Raccoons essays

Raccoons essays Raccoons breed between January and March, the peak is around Feburary. The male raccoon pairy only to mate, and they don't form long term pair bonds with the female. The females pregnancy only lasts nine weeks, and the young begin to follow their mothers on excursions by early June. Younger female raccoon's breed at a lower rate and have smaller litters than do older adult females.Less than 70% of younger females are bred, with an average litter size of 3.3 young. 95% of adult females are bred, and have an average of 4 young per litter. Breeding by adult females is normally constant from year to year, while breeding by the younger ones can be different. The youngers ones' breeding rates are suppose to reflect the severity of the previous winter and the overall health of the population. The major causes of mortality for raccoons in the Midwest are fur harvest, getting run over by a vehical, and diseases. Starvation is pretty rare. As fur harvest decreases, mortality from other causes will likely increase. The most common disease in raccoons is canine distemper. Although the symptoms for distemper are similar to those of rabies, raccoons are hardly ever diagnosed as having rabies. In the wild, raccoons are found along streams and lakes near wooded areas. You may also find them on inhabit urban, residential, and recreational areas. Raccoons are not particular about den sites and some of them use tree hollows, hollow logs, caves,rock crevices, holes in the ground, and sometimes storm sewers. They don'ot dig their own burrows. Raccoons use rock dens most often during winter, probably because rock dens offer warm, stable temperatures, are secure, and are large enough for communal denning. Believe it or not, I absolutely loved this article. When I was a younger I had a raccoon as a pet. To learn all of this new information is relatively interresting and allows me to understand why Sassy, my raccoon, was the way she was. ...

Audi Research Paper Essays

Audi Research Paper Essays Audi Research Paper Essay Audi Research Paper Essay Investor Relations Corporate strategy Vision: â€Å"Audi – the premium brand† In adopting its Strategy 2020, the Audi Group has focused its core brand Audi on the challenges of the future. The strategy took on firmer contours during 2011 as the full potential of the mission â€Å"We delight customers worldwide† was explored in greater depth. It now gives more weight to new issues that have emerged as a result of heightened environmental awareness, growing uncertainty about the future availability of fossil fuels and increasing urbanization. The Audi brand’s strategy 2020 Mission: â€Å"We delight customers worldwide† The Audi brand’s products are compelling examples of the brand values sportiness, progressiveness and sophistication. In addition to building technologically advanced vehicles, the brand with the four rings aims to evoke customer delight in many other ways. The mission statement â€Å"We delight customers worldwide† therefore plays a key role on the path to becoming the leading premium brand. The Audi brand has defined its understanding of customer delight in greater detail in the following four areas of action: * We define innovation We create experiences * We live responsibility * We shape Audi We define innovation The declared ambition of the Audi brand to offer its customers high-quality, innovative vehicles is expressed in the brand essence â€Å"Vorsprung durch Technik. † This is accompanied by a clear design idiom that gives the brand’s progressive character a visual grounding. The models of the Audi brand feature a wide range of technological innovations. The Company has defined various key technologies that will occupy a special role in the development of new vehicles. For example, all activities involving electric mobility will be grouped together under the umbrella brand Audi e-tron. Audi ultra embodies the lightweight-construction technology that the Audi brand has been pioneering ever since launching the  Audi Space Frame  (ASF) in 1994. The brand has since intensified its activities in this field with a view to making vehicles ever lighter. Today, the Company focuses on the use of intelligent combinations of materials, which include aluminum, carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP), modern steel alloys and magnesium. Then there is Audi connect, the umbrella brand launched by the Company to bracket together trendsetting navigation and infotainment functions, as well as technologies that connect drivers with the Internet, the car and their surroundings. In addition to product-based innovations, the Audi brand is working on new mobility concepts. Since 2011, for example, customers’ mobility behavior in electrically powered cars has been the subject of a study that is part of the A1 e-tron fleet trial in Munich. We create experiences To delight its customers time and time again, the Company aims to create special, positive experiences that customers will associate with the Audi brand. These include modern sales concepts such as the showroom configurator, which makes it quick and easy for visitors to an Audi dealership to create the Audi vehicle of their choice on large screens, with life-like, three-dimensional images. In 2011, the Audi brand came up with a very special way of presenting its new Q3 premium SUV: the â€Å"Audi Q3 Cube. In selected downtown districts of major cities, including Barcelona, Paris and Munich, customers and interested parties were given the opportunity to discover the Q3’s qualities in a mirror-filled cube up to 14 meters high. Another way of experiencing the Audi brand emotionally is to collect a new car in person from the Audi Forums in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. Audi’s premium vehicle handover facilities demonstrate to the customer just how much care and precision go i nto building Audi vehicles. The program is rounded out by a look at the history of the Company and culinary delights. To make the experience even more special, customers can tailor the handover to their own individual preferences. Accompanied by a customer relationship manager throughout the entire day, they are given a personal tour of the factory, making the occasion a truly memorable one. We live responsibility The Audi brand also expresses customer delight through a form of corporate responsibility that seeks to strike an appropriate balance between social or ecological requirements and economic success. In order to maintain the high regard in which the brand and the Company are held and increase their lead over the competition, Audi has created a department specifically to address this task. Hand in hand with all the divisions, the Corporate Responsibility department pursues the strategic goal of value orientation. It advocates responsible action and behavior as the basis for sustainable success. The core management tasks of Corporate Responsibility also include defining strategic guidelines and decision-making criteria. These guidelines are derived from the Strategy 2020 goals and are intended to highlight the link between social responsibility, preserving resources and long-term economic activity. As a global company with nearly 64,000 employees, the Audi Group is very much in the public eye. Its capacity to supply information and reports on corporate responsibility matters is therefore being further expanded. We shape Audi The Audi brand will continue steadily with its model initiative and expand its development, manufacturing and corporate structures accordingly. In order to maintain its profitable growth, the Audi Group will focus even more closely on flexible, efficient processes, as well as strengthening its global presence and expertise. Product and investment decisions will continue to be made on the basis of how far they produce customer benefit. Successfully accomplishing qualitative growth hinges on the employees, who demonstrate immense expertise and passion for the products of the Audi brand. Superior financial strength In keeping with a value-oriented corporate management approach, growth only meets the premium standards of the Audi Group if it is simultaneously profitable. Qualitative growth is therefore a priority strategic corporate goal. This is achieved through effective and efficient structures and processes, systematic investment management and the ongoing optimization of costs. A high level of self-financing helps to preserve the Company’s ability to invest and act. It therefore fundamentally aims to finance investment from self-generated cash flow. Continuous growth The Audi brand achieved a new deliveries record in 2011 in selling a total of more than 1. 3 million vehicles. This positive development is primarily attributable to the attractive, diverse product range, which was again continuously revitalized and broadened in the period under review. In addition to the successor generation to the popular A6 full-size car line, product events included the arrival of the new Q3 premium SUV and the market introduction of the Q5 hybrid quattro. The Audi brand’s product range will continue to be progressively expanded. The Audi Group has set itself the goal of increasing deliveries of the Audi brand to 1. 5 million vehicles by 2015. The international sales structures will be expanded to handle the scheduled growth. The dealer network in China, for instance, is to be increased from currently around 230 dealerships to over 400 by the year 2013. And there are plans to expand the exclusive sales network in the United States, too, over the coming years. The Audi Group is also increasing its production capacity worldwide. Global image leader For a premium manufacturer, a strong brand is the basis for enduring success. The Audi Group therefore plans to establish an emotional bond between its customers and the brand and to keep steadily improving its image position through the attractive product range. The numerous national and international awards received in the 2011 fiscal year again reflect the public’s huge enthusiasm for the Audi brand. Attractive employer worldwide As part of its strategy to become the leading premium brand, the Audi Group regards well-qualified, committed employees as a priceless asset. Particularly as it becomes internationally more diverse, the Audi Group considers it vitally important to be viewed as an attractive employer worldwide. Against this backdrop, the Audi Group offers its workforce a stimulating working environment with attractive opportunities for development, commensurate pay and high job security. Regular internal surveys reveal a high level of employee satisfaction. In addition, external surveys have attested to the Audi Group’s high attractiveness as an employer both in Germany and internationally. * Print page * Bookmark page

Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Blue Ocean Strategy - Research Paper Example 2.0. Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid Table 1. Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid (ERRC) for Nintendo Wii  Eliminate Raise Game expansion packs Purchaser influence Simplicity / easy to play Reduce Create Gaming technology Health & lifestyle benefits Family experience 2.1. Eliminate Here BOS advances that Nintendo Wii has to look for those factors in the gaming industry that the industry has been competing on that can be done away with. Traditionally, in the Red Ocean, game expansion packs are utilised as a customer lock-in strategy. They are used to extend the gamers interest beyond the original version of the game. Nintendo Wii, unlike its competitors, does not offer expansion sets and this has enabled it to develop new value in two ways. Firstly, expansion sets lead to an extra cost to both manufacturer and users. By eliminating these expansion packs Nintendo Wii is able to save costs on production, distribution, promotion and sales. Secondly, these expansion sets needs serious gamers who are focused on extending their gaming experience beyond leisure. Expansion packs are also seen in some quarters as being as an unethical way of increasing customer loyalty through promotion of addiction (â€Å"Why are Video Games Addictive - Reasons & Theories,† 2011). The Wii targets the casual gamer who does not have that urge for an extended gaming experience. In fact, the Wii could use this to promote itself as the non-addictive gaming choice. 2.2. Reduce According to the Four Actions Framework at this juncture the Wii needs to determine whether products or services have been overdesigned in the race to match and beat the competition. Wii’s big competitors, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, have concentrated on differentiating their products through over-serving customers with provision of cutting-edge technologies such as increased graphics and HD. The benefits that these companies obtain through this strategy are marginal in comparison to the costs they incur. Kim and Mauborgne (2005) referred to this as increasing cost structure for no gain. PS3 and Xbox 360 are forced to provide cutting-edge game play because they are fighting over the same market of demanding, die-hard gamers. On the other hand, the Wii opted to focus on the three groups of noncustomers: those people at the market edge who are undecided, those that flat out refuse to purchase a Wii because they are committed to another system like the XBox 360, and the unexplored, who may not know about the Wii or possibly cannot afford it. Nintendo reduced their costs by going low tech and increased the value of the Wii by instead focusing on making it easy to understand, fun to play and highly interactive. According to Scott (2008) Nintendo expanded the market by making video games simpler and more accessible. 2.3. Raise As stated above the Wii utilised a strategy that was different from its rivals, focusing on raising the simplicity, fun an d interactivity of its games as its customer value proposition rather than using superior gaming technology as its value proposition. This is in line with the third action of the BOS Four Actions Framework which seeks to identify factors that need to be raised well-above the industry standards (Kim & Mauborgne,