Circuit City - Internet Business Strategy :: Web Business Strategy

Circuit City - Internet Business Strategy Introduction In the fifty years since Circuit City opened its first store, the company has become one of the best-known sources of consumer electronics in the world. Today Circuit City boasts over 600 stores and more than 50,000 associates. The company consistently strives to offer low, competitive prices, high service standards, and a wide selection of products to meet consumer needs. Circuit City has long prided itself on the outstanding shopping experience it offers to customers. In the 1990 ’s the company was early to see the value of the Internet for making that experience even better. However, they shunned the then-popular approach that many bricks-and-mortar retailers were adopting, where online channels were viewed as replacements for or alternatives to the traditional channel. Instead, Circuit City saw the Web as a way to complement its retail outlets and provide customers with more reasons to visit a store. To define, develop, and deploy its web strategy, Circuit City wanted a robust site that would replicate the customer experience in its Superstores while leveraging the advantages of 24-hour Internet access. Detailed product information, comparison capabilities, depth of selection, and immediate inventory information were critical features that the Circuit City web site required. Key Business Issues Circuit City has competition at local markets—traditional electronic retailers as well as Internet-only players, including catalogers and national distributors. To expand upon its national reputation as a leading high-service, low-price retailer, Circuit City wanted a site that would leverage its national store presence. To do this, the site needed to seamlessly integrate its retail shops with a powerful e-Superstore that could provide quality service online while providing advantages of â€Å"express pickup† from nearby stores. The web strategy would then be tightly interlinked and interdependent with Circuit City’s core retailing business, helping drive more revenue to local stores while maximizing the company’s national and international web presence. Key Business Challenges: †¢Use the Web as a means to improve overall company success †¢Get into production quickly with novel approach to e-commerce †¢Provide superior online experience for customers in every respect Solution Snapshot In January of 1999 Circuit City commenced development, using Sun Enterprise servers that had just become available from a subsidiary company. To reach the market as quickly as possible with its novel concept, Circuit City determined to base its Internet presence on prepackaged solutions that minimized development time. This led to the choice of BroadVision to provide e-commerce software.

Checkin’ Out Me History Essay

Toussaint L’Ouverture, Mary Seacole, Shaka the Zulu. Have you ever heard of them? If not, it is probably because from a young age, we have all been taught history but were we given all the facts or just being ignorant? Many of the historic and inspirational figures we have learnt about are based in the culture of England but what about the black historic figures because some of these made a huge difference to our lives. John Agard is a poet from Guyana who writes passionately but often and politically and seriously. In one of his poems-â€Å"Checkin’ out me history† he questions why some of these great black historic leading figures were pushed away when they truly deserve our respect. In this essay, I will investigate the following question-â€Å"How does Agard use language and structure to convey his feelings in ‘Checkin’ out me history’? † In Agard’s use of language, he has purposely written some of the words in phonetic spelling. For instance he has said â€Å"dem† instead of â€Å"them† and when you are reading the poem out loud, no matter how hard you try not to, you will hear a Caribbean accent because writing in phonetics will force the reader into the accent even if they don’t want to. I think he wants them to speak in this way because the poem is based on how his heritage is being pushed away and since he is black, he wants to show who he really is and he wants to bring back his heritage by speaking in a black dialect. In addition to this he uses structure to portray his feelings in relation to his heritage. For instance he has made the stanzas on the black historic figures very thin in comparison to the other stanzas because they are quite wide. I think he has made the lay out this way because of how black historic figures are being pushed aside and it isn’t fair. Another way to look at this is that the other stanzas are wide because they are told more often and more widely over the world because of the historic figures mentioned in it. But a more positive way to look at it is that, Agard has put the stanzas this way because the black figures are more unique. Also Agard shows his annoyance by repeating the line ‘dem tell me’, I think he is repeating this line so he can show that his heritage being pushed away isn’t fair and he is serious about the topic he is talking about. Also by repeating the line, it is as if he is protesting against the fact that his heritage is being pushed away. When he is repeating the line, you can tell he is serious and won’t stop until justice is done. I personally think that he is quite accurate in what he is saying because where is the logic in shoving away some of the best historic figures just because they are black. It just isn’t fair on the people who come from a black heritage. Agard is really accurate in the way he describes the black historic figures included in this poem because of the way the description links with the real historic facts. For example: â€Å"Toussaint de thorn to de French†-this is really accurate because Toussaint was a great general who defended his country Saint Dominique against the French Colonies. Also the word choice suggests this because a thorn protects a rose and when Agard is referring to Toussaint as the thorn, it links with how he protected his country (the rose in this metaphor) from the hands of the French. Another point to be made is that by referring to Toussaint as a thorn can also suggest that he didn’t cause extreme damage, he only pricked them and when you get pricked by a thorn, you get annoyed which is how the French must have felt because they were a huge empire and they couldn’t drive the small island of Saint Dominique into submission so I’m sure they must have been feeling irritated. Now lets move on to the loving and caring Mary Seacole who was brave and skilled with medicine as she set off to the Crimean war even though people warned her not to go but she didn’t care because she wanted to save those soldiers lives and she would risk her own life to do it and even her own money but still many people have pushed her away from history. So lets have a look at the way Agard describes her in ‘Checkin’ out me history’-‘A healing star among the wounded’-Mary Seacole is referred to as a ‘healing star’ and a star is very high up in the sky so it forces the people to look up at it and when you look up at someone, it means you respect them, what it can also mean is that they can be your idol because you look for their guidance and follow in their footsteps. A biblical reference to this quote be that the three kings followed the bright star to get to baby Jesus. Also a star is known to link magic, which is like when people make a wish upon a star, they believe it to be magical. The soldiers involved in the Crimean war were also probably trying to make a wish because they thought they were going to die but then Mary Seacole came ready to help, the soldiers’ faith changed and their wish was granted. Another thing to be mentioned is that star can only be seen when it is dark like when you are walking in daytime, you can not see the stars at all because the sun light will block them out so you don’t notice them, but when you are camping in the woods and you look up in the night sky, you see they are all shining brightly. Since the Crimean war was going on, lots of people were dying and wounded every day and it truly was a really dark time. Then when all hope was lost, Mary Seacole appeared. Lastly ‘healing would suggest that she mended he wounded After having that long discussion about Mary Seacole, lets move on to another great women that took part in this poem. Nanny of the Maroons, a woman who had a great dream and lead many slaves to freedom. Lets explore the way Agard describes in this quote-‘see-far woman of mountain dream’-this shows that she is very strong and rugged just like a mountain. Also a mountain has a sharp point, which can link with her being smart. Mountain dream could also suggest a dream of freedom from slavery. My last point to be made is that since she built a town upon a mountain, she would look down upon people who are selfish and people would look up to her and respect her. Now that we have looked at the historical figures, lets have a look at John Agard himself and his personal feelings towards his heritage being pushed away. Here lets look at the evidence-‘ Bandage up me eye with me own history’- Agard must be feeling restricted, helpless and maybe even angry because he is from the Caribbean and from a young age he has learnt about English history but not his own black history. He must be feeling restricted because he probably feels that other people are stopping him from seeing his own heritage and history. Another point to be made is that most of the historic figures we learn about today are white, we should really be more considerate and learn about the black historic figures as well because there were many great historic leaders and figures who were black. Also if you were really blinded you would be unaware of where you are going and you would stress and be quite scared. To conclude this questionable topic by telling you my personal feelings on this poem, John Agard’s poem is very accurate in the message it is sending out because it is quite true in that we are actually pushing away black culture and learning more about our own (English) history instead of being diverse, we are still learning about the same things. I feel that this poem is written in a very entertaining way but also gets the message out to the audience very nicely. I also agree with the message being sent.

Trusting The Fed s Judgement - 1789 Words

Trusting the Fed’s Judgement in 2017 At last month’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Chair Yellen expressed her most upbeat assessment about the near-term path for the US economy by claiming that fiscal stimulus was unnecessary to achieve full employment. Accordingly, unemployment is expected by the FOMC to settle below its natural rate this year. Meanwhile, the current underlying sentiment amongst members appears to suggest that the economy can withstand three 25 basis points increases in the federal funds rate in 2017. This view will, however, not necessarily remain static. In December 2015, for example, the mood of the FOMC appeared to support four 25 basis points increases in its policy rate during 2016. The outcome was,†¦show more content†¦Will the Dollar and Financial Conditions Impact US Monetary Policy in 2017? Deteriorating global financial conditions in the immediate aftermath of the Fed’s December 2015 rate hike helped to produce a sizeable sell off in equity markets in January last year, although a sharp decline in China’s foreign exchange reserves was also to blame. The FOMC was widely expected to raise its policy rate again in March 2016, but the volatile events in financial markets consequently forced members, notably Chair Yellen, to embrace a more dovish policy posture which remained intact until last month. In contrast to last year, financial conditions have not tightened significantly since last month’s decision to raise the federal funds rate. This will, therefore, give a green light for the Fed to proceed with interest rate normalisation depending on economic conditions. Thus, financial markets currently have greater faith in the Fed’s economic outlook compared to a year ago. 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