Category: Music

Introduction

The art of creating buildings is one of the most complex and challenging activities that individuals or organizations encounter. It involves fundamentals, preparations, designing, construction, and use among other things. In creating excellent buildings, clients need to be competent and should seek advice from experts (Cuff, 1992).

The National Centre for Popular Music opened a series of new cultural buildings to celebrate the millennium in 1999. Like the Millennium Dome, the visitors were very optimistic. The £15m building was financially unviable and closed in 2000. The result of a RIBA competition created an iconic form in the city of Sheffield. This was the winning scheme by Branson Coates. However, the business plan was fatally flawed. Therefore, the building was eventually taken over by Sheffield Hallam University and reopened as a student Union (Gibson & Connell, 2005; Brabazon & Mallinder, 2006).

Implications for architects, clients, and public buildings

The National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield consisted of four huge stainless steel drums, which occupied an atrium area and an upper floor with a glazed roof. The tops of the drums were built to rotate into the wind. The unique building had many nicknames. Some local people called it a drum. Others referred to it as a curling stone or a kettle. Later on, it was referred to as the museum after things changed leading to its closure. Every drum performed its own function (Brabazon & Mallinder, 2006). For example, the first drum called soundscape, which was created by Martin Ware, used it as a touring project. The other two called Perspectives were used for making music for different purposes, and the last one was supposed to be used in showing music to people all over the world (Hager, 2005).

There was a shop, a bar, a cafe, and an office and exhibition space on the ground floor. The museum was on the top floor. The accommodation of changing exhibitions within the last drum was never fulfilled. This was due to the untimely closure of the National Centre for Popular Music. When asked why the building never succeeded to meet its objectives, the architects blamed the people who were responsible for making the exhibition. This was not true because there were other reasons. Notably, in many areas, the architects were the cause. For instance, in designing the central stair, it was not able to accommodate everything in the display. Visitors too were not able to choose artists of their choice to perform. For example, there are instances where visitors were forced to put their ears in a hole to guess the singer by listening to their voices. There are many other reasons that led to the closure of the National Centre for Popular Music. Furthermore, there was no public support from both local and national clients. The residents never or rarely promoted the project. Some even criticized it by nicknaming it with funny names (Banham, 2000).

The building was not designed to fit its function. The forms and materials used were not innovators. People referred to it as a museum, but in a real sense, it was not or it was because the music was more into the culture. This shows how they perceived the building. They did not consider the place to be interactive and highly technical where they could learn or get educated. In this scenario, the architects should be answerable. In addition, the media (newspapers and radios) did not broadcast or advertise to promote popular culture. People saw it as a bad way to present popular music and that the building was not supposed to be a center, where historical or economic development ideas were discussed (Shepherd, 2003).

Another problem that the National Centre for Popular Music faced was poor infrastructure. The inability to construct facilities that could back up the popular music’s function in society, as well as the lack of long-term strategies was instrumental in its failure. If the government had intervened by enacting and implementing long-term strategic policies immediately after the estimated number of visitors failed to attend, the center may have not been closed. The failure came about as a result of poor advice from the project’s incompetent advisors. Furthermore, the curators did not focus on how people perceived popular music, how it was represented, and its use. If the top management is poor, the middle and lower levels are likely to be even worse. This is exactly what happened in the National Centre for Popular Music (Smith, 2006).

The music was integrated into the culture that even the visitor’s expectations were disappointed. There was no creativity in the music. In this case, the center did not put more effort to make sure that it portrayed the potential of culture and broad educative effect in contexts. The Centre’s location was also a pullback. Poor infrastructure was a barrier to many activities in the area. It was not accessible due to the poor road network. There were no surprises for the visitors and it reached a point when the visitors got bored with the Centre (Hale, Thornt & Gatton, 2010).

It also reached a point where people had to be given some incentives in order to organize activities in the area. The client and the architects should have considered the location and with their competency in the field, make wise strategic decisions before the construction of the National Centre for Popular Music. A local producer and DJ, Winston Hazell confirmed the site where the center is at a place that has neither animation nor cultural consumption. He was heard saying that one had no reason to go to such a place unless he or she was called to a boring meeting or had an office there. He had further noted that the area did not meet Montgomery’s criteria. Montgomery’s criteria were a study that focused on four locations, which were international. Here, the cultural quarters divide among themselves the benefits of good urban places, offering very vital and dependable sets of activities (Andersson, 2012).

The architects should have built a multi-functional center that would have brought broad cultural music into the big picture. There is a difference between the quarter where the National Centre for Popular Music was and the other quarters. In this case, the quarter had focussed on production. On the other hand, the other quarters were commercialized with shops, bars and cafes (Bell, 2004).

One of the Center’s objectives was to be a place that would attract visitors from all corners of the country. It never worked for them, and the region was even forced to lower the incentives. In this case, there was no way they could expect the national movement of the population to be high whereas the local movement was low. In attracting visitors, a nearby region (Manchester) was in a good location with advanced transport facilities and an international airport. Manchester had also an established culture that incorporated media. The media infrastructure comprised the newspaper industry and the Granada television. This helped the city on its own pop music of the late 1980s (Hatherley, 2011).

Manchester was more advanced and densely populated. Other than focusing on cultural production and consumption, it accessed music in the cultural context, expanded the foundation of the economy and many other aspects. Manchester’s way of life makes one draw a mental picture where the two regions contrast markedly. Popular music is portrayed as a way of awareness or means of showing the cultural change. The mono-culture quarter, which required financial support from the public, shows the low level of development in the region (Adams Media Inc, 2009). The center was referred to as a museum. This indicated that it had failed to perform, or it was unable to meet its set goals. This included being a multi-functional Centre with academic institutions and broad contextual cultural music for local and national consumption.

The city’s social and economic growth was a result of the integration of urban economies and cultures. This led to commercial centers, which were rich economically. The architects who had built the National Centre for Popular Music were supposed to lay plans strategically. For instance, they should have put in mind the future expectations of the center to avoid certain cases. Such cases include the central stair being narrow that it could not allow visitors to view musicians performing. They should have built the center in a way to accommodate many functions and not just for one shop, one bar, and one cafeteria. It could have been effective to meet or correct this. However, this could be possible if the architects had paid pre-visits to other centers performing the same tasks in order to gather ideas on the way forward (Hatherley, 2011).

Competent architects with experience were the most preferable because they could have created a design that would fit all the functions that the Centre intended to hold. Blaming and criticizing the exhibition as an instrumental reason for the Center’s failure was very untrue. They played a part or were among the reasons why the National Centre for Popular Music never excelled. The other reason included overestimation of the capacity of the number of visitors to the Centre from a consultant’s report. In addition, there were high charges as entry fees, a limited number of exhibits, lack of public space for parking the visitors’ vehicles and poor media infrastructure (Hatherley, 2011).

Conclusion

After learning the reasons that made the Centre collapse, the city council of Sheffield launched a new cultural strategy to set the city’s direction. The council’s vision for the city of Sheffield is to make it the Centre of European culture. The council is set to help the community to be successful. This will ensure that all citizens, communities, and businesses fully participate in the realization of a strong economy. The council will aim to stick with innovative and high-quality design all through the buildings in the city. It will also make sure that the environment is green with open public spaces for public use. The cultural policy of Sheffield is meant to create high-quality cultural spaces for people living there.

References

Adams Media Inc 2009, The National job bank 2010, Adams Media, Avon, MA.

Andersson, O 2012, Experiment! planning, implementing, and interpreting, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.

Banham, M 2000, The Cambridge guide to theatre, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [u.a.].

Bell, D 2004, City of quarters: urban villages in the contemporary city, Ashgate, Aldershot [u.a.].

Brabazon, T & Mallinder, S 2006, Popping the museum: the cases of Sheffield and Preston; Museum and society, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 96-112.

Cuff, D 1992, Architecture: the story of practice, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Gibson, C & Connell, J 2005, Music and tourism: on the road again, Channel View Publications, Clevedon, Toronto.

Hager, 2005, Encyclopedia of British writers, Facts On File, New York, NY.

Hale, D, Thornton, T, & Gatton, K 2010, Sounds of the 60s: A pictorial record of numerous musical stars from the 1960s, Coast and Country Productions Ltd. Llandudno.

Hatherley, O 2011, Guide to the new ruins of Great Britain, Verso, London.

Shepherd, J 2003, Continuum encyclopedia of popular music of the world: Volume 1: Media, industry and society, Continuum, London, [England].

Smith, MK 2006, Tourism, culture, and regeneration, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK, CABI Pub.

Goals

This website will be used to market various local and international musicvideos from different musicians all over the world. The main aim is to generate web traffic so as to attract more than one thousand visitors per day.

By doing so, the business will be able to grow as the visitors will watch previews of released music videos online. They can purchase them online and thus the company will be able to grow in profits and revenue.

The main audience being targeted is the youth who are between their early teenage and late teen years. This is because they are the ones who are usually interested in the latest trends in the music industry. From the site, they will be able to access the latest single hits fashion trends in the industry.

The site also provides them with the physical address of the business where they can purchase the videos. More so, they can still order them online and have them delivered at their premises. Such convenience is what makes them visit the site again.

Requirements

The website should be able to support various advertising contents for upcoming musicians as well as established musicians who are basically selling their design labels. Being a music video website, it should support live streaming of videos and downloads. The browser type is also relevant as the customers’ bandwidth capability should be taken into account to enable browse.

The bandwidth will also determine determines their frequency of visiting the website. Another requirement is to ensure the website can support various browsers, adjust to different screen sizes especially mobile phones since most use their phones when browsing.

Site Plan

The website’s goal is to ensure there is a minimum of two hundred visits per day and downloads of more than one gigabyte of data. The site plan ensures that the audience is provided with a chat zone with the management of the music store as well as the web master.

They can also be allowed to comment and chat among themselves. The content required in the site is images of the musician albums, mp3 music to accompany the videos, download video files and messages from the musicians.

The technical requirement involves the use of HTML, PHP, RSS, CGI and JavaScript so as to make sure the website is secure, static and dynamic. Being an entertainment website, it will need a lot of visuals graphics in terms of colored fonts for the texts, manageable bandwidth, plug-ins that support both marquees and flash players needed to make the site attractive to the visitor.

The hosting of the site can be done in any domain but most preferably is the “.com” domain as it matches an entertainment website. The site requires a lot of bandwidth for the storage of the video clips and online streaming of the videos.

The preferred budget in designing the site will be manageable, although, the website will be able to generate more income through downloads and affiliate advertisements. The site can be managed by two members of staff who will be dedicated to uploading new videos and answering the customer comments and concerns. The achievement of the website can be analyzed after a month’s timeline.

Events & Issues

The events that triggered the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) to initiate change events have been captured in the text book as the forces of change. From the case scenario, it is clear that the RCM has been influenced by both external and internal forces to adopt change efforts or risk becoming irrelevant.

The external forces of change have been triggered by stiff competition from the University of Toronto and lack of traditional role, arising from the annexation by the University of Toronto. The internal forces of change arise from the difficulties in operations caused by the annexation that occurred in the 1950s, as well as lack of location.

The strategies that the president of RCM, Mr. Peter Simon, has taken to steer the change efforts have also been well outlined in the text book.

Among these strategies, it is clear that Mr. Simon is interested in streamlining product/service delivery and costs by doing away with excess members of staff and closing loss-making local branches, changing the organizational culture from an academic-led culture to a corporate-oriented culture, diversification of products/services through the introduction of new programs, and venturing into more local and international markets by adopting expansionist strategies.

Success of Peter Simon

A critical analysis of the case problem demonstrates that Mr. Simon is gradually succeeding in turning around the fortunes of the RCA, implying that his change strategies are working.

Evidence of success can be found in how new programs have succeeded to penetrate international markets, thereby bringing more revenue to the organization, introduction of three more product offerings to the organization’s traditional classical music orientation (diversification), and expansion by developing its new Telus Centre for Performance and Learning.

These undertakings to a large extent increase the profitability and competitiveness of an organization

Shift from Academic to Corporate Culture

An organizational culture is a central pillar of any successful change effort, and Mr. Simon demonstrates this unique understanding by initiating efforts that will change the organizational culture of the RCA from being academic-oriented (arising from the fact that the RCA was founded by the University of Toronto as a teaching institution) to a corporate-oriented culture, which is primarily directed by the urge to post profits for the organization’s shareholders.

The two notions are not incompatible in the sense that an academic-oriented culture, as is the case with a corporate-oriented culture, can be directed by the urge to make profits and remain competitive in the marketplace.

However, the RCA had to initiate a shift in organizational culture if it expected to survive the ever competitive environment due to fact that its initial owner – the University of Toronto – was offering similar programs and competing in the same markets although using an academic-oriented culture.

Advice

To remain competitive in the future, Mr. Simon needs to continue diversifying the product/service offerings and globalize the programs to increase the markets and opportunities for more growth and competitiveness.

The President also needs to adopt strategies that will continue lowering the operation costs and initiate strategies that will be primarily aimed at learning the needs and expectations of the local and global markets with the view to establish a strong customer base that will be instrumental in taking the RCA’s agenda forward.

These expansionist and diversification strategies will guarantee the RCA of its own customer base, and hence the organization will cease to be accused of poaching students and music programs from the University of Toronto.

Executive Summary

All organizations endeavor to streamline diversity and inclusion in their workplaces. In most scenarios, diversity and inclusion is a key component of a company’s mission statement. Diversity and inclusion applies to all relationship components in an organization including customer-to-employee and employee-to-employee contacts. This paper addresses a diversity and inclusion issue that involves the type of music that is played in the office.

The main office houses approximately twenty-five employees who have diverse cultural backgrounds. The issue of the music that is played through the main sound system has been raised by various employees. Most of the employees have complained that the genres of music that is played in the office do not apply to their cultural affiliation and they fail to represent the majority of the employees’ listening needs.

This diversity issue requires to be addressed in respect to the goal of increasing productivity among employees. This paper seeks to address the issue of the music genres that are played in the workplace, and how it can be handled in respect to diversity and inclusion. The method of handling this diversity issue in the workplace involves both collective and individual efforts.

Situational Overview

The diversity and inclusion issue in the workplace started when the human resource department received several complaints involving the genres of music that are played in the workplace. Our organization features five offices that house different departments in the organization. However, the main workplace is contained under one floor with employees having desks as workstations. Initially, employees were allowed to play music individually.

However, the sounds of various types of music playing in the work floor ended up being the source of disharmony and distraction among workers. The management resolved to allow people to listen to music via headphones and earpieces. However, this development started interfering with inter-personal communication between workers thereby lowering overall productivity. The final resolve was to install a sound system in the main work floor. The idea was to make a sound system that would match the professional ambience of the office.

Having a single sound system has eliminated the confusion that was common when workers listened to different kinds of music. The sound system has also brought a harmonic tone in the work environment. Nevertheless, a significant number of workers have filed complaints with the human resource department complaining about several issues in relation to the type of music that is often played through the sound system.

First, some workers have complained that the music that is played only caters to African Americans and the majority Caucasian cultures. More specifically, some workers have complained about lack of Latin, punk, and heavy metal genres of music in the office playlist. Workers have argued that some cultures are ‘hogging’ a music system that was supposed to serve all people in the office.

Some workers also recognize that in the first few days, the initiative brought class and harmony to the office but soon ‘some elements’ took over the music system. For instance, some workers have requested that they be allowed to listen to music in their own computers because they ‘do not enjoy’ any of the music that is played through the music system. The other issue is that some workers have complained that some of the music that is played in the work place is offensive.

Furthermore, some workers have requested that the speakers in the workplace be used to play radio-music. The person in charge of the current playlist selection is Mike, a twenty-five year old African American who mostly works in the shipping and receiving department. The human resource department has resolved to solve this music playlist problem in relation to the diversity and inclusion policies in the workplace.

Recommendations- Actions

The first recommendation is to make the playlist all-inclusive. Making the music all-inclusive might involve having employees make up the playlist collectively. For instance, it is recommendable to have employees deposit their music in a single storage and then play it randomly. Consequently, if all employees dropped one hundred tracks each, the music that is more popular will most likely be on heavy rotation.

Furthermore, all employees will have contributed to the music equally. Another recommendation is to have a ‘play-list launch party’ where all employees celebrate the diversity of all cultures. In this kind of party, all employees can dance to all kinds of music and possibly learn to appreciate other genres.

The third recommendation is to have designated days/weeks/months when specific genres of music are highlighted. For instance, there can be hip-hop Mondays, rock Wednesdays, and other genre-themed days in the office. This music-of-the-day concept can have an impact in equalizing the significance of all genres of music among workers. This inclusivity can end up creating a workplace that aligns with the organization’s policy of cultivating diversity.

Implementation Issues

The first factor to consider when resolving the issue of music that is played in the workplace is to have a general overview of how inclusion and diversity would relate to a problem. In this case, a workplace that embraces diversity and inclusion would play music that embodies these concepts. Furthermore, in a diverse and inclusive environment, workers would have the ability to enjoy music that is not necessarily from their own culture.

The other issue to consider is our organization’s definition of diversity in relation to its mission. For instance, it is the mission of the organization to maintain a work floor that embraces diversity with the view of improving productivity. Diversity also depends on the demographic composition of the organization. This is a central issue in the consideration of music genres in the workplace. It is important to consider how the recommendations will impact the organization’s overall functions.

For example, a work floor that has no harmony can cause various types of problems for the company. The history of the organization’s work floor inclusion and diversity is important in determining how changes in the process will affect a firm.

Another important consideration when making inclusion and diversity adjustments is the economic and time resources that are required to effect these changes. In matters of inclusion and diversity, it is important to consider “any additional monetary or in-kind resources the organization will commit to its diversity work (staff time), as well as other funding” (Thomas 65).

Desired Result/Impact

The recommendations for inclusion and diversity will achieve various benefits for the employees. For instance, the recommendation to have employees collectively constitute a playlist will enhance collaboration. The collaboration between employees can be transferred into other aspects of productivity within the workplace (Roberson 212). The recommendation to have an event that celebrates music diversity among employees develops a sense of communal practice.

The communal practice can aid in an organization in achieving its goals and objectives. The recommendation to have themed-days also sensitizes employees against issues that accompany lack of inclusion and diversity. For instance, the overall question in matters of inclusion and diversity is whether “we are willing to live with discomfort for a time in order to achieve healthy and whole communities” (Syrett and Sepulveda 487). Themed days can create discomforts for some individuals but they are also great tools for accessing diversity.

Through diversity and inclusion, “diverse teams aim at achieving greater innovation and creativity, thereby enabling them to outperform homogenous teams” (Cox and Blake 46). Consequently, a work floor that features a diverse but homogeneous team is more likely to perform better than one that is divided along the lines of music genres.

On the other hand, conflict and communication problems affect both progress and innovativeness in an organization. Cox and Blake also recognize that inclusion and diversity attracts a more qualified workforce (48). In this case, conflicts between cultures in the work floor might lead to problems in workforce management therefore, lowering productivity.

The first two solutions to the problem of music choices within the workplace provided only temporary solutions to this issue. The reason for the initial failures of the inclusion and diversity issues is that it was solely engineered by the human resource department without the overall involvement of all the workers (Jayne and Dipboye 413).

The current recommendations seek to initiate a process that gradually brings about diversity within the workplace. For instance, a music/dance event that brings about inclusion and diversity is an agent of change as opposed to it being a tool (Chavez and Weisinger 332). The current process of achieving inclusion and diversity is gradual but the results are likely to be more long lasting.

Works Cited

Chavez, Carolyn, and Judith Weisinger. “Beyond Diversity Training: A Social Infusion for Cultural Inclusion.” Human Resource Management 47.2 (2008): 331-350. Print.

Cox, Taylor, and Stacy Blake. “Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications for Organizational Competitiveness.” The Executive 3.4 (1999): 45-56. Print.

Jayne, Michele, and Robert Dipboye. “Leveraging Diversity to Improve Business Performance: Research Findings and Recommendations for Organizations.” Human Resource Management 43.4 (2004): 409-424. Print.

Roberson, Quinetta. “Disentangling the Meanings of Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations.” Group & Organization Management 31.2 (2006): 212-236. Print.

Syrett, Stephen, and Leandro Sepulveda. “Realising the Diversity Dividend: Population Diversity and Urban Economic Development.” Environment and Planning 43.2 (2011): 487-504. Print.

Thomas, Kecia. Diversity Resistance in Organizations, New York: Psychology Press, 2012. Print.

It needs to be said that most of the stores that were opened by music labels have struggled and had to be closed. One of the main reasons for their failure to attract subscribers is the lack of diversity in their music catalogues. They only offered a small range of full-length albums by the artists that have signed to their label, and it have led to numerous problems. It is imperative to understand that the industry has changed dramatically over the last few years.

People in the modern society want to have the access to everything at once, and those stores were not able to provide it. Individuals that wish to buy music from different artists would have to be subscribed to multiple services at once, and it seemed unreasonable. Apple was able to utilize the strength of its brand to create a store that would be extremely successful.

The stores that were established by labels, on the other hand, did not have the necessary piracy protection technologies or a trendy product such as an IPod that would help them to attract customers (Sadeghi 2012). Also, labels were not ready for such drastic changes because they have focused mostly on CDs, and other music formats were viewed as a significant threat. It was too late to open such stores at that time. Nowadays, they cannot offer the music only in one place because it will significantly damage the sales of the artists.

A dramatic shift towards digital music should have been noticed by record labels, and it would help them to address this problem. They could have cooperated and created a platform with all the available resources that would allow them to dominate the market. A single store similar to Itunes or Amazon Music would have most likely become extremely successful.

However, it would not be an easy task because of all the copyright issues that could occur, and it would be extremely hard to change the whole process of distribution. An alternative music format could also be developed, but it is not as easy as it sounds. Also, it can be seen that music albums do not sell as well as they used to be. It would not have been surprising if an artist sold more than one million copies over a period of just one week few years ago.

Nowadays, the situation is entirely different. Also, it is highly likely that the sales will continue to decline with increasing popularity of streaming services (Tschmuck 2012). It can be seen that Spotify and Apple Music currently hold leading positions (Burgess 2014).

Nowadays, it is not an easy task to get into this business. Tidal is one of the best examples because the service currently struggles to retain subscribers. It offers unique content, and the audio quality is significantly better. However, some of the issues that were present during the launch were viewed as a significant problem by most customers. Also, it does not have such a huge brand and library of music.

In conclusion, it is extremely necessary to keep track of trends in the industry to make sure that the company can get an advantage over competitors. New technologies are always developing, and this fact should not be disregarded. Music labels could have addressed current problems if they were able to predict the popularity of digital music.

Reference List

Burgess, R 2014, The history of music production, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Sadeghi, S 2012, Defensive strategy – Apple’s overlooked key to success, Epubli, Berlin, GE.

Tschmuck, P 2012, Creativity and innovation in the music industry, Springer Science & Business Media, New York, NY.

Introduction

Apple Computers Inc. was incorporated in early 1977. Its primary business was the manufacture of personal computers. Apple’s primary target was to make privet individuals to own a computer. This strategy has changed over the years. It has incorporated other devices into its production line (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). Over the years, Apple’s innovations have revolutionized the smart devices market.

The company was reluctant to venture into the mobile phone market at first. Steve Jobs once said that Apple would not manufacture a phone. His reason was the company’s incapacity to control what went into the device (Meyer, 2010). A few years later, Apple produced the iPhone.

The iPhone is just one of Apple’s leading products. ITunes allows subscribers to download music and movies at a fee. This innovation fundamentally changed music distribution worldwide. The company does not earn substantial amounts from this service. Apple capitalizes on its influence on other products instead.

It significantly increases iPod’s sales as many customers use it to store their music and movies (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). The iPod is Apples cash cow, generating up to 40% of its revenues (Meyer, 2010). Apple’s iPhone combines mobile phone and iPod features.

The company operates in a highly competitive industry, competing directly with cell phones, computers, digital content and consumer electronics. Apple combines innovation and smart marketing strategies to maintain its competitive advantage (Meyer, 2010).

Strategic challenges facing Apple Computer

Apple Computer keeps a tight control over the quality of its products (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). This has assured its customers of high quality products and services from the company. Keeping this control and maintaining quality is a challenge facing the company.

Various companies supply its product components. These include; Texas Instruments, Phillips and Samsung. Some of these suppliers have expressed concern over Jobs’ controlling nature (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). Maintaining a balance between quality controls and good relationships with suppliers is a major challenge for the company.

Apple’s innovative ability has always been the hallmark of its success. It produces attractive pieces which competitors keep reproducing (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). The challenge to Apple is maintaining these abilities.

Remaining innovative helps to keep its products unique and different from its competitors. As it expands globally, keeping its innovations secret will be another challenge. Information on designs and other important details may leak from its factories worldwide.

Apple’s traditional clients were technology savvy fanatics. Its customer base has widened with an increase in its products. Some of its products aim at specific consumer groups such as students (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). Marketing to these diverse markets and meeting their expectations is going to be a huge challenge. Eye-catching marketing ads have always been associated with Apple.

With a wider and varied customer base, the company needs to remain relevant. Satisfying a varied customer base is not going to be easy for Apple. There are customers who prefer products that are compatible with different devices. Apple has always preferred services that are only compatible with its products. Meeting these expectations require a change of tactics.

The company is expanding globally (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). This will require a professional team to handle the increased exposure. It will also need to create and maintain good relationships with all the stakeholders. This is a significant challenge for Apple.

This is because it has always relied on Steve Jobs for this. It needs other faces to show passion for the brand and boost its popularity. Jobs could not do it alone after the expansion. There should be a succession plan in place.

Measuring company success

There are various ways by which a company’s success can be measured. Accounting measures are popular methods of measuring company success along financial lines. These include; profitability, return of assets and return on equity ratios among others.

They give a snapshot of the financial status of a company. Data that can be quantified is used in this method. The problem is that these methods do not take qualitative data into account. A company’s success is only measured in financial aspects (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2010).

Using a balanced scorecard can give a balanced assessment of a company’s success. Accounting measures are applied alongside three other measures. This method considers different perspectives. These are; the internal processes, accounting measures, learning and growth, and customer perspectives. By considering both qualitative and quantitative data, one gets a balanced analysis s of the company.

The balanced scorecard reveals the weaknesses and strengths of a company. This measure is similar to the triple bottom line method of measuring company success. When applying the triple bottom line, one considers both the environmental and social successes of the company (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2010).

Benchmarking focuses on the current success of a company in different aspects. It also looks at ways of improving or maintaining that success. Significant factors affecting a company’s success are identified. These are then measured and used as a yardstick. The company must aim at meeting and surpassing these measures. Customer satisfaction, return on assets, profitability and return on equity are commonly used as benchmarks.

Internal and external environmental factors affecting Apple’s future

A company’s future significantly depends on its competitive advantage in the market (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2010). This is heavily influenced by factors in its internal and external environment. Apple has a rich well of resources, both tangible and intangible.

The company’s wealth, however, lies in its intangible resources. Apple’s employees have a knack for innovative designs. Its CEO-Steve Jobs is a good example of an innovative mind within Apple. He has been the brain behind many of its innovations.

The company’s brand is another internal resource. It is associated with attractive, high quality devices (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). It has also created a network of good relationships with other players in the industry. This has enabled it to make agreements with music record companies and movie makers.

These partnerships have been the bedrock of iTunes’s success. The personal qualities of Steve Jobs have helped the company to maintain a good public image. He has also helped to maintain good relations between the company and its customers.

Apple’s internal capabilities are in advertising, production and marketing. It produces products that cater for its diverse markets. Its creative adverts and marketing strategies reward it with high sales. Its core competence is innovation. The company comes up with new technology and devices regularly. This gives it a healthy competitive edge over its competitors (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012).

In the external environment, a variety of factors are likely to affect Apple’s future strategies and success. The digital media industry that Apple has ventured into is fiercely competitive. Entry barriers are low. The capital required is not prohibitive and many firms with resources can easily invest.

ITunes, iPod and the iPhone face stiff competition from new and existing entrants in the market (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). The future of Apple depends on how well it maintains its competitive advantage.

Apple’s products face competition from cheaper brands. Its customers have easy access to products that can substitute Apple’s products. Its competitors, who produce and sell similar products at a cheaper price, threaten Apple’s dominance. Global markets such as Japan are saturated with competitors. Apple has found it hard to penetrate this market because local manufacturers have a strong hold over it (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012).

Its operations are affected by copyright laws. It sells protected material on iTunes (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). It, therefore, has to protect these products from copyright violations. This is a significant factor in the arrangements it makes with music records and movie companies.

Technological advancements also affect Apple’s business significantly. As technology changes, it has to be innovative to remain relevant. Consumers want the latest technological devices. Its survival depends on how well it keeps pace with changes in technology.

Apple’s strategy in the face of rivalry

Apple’s marketing and innovative strategies make it a leader in the industry. It consistently produces innovative products whose popularity is unrivaled in the industry. Though similar products exist, they do not match apple in quality. Apple’s customers have become accustomed to superior experiences (Chapman & Hoskisson, 2012). However, the incompatibility of its services with other products could be its undoing.

Competitors such as Microsoft and Samsung manufacture products that are compatible with many devices. The company’s advertising and marketing strategies maintain its competitiveness. It operates its own outlets that increase its products’ exposure. Apple’s strategies have fared favorably even with fierce rivalry within the industry.

Recommendations

The popularity of the iPhone and other products exposes Apple to increased malware threats. The company should increase the security of its products. Assuring customers of the safety of their devices will maintain customer confidence.

As the company enters the music industry, it should maintain the core values of the Apple brand. Innovative, high quality products should be maintained. Customers’ expectations of the Apple brand should be satisfied even in new markets.

Current products; phones, iPods computers and other should be updated. This will differentiate them from the competing products. It will also ensure that they remain relevant as technology changes. The company should craft a succession plan.

It relies significantly on Steve Jobs for its public image. He is Mr. “fix it” when things go wrong. The company should groom other persons for the role. The press and other stakeholders should have other faces to associate the brand with.

Apple has a reputation of concentrating on its customers and not on competitors. This is a good strategy as the company establishes an intimate bond with them. It learns what customers prefer and focuses on satisfying them. However, the competition it faces is increasing by the day. It faces threats not only from established companies but also startups.

It should pay more attention to competitors without becoming obsessed with them. As the company seeks to partner with different companies, it should not lose its control over quality. These partnerships are necessary in its global expansion plant. As it grows big, it may lose its original strengths. It should guard against this to maintain customer loyalty.

References

Chapman, R & Hoskisson, R (2012), Apple Computer Inc.: Maintaining the Music Business While Introducing iPhone, Case Study.

Hitt, M , Ireland, R & Hoskisson, R (2010), Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization, South Western Educational Publishing, Sydney.

Meyer, C (2010), 7 Challenges Facing Apple after Surpassing Microsoft’s Market Cap, Retrieved from http://www.workingwider.com/strategic_innovation/7-challenges-facing-apple-after-surpassing-microsofts-market-cap/

Executive Summary

The paper analyses the roles of the key stakeholders in the Wollongong music festival. By outlining the key concerns (the possible conflicts with the businesses adjoining the venue), the essay defines the possible conflicts and provides the means of addressing them. Most importantly, preventive measures have been designed so that the specified conflicts could be avoided.

Introduction

The idea of organising a large scale music festival may sound fun, yet it presupposes dealing with a number of issues. Because of the location (a residential area), the festival may cause major conflicts with the businesses adjoining the venue (BAV). A wise choice of a negotiation strategy and a careful adjustment of the noise rates will help organise the Wollongong Festival successfully.

Businesses Adjoining the Venture (BAV)

Noise Issues

Since the festival is going to be held several days running and will take place not only on weekends but also on regular days, the BAV may complain about the noise issues. The concerns of the BAV are quite understandable since loud noises will not only prevent the staff from working, therefore, reducing the employees’ organizational behaviour, but also affecting the BAV’s productivity. The noise issue, however, can be resolved rather easily by sending the BAV managers notifications regarding the on-coming event and suggesting that the issue could be solved with the rearrangement of the staff’s schedule (Gibson & Connell 2012, p. 99) The given measure seems a reasonable compromise, since it will allow each stakeholder some room for retaining their profits, and at the same time offers a reasonable compromise for each party to make.

Negotiation Strategy

As it has been stressed above, the event is most likely to trigger a major concern among the BAV. Therefore, a proper negotiation strategy must be used in order to satisfy every stakeholder and hold the event without facing any major obstacles or causing any damage to the local entrepreneurship. It should be born in mind that the specified situation incorporates such factors as emergency looms, a considerable time limit, and the necessity to retain positive relationships with the BAV. Hence, a mixture of several key negotiation approaches must be used in order to convince the VAT to allow the organization to hold the event. In other words, a mixture of a collaborating and a compromising negotiation style must be used in the process (Gibson & Connell 2012, p. 11).

Conclusion

Coming up with the design of a music festival is not an easy task. The possibility of a conflict between some of the parties is very high. Therefore, the interests of every stakeholder must be taken into consideration. By choosing the negotiation and people management strategies carefully, the people organising the event may avoid major conflicts with the local BAV.

Reference List

Gibson, C & Connell, J 2012, Music festivals and regional development in Australia, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., Burlington, MA.

Appendix A: Source Summary

Gibson and Connell offer an overview of the methods for a successful event arrangement in Australia. The authors analyse the roles of the key stakeholders closely and outline the key issues, suggesting the means of addressing them. The book is closely related to the topic of the essay and serves as the key reference point.

Aims

The slogan of the company is “the place for the best alternative music. From indie pop and iconic rock to trip hop, electronica and dance with great archive music sessions, live music concerts and documentaries” (BBC Radio 6 Music 2014, para. 1). The aim of BBC Radio 6 Music is to delight and captivate the admirers of contemporary music with an assistance of the radio that commemorates the alternative attitude and essence in trendy music from the 1960s to the current times. Its agenda places on-going issues apart from the prevailing releases with prior recordings side by side, involving the music from various archives. Moreover, the BBC Radio 6 Music is obliged to present the background for the recordings that are playing on the radio, and encourage live music and recent composers and singers.

Funding

BBC 6 Music Radio has a financial service plan of £7.8 million in for the last two years. Any arranged or truly existing adjustment in disbursement occurring yearly on the BBC 6 Music Radio of more than ten percent in actual expense demands confirmation from the BBC Trust and can be allowed to involve divergence of the Service Licence. This criterion of adjustment is established in order to grant disparities in wasting, which appear from ordinary, periodic circumstances such as paying out monetary funds on big sports occurrences, a moderate and acceptable grade of functional resilience (for example, an arrangement of the programmes) and variations in bookkeeping strategy. Taking into consideration all these aspects, the Trust might decide that prearranged, or truly existing adjustment in disbursement occurring yearly in less than ten percent should need its consent if the insinuations of this are noteworthy for the integrity of the service or its retail.

Public purposes

BBC 6 Music Radio has a duty to display certain or every of the next features: high quality, unique, stimulating, ground-breaking and appealing, and it should cultivate the hidden and actual talents of the United Kingdom. BBC 6 Music Radio have a duty to distribute its sphere of activity by involving individuals who are concerned with music and who desire to absorb more information about it. The recordings of the radio station have an intention of focusing on foremost performers and material that failed to obtain abundant maintenance from various other radio stations. It aims to suggest an extensive assortment of material with recent songs, live performances, less famous records and the achievements of the artists of the United Kingdom significantly embodied in its output.

BBC 6 Music Radio contains a durable component of recently documented and archived live performances during the day and in the late afternoons. “Tracks, sessions and concerts from the BBC Sound Archive should provide an important element of the output and the station should add recordings of festivals, concerts and its own sessions to the archive” (BBC 6 Music 2012, para 3).

Moreover, the BBC 6 Music station provides the background to the recordings by the means of an authoritative performance, aspects, and life stories, which tend to advance a comprehension of the music and its background, or replicate the relations between the music and social tendencies. The agenda suggests systematic announcements involving the recent music newscast throughout the morning podcasts; moreover, the BBC 6 Music Radio administers comprehensive examination and evaluation of advancements in widespread music tendencies by the means of authoritative performance, aspects, and life stories. Other observable features of the popular culture are examined as well.

Own opinion

In my opinion, BBC 6 Music Radio provides a subject matter of high excellence, which inspires the application of artificial platforms and devices for radio listening (Laughlin 2011). Podcasts of the BBC 6 Music Radio are maintained by an interdependent online platform, involving certain usage of graphic augmentations; therefore, viewers and the listeners are stimulated to interrelate and interconnect with the station, thereby increasing the popularity of the radio. “BBC 6 Music should contribute to BBC Radio’s commitment to commission some output from independent producers” (BBC 6 Music 2012, para. 7).

View of the shadow

“The BBC Radio 6 Music also includes presentations from the BBC music archives, including the Peel Sessions’ put together by John Peel from the late 1960s to 2004” (BBC 6 Music 2012, para. 8).

Mix of programs that the station offers

BBC Radio 6 Music divides shared aspects and DJs with both BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 (BBC 6 Music 2012). For example, it runs a podcast of similar ‘A/B/C’ construction to both other BBC radios and frequently distributes choosy compositions on its ‘A’ playlist on several radios, even though it is commonly fewer dependent upon chart compositions than the prevailing radios.

On the other hand, late afternoon and holiday podcasts promote a more varied assortment of compositions across categories both widespread and less known, with the podcasts devoted to assorted styles of dance, jazz, soul, Jamaican music, etc. (iPlayer Radio BBC Radio 6 Music 2002).

Strengths and weaknesses

The BBC 6 Music Radio has the strength of involving more and more audience annually. “In February 2010, 6 Music was reported as showing growth in its audience; winning an audience of 695,000 listeners, up 12.3% year-on-years” (Plunkett 2010, para. 2). BBC 6 Music Radio also has an advantage of using innovative technologies in order to guarantee that the listeners and the viewers are provided with the utmost possibility to approach podcasts as and when they need to (BBC 6 Music overtakes Radio 3 for the first time 2014).

Reference List

BBC 6 Music 2012. Web.

BBC 6 Music overtakes Radio 3 for the first time . 2014. Web.

BBC Radio 6 Music. 2014. Web.

iPlayer Radio BBC Radio 6 Music. 2002. Web.

Laughlin, A 2011, BBC 6 Music attracts record audience. Web.

Plunkett, J 2010, Jazz FM, 6Music and Radio 7 are bright spots amid digital radio’s gloom. Web.

Admittedly, it is crucial to choose the most appropriate visual and verbal message to attract the target audience. The flyers used as well as Facebook posts have to include the most evocative messages which can be created with the help of images, colors, layout, and so on.

The band performs country music with some elements of rock. Therefore, it is possible to make focus on such elements as country music, rock, exclusiveness, openness, and closeness. At that, it is crucial to make sure that performers, as well as their albums, will be present at the ads and recognized by the audience.

Thus, it is possible to use a cover page of Parmalee’s album Feels Like Carolina (2014). The image is informative and evocative (see Figure 1). In the first place, it contains a photo of the performers. Thus, viewers can see their idols and get ‘acquainted’ with them. Notably, the performers are wearing jeans and some shirts which are common for casual style. In fact, this is the clothes Americans wear.

The tattoos and jewelry hint that performers like rock style and their music has elements of this kind of music. Colors used to create a calm atmosphere as green, blue, and grey are utilized. Admittedly, these are colors of a calm and relaxed mood. Thus, a feeling of home or a place where one wants to stay is created. Country music is associated with such emotions.

Furthermore, the background of the image is the landscape, which is typical of Carolina as well as other American states. As has been mentioned above, the verbal message is also essential.

There are three simple words at the top of the page, “Feels like Carolina” (Feels like Carolina, 2014). The words are linked to the messages created by the images and layout. It is clear that these guys are making music which is close and understandable to every American’s heart.

The other photo used also creates a calming atmosphere but it adds another meaning as well. The performers are depicted sitting at the table (Parmalee: Home, 2014). It looks like the performers are sitting at someone’s home (see figure 2). Colors are also calm as blue and grey tinges are employed.

At the same time, this can be such a setting as a bar or a club. The verbal message enhances the idea of exclusiveness and inclusiveness at the same time. It is clear that people depicted are members of an elite group but they are very friendly and even inviting. Thus, the image also exploits the emotional element. The performers are smiling and look very friendly. This appeals to the audience and people want to join such a friendly elite group.

To sum up, it is possible to state that the choice of photos is effective as they help to communicate major messages to the target audience. The image creates an atmosphere of an inviting and relaxed place where people want to stay. It is clear that the band performs country with elements of rock which is close and understandable for Americans.

Reference List

Feels like Carolina [Image]. (2014). Web.

Parmalee: Home [Image]. (2014).

Managers in organizations are tasked with making decisions aimed at achieving their set objectives. In fact, every organization has profit maximization and cost reduction as their key objectives. Therefore, managers do everything within their reach to make sure that key objectives are met. Managers ensure that they understand all aspects in the market hence being able to manipulate their operations. This helps the organization to react to changes in the market which may pose threats to the organization (Brickley, Smith and Zimmerman, 2009). Apple’s managers came up with various strategies to make sure that their iTunes music store remains profitable. This move was caused by increased competition from other players in online music stores. In fact, most of these competitors sold their music at lower prices hence attracting more customers.

To caution Apple’s iTunes music store from these threats, managers came up with various strategies, which included, products differentiation. This is where managers came up with three prices in order to capture customers. Depending on demand and quality of music in their iTunes store, they made them available at different prices. For example, some songs can be downloaded for 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29 hence making it affordable to various groups of customers. In fact, the decision was made to ensure that customers download just what is ideal for their pockets (Keat and Young, 2006). Many customers prefer these categories since they can get what they want at prices that are favorable to them.

In addition to the pricing strategy, they dropped digital rights management from their songs. Competitors used this as a tactic to beat Apple Inc. in the market as customers preferred downloading music that they can play on their devices regardless of their manufacturers. Songs downloaded from iTunes music store could not be copied because they had copy protections. Apple’s managers considered to drop this in line with adjustment of prices in order to retain their loyal customers. In fact, since they are known for quality online music, majority of their customers tend to download from them regardless of their oppressive conditions. These motivated managers to drop such applications in order to make sure that their customers are comfortable whenever buying music from their stores.

Apple’s DRM made it impossible for customers to play music from their competitors. This was a strategy aimed at ensuring that Apple’s devices should be used to play music from their online stores only. This made sure that the organization sold its music at high prices as customers had no other options. This means that regardless of their products being sold at high prices, customers bought them due to lack of alternatives. Songs downloaded from other companies could not play on Apple’s devices. As a result, they came up with a strategy to charge their customers in order to access music from competitors on their devices. iTunes customers could consider parting with some extra cents in order to use products from Apple’s competitors. This was meant to discourage use of products from their competitors hence safeguarding their market share.

Apple’s managers realized that competition has become very tough hence coming up with strategies aimed at improving their nature of competition. For instance, they came up with a strategy that required customers to pay 30 cents to upgrade their songs to versions that can play on competitor’s devices (Brickley, Smith and Zimmerman, 2009). Customers felt relieved because they could download songs from iTunes music store and play them on their devices. Managers ensured that they benefited from every decision they made hence ensuring that their organization generated more revenue. For instance, 30 cents required to upgrade every song translates to a lot of money for the organization.

References

Brickley, J., Smith, C., & Zimmerman, J. (2009). Managerial economics and organizational architecture (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.

Keat, P. G. & Young, P. K. (2006) Managerial economics: economic tools for today’s decision makers. Michigan: Pearson Prentice Hall.