested more money towards advertising (of $1 million) and PR (of $700,000) to raise demand for the companys products in the market. Compared to the competitors, the firm had the third highest advertising budget and the highest for PR (at $1 00,000 more than the next leading firm). The objective here was to increase demand enough to generate more revenue by selling more bikes at a relatively higher price than all the other firms. Since the mountain bike is highly influenced by advertising opposed to PR, by spending more than most competitors in PR but not for advertising expense, the firm did not gain as much sales and market share as originally expected. From the overall decrease in demand, demand forecast accuracy also fell from 100% to 97%. In 2015, there was a total sales of $8,635,575. Similarly, cost of goods sold and gross margin fell to $4, 1 96,650 and $4,438,925 respectively. Coupled with the expenses of $2,334,931, the result was a net income of $1 ,373,478 ($94,452 less than 2014), which showed room for improvement in sales and expense management. This year, the firm placed fifth in net income in the industry, and the fourth highest in sales and cost of goods sold, but the highest in selling and distribution expenses. This lead to more cash being expended than earned as revenue, which impacted the firms profitability and placed the firm at the fourth highest in cash balance overall at $3,748,711. With a current asset value of $3,832,575, this signifies that the majority of the rims current assets is comprised of cash. Therefore, the firm is in a very good position to meet its short term obligations, as a current ratio of 6. 51 means having over 6 times more assets than liabilities due within the coming year. This is a significant Increase in liquidity from the current ratio of 3. 87 in 2014, as a result of $1 ,674,770 increase in current assets with only a $31 , 292 increase in current liabilities. Despite the overall decrease in net income this year, the firms return on sales, return on equity and gross margin percentage ratios increased from 2014 (by 0. 01%, 1. 83% and 2. 1% respectively). This means that the amount of generated income from each dollar of equity and sales is now greater, as well as a higher amount of revenue retained as gross profit this year. Out of all the firms, Bikes Bikes Bikes has the fourth highest value for each of the profitability ratios. This means that although our firm experienced more profitability this year, there is still much more to be done to keep the firm at a competitive advantage. Based on the companys overall performance, Bikes Bikes Bikes experienced an increase in SHIP of $1. 97, as well as an increase in earnings per share of 7 cents. The firm has the fifth highest increase in both categories out of the world (with even the next highest having growth of $1. 02 and 73 cents respectively). However, this signifies a relatively stale growth in comparison to all other competitors and a need to increase efforts in hopes of improving company performance. This year, our production remained at constant levels from 2014 (at 45% production, 15% wastage and 40% idle time). In the market, the firm had the fourth highest in production and subsequently the second highest in idle time percentage. As the wastage percentage is also linked to production, our firm as the second lowest wastage percentage out Of all the firms as well. Thus, we began with 150 units in inventory, produced 1 7,918 additional bike for sales and resulting with an ending inventory of 354 units. The firms inventory turnover ratio decreased from 71. 63 to 70. 2, which means the time needed to sell our inventory increased. Moreover, though carrying costs were forecasted at $4,306,804, the firm ended up with only $4,1 96,650 in the end. For all our operations and decisions this year, we decided to use cash as the only source of financing due to our objective of minimizing debt-to-equity Asia. Currently, due to the existing long term debt of SSL the debt to equity ratio was 0. 21 in 2015. In 2014, the firms debt-to-equity ratio was 0. 3, showing progress due to increased revenue. In comparison, most competitors have a lower debt-to-equity ratio at 0. 19, so it is important to further increase sales and decrease incurred debt in order to catch up with other firms. The companys main source of cash activity involved operating activities, including sales revenue, advertising, PR, salaries and other operating expenses. Our budgeted performance for 201 5 was an inflow of 1 ,884,943, though in actuality, our cash inflow from operations only amounted to $1 As expenditures Were controlled based on management decisions, one of the primary underlying reasons for the shortfall would be due to less revenue generated during the period than forecasted. Though no cash investing activities involving property, plant and equipment occurred, cash movement was present in financing activities. From the existing long term debt of $1 an interest expense of $80,000 was incurred. Coupled with the bank interest earned from cash, a final cash outflow of 321 ,873 occurred. To increase the amount of cash available to insane our operations, the firm should reduce cash outflow from debt and interest. Summary Conclusion TO restate, Bikes Bikes Bikes goal for the year of 2015 was to obtain a increase in sales. The strategy implemented to achieve this goal was correlated with the process of increasing advertising expenditures and production. After a thorough analysis, it was determined that Bikes Bikes Bikes was unsuccessful in achieving this goal because it did not meet the targeted sales revenue. It was specified that we would be able to achieve the goal if our sales had increased from $8,1 90,000 to $ 9,009,000. However, Bikes Bikes Bikes sales for the year had only reached $8,625,575. Moreover, in comparison to competitors, we placed 4th in sales ranking. Since the firm was incapable of living up to the goals, Bikes Bikes Bikes plans to improve this performance by carefully analyzing our information again and appropriately making decisions that will help the firm grow. STRATEGIES, RESULTS AND ANALYSIS: 2016 Following a year of steady performance in 2016, Bikes Bikes Bikes identified a need to further improve its operations in order to better compete within the market. The firm was unable to meet its goal of increasing revenue by 1 0%, ailing short by $383,425. Moreover, the firm ranked fourth in revenue and fifth highest out of all firms for SHIP at SSL 2,79 per share. To better the performance of the company while maximizing SHIP and market share, Bikes Bikes Bikes aims to increase the price of bikes as well as the branding budget in order to generate a higher level of sales. Moreover, by reducing unneeded expenditures like PR expense and excess production costs, the firm plans to maximize net earnings to put the company in a far more competitive and profitable position in the market in the future. Marketing, Operational, and Financial Strategies After critical analysis of 2015, the management team had strong evidence that competing firms had adopted similar high price strategies and that the 50$ increase was not enough. Therefore, a 5$ increase was implemented to be able to compete within the market. Also, the enticed investment in advertising was outshone by the larger investment of other firms. With respect to PR, Our firm incurred a useless expense as it became evident that mountain bikes have a low response rate. As a result, an increase in advertising was prominent and the immediate reduction of PR to O was implemented. This year the team had the opportunity to increase investment in branding. Since one of the firms main goals revolves around raising awareness, expenditures on branding are to have a significant impact, and therefore funds were allocated towards this expense. With consistency to maintaining a high quality image, Bikes Bikes Bikes focuses its strategies on having Sports and Bike stores stock our products. Sports and Bikes stores are often correlated with selling high priced quality bikes such as mountain and road bikes. With future plans to expand into the road bike segment, the team determined that it would be of present day and true value to offer support to these stores, in hopes of providing extra incentive to stock our bike line, and lines in the future. However, a malfunction occurred within the systems just as we were submitting the amounts and instead of transferring $75,000 and $300,000 to Bike Shops and Sports Stores respectively, the amounts submitted were 575 and $300. However, the firm plans to make a complete 360 and administer the accurate amounts in the coming days. Bikes Bikes Bikes decided to continue providing stores with 35% retailer margin as it provides them with higher incentive to stock our bike line. Again this year, the management team did not have the access needed to make financial decisions and therefore could not implement any strategies at this point in time. However, as shareholders equity continues to increase over the years, and the companys decision to not take out a loan has decreased the debt to equity ratio by 6%, bringing it down to 15% for this year. This year the firm experienced a significant increase in cash of 61 % from the 2015 balance, placing Bikes Bikes Bikes at an advantage since it acquires the second highest value. For the single bike line, Bikes Bikes Bikes decided to further increase the price o $755 in compliance with a high price, low volume strategy. Thus, the firms bikes now have the second highest price in the market. As a result, demand and sales volume for the firms bikes decreased further, from 17,714 units last year to 1 7,376 units. Our Performa sales amount was 18,148 units, so the actual result did not achieve the intended level and our demand forecast accuracy fell by 2%. In regards to advertising and PR, a decision was made to decrease the budgets to $950,000 and SO respectively. For advertising, this decrease caused the firm to now spend the second least in advertising. As a mountain bikes demand is minimally influenced by PR ratings, it was concluded that there would be no gain in allocating funds towards PR expense. Thus, the firm has an awareness rating increased from 0. 2 to 0. 22 (the fourth highest overall) and a PR rating of 0. 6, a 0. 04 drop from last year (now at fourth place in the industry). Regarding distribution, retailer margins were maintained at a 35-75 split of revenue with retailers (while other firms varied between sharing 25% or 40% with retailers). In terms of extra support, the firm decided to focus more on supporting sports stores, the most popular Handel to sell mountain bikes (at a support amount of $305 compared to $75 for bike stores and $50 for discount stores). Aside from one firm that chose to give SO of extra support, we provided the lowest amount of extra support. Overall, our firm provided the second most distribution support to retailer at $202,365, second only to the firm who spent $290,771 in total. Thus, the company now has a distribution rating of 0. 4 (which doubled from 201 5) and now has the second highest rating in the industry (only 0. 05 less than the leading firm). For sports stores in particular, 319 stores now stocking he companys bikes (14 more than 201 5) which is the third highest number overall. For bike and discount stores, the amount of stores stocking the firms products reached 76 and 201 stores respectively, the second highest amount of stores stocking for both. This year, production level was decreased from 17,918 units to 17,370 units to reduce expenses, ending inventory and carrying costs. The result was the firm having the fifth highest production percentage (at 43%, with the highest in the industry at 54%), the lowest wastage (at 14%, a 1% decrease from 201 6) and the highest idle time (at 42%). In the end, 348 units of ending inventory, and carrying costs of $4,1 17,843 were recorded, but no lost sales occurred (keeping the firms delivery rating at 1. 0 like all other firms). Inventory turnover ratio fell from 49. 57 to 5. This year, showing a far longer period of time to sell inventory, achieve sales and generate revenue (compared to 2015). By continuing to aim for a minimal debt-to-equity ratio, the firm only used cash to finance its operations this year as well. Overall, the firm experienced a increase in cash inflow from operations to $2,295,274 no activity in cash flow room investing and a decrease in cash outflow from financing o f $4,746 compared to 2015. This was due to increased sales revenue, reduced expenses as well as increased cash balance earning interest in the bank exceeding the interest expense from long term debt. In 201 6, the debt-to- equity ratio decreased from 0. 21 to 0. 15, which is relatively the second highest debt-to-equity ratio overall (the lowest being O. 13). In 201 6, the firm generated a net income of $1 from $8,527,272 in revenue, $4,117,843 in cost of goods sold, and $1,649,915 in expenses. Comparatively, this is the fifth highest revenue and cost of goods sold values of all firms (the highest with $1 1 in revenue and 54,71 6,443 in cost of goods sold). By reducing expenses on areas like PR by $685,026 in total, Bikes Bikes Bikes now has the lowest amount of expenses overall. The companys cash balance this year was $6,061 12, signifying an increase of $2,31 2,401 in cash from 2015. Thus, Bikes Bikes Bikes now has the second highest amount of cash in all. With a current assets balance of $6,143,583, this means that over 98% of the firms current assets is comprised of cash that can be used to pay off obligations and finance our operations. Despite an increase of $1 81 , 359 in current liabilities, the firms current ratio increased from 6. 51 to 7. 8 in 201 6, representing that the company is in an even better position to meet current obligations for the year while continuing its operations. This year, the firms return on sales and gross margin percentage increased by 3. 85% and O. 19% respectively. Incidentally, our return on equity ratio decreased by 5. 99%. As a result, the firm now has the third highest return on sales, gross margin percentage and return on equity ratios. This shows considerable room for improvement. The firms earnings per share increase d from $1. 37 to $1. 86, which is now the third highest in the world.