History of Tikal

History of Tikal Tikal (tee-KAL) is a ruined Maya city located in the northern Petà ©n province of Guatemala. During the heyday of the Maya Empire, Tikal was a very important and influential city, controlling vast stretches of territory and dominating smaller city-states. Like the rest of the great Maya cities, Tikal fell into decline around 900 A.D. or so and was eventually abandoned. It is currently an important archaeological and tourism site Early History at Tikal Archaeological records near Tikal go back to about 1000 B.C. and by 300 B.C. or so it was already a thriving city. By the Maya early Classic era (roughly 300 A.D.) it was an important urban center, thriving as other nearby cities declined. The Tikal royal lineage traced their roots to Yax Ehb Xook, a powerful early ruler who lived sometime during the Preclassic period. The Peak of Tikals Power At the dawn of the Maya Classic era, Tikal was one of the most important cities in the Maya region. In 378, the ruling Tikal dynasty was replaced by representatives of the mighty northern city of Teotihuacan: it is unclear if the takeover was military or political. Other than a change in the royal family, this does not seem to have altered Tikal’s rise to prominence. Soon Tikal was the dominant city in the region, controlling several other smaller city-states. Warfare was common, and sometime in the late sixth century, Tikal was defeated by Calakmul, Caracol, or a combination of the two, causing a gap in the city’s prominence and historical records. Tikal bounced back, however, once again becoming a great power. Population estimates for Tikal at its peak vary: one estimate is that of respected researcher William Haviland, who in 1965 estimated a population of 11,000 in the city center and 40,000 in the surrounding areas. Tikal Politics and Rule Tikal was ruled by a powerful dynasty which sometimes, but not always, passed power down from father to son. This unnamed family ruled Tikal for generations until 378 A.D. when Great Jaguar Paw, last of the line, was apparently defeated militarily or somehow deposed by Fire is Born, who was most likely from Teotihuacn, a mighty city located near present-day Mexico City. Fire is Born started a new dynasty with close cultural and trade ties to Teotihuacn. Tikal continued on its path to greatness under the new rulers, who introduced cultural elements such as pottery design, architecture, and art in the Teotihuacn style. Tikal aggressively pursued its dominance of the whole southeastern Maya region. The city of Copn, in present-day Honduras, was founded by Tikal, as was the city of Dos Pilas. War with Calakmul Tikal was an aggressive superpower which frequently scrapped with its neighbors, but its most important conflict was with the city-state of Calakmul, located in the present-day Mexican state of Campeche. Their rivalry began sometime in the sixth century as they vied for vassal states and influence. Calakmul was able to turn some of Tikal’s vassal states against their former ally, most notably Dos Pilas and Quirigu. In 562 Calakmul and its allies defeated Tikal in battle, beginning a hiatus in Tikal’s power. Until 692 A.D. there would be no carved dates on Tikal monuments and the historical records of this time are scant. In 695, Jasaw K’awiil I defeated Calakmul, helping propel Tikal back to its former glory. The Decline of Tikal The Maya civilization began to crumble around 700 A.D. and by 900 A.D. or so it was a shadow of its former self. Teotihuacn, once such a powerful influence on Maya politics, itself fell into ruin about 700 and was no longer a factor in Maya life, although its cultural influences in art and architecture remained. Historians disagree on why the Maya civilization collapsed: it may have been due to famine, disease, warfare, climate change or any combination of those factors. Tikal, too, declined: the last recorded date on a Tikal monument is 869 A.D. and historians think that by 950 A.D. the city was essentially abandoned. Rediscovery and Restoration Tikal was never completely lost: locals always knew of the city throughout the colonial and republican eras. Travelers occasionally visited, such as John Lloyd Stephens in the 1840s, but Tikals remoteness (getting there entailed several days trek through steamy jungles) kept most visitors away. The first archaeological teams arrived in the 1880s, but it wasnt until an airstrip was built in the early 1950s that archaeology and study of the site began in earnest. In 1955, the University of Pennsylvania began a long project at Tikal: they remained until 1969 when the Guatemalan government began research there. Tikal Today Decades of archaeological work have uncovered most of the major buildings, although a good portion of the original city is still awaiting excavation. There are many pyramids, temples, and palaces for exploring. Highlights include the Plaza of Seven Temples, the Palace at the Central Acropolis and the Lost World complex. If youre visiting the historical site, a guide is highly recommended, as youre certain to miss interesting details if youre not looking for them. Guides can also translate glyphs, explain the history, take you to the most interesting buildings and more. Tikal is one of Guatemalas most important tourism sites, enjoyed annually by thousands of visitors from all over the world. Tikal National Park, which included the archaeological complex and the surrounding rainforest, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although the ruins themselves are fascinating, the natural beauty of Tikal National Park merits a mention as well. The rainforests around Tikal are beautiful and home to many birds and animals, including parrots, toucans, and monkeys. Sources McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. Reprint edition, W. W. Norton Company, July 17, 2006.

Customer relationship management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Customer relationship management - Essay Example means that businesses need to reorganize their focus by implanting a strategy geared toward success factors of process, technology, people, and environment. Management process will need to be examined and reviewed in order to make sure that wonderful and effective customer service is being provided (Jones, 2002, p. 11). Businesses can gain an edge nowadays if they are able to form management that focuses on good customer relationship skills. This is often referred to as customer relationship management, or CRM. The notion with CRM is to make sure the focus of the organization is the customer (Denton, 1992, p. 34). Therefore, in order to make the company more customer-centered, it is important to ensure that all employees in the business contribute to the customer in the end. Businesses that have been able to use this concept with success bring together the processes of people and technology. Making this happen requires the company to have a dedicated and focused management process that focuses its end goal on the customer. (Jones, 2002, p. 12). Effective customer relationship management requires much more from the business than paying attention to customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is really just a moderate goal for a business. In order to make customers happy and impressed with the business, they want to feel that the businesses realizes that their individual business is important to the business. In order to do this, the business will need to constantly review their customers’ needs in regards to customer relationship management (Denton, 1992, p. 54). If this is done correctly, the business can retain its customers, and also build up an excellent customer-centered reputation (Kennedy, 1995, p. 78). A good example of this type of strategy is Amazon.com, which uses an individual type feature for each customer’s account, suggesting different books or other items that customers might be interested in. This shows that the company is taking the

Analysis of Vitamin C content of Soft Fruit Drinks Coursework

Analysis of Vitamin C content of Soft Fruit Drinks - Coursework Example Titration is a commonly performed experiment which is used to determine the exact concentration of a particular substance in solution. This is achieved by adding increasing amounts of a standard solution of known concentration (the titrant) to a measured quantity of the solution whose concentration one intends to ascertain (the analyte), and determining the end point of the reaction by means of a substance termed as an indicator. Titration can be used to determine the concentration of various substances including several acids and bases. Vitamin C has been found to turn a blue dye clear. Thus, the amount of Vitamin C in a solution can be worked out by titrating the different soft drinks against a fixed amount of the blue dye, which serves as both the titrant and the indicator in this experiment.   Materials Available: Blue dye A solution containing a known amount of Vitamin C (Solution A) A selection of old products: a lemon, orange and blackcurrant drink A selection of new product s: a lemon, orange and blackcurrant drink Equipment needed: Burette Pipette, graduated Pipette filler Ehrlenmeyer flask or Beaker Distilled water Burette clamp Stirring rod Procedure: To begin the experiment, the amount of solution which has a known quantity of Vitamin C (labeled as Solution A) needed to turn 1 cm3 of the blue dye colorless has to be determined. To achieve this, a measured quantity, i.e. 1 cm3 of the dye is added to an Ehrlenmeyer flask or beaker with the help of a pipette. Before using the pipette, it is important to  ensure that it is thoroughly cleaned and conditioned before being used  in order to remove any water droplets or impurities.  Conditioning  is achieved by rinsing the pipette with  a small volume of  the solution being transferred  (the stock solution) and disposing of the rinsing solution. The pipette is then filled up to the calibration mark with the help of a pipette filler. It is important to remember that most solutions would form a concave meniscus. Thus, while reading a meniscus, the bottom of the meniscus should be read and the meniscus should be kept at eye level in order to avoid parallax errors. Moreover, the meniscus should be read against a uniform background, which can be achieved by placing a white sheet of paper behind the level of the liquid. The dye is now transferred to the conical flask. Once all the solution has drained, the experimenter should touch the tip of the pipette to the side of the flask. This helps in removing the last drop of solution from the pipette and helps in avoiding errors. It is important to keep in mind that one does not need to blow the last drop of solution out of the pipette. As pointed out previously, in this experiment the blue dye serves as both the titrant and the indicator. An indicator is a substance which indicates the pH of a substance and is commonly used to determine the end point of a reaction, which is denoted by a color change of the indicator. The next step is to add the solution A into the beaker drop by drop by means of a burette. The burette is an apparatus which helps in slowly and precisely deliver small measured volumes of a solution to another. It is most commonly used in titration experiments and measures solutions up to an accuracy of

Approaches to Decision Making Essay Example for Free

Approaches to Decision Making Essay There are two common ways to make decisions regarding changes in an organization, especially when others are involved in the end result. The two ways would be to make decisions individually, making the decision by yourself or by creating a committee, getting others involved in the process. Knowing that something needs to change, means that there has been a problem identified, evaluating alternatives and then selecting the solution. Depending on the problem and the criteria that will be evaluated in making the final decision, this will play an important factor on whether individually making the decision is better than a group decision. When making decisions and changes that are going to effect many, it typically is better to make group decisions. For larger companies, it is typical that a committee or a team would be created. Bringing together individuals of the organization that would be effected by these changes. Having a committee involved in the decision brings more views, thoughts, past experiences and suggestions to the table to be evaluated for optimal solutions. Advantages of a group decision is there are more options contributed, the better chances that decisions made would be accepted by those involved in the decision as well. â€Å"Quantities and diversity of information are greatest when group members represent different specialities†. (Robbins, DeCenzo, Coulter, 2011, p. 71). Finding a suitable solution is half of the battle, the next half would be implementation. By having a group decision enforced, will increase the success of changes since they were a part of it and will encourage change. In the example provided about budgetary concerns, it would be suggested that a committee be created with upper management from finance, human resources, and department managers to discuss how overhead such as employees, supplies and other capital costs are effecting our business. Before having the initial meeting it would be suggested for each manager to evaluate their department and be ready to give suggestion of where they would be able to make individual changes without sacrificing the well being of the patients care. Once all contributions are made from each department, hearing the options of solutions would allow the committee members to discuss the  changes and place value on which options could be most beneficial. Options like reducing employee head count or hours, re-evaluating vendors where supplies are purchased from, eliminating overtime costs by having back up staff available or changing processes by reducing paper trails and going electronic. Each of these will need to be analyzed on immediate consequences or benefits and what the longer term effects will be. The disadvantage of working with a committee is that there will prolong the process of making a decision, more meetings, more time and there could be more resistant from individuals that will need to be â€Å"talked into† this decision. In the example about making budget cuts, one could make the decision alone and not consult with any other departments. The individual making decisions to cut staff, supplies or capital costs would need to have a comprehensive understanding of all costs associated with the organization and what implications could be by reducing budgets. Even though it is just one person making the decision, it is very important to still do a thorough evaluation of what the problems are, evaluate multiple solutions and weigh the benefits or consequences of these changes. It would be very important to obtaining financial monthly statements/costs that are associated with each department. The benefit of making decisions solely is that multiple meetings would be eliminated, do not need to â€Å"sell† your idea or solution to others, and a decision could be made quicker which will save time and money for the organization. The disadvantages of making a decision like this where it effects a group, out weigh the benefits. You do not have access to others input and past experiences who have dealt with similar situations or hearing what concerns your management will have. By not including others, you have a higher chance of the decision not being welcomed by all and having resistant to the change and implementation. References: Robbins, S., DeCenzo, D., Coulter, M. (2011). Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications (7th ed.).

Mistakes of Mankind Exposed in Quinns Ishmael :: Quinn Ishmael Essays

Mistakes of Mankind Exposed in Quinn's Ishmael Most humans are confused. Some know what the problem is, but most haven't even realized something is wrong. The novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is an attempt to bring about awareness of the mistakes that people have made and have continued to repeat through the course of human history. At its core, the story has two main characters: a teacher and a student. The teacher represents a solution to the destructive road that mankind has been traveling down and the student represents us: eager to mend our ways but apprehensive about the changes that will occur. The lesson of this book is that each one of us can make changes that will directly enhance our personal lives, and begin the great task of changing how all humans view and live out their lives. The wise and almost omnipotent teacher that had the task of changing the course of human history is, as one might imagine, a very special person. He had been watching us for a long time and was ready to share his knowledge of the human race and its inherent flaws. This "savior" just happened to be a gorilla named Ishmael. It was for that reason that a very special student was required to learn his lessons. "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person"(4). This rather awkward request appeared in the personals section of the newspaper. Because the bulk of the novel is narrated through the first- person perspective of the man who answers this ad and becomes the enlightened student, the reader never learns his name. However, he/she is exposed to many important aspects of the student and his motivations. One learns that decades ago he had actually been looking for such a teacher during the children's revolt of the sixties and seventies but finally concluded that no ne existed and that the new era was never going to begin. This realization had embittered him to the point that seeing such a blatant ad (in the newspaper of all places!) after he had given up hope outraged him. His motivation for answering the ad was actually a simple desire to find out what crook was behind the outrageous request so that he could put

Coach Inc Essay

1) 1. What are the defining characteristics of the luxury goods industry? What is the industry like? A luxury brand may have profound influence on an overall product strategy since its position may determine how the company is going to make its next step. A luxury brand like Coach epitomizes elegance and combines classic beauty with modern design. According to John E. Gamble, not only has Coach become one of the most respected and known brand names in the ladies’ handbags and leather accessories luxury brand industry, it is also one of the most best-selling luxury brand companies in the world, with net sales reaching 2.1 billion in 2006 (Gamble). When a company like Coach decides to set up a product strategy for the next season, the manager will need to take the brand’s established style into account, since their incoming products must fit with the existing brand. When a manager, such as Lew Frankfort, chairman and CEO of Coach, Inc., aims to build a luxury brand like Coach, he invests millions of dollars in setting up a series of business strategies, including advertising on television, organizing fashion shows, and gaining the approval of fashion designers. These actions are decided based on how a luxury brand is built; essentially, the brand will guide the future steps of the company to a certain degree. Coach, Inc. is different from other more expensive luxury brands, such as Hermes, Prada, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton in the sense that Coach focuses more on middle-income consumers who want to purchase their hand bags from a price range of $200 to $500. Coach is the alternative to these competing companies, matching their key luxury products on quality and styling, while beating them on price by 50% or more (Gamble). 2) 2. What is competition like in the luxury goods industry? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness? The Luxury branding decision will influence an organization’s pricing decisions because its position is related to the product’s price. Take Coca Cola, for example. It is the most valuable brand in the world. The brand makers intend to compel everyone to drink Coca and provide a feeling of happiness. Thus, the price of the product will be cheap, since the brand is aimed at inducing the public’s joy. If the company sets the prices high, people may not be able to afford Coca Cola. Since the brand targets consumers of all backgrounds and income levels, it aims to market itself as a cheap beverage that tastes remarkable. This is how the brand is related to the pricing. Similarly, Coach, Inc. succeeds in maintaining a balance between affordable price and luxurious design. Coach is a less expensive luxury brand compared to its more expensive Italian and French counterparts. The type of brand will directly influence an organization’s distribution system, especially if it is a luxury brand, since the brand may tell people where the product is distributed. According to the website (americanessays.com) â€Å"Coca Cola has its own distribution channel including direct and indirect selling.† By using this strategy, Coca Cola is able to provide Coke all over the world. Coach, Inc. keyed into â€Å"accessible† luxury ladies’ handbags and leather accessories. The brand will influence a company’s promotion decision because of its nature. For a brand like Louis Vuitton, customers barely receive any discounts or find any promotions since it is a very well-known brand with French elegance. The company may not perform any promotions since it may hurt the brand. In contrast, a brand like Best Buy frequently holds promotions, usually every season or every month since this brand is meant to be economic. Thus, the company will execute promotions quite often. Coach, Inc. created its business model, which has different kinds of stores, including full-price stores, factory stores, wholesale department stores, and internet sales stores. Full-price stores sell the newest designer hand bags, leather accessories, fragrances, and women’s knitwear collections. Factory stores sell slightly out-of-season products. Coach, Inc. selects the highest quality materials to produce its products in order to maintain its reputation of exceptional quality. Under the manager’s marketing team, Coach launches new collections every month to attract customers to return and browse its product selection. On the other hand, customers can find their favorite handbags and accessories in factory stores at discounted prices. Coach has become the best-selling brand of women’s luxury handbags and leather accessories in the United States, with a 25% market share. Moreover, Coach is the second best-selling brand of those products in Japan, with an 8% market share. With its successful global business strategy, Coach, Inc. has rapidly grown in the last six years after its initial IPO in 2000 (Paul. 283). It attracts mostly middle-income consumers, who purchase its products rather than those of other name brands on the same price level. The growing desire for luxury goods in middleclass consumers is thought to be a result of a wide range of factors, including effective advertising and TV programming that glorifies conspicuous consumption. On the other hand, the demanding daily rigor of two-income households is thought to be another suggested factor. Additional factor are the rising sales of luxury goods and the growth of big box discounters, such as Wal-Mart and Target (Gamble). Therefore, in the contemporary market environment, should the company want to build its business successfully, the key points are great design, high quality, and luxury styling in an acceptable price range. If the company doesn’t adhere to those key points, it will lead itself to loss of its market share or bankruptcy. 3) 3. How is the market for luxury handbags and leather accessories changing? What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those driving forces change the industry? In the current luxury handbags and leather accessories market, any competing company faces two sets of challenges in continuing the development of its business and succeeding in growing its market share. First, when Coach, Inc. was founded in 1941, it was a small family-owned handbag business in New York City. After 44 years of family management with a steadily set price 50% lower than more luxurious brands, Coach was sold to Sara Lee. Coach continued to grow rapidly until the mid-1990s. Then, in an abrupt change of events, consumers quit purchasing Coach’s handbags in order to focus on French and Italian brands, such as Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. The company’s market share fell from 40% to a tragic 5%. Reed Krakoff, the top Tommy Hilfiger designer, was hired by Sara Lee to save the business that had more than half a century’s worth of history. In the beginning, Reed did the extensive consumer surveys and held focus groups to get the information of styling, comfort, and functionality preferences. After doing consumer surveys, Reed found that customers wanted handbags with edgier styling, softer leather, and leather-trimmed fabric. After six months, Coach launched redesigned, brand-new handbags to the market. Furthermore, Reed improved the appearance from dark, wood-paneled interiors design to a bring and air ambiance design. Reed planned to launch new collections every month instead of twice a year. Reed introduced the test models and the discontinued models sold at discounted price. After innovation, Coach sales continued to grow from $500 million in 1999 to more than $2.1 billion in 2006 (John E. Gamble). In addition, luxury brand name products face counterfeit goods, which threatened their market sales in current years. In 2006, more than $500 billion worth of counterfeit goods were sold all over the world. As a result, it seriously threatened the profit of name brand companies. Combating counterfeit goods requires the government to take a step to combat and convict intellectual property rights crimes. 4) 6. What are the resource strengths and weaknesses of Coach Inc.? What competencies and capabilities does it have that its chief rivals don’t have? What new market opportunities does Coach have? What threats do you see to the company’s future well-being? Coach, Inc. is the well known luxury brand of handbags and leather accessories which that originated in the United States. It should be more popular and widely-accepted by Americans since it is an American luxury brand. Furthermore, Coach, Inc. continues to attract consumers by launching new collections every month, marking up full-priced new products and over-seasonal products’ low price level. Those business characteristics hardly occur in its chief rivals, such as Hermes, Ralph Lauren, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. Therefore, it creates a long-term relationship with its customers. In recent years, Coach, Inc. has continued to expand and develop its business all over the world. For example, it builds more flagship stores in different countries. Moreover, Coach, Inc. tries to diversity its business. For example, Coach, Inc. now launches women’s knitwear collections, and ladies’ footwear. To the contrary, Coach, Inc. sets up too many stores in the nearby areas, which will hurt the luxury brand name’s reputation. If one can buy Coach’s products anywhere, will one still find Coach to be luxurious? The economy is now getting better and better. Companies will compensate their employees well, and grant them more buying powerful to purchase Coach’s products. However, the challenge of Coach, Inc. is to compete with other luxury French and Italian brand goods and to combat the threat of counterfeit goods (John E. Gamble). 5) 7. What recommendations would you make to Lew Frankfort to improve the company’s competitive position in the industry and its financial and market performance? In conclusion, Coach, Inc. is one of the most successful luxury brands of women’s handbags and leather accessories. Its products match key luxury rivals on quality and styling with pricing level focus on middle-income consumers (John E. Gamble). In the company’s future development, I would recommend that Lew Frankfort focus on market situations and customers’ perpetually-changing desires. It would be to his benefit to do market surveys prior to a new product’s creation. The company should set up stores only in locations where expansion is profitable. The company should follow current business models, such as different price levels, launch new collections every month, continue with high quality production, and provide excellent customer service, which can develop and reach higher level returns on shareholders’ equities. References: 1) Case 5. John E. Gamble. Page 238-97 2) Marketing Management (J. Paul Peter/James H. Donnelly, JR.) 3)http://www.americanessays.com/study-aids/free-essays/education/the-coca-cola-enterprises.php

Business Information System - Types of Outsourcing Relationships Free Essay Example, 2000 words

The tie-up with Fan Li can be seen as a last measure for Tegan to help improve its poor sales lately. For starters, most of its toys are in the 50 range while the toys of Fan Li is only about a tenth or approximately 5 per item. This means profit margins are much lower and to help the company compensate for this lower margin, it must do a higher number of order transactions. This means a lower order size that was made up in the volume of transactions that will hopefully improve its revenues and thereby its profits as well. The toy industry is a low-margin industry which means profits per item are small. The firm needs to sell plenty of toys. As such, the accounts payable plays a significant part in the company's bottom line. As margins are low but turnovers high, Tegan must utilize its payment strategy with regards to its accounts payable to help boost profits by availing of supplier discounts with prompt payment. Industry practice allows for 1% to 2% for prompt payments but the o ther side of the coin is to make a payment only when it is due or when it becomes absolutely necessary without losing the payment discount. We will write a custom essay sample on Business Information System - Types of Outsourcing Relationships or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page What is more is this is not yet the peak season and the system is already showing some signs of a breakdown with frequent re-boots, blocking of records and unexplained run-time errors. These events are clearly detrimental to the company's operations which are hinged on the founder's principles of integrity, honesty and speed. The accounting computer system had to be fixed early enough in time for the Christmas holiday season in December 2008 (ibid. 2) and fixed quickly.