11 Places to Find Great College Essay Examples

Places to Find Great College Essay Examples SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Sure, you might know the theory behind what a college essay is supposed to sound and look like. But just like reading a description of the Golden Gate Bridge pales in comparison to seeing it in person, there’s no replacement for seeing actual college essays written by students just like you. Well, almost like you – they’ve since gotten into college. But where do you find good sources for reading sample college essays? How can you make sure that these resources will actually strengthen and improve your writing? And what is the best way to use the college essay examples that you do find? In this article, I’ll go over the best books and websites for finding essays, I’ll point out a few to avoid, and I’ll explain how to make the most out of other people’s essays while avoiding common pitfalls. Why Look At College Essay Examples? There are some very good reasons for wanting to check out how other people have handled the college admissions essay. First, because you'll be able to get a better sense of what colleges are looking for, you will necessarily broaden your own topic brainstorming past your first, easiest, and most clichà ©d ideas. It's one thing to hear that a completely mundane topic is way better than one focusing on your greatest sports moment. But once you see other students writing about a family meal, or an obsession with a particular board game, or a love of cultivating cacti, you'll be convinced to find your essay in the small moments of your life. Second, you'll see how your life and writing compares to that of your peers. The great diversity of voices, topics, tones, points of view will show you just how many things you could possibly write about, and how to keep the essay connected to your personality and your voice. Finally, if you really do have a good story to tell about something that gets written about a lot, like divorce, pet death, a community service trip, or winning the big game, you can get ideas for how to approach a potentially lackluster essay topicin a novel and striking way. What Makes A Good Sample College Essay Resource? First, the basics. A source is only as good as its content, so make sure you're readingcollege essays that worked, from people who actually got into the schools they applied to. Also, it's best to focus on new essays (not older than 10-15 years), so you are reading what has worked in the most recent past, rather than seeing outdated ideas and historical perspectives. Next, what you really want is diversity in voice and perspective. Make sure the essays featured come from many different kinds of students: either from applicants to both top and lower-tier schools; or from students with different ethnic, economic, and racial backgrounds; or from writers using both formal and more experimental essay techniques. Finally, the best sources of admission essays will feature explanatory material. This will give each essaysome kind of context: commentary on what makes theessay good, explanations of the drafting process, or, at least, biographical information about students. Without commentary or context, it’s hard to know what you’re supposed to learn from the essays you read. Looking at a bunch of identical koi isn't the best way to learn about freshwater fish varieties. Where to Find Great College Essay Examples Here are my recommendations for excellent resources, as well as some warnings about resources that I think you should avoid. College Essays Collected in Books I've taken a look at many of the books that collect college essays, so here are my recommendations. I've divided them into threecategories: Excellent– meaninghaving really diverse essays or very helpful commentary on each essay, or both Worthwhile– meaning either a helpful collection of essays without a lot of context or commentary, or some great advice but a narrow selection of essays geared toward one particular type of school Don't Bother– not useful either as a source of college essays or as a source of essay-writing advice and explanations Also, please note that although I’ve listed the Amazon prices for all the books, you should definitely check your school and public library for copies before buying them. And even if your library doesn't have a copy, ask them to request one either from another library in the same system or even from the Library of Congress through interlibrary loan. ExcellentBooks Heavenly Essays: 50 Narrative College Application Essays That Worked Written by Janine W. Robinson, who blogs about college essays at EssayHell, this book features great sample essays. But it's Robinson's precise and clear explanations of how to use a narrative style in your essay to tell a story about your life that make the book really outstanding. Through long and detailed commentary on each essay, Robinson shows why narrative is exactly the kind of structure that works best for personal essays. You can check out sample sections from the book on her blog. The book retails for $10 new on Amazon. On Writing the College Application Essay, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Key to Acceptance at the College of Your Choice Harry Bauld used to be an admissions officer at Brown, so he certainly knows what he is talking about when he writes abouthow and why to avoid clichà ©s andexplains how to find and keep your specific voice. Bauld demonstrates his points with sample essays, showing how they go from first to final draft. The book iseasy to read, uses humor to make points, and hisadvice will carry over into your college writing as well. It is $12.50 new on Amazon, but there are much cheaper used copies available there as well. The Berkeley Book of College Essays: Personal Statements for California Universities and Other Select Schools This compilationfeatures college admissions essays written byseniors from Berkeley High School (which is not affiliated with UC Berkeley). Because the city of Berkeley is economically, racially, and ethnically very diverse, these essays are about manydifferent interests, perspectives,and experiences, and are written in many different styles and tones. Although there is no commentary for the essays, this collection is a great way to get a sense of the broad array of essay possibilities. Also, because many of the students from Berkeley High apply to UC schools, this collection separates out UC application essay packages. (If you are interested in UC, also check outour own guide to writing excellent UC essays!) This book is currently $15 on Amazon. 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice Edited by the staff of the Harvard Crimson, this is a great collection of essays from a not particularly diverse group of students. It is very useful to see how the very top students approach the college essay, as long as their best effort neither intimidates nor stymies you. The contextual material is excellent, with helpful explanations of what makes each essay work well. This book retails for$12 new on Amazon, with much cheaper used copies also available. Worthwhile Books College Essays That Made a Difference, 6th Edition This Princeton Review guide is mostly distinguished by its introductory material, whichhas detailed interviews with many different colleges at many different tiers about what role essays play in college applications, what kind of mistakes are okay, and what to write and not to write about.The sample essays themselves come without commentary, but each features avery short bio of the student, including test scores, GPA,alist of colleges where the person applied, and a list of colleges where the person got in. Right now, it's $.50 new on Amazon, but there are cheaper used copies as well. 50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays This collection of of collegeessays that worked, edited by Gen and Kelly Tanabe, has somewhat spare, but insightful, commentary explaining what each essay does well and what it could have done better. It also includes an interview with an admissions officer explaining how essays are used in admissions decisions andsome comments from students about the writing process. The link above is to a downloadable PDF file. 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays: Get into Stanford and Other Top Colleges If you like the Tanabes' approach (they are the authors of the previous book), then you will find this one useful as well. The narrow diversity of essay content and the style of commentary (thoughtful, but not particularly detailed or expansive) is very similar. It's priced at$13.25 new on Amazon with some used options as well. Fiske Real College Essays That Work The "Fiske" of the title is Edward Fiske, whoused to be the Education editor of the NY Times, and who therefore has some experience with what colleges want from their applicants. The book itself features an introduction with somehelpful essay-writing tips, adiverse selection of essays built around narrative, but unfortunately hasvery little commentary to go with each essay. It retails for $12.50 new on Amazon, with cheaper used options available. 2015 Elite College Application Essays Although there's almost no commentary or discussion of what makes these essays work, this book is a reasonably good collection of essays from students who are now enrolled at Ivy and other top-tier schools. What's particularly appealing about this college essay compilation is how very new these essays are: all are from students who became freshmen in 2015. The book is $14 new on Amazon. Don't Bother 100 Successful College Application Essays I'd recommend not spending your time on any of the editions ofthis collection. The essays are decades old in some cases, the topics areclichà ©d and boring, and there is little to no commentary to make any of them useful. College Essays Published Online I'll split my recommendations here into "worthwhile" and "don't bother" categories. There aren't any truly great collections of sample college essays online. Worthwhile Individual College Websites. There are many essays published online by the various colleges where these students now go. This means these essays are guaranteed to be real, authentic, and to have worked on someone's application.Some of the essays even come with brief commentary by admissions officers about what makes them great. (The link will take you to our list of over 130 essays from more than 15 different colleges.) Teen Ink Magazine. Teen Ink publishes all sorts of writing by teens, including college admission essays, which are split off into their own section on the site. The essays necessary feature a wide range of experiences and perspectives, so this is a great place to get a broad sense of what other students are writing about. The essays don't have any context except comment sections thatrun the gamut from genericâ€Å"this is good† comments to some insight. Readers also get a chance to vote on which essays are featured as #1, #2, etc., which may be misleading because readers of Teen Ink aren't admissions officers. Don't Bother Watch out for paid websites like AdmitSee, CollegeMapper, and Acceptional, which claim to give you access to college essays for a monthly or fixed fee. Because of the paywall, there's no way to verify the quality of the essays these sites have. Also, thereare enough books that you could borrow from your library that you don’t need to pay monthly fees to these places. Finally, I would particularly stay away from AdmidSee, which uses Amazon reviews for other essay resources as a marketing platform. Frogs piggybacking on each other? Super cute. A company piggybacking its advertising onto book reviews? Really not cute at all. The Best Ways To Use College Admission Essay Samples So now that you've rounded up a bunch ofsample college essays, what should you do with them? Here are some tips for your next steps. When Should You Read Essay Examples? I'd advise waiting until after you've done some brainstorming of your own before you start immersing yourself in other people's work and ideas. (If you're not sure how to brainstorm, check out our guide to coming up with great college essay topics.) This way, you can use other people’s essays to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic. For example, looking at how other people tackled their life experience can show you: how tofocus on a different detail in your own story how to change the insight you want to draw from your story how to think about different ways to start and end your narrative What Can Good College Essays Teach You? There are both broad and specific learning opportunities to be found in reading other people's work. Broadly speaking, seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your own creative process. Likewise,reading a diversity of thoughts and voices will show you that even the most normal and boring seeming experiences be made into riveting essays. More specifically,if you find essays from applicants to your target school, you can get some sense of the level of sophistication they expect to see from your writing. Finally,good context and commentary on the essays can show you how they are put together and what makes them work. You can then put this advice to use when rewriting your essay later. Pitfalls To Avoid Of course, being surrounded by other people's work, especially when some of that work is much better than what you think you can manage, has its share of temptations. So what do you need to guard against when looking at sample essays? Plagiarism. This one is basic and obvious. Do not copy these sample essays! Admissions officers have seen them all, read them all, memorized them all – you will not get away with it. Copying and mimicry. Think of this as a softer kind of plagiarism. Even if you really like someone else’s style, don’t borrow it. Even if someone’s life sounds more exciting than yours, don’t steal a piece of it for your own essay. Why? Because ifyou don’t sound like yourself, it will be visibleto an experiencedreader (and guess what, admissions officers are very experienced readers). Also, if you’re writing about experiences that aren't yours, your unfamiliaritywill show through the lack of believable details. Let this hand-in-the-alligator's-mouth image pop up in your brain every time you think about stealing someone else's work. Resources for Essay Writing Advice In researching this article, I came across books and websites that don't necessarily feature a lot of sample essays, but that give really excellent advice on writing your own college essay. I strongly recommend you spend some time checking them out. Essay Hell blog. This great resource is written by Janine Anderson Robinson, an English teacher and a journalist, whosebook Heavenly Essays I recommended above. The blog posts feature lots and lots of well-explained, detailed, easy to understand advice about how to write your essay, and are broken down into easy to understand, bite-sized nuggets of usefulness. Slate's Getting In podcast. The entire series is an interesting look at the college application process, with useful tips and explanations about all aspects what seniors are going through. Check out Episode 2: The Essay, in which astudent gets feedback in real time on their essay from a former Princeton director of admissions and apanel of experts talk about essay dos and don’ts. The episode is26 minutes long. The College Essay Trap: Rescue Your College Application Essay From the "Maybe" Pile This isincredibly concise and excellent explanation of what not to do and what to avoid when writing your personal statement. It's short, sweet, to the point, and is praised to the skies by legendary Princeton admissions dean Fred Hargadon. Currently $12 new on Amazon. The Bottom Line Look at college essay examples to broaden your own topic brainstorming and get ideas for fixing lackluster topics. Look for resources with diverse and recent essays, from many different kinds of students and with explanatory material that explains what makes each essay good. Look at essay samples after you’ve generated some of your own ideas to think about different possibilities for writing about your own topic. Seeing how other people are approaching the problem of writing a college essay can jog your creative process. Avoid both actual plagiarism and â€Å"borrowing†: don’t use someone else’s style, voice, or life experiences as your own. What’s Next? If you’re starting to work on college essays, check out our article laying out every single kind of essay prompt out there and a step by step guide to writing a great college essay. Are youworking onthe Common App essay? Read ourbreakdown of the Common App promptsand our guide topicking the best prompt for you. Ormaybe you'reinterested in the University of California? Check outour complete guide to the UC personal statements. Working on other pieces of your college applications? We’ve got guides tochoosing the right college for you,writing about extracurriculars, andrequesting teacher recommendations. Thinking about taking the SAT one last time, or prepping for your first run at it? Readour ultimate guide to studying for the SATand make sure you're as prepared as possible. Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Motivating Staff essays

Motivating Staff essays There are plenty ways to motivating Staff in a company. Firstly, the managers need to know what the needs of his staff are, and how to motivate them. As different people have different needs, the ways of motivating them also differ. The salary is one of the most important factors. Since most workers needs money on their daily life, thus they work for money. Salary needed to be paid on time. Otherwise, this would demotivate them. In other words, if the workers had not receive their salary when due, the morale of works may be reduced. Trainings, incentives, holidays, welfare, and others rewards may be given to the staffs as the extrinsic reward. Most staffs welcome at least one of the rewards mention above, so if possible, why not give the rewards to the staffs as a motivation factors? Although not all, most people want promotion after a certain period of their works. Perhaps this may increase their status, or pay rise. Besides, they can put more commitment in their works as they have increased responsibility. Another factor is the condition of working environments. The air conditioning of an office should be well controlled, as well as the floors of the office. No one feels comfortable working in a dirty office. Although a clean office will not necessary motivating the staffs, but for sure, if such criteria are not fulfilled, the staffs get demotivated. Perhaps most people want to be self affirmed. Typically, the manager of a large organisation can't remember all the names of his/hers subordinates. But if he/she DOES, the scenario may be greatly enhanced. The staffs may thought, "Wow, the boss can remember my name even I am just a little workers. Then I must work hard to appreciate such recognition" There are no strict rules for a company or an organization to follow in the approach of motivating their staffs, but a combinations of the methods suggested above may prove useful in improving motivations. ...

Analyzing movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analyzing - Movie Review Example Set in a not so distant future, the movie depicts not just an interesting concept whether traveling back in time is possible, but it also showcases the actual concept of trust, communication and generally, relational development. As the movie progresses, we can see the stages involved in the actual development of relationship which include the concept of initiating stage, experimentation, intensifying stage, integration stage and bonding stage as the integral components of the coming together of the characters. There are many scenes in the film that we can use to illustrate the relational development among the characters, but it is important to try to figure it out how this happens in the case between Darius and Kenneth. Apart from the classified ad, it was Darius who made the first attempt to initiate the initial contact, as she started to find her way to Kenneth at the convenience store where he works. Since it was purely a business purpose for Darius, the one who must finally deci de to build up the real relationship is no other than Kenneth himself, and this means he needs to come up with first impressions about this magazine staff. His first impression about Darius looks like it fits in his essential qualification for the one he wants to travel back in time with, which must be far from what he has just experienced with Jeff. In this step of relational development, it is clear that the initiating stage has been successfully employed, as Kenneth’s first impression about Darius is someone whom he could confide with the vital information linked to the mission. This concept is certainly applied well in this scene of the movie, because of the depiction of first impression that is elemental to the initial developmental stage of relationship. In fact, this paves the way for the next stage of relational development, which is a clear consequence of the successful employment of the initial stage of relationship development. Somewhere in the movie when Kenneth w alked out from the restaurant after Darius discovered his artificial ear, is a significant highlight of the development of the next stage, which is the experimentation. Kenneth is essentially probing in this part, to know if Darius is really the one to choose in the mission. In the relational development, everything might end up here, just as in the case of Jeff and his high school crush. However, the film shows effective implementation of the experimentation stage in the case of Kenneth and Darius, just as how the latter via an emotional conversation also reveals their common ground, implying that they both experienced in their childhood years as laughing stuffs of the people around them, which is a move that leads them further to the next step, the intensifying stage. The intensifying stage is revealed in the film when Kenneth finally discloses to Darius his actual reason for going to a time travel. Darius responded with all sincerity, which eventually creates an impression on the part of Kenneth that his disclosure is reciprocated. Kenneth even discloses his talent in music, which is something that touches Darius for real, leading them to go to the next level of relational development, the integration stage. The ultimate highlight of integration stage as the movie depicts is when Darius and Kenneth passionately kiss and comfort each other on that one remarkable

How Has Architecture Developed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How Has Architecture Developed - Essay Example Studies have, however, revealed that the first structures that incorporated architectural designs with respect to beauty and outlook were the worshipping places (Watkin, 2005; 43). The prevailing cultures and religion greatly influenced the type of structures which were constructed in a particular region or place (Ching, 2006; 89). Geography also dictated the type of buildings designed and put up. Today, architecture is no less than science. It is due to the development skills of those in the field of architecture that some huge structures are seen today. The tall and strong buildings, huge bridges and complex structures are attributed to the creativity architectural experts (Hugh, 2000; 20). Architecture was an important discipline in the ancient times and its importance continues to be seen today. All the existing designs are a proof that the field has been developing. The growth and development is still ongoing albeit being influenced by some factors like geography, religion and societal

Public Law - Parliamentary Sovereignty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Public Law - Parliamentary Sovereignty - Essay Example Public Law - Parliamentary Sovereignty Notwithstanding the symbolic importance of Parliament within the separation of powers doctrine, in practice commentators have suggested that within the contemporary socio-political framework the reality is that the separation of powers doctrine is intrinsically limited. Academic discourse has suggested that the lack of clarity in the unwritten UK constitution as compared to other democracies has further compounded the lack of defined boundaries between various institutional functions under the separation of powers doctrine within the UK. However, whilst there may be no absolute doctrine of separation of powers, it has been acknowledged that the principle underlines day to day functions of the executive, legislature and judiciary. This paper critically reviews the extent to which Parliamentary sovereignty is qualified. In doing so, this paper will firstly refer to parliamentary procedure and undertake a contextual analysis of how EC law and the Human Rights Act 1998 exemplify the real ity that Parliamentary sovereignty is inherently qualified in practice. It is proposed at the outset that there is no clear separation of powers within the theoretical ideal and in practice there is a fusion of powers, which is arguably necessary to ensure effective channels of communication in the socio-political infrastructure. Whilst the Law Commission’s legislative authority asserts its independence ; the internal governance of the Commission with appointments being made by the Lord Chancellor enables executive influence in legislative functions.10. Furthermore, the extent of judicial powers derives directly from the Crown and therefore the operation of the socio-political infrastructure is clearly dependent on the overlap of functions between the theoretical separate powers11. This blurring of the separation of powers has significant implications for Parliamentary procedure. The central function of Parliament is as legislative arm of the British political system12. However, Parliament effectively operates within a party political system and t o a degree is used as medium for sanctioning executive sovereignty as it relies on the executive for policy initiatives13. Whilst Parliament can subject executive

Impact of the Alliance of Maersk and Msc on Freight Rates

Impact of the Alliance of Maersk and Msc on Freight Rates Analysis of the impact of the alliance of Maersk and MSC on freight rates on the Asia-Europe route Yixiang Zhang Content Abstract  (Jump to) 1. Introduction 2. Market share and structure of container shipping market 3. Alliance of Maersk and MSC 4. Impact of freight rate by 2M 5. Conclusions References Abstract The economic crisis took place in 2008 resulting in a great depression in shipping market. The demand in container shipping market declined rapidly and the overcapacity made the freight rate much lower which may not compensate the operation cost of the shipping companies. The three biggest shipping alliances(CKYH Alliance, Grand Alliance and CKYH Alliance) took series of solutions such as decrease of the capacity and in number of services routes to reduce the loss in their best effort. In this recession circumstances, ML(Maersk Line) and MSC(Mediterranean Shipping Company) which were known as 2M formed co-operation agreement on VSA(Vessel Sharing Agreements) on Asia-Europe route and this agreement last for 10 years. ML will devote 1200,000 TEU which counts for 55 percents of its overall capacity in the alliance and MSC is going to devote 900,000 TEU which counts for 45 percents of its overall capacity. Through the co-operation, 2M intended to promote the efficiency of operation and p rovided reliable shipping services to consumers on a lower price by sharing shipping network, infrastructural equipment and provide more straight service lines and the number of ports of call. In this way, other medium or small shipping companies who cannot achieve the economics of scale or better quality services as 2M managed to do will become uncompetitive and then have to exit the market when there is overcapacity in the shipping market. In this strategy, 2M will gain much more market share and consumer loyalty to make more profit although there is monopoly restriction. 1. Introduction With the rapid development of the international economy, the amount of export and import grew fast in the past few years. Shipping companies play essential role in the worldwide trade by providing satisfactory services to consumers. Shipping companies attempt to be more competitive than the others and reduce the risk which is considered high in maritime transportation by co-operate with each other or form an alliance. The ocean shipping industry is among the first to apply alliance to make their profit. Before the demotion of the conference system in 1998 (Shashi Kumar, 1999), maritime transportation market can be regarded as monopoly because the operation of a shipping company is at high risk and governments want to induce more firms involve in maritime transportation. However, with technology improvement and fast growing of shipping industry, the exemption from anti-trust rules was issued by the EU in 2008. Shipping companies have to set up new kinds of alliances to gain advantage and share risk in this dynamic market (Fusillo,2006). It is obvious that in present shipping alliances vessel sharing agreements and slot sharing agreements are widely used. The vessel sharing agreements or â€Å"VSA† can make container companies co-operate with each other to share their space on their container ships to acquire higher capacity to fight their lower capacities in certain trade lanes. The agreements allow for the shipping lines to keep freight costs lower since they do not need to account for empty spaces on their ships (source: http://www.containerquote.com/vessel-sharing-agreement). Slot sharing agreement require a fixed percentage of vessel capacity to be exchanged between the carriers over a given time period. This type of arrangement may be beneficial when two patner companies have vessels deployed on the same route with different departure time schedules (Panayides Wiedmer, 2011). Shipping alliances become a trend especially during the recession when the advantages that alliances can bring to us are clear. Even the top two large liner companies ML and MSC who used to act as â€Å"soloists† also choose to co-operate with each other, which can be regarded as a great move in shipping industry because together they count for nearly 30 percents of the whole market share. The paper aims at analyzing the impact of the alliance of Maersk and MSC on freight rates on the Asia-Europe route step by step as below, Section 2 will give a description of the whole shipping market. Section 3 focuses on ML and MSC alliances about the strategies they use. Section 4 will discuss about how the strategies 2M use will influence the freight rate. 2. Market share and structure of container shipping market This section shows who are the main players in the game and what are the connections between them. Table 1 illustrates the characteristics of top 20 shipping companies including total capacity, vessels operated in the market and actual market share. Table 1 Container fleet characteristics of Top 20 liner shipping companies Operator TEU Ships MS Operator TEU Ships MS 1 ML 2078507 556 15% 11 MOL 383042 99 2.5% 2 MSC 1683723 421 13.3% 12 NYK 365304 95 3% 3 CMA CGM 1096622 384 7.6% 13 OOCL 347988 77 2.4% 4 APL 591306 148 4% 14 Hambrg.sud 336811 108 2.3% 5 Hapag-Lloyd 582520 133 3.4% 15 K Line 324441 80 2.5% 6 Evergreen 567636 156 4.1% 16 Zim 322989 97 2.2% 7 COSCO 512060 134 3.3% 17 Yang Ming 315798 77 2.3% 8 CSAV 502619 135 2.4% 18 Hyundai M.M. 279446 54 2% 9 Hanjin 461087 100 3.2% 19 PIL 231941 127 1.4% 10 CSCL 455328 127 3.3% 20 UASC 206940 52 1.4% Source: Alphaliner.com, as of 28/06/2010 It is clear that ML together with MSC count up for 28.3% market share which is less than the monopoly restriction 30%. New World Alliance whose main partners are APL, MOL and HMM counts for 8.5% market share. Grand Alliance whose main members are NYK, Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL counts for 8.8% market share. CKYH whose main partners are Hanjin, Yang Ming, K Line and COSCO counts for 11.3% market share. In this way, there are four cartels whose market share counts up to 75.6%, which indicates the fact that the container shipping market on the Asia-Europe route is oligopoly. As a result, a decision made by any of these four alliances could bring an enormous influence to the others. That is also the reason why I would like to discuss about the impact on freight rate by 2M, because they have the market power to influence others. 3. Alliance of Maersk and MSC From the above analysis of container shipping market, it is clear to tell that ML and MSC have the top 2 capacity on Asia-Europe route. However, when focusing on the efficiency that both of them perform, the situation changed somehow. Table 2 presents the market share based on the vessels operated in the market. Table 2 Market share in different regions based on number of vessels operated Geo AF ANZ AS CA FE ME MiE ML 26.5% 20.1% 3.5% 19.5% 12.9% 22.3% 18.2% MSC 12.7% 15.4% 5.8% 17.1% 8% 20.7% 23.1% GEO NA NE SA TOTAL MS Delta ML 16.1% 15.4% 13.1% 15.6% 15% 0.57% MSC 11.9% 20.6% 14.1% 13.3% 10.9% 2.39% Abbreviations: AF Africa; ANZ Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific; AS Asia; CA Central America; FE Far East; ME Mediterranean; MiE Middle East; NA North America; NE North Europe; SA South America; MS Market Share; DELTA difference between company’s share of world-fleet minus actual market share. Source: Alphaliner.com, as of 28/06/2010 Depending on Tabke2, it is clear that Delta of both ML and MSC is positive which indicates that their shares of vessels operated in the market are both higher than their actual market share. This phenomenon can be explained in this way. Suppose all the other shipping companies except for ML have their vessels loaded up to 80% on average and ML only can load their ships around 60%, ML need to devote more vessels into the market to keep the same market share with other companies. In this way, it can be inferred that both ML and MSC have not fully taken advantages of their ships in the market. They have to find a way to promote their efficiency of their carriers. From the analysis above, it should be clearly explained that the motivation of ML and MSC the Top 2 giants in the shipping market to become alliance. Shipping alliance indeed brings series of advantages to both of them. The most important agreement between ML and MSC is vessel sharing agreements known as â€Å"VSA† which means that the collaborating companies work together to fulfill demand and also try to fully load their ships. Actually once â€Å"VSA† performing well, ML and MSC could devote some of their ships on another route because fewer ships can fulfill the demand due to the high utilization of container ships. In this way, the operation cost of vessels in the market can be reduced. 4. Impact of freight rate by 2M As discussed above, vessel sharing agreements enable ML and MSC largely promote their ships utilization to reduce the operation cost. It can be imagined that the total cost to provide satisfactory services as before becomes a little bit lower after 2M established. From author’s aspect, 2M can take advantages in two different ways as below: First strategy is to remain the same price as before but provide better services to their consumers. In this way, 2M could gain more consumer loyalty and attract more consumers to accept their services. However, in author’s opinion, other alliances such as New World, Grand Alliance and CKYH will not stay at where they are and do nothing. They may choose to reduce freight rate to attract consumers in order to not lose market share. Somehow to what extent they decide to cut freight rate depends on how well 2M performs and also the loss they are able to bear. Second strategy is to lower the freight rate but remain the same services quality as before. In this way, 2M can attract more consumers with their low price of freight rate. It is illustrated about how it works as below Figure 1. Figure 1 It can be easily inferred that when 2M choose to low their price, their initial supply curve S1 will shift right to S2 and D1 stays the same if no strong fluctuation occurs. So the quantity which can be seen as the number of consumers who choose 2M service increases from Q1 to Q2. In this way, 2M will get more market share to make much more profit when the global economy recovers from the crisis. Furthermore, the second strategy also has large influence on other shipping companies on Asia- Europe route. It will result in the shutting down of some shipping companies on Asia-Europe route whose average variable cost is lower than the freight rate 2M set. In the short run, the shipping companies’ supply curve is their marginal cost curve. If the freight rate is below P1, they have to shut down because the revenue they make cannot compensate their cost which means they are losing money all the time. In this way, 2M will gain this share of market by lower the freight rate. The way it works is illustrated in Figure 2. Figure 2 The second strategy can also force some companies not only shut down but also exit the market in the long run aspect. The way it works is illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3 From the figure above, if 2M reduce the price below P1, shipping companies whose average total cost is higher than P1 will exit market because they will never take back their initial investment if freight rate continues to stay low. 5. Conclusions As the alliance between ML and MSC has been taken into practice, vessel sharing agreement is vital to improve their service quality and the efficiency of ships operation. So with vessels utilization optimized, together with the economies of scale, 2M is able to reduce their operation cost in a large extent because there is indeed a big gap to be improved which is explained in the analysis of difference of actual market share and total capacity. It has to be clear that high efficiency operation of ships as well as the strategies 2M may use can be regarded as a way of increasing supply in the market, which in turn will make the fright rate on Asia-Europe route drops. References Photis, M.P. Robert, W. (2011). Strategic alliances in container liner shipping. Research in Transportation Economics 32 (2011) 25-38. Shashi Kumar, N. (1999). The US OSRA of 1998: an analysis of its economic impact on carriers, shippers and third parties. In proceedings of the IAME 1999 Halifax conference (pp. 7-29). Halifax, Canada: Centre for International Business Studies, Dalhousie University. Fusillo, M. (2006). Some notes on structure and stability in liner shipping. Maritime Policy Management, 33(5), 463-475.

Coffee and Starbucks Essay

Starbucks has been the most successful coffee chain using their aggressive expansion strategies to surpass its competitors. Through its expansion, Starbucks has focused on creating a dense network of stores all around US, while also opening up new locations all around the world. However, Starbucks’ aggressive expansion strategies have posed major threats to its financial health such as tight cashflows, increase debts, poor liquidity ratios and etc. In addition, this approach can exacerbate competition among close Starbucks stores. Due to the aggressive expansion, Starbucks has lost its internal focus in its core business coffee and its unique â€Å"Starbucks Experience – third place†. The issues are how Starbucks can stay profitable in the future and at the same time sustain its dominant position in the gourmet coffee industry. We have examined the industry analysis that focuses on the industry trends, the firm competitive environment and followed by a SWOT analysis on Starbucks. Finally, we look at the company strategy analysis that focuses on the Starbucks’ strategic intent and its strategic position. From these analyses, we recommend a few options where Starbucks should pursue moving forward in order to avoid further decline and sustain its dominant position. .:Company Background & History:. Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice was established in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zey Siegel and Gordon Bowker in Seattle to sell roasted coffee beans and coffee machines. (See Exhibit 1 for timeline) At that time, the founders’ philosophy was to provide high quality coffee and educate the public the art of appreciating fine coffee. It was the founders’ passion and strong commitment on educating the public that attracted Howard Schultz to join Starbucks in 1982 as the head of the marketing department, overseeing the company’s retail stores. On one of his business trips to Milan, Italy, Schultz stumbled upon an opportunity to revamp Starbucks and shift its focus from its original business activities. Schultz’s new business proposition for Starbucks was to serve freshly brewed coffee at their outlets which he sold to the founders without success. After many unsuccessful attempts, he left the Company. In 1987, Schultz acquired Starbucks from the founders and changed its name to the more abbreviated ‘Starbucks’ and modified her logo to what we see today. After the acquisition, he introduced the idea of ‘The Starbucks experience’ to all Starbucks’ outlets; that is to create a comfortable atmosphere for patrons to relax. From then on, every Starbucks outlet was the perfect duplicate of this concept. In 1992, Starbucks had launched an IPO and its common stock was being traded on the Nasdaq. In 1995, Starbucks venture overseas and formed a joint venture with SAZABY Inc to open Starbucks stores in Japan. In 1996, Starbucks first oversea outlet was opened in Tokyo. Today, Starbucks has a total of 7,087 Company operated stores and 4,081 License stores in US. Additionally, it has 1,796 Company operated stores and 2,792 Joint Venture and License store operating in other 43 countries. .:Definition of the Industry, Competitors and Scope of Analysis: Generally, Starbucks is in the Food and Beverages industry. However for the purpose of this paper, we would define Starbucks to be in the gourmet coffee industry with the following competitors : †¢Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf; †¢Costa Coffee; †¢Caribou Coffee (See Exhibit 2 for a brief write up on reasons for the choice of these competitors and some background information of them) For the purpose of this paper, our analysis will be focusing on Starbucks in US and Australia. The next section provides an overview of the gourmet coffee industry and the competitive environment in US and Australia. .:Overview of the Industry:. .:Political Forces:. Generally both the US and the Australia political situation appeared to be well established and stable. This will provide a good platform for both current businesses and new businesses to operate in. In US, despite the current verge of recession, the political mood is still likely to favour increased regulation of businesses. In addition, even though international tensions are likely to remain but their impact on political stability and economy will remain minimal. Similarly in Australia, the political climate is likely to remain relatively stable. Although the relationship between the federal government and the states had been rocky in the past; it has improved after the introduction of a more stable formula for revenue distribution. .:Economical Forces:. US: Real economic growth is expected to slow from an estimated 4% in 2008 to 3. 8% in 2009. The modest slowdown reflects the impact of lower demand from its trading partner. As these exists imbalances in the economy and the poor short-term outlook for growth, it is assumed that conditions in the US are now recessionary and that growth will remain very weak in 2009. This will in turn affect the GDP and the disposable income of its residents. Australia: Traditionally, rapid growth in Australia has been slowdown recently due to recession. Improved monetary and fiscal management have reduced macroeconomic volatility, but risks and imbalances are present. The low domestic savings rate renders the banking system dependant on foreign financing. The current account deficit is large, and international financial markets may start to worry about the underlying causes. Bubble conditions also seem to exist in the housing market. .:Socio-cultural Forces: Consumers’ Perceptions and Disposable Income:. US: There had been an increase in coffee consumption in the US market though the rate had slowed down in 2005 posing threats to coffee retailers. Recently, US consumers had increasingly opt for healthier hot drinks such as tea and RTD beverages which affect coffee consumption rate. The trend is likely to continue, leading to decline in coffee consumption. Australia: Coffee sales had experienced quite lukewarm growth from 2000 to 2005. The culture of cafe had caused more people to opt for on-trade sales coffee at the cafe instead of home-brewed coffee. According to BIS Shrapnel, people increasingly tend to go to cafes for their coffee and there is an increase of 50% within 2 years in coffee consumption. .:Technological Forces: Technological Developments:. Technological changes have created many new products and processes. It helps to reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovations which in turn benefits consumers as well as organizations. Many organizations in the gourmet coffee industry had recognized the importance of providing wireless internet access and Wi-Fi hotspots to its patrons. These technology advances had created a leisure place for patrons to surf net or hang out after home and work. Most of the organizations had also introduced automated coffee machines to speed up the brewing process so as to shorten waiting time. To further improve business operations and efficiency, some organizations have also make use of information technology systems to help them run their businesses more smoothly. .:Environmental Forces:. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming, many organizations in the gourmet coffee industry had increased their environment awareness by reduced the usage of disposable cups to serve coffee and increased the use of ceramic mugs. Furthermore, the organizations had also reduced the size of their paper napkins, paper bags and in store garbage bags. The organizations were also encouraged to purchase Fairtrade certified coffees so as to promote responsible environmental and economic efforts. The following section presents our analysis of gourmet coffee industry with the aid of Michael Porters 5 Forces model. .: Analysis of Gourmet Coffee Industry- Porter 5 Forces:. Please refer to exhibit 3 for the criteria used for the scoring of each forces and an analysis of each forces. Force #1: Threat of New Entry:. †¢Threat of new entry is high. †¢High start up cost involved in purchasing equipments, sourcing for coffee beans and training barista. †¢Strong brand identity leading to high switching cost for consumers Score: 10 Force #2: Threat of Substitutes:. †¢Substitutes are gourmet coffee of a different brand †¢Current gourmet coffee industries is saturated †¢High switching cost. †¢Threat of substitutes considered to be relatively high Score: 6 Force #3: Bargaining Power of Suppliers:. †¢Majority of commercially available coffee beans come from a few industrializes countries. †¢Increase the cost of coffee houses in sourcing and gaining access to these high quality coffee beans. †¢Bargaining power of suppliers is relatively high Score: 5 Force #4: Bargaining Power of Consumers†¢Bargaining power of customers is relatively neutral. †¢Current player gained brand loyalty †¢Product differentiation helps to retain current customer and attract new customers. †¢However price sensitive customers might seek for cheaper alternative. Score: 0 Force #5: Rivalry between Competitors:. †¢Intensity of rivalry is moderate. †¢Brand identity and high switching cost is relatively unfavorable to new player that has just entered the market. Score: 3 Conclusion:From the above analysis, we noted that the threat of new entry, the bargaining power of the supplier and threat of substitutes are relatively high. On the other hand the bargaining power of the consumers is neutral and the intensity of rivalry is moderate. Hence from the above.