Any size of donation would be very much appreciated and put to good use.
5 The directors of Blaina Packaging Co (BPC), a well-established manufacturer of cardboard boxes, are currently
considering whether to enter the cardboard tube market. Cardboard tubes are purchased by customers whose
products are wound around tubes of various sizes ranging from large tubes on which carpets are wound, to small
tubes around which films and paper products are wound. The cardboard tubes are usually purchased in very large
quantities by customers. On average, the cardboard tubes comprise between 1% and 2% of the total cost of the
customers’ finished product.
The directors have gathered the following information:
(1) The cardboard tubes are manufactured on machines which vary in size and speed. The lowest cost machine is
priced at $30,000 and requires only one operative for its operation. A one-day training course is required in order
that an unskilled person can then operate such a machine in an efficient and effective manner.
(2) The cardboard tubes are made from specially formulated paper which, at times during recent years, has been in
short supply.
(3) At present, four major manufacturers of cardboard tubes have an aggregate market share of 80%. The current
market leader has a 26% market share. The market shares of the other three major manufacturers, one of which
is JOL Co, are equal in size. The product ranges offered by the four major manufacturers are similar in terms of
size and quality. The market has grown by 2% per annum during recent years.
(4) A recent report on the activities of a foreign-based multinational company revealed that consideration was being
given to expanding operations in their packaging division overseas. The division possesses large-scale automated
machinery for the manufacture of cardboard tubes of any size.
(5) Another company, Plastic Tubes Co (PTC) produces a narrow, but increasing, range of plastic tubes which are
capable of housing small products such as film and paper-based products. At present, these tubes are on average
30% more expensive than the equivalent sized cardboard tubes sold in the marketplace.
Required:
(a) Using Porter’s five forces model, assess the attractiveness of the option to enter the market for cardboard
tubes as a performance improvement strategy for BPC. (10 marks)
(1) Life can be tough for immigrants in America. As a Romanian bank clerk in Atlanta puts it, to find a good job “you have to be like a wolf in the forest – able to smell out the best meat.” And if you can’t find work, don’t expect the taxpayer to bail you out. Unlike in some European countries, it is extremely hard for an able-bodied immigrant to live off the state. A law passed in 1996 explicitly bars most immigrants, even those with legal status, from receiving almost any federal benefits. (2) That is one reason why America absorbs immigrants better than any other rich countries, according to a new study by the University of California. The researchers sought to measure the effect of immigration on the native-born in 20 rich countries, taking into account differences in skills between immigrants and natives, imperfect labor markets and the size of the welfare state in each country. (3) Their results offer ammunition for fans of more open borders. In 19 out of 20 countries, the authors calculated that shutting the doors entirely to foreign workers would make the native-born worse off. Never mind what it would do to the immigrants themselves, who benefit far more than anyone else from being allowed to cross borders to find work. (4) The study also suggests that most countries could handle more immigration than they currently allow. In America, a one-percentage point increase in the proportion of immigrants in the population made the native-born 0.05% better off. The opposite was true in some countries with generous or ill-designed welfare states, however. A one-point rise in immigration made the native-born slightly worse off in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. In Belgium, immigrants who lose jobs can receive almost two-thirds of their most recent wage in state benefits, which must make the hunt for a new job less urgent. (5) None of these effects was large, but the study undermines the claim that immigrants steal jobs from native or drag down their wages. Many immigrants take jobs that Americans do not want, the study finds. This “smooths” the labor market and ultimately creates more jobs for locals. Native-owned grocery stores do better business because there are immigrants to pick the fruit they sell. Indian computer scientists help American software firms expand. A previous study found that because immigrants typically earn less than locals with similar skills, they boost corporate profits, prompting companies to grow and hire more locals. 1. Increase in immigration in Austria fails to improve locals’ life mainly because of ________.
A、low wages for locals
B、imperfect labor markets
C、the design of the welfare system
D、inadequate skills of immigrants
Meaningfulness affects memory at all levels.Information that does not make any sense to you is difficult to remember.There are several ways in which we can make material more meaningful.Many people, for instance, learn a rhyme to help them remember.Do you know the rhyme "Thirty days has September, April, June, and November..."? It helps many people remember which months of the year have 30 day s.
Organization also makes a difference in our ability to remember.How useful would a library be if the books were kept in random order? Material that is organized is better remembered than jumbled information.One example of organization is chunking.C hunking consists of grouping separate bits of information.For example, the number 4671363 is more easily remembered if it is chunked as 467, 13, 63.Categorizing is another means of organization.Suppose you are asked to remember the following list of wor ds: man, bench, dog, desk, woman, horse, child, cat, chair.Many people will group the words into similar categories and remember them as follows: man, woman, child; cat, dog, horse; bench, chair, desk.Needless to say, the second list can be remembered mo re easily than the first one.
Association refers to taking the material we want to remember and relating it to something we remember accurately.In memorizing a number, you might try to associate it with familiar numbers or events.For example, the heigh t of Mount Fuji in Japan -12,389 feet -might be remembered using the following associations: 12 is the number of months in the year, and 389 is the number of days in a year (365) added to the number of months twice (24).
The last principle is visualizati on.Research has shown striking improvements in many types of memory tasks when people are asked to visualize the items to be remembered.In one study, subjects in one group were asked to learn some words using imagery, while the second group used repetiti on to learn the words.Those using imagery remembered 80 to 90 percent of the words, compared with 30 to 40 percent of the words for those who memorized by repetition.Thus forming an integrated image with all the information placed in a single mental pict ure can help us to preserve a memory.
1.What kind of information is easy for us to remember?()
A.Information that does not make any sense to us
B.Information that we are not familiar with
C.Information that is meaningful to us
D.Information that we are not interested in
2.Which of the following pairs are rhymes?()
A.horse—house
B.right---white
C.come----home
D.how---low
3.The second list of words in para.3 is organized according to().
A.the rhyme
B.the word category
C.th e first letters of words
D.the meanings
4.Books are kept in a library().
A.according to their size
B.in random order
C.in a jumbled way
D.in different categories
5.What method can better help form. a whole mental picture about the ti ngs to be remembered?()
A.Grouping
B.Repetition
C.Imagery
D.Association
A.size(600*400);
B.size(600,400);
C.Size(600,400);
D.Size(600*400);
A.subversive
B.subterranean
C.mysteriousChidden
A.in need of
B.in terms of
C.in case of
D.in favor of