Marriott Forecasting Essay Example

Marriott Forecasting Paper This case involves the study of the Hamilton Hotel and the use of forecasting to help predict their demand on a specific day. Marriott Hotels operated the Hamilton hotel. Marriott has been known for a culture that puts people first. Marriott is recognized worldwide for their enduring values, their spirit to serve, and their corporate commitment to creating better places to live and work. 1) Critical Issue: The critical issue is the manager has to choose either to accept up to 60 additional room reservations for Saturday or not. ) critical Facts: The hotel loses revenue if the room is vacant for one night. Customer service is a priority for Marmots hotel. Customers often cancel reservations in the last minute or they dont show up. Sometimes, customers stay in the hotel for an additional date beyond their original reservation. Sometimes, customers checked out early. Every Tuesday, the manager needs to prepare a forecast for the follow week occupancy for each day from Saturday to Friday . If the hotel meets targets for occupancy ND revenue, hotel managers will be reward for their performance. The hotel has 1877 rooms. On Tuesday, August 18, 1 987 the manager received a reservation request for up to 60 rooms from a tour company for Saturday August 22. Although 1 839 rooms were reserved already for Saturday. The contribution margin from a room was about 590. The cost for denial a room would be about twice the contribution figure. Frequent guests are the customers that stay more than 45 nights a year in the hotel. ) Analysis: In order to forecast the expected demand in the short term and make the eight decision for Snow either to accept up to 60 rooms, first we decided to look at the historical daily demand for the last 13 weeks and analyze the demand pattern. In graph 1, given data shows peaks and valleys, has no trend and shows seasonal variations in time series. It is difficult to forecast an accurate future demand for this data without using the seasonal forecasting method. Graph 1 When analyzing Pickup Ratio (Demand/Tuesday Bookings) for each Saturday, we can see that most ratios are less than 1. 00. We will write a custom essay sample on Marriott Forecasting specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Marriott Forecasting specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Marriott Forecasting specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer If reservation manager, Snow, decides to accept 60 rooms reservation from the tour company, she will overbook 22 rooms. As we know, 1839 rooms have been already reserved and she can give only 38 additional rooms. If she accepts 60 rooms reservation and there are no cancellations, she will have to accommodate additional 22 room requests providing with a comparable room in a different hotel somewhere in the city, transporting the quest, giving ratify such as fruit bucket. According to the text, if a customer is a frequent guest (Marquis cardholder), he or she would received $200 cash plus next two stays at the Marriott for free. Also, the approximate cost for denying a room is about $180. For 22 rooms it will be $3,960. If she decides not to overbook 22 rooms, she might be missing 22*90 = $1 ,980 Of revenue. Moreover, she might be losing an opportunity to establish a good relationship with the tour company, who may book steady numbers of 60 rooms on Saturdays in the future. This would generate additional profit, since we know from historical data that Saturdays are always under booked. Given a very low variable costs and marginal profit of 90$, it is a great opportunity for Snow to maximize profit during one of the slowest day of the week Saturdays (according to DOD indicator). However, she has to forecast demand for Saturday to make sure that she will have those rooms available. Denying a guest with reserved room can be very costly, especially for loyal customers and negatively reflect on hotels reputation. 4) Recommendations Effectiveness: We are recommending that the hotel accept the request from the tour company for up to 60 rooms. It was important for us to have the multiple forecasts and use the one with the lowest mean absolute deviation (MAD) before we made our decision. You Will see in the excel attachment that the seasonal forecast did in fact produce the lowest MAD and produced a forecast extremely close to the previous actual data. According to the seasonal forecast the hotel is expected to have 1,787 guests show up out of the 1,839 that were booked.

Finance Example

Finance Example Finance – Essay Example CASE STUDY: SHELL’S ATTEMPT TO TAKEOVER WOODSIDE The dream takeover on Woodside Petroleum by Shellin 2001 was not to be. The Australian government, under the Foreign Acquisition and Takeovers Act rejected the bid. The person primarily responsible for this was Mr. Peter Costello, the federal treasurer at that time. In his speech for giving reasons why the Shell takeover bid was rejected, Mr. Costello said he believed that the takeover was not in the national interest of the Australians. . PART (A) Reasons why Mr. Costello rejected Shell to take over Woodside, 1. There was strive fear among Australians that their job security would be threatened if Shell was to take over. In case Shell took over, the Shell owners might have tried to improve the efficiency of Woodside operations in line with the parent company’s criteria. This would have included bringing in machinery and employees whom they believed would deliver what was required. The complication to this is that the machinery brought in might replace the human input to perform tasks that would lead to massive layoff of workers. Bringing in their own specialists would have also caused unemployment to specialists from Australia. This would be devastating to the government considering the fact that in 2001 the unemployment rate in Australia was at about 6% high. 2. The Woodside petroleum company is Australia’s major explorer and production of petroleum and gas. This means that most, if not all, areas that have these fuel extracts are exploited by Woodside and her joint partners. If Shell were successful in its bid, this would be catastrophic to Australia in that its resources would be under exploited. Mr. Costello believed that, Shell would be incapable of fully exploiting fuel in Australia as it would be too busy giving priority to its operation in Russia’s Sakhalin Island, which had promising results for Shell hence under developing the operations that Woodside was involved in especially the North West Shelf gas field, which was Australia’s largest developed energy resource at that time. 3. â€Å"National interest that it be developed and marketed in preference to competing products from anywhere in the world† (Mr. Peter Costello- Reserve treasurer, 2001). Here Mr. Costello was talking about the North West Shelf gas field. Analysts believed that if this part was effectively exploited, the liquid gas from here had potential of becoming the country’s largest export. Most of Australia’s gas and petroleum resources are based in the western region, hence, it was very important for the North West Shelf to be maximized; this would provide the country with income and a favourable balance of payment. This meant all measures had to be taken to ensure the potential of the country’s resources were fully utilized. The North West Shelf has estimated natural gas resources of more than 3168 Gm3 (130 Tcf) PART B: Reasons why Shell wanted to acquire Woodside. 1. In the year 2001, Shell already had 34% share claim to Woodside petroleum. Through the takeover bid, Shell expected to increase its share in Woodside to 56% hence being the majority shareholder. This would work in the favour of Shell in that it would be given the chance to appoint more directors at the Woodside Company. A higher number of directors in the board would assure the decision makers at Shell that most of their decisions would be passed with a high number of votes by the directors they appoint to the board. 2. The idea of a takeover bid by Shell would be a kind of expansion plan. Though Shell has continually denied it, taking over Woodside would be like opening an office branch for Shell in Australia. This would ensure that Shell has a deeper grip on the Asia-pacific region in the petroleum and gas industry. 3. Shell’s hostile takeover of Woodside would have guaranteed Shell more gas fields, particularly in North West shelf of Australia. This would have increased the production and output that essentially will be transferred to increased revenue and profits for the firm, hence, putting Shell ahead of companies it competes against in the petroleum and gas exploration and production industry like, British petroleum and Exxon. APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 REFERENCES New York Times â€Å"Australia Rejects a Shell Takeover bid† nytimes.com/2001/04/24/business/australia-rejects-a-shell-takeover-bid.html?src=pm Foreign investment review board â€Å"Foreign Investment Proposal  - Shell Australia Investments Limited’s Acquisition of Woodside Petroleum Limited† treasurer.gov.au/tsr/content/pressreleases/2001/025.asp Monash University, Kalfadellis, Judy Gray & Susan Freeman "The National Interest and the Screening of Foreign Direct Investment in Australia" Monash: Monash University,

Acts 1 and 2 of Romeo and Juliet

Acts 1 and 2 of Romeo and Juliet Essay Love is an important theme in Romeo and Juliet and is interpreted in many ways by the many different characters. After the prologue, which is filled with hints of the ending for the star-crossed lovers, the play opens with a scene between Sampson and Gregory who are two servants of the Capulet family. They are vulgar and crude, making many sexual references and innuendoes. They do not see love as involving emotions or desires, but as a purely physical thing, sexual not emotional. Sampson refers to women as weaker vessels and tells of how he will rape the maids of the Montague household. Neither of them appears to have ever experienced true love. They talk in a rude and coarse manner and objectify women. The opening helps the audience to contrast this vulgar image of love shown in a humorous context, to Romeo and Juliets sincere love for each other. This perception of love is also shared by the nurse and Mercutio, both who are comical characters. Mercutios humour is mostly offensive and insulting; he sees love as a pointless emotion. Mercutio teases Romeo from the start for being a lover. He believes that love is just an illusion, its made up in dreams by Queen Mab, he says she gallops night by night through lovers brains, and then they dream of love. The nurse uses similar bawdy language by way of, Go girl, seek happy nights to happy days. The nurse urges Juliet to get all of the pleasures out of love and she ensures Juliet and Romeo are able to marry and indulge in their sexual relationship. In this way, although there is long elaborate speech of true passionate love between Romeo and Juliet, there is also rude and coarse language which would have appealed to the lower-class audience. In the Elizabethan era, it was common for a young man to fall hopelessly in love with an unattainable beautiful woman, often with little chance of being loved back. This is how we first meet Romeo; he is very depressed and confused. However, you see many different attitudes towards love from Romeo; during each situation he is in, he reveals a different portrayal of love. Here he tells his cousin, Benvolio, of how he is in love with a woman, Rosaline, and speaks his love. This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Romeo speaks of how he does not enjoy being in love and that he sees it as a punishment, like being shut up in prison or like being whipped and tormented. He talks of love as being something he has to do, not something he feels. Benvolio believes that Romeo is not really in love, but that it is more of an infatuation. In his attempts to help Romeo overcome his obsession, Benvolio tells him to examine other beauties. Benvolio does not have a lot of belief in true love but merely in loving the beauty of women. In this scene, the audience see Romeo for the first time and they are exposed to a pathetic, depressed, miserable boy, who does not take pleasure in love, ay me sad hours seem long However the fact Shakespeare never reveals Rosaline to the audience adds mystery to Romeos obsession. This kind of love he feels for Rosaline did not tend to lead towards marriage, which was something else. Marriage often had nothing to do with love; it was arranged between families and was generally all to do with legal contracts, family, pride and wealth. This is shown by Juliets parents; Capulet is much older than Lady Capulet, who married when she was very young. Her mother learnt to love him after they married. This is also depicted in the scene when Paris asks Capulet for Juliets hand in marriage before he has even met her. Although Juliet is very young, Capulet still gives Juliet a choice of if she wants to be married and by this shows his affection for her. He refers to her as the hopeful lady of his earth and she calls him as good father. He believes marriage as a good thing but also states that love is preferable. He does also show his concern about Juliets age, READ: Using Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet and Baz Lurhmanns' film version EssayShe hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. Yet Paris states that women younger than Juliet are already made mothers, a thought shared also with Lady Capulet, Well, think of marriage now; younger than you, Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my count. She feels marriage is more important than love as well, So shall you share all that he doth possess, By having him, making yourself no less. She implies that marriage a necessity and it is what women are made for. Lady Capulet also recites a long elaborate speech full of comparisons of Paris face and love being like a book, Read oer the volume of young Paris face, This precious book of love, this unbound lover This speech starts with the assumption that because Paris is a man of wax, Juliet should be very excited to be given the chance to marry him and should immediately be attracted to him. However, Lady Capulet soon gets irritated when Juliet shows no signs of interest; she hurries Juliet, asking her of her feelings towards this, Speak briefly, can you like of Paris love? Juliet answers in such a way that keeps her parents happy, Ill look to like, if looking liking move, She says that she will look forward to liking him, if by looking at him can lead her to liking him. As she is so young, her answer seems acceptable as her mother does not question her further. Lady Capulets scene with Juliet is not normally how a mother addresses her daughter or how a daughter addresses her mother. Their dialogue seems very formal and polite, Madam, I am here. What is your will? This depicts the distance between Juliet and her mother; instead of saying mother, she says madam. However, this gap between them is filled by the nurse. The nurse effectively acts as Juliets substitute mother and it is her, who Juliet confides in and trusts. When Romeo first meets Juliet, the insincerity of his love for Rosaline is exposed and he suddenly realises it, Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I neer saw true beauty till this night. He speaks of how his love for Rosaline was not true and pure, like the love he now feels for Juliet. His attitude towards love changes as suddenly as his change of heart. Romeos feelings sound more genuine in speeches about Juliet than of Rosaline which was much more exaggerated. He wants to be with Juliet all the time, and he is continually comparing her to a saint and the light that can brighten up anything. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! O, then, dear saint, O, speak again, bright angel! In the sonnet shared by Romeo and Juliet, the interpretation of love is shown as religion. There are many references to saints, pilgrims, shrines, holy, prayers, faith and devotion. This is an obvious contrast to how he felt when he was in love with Rosaline. Juliet seems very playful in her language with Romeo but she also feels the same way as she refers to him as her only love. In their scene at the balcony, Romeo now feels love as being a power in which he can with loves light wings fly over the high walls surrounding the Capulet mansion. When Juliet asks Romeo how he knew which room was hers, Romeo replied, By love that first did prompt me to inquire; He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. This means that love led him to her balcony. Juliet, in this scene, seems much more mature than Romeo and speaks in a much more serious tone; Romeo speaks using elaborate and indirect language, READ: Good Hook For Romeo And Juliet EssayIt is my soul that calls upon my name: How silver-sweet sound lovers tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears! Juliet does not like his theatrical speech, instead she gradually tears Romeo away from this artificial language in which he used with Rosaline. Juliet speaks of love as being eternal and sacred, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite. She believes in their love so much that she accepts to marry him, the only son of her parents sworn enemy, even though Paris had offered to marry her. Friar Lawrence acts as Romeos substitute father and looks after him throughout Romeos relationship with Juliet. He agrees to marry them thinking it will unite their families but still feels it is still a risk, Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. When the Friar remarks on how quickly he falls in love, Romeo replies by saying that there is a difference between his old love and his new one, Her I love now Doth grace for grace and love for love allow. The other did not so. This is another example of how Romeo is truly in love with Juliet. The friar is similar to the role of the nurse towards Juliet as they both look after and advise the young lovers. In conclusion, there are many forms of love; parental love, marital love and physical love. I believe that Romeo and Juliet contains the right balance of each different aspect of love. The humorous bawdy language of Mercutio and the nurse provide a break from all the ominous reminders of the tragic ending and the elaborate, fancy dialogue of Romeo and Juliet. These crude parts of the play would also have appealed to the lower class and less cultured members of the Elizabethan audience. All in all, the theme of love is well presented in many different ways by many characters.

Changes in Accounting Due to Globalization Assignment

Changes in Accounting Due to Globalization - Assignment Example Financial accounting refers to information that describes the financial resources, obligations, and activities of the business organization. Management accounting involves the development and interpretation of accounting information designed to assist management (Wiliam and Haka, 2005, p. 5-6). These two accounting systems differ in the dimensions of users to whom the information is produced, the structure of the information, sources of principles for both, report entity, purpose, need and time orientation etc. Financial accounting is basically concerned with producing financial information and reports like financial statements for external users including investors, creditors, government agencies, customers, and banks etc. But, managerial accounting is concerned with producing and providing accounting information for all internal users including managers for decision making, planning and controlling (Heitger and Mowen, 2007, p. 6) Khan (2007) emphasizes that the users of information produced by financial accounting other than management are often a faceless group. Normally, the managers of many companies do not personally know the shareholders or creditors etc. But, users of management account are within the organization like managers and those who help managers produce this information (p. 7) The information is presented in a different structure in management accounting and financial accounting. Financial account must follow a single and unified structure as the information related or presented in different organizations must be more or less in a uniform structure. Balance sheet, profit, and loss account or income statement and cash flow statements are the end products of financial accounting. The balance sheet is a financial position statement of the business for a particular period of time, generally for a financial year.  

Critical Path - Project Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical Path - Project Management - Assignment Example This process provides us a total time taken by the project. For assessing the total time we use above mentioned methods to find out the main project completion and development time. Through this time we obtain a project time line for the project execution. Here we also assign appropriate sequence to each activity of the project. Through these assigned activity sequencing, the expansion of a project network diagram is developed. This procedure is pretty time intense if completed with hand. Luckily, there are development organization software tools that can build network illustrations although there can be an illustration where we have to perform it by hand. One of the main causes for building a plan organization network drawing is to decide the elasticity inside the network (Kerzner, 2006) and (Field & Keller, 2007). Total float is the time obtainable for holding-up an activity devoid of delay end Date of the plan. The entire float of a task is then the biggest probable delay in finishing of this task that will not reason a delay in the achievement of the whole project. This recommends the subsequent instinctive notion: (Kerzner, 2006) and (Burke, 1999): The process of the determining the total float of a project activity involves the assessment of the total delaying an activity with no delay end Date of the plan. The total float of a project activity is the largest possible delay in the completion of that task that will not cause a delay in the accomplishment of the whole project (Kerzner, 2006). The assessment of the critical path provides a better overview of the project duration and more critical activates as well as their management. In the assessment of the critical activates of the project we determine their total float. Total float of the project if equal to zero then that activity denotes as the critical activity (Gray & Larson, 2006). The CP (critical path) is the best times path in the course of the network

Athenian Women :: essays research papers

ATHENIAN WOMEN It is ridiculous to assume that the Athenian women of Ancient Greece were respected and revered by men. These women were not held in high regard. Men controlled all aspects of their lives, beginning with their fathers and continuing with their husbands once they married. Most girls were married in their very early teens to men that were usually much older (Xenophon’s Oeconomicus), sometimes as much as twice the age of their wives. The age difference was considered a moot point since women at that time often did not survive the rigors of repeated childbirth and died young. It was also generally believed that marrying a very young girl enabled the husbands to train her and mold her into a proper Athenian wife. Athenian women had almost no influence or power in Greek society and were not highly regarded until they could produce a male child (Socrates). The common belief at that time (in most Western societies) was that women were necessary to produce children. Women existed for the sake of procreation, to bear sons in order to continue the family name (Aristotle states that the man supplies the substance, the soul, i.e. the form for children, the woman provides only the nourishment), (Source: Generation of Animals). In Athenian society, extramarital affairs by husbands with women (and men) was the norm, and it indeed contributed to the image of a man’s prosperity if he had a mistress. Did the males in this society consider their wives praiseworthy? In my opinion the answer is no, since a wife who was the husband’s property and could be disciplined if she did not conform to the Athenian standards of wife. Athenian wives were judged in society by their frugality, ability to rais e sons, and their devotion and faithfulness to their husbands, (e.g., Penelope and Odysseus). A married woman caught in adultery would have been forced to abandon her home and children for the disgrace it would bring the family name, (Hunt, pg. 70). Men in ancient Athens (as in just about every Western civilization) had altered views of women. They saw women as being weak and dependent (Xenophon Oeconomicus), and because of the socioeconomic structure of the time, they were. Women in this society could, to some degree, assert power and influence in the home. The everyday life of the â€Å"ideal† Greek woman included child bearing and rearing, cleaning, both weaving cloth and making clothes, cooking and supervising slaves and other domestic tasks, (Xenophon, On Household Management).

Crane Hand Signals Speech Outline

Speaking Outline Topic:Crane hand signals for directing crane movement and common rigging procedures used with cranes on construction sites. Specific Purpose:To inform my audience of the need for crane hand signals and rigging procedures in order to safely operate a crane. Thesis:Everyone on site around the crane should know proper hand signals and rigging procedures to maintain a safe construction site. Introduction: 1. Cranes dangerous, Kent County Jail 2. Save a life? 3. OSHA Training [ (America, 1992) ]Transition: Who needs to communicate with a crane operator? And how do they do it? Body: 1. Rigger, Hand Signals Transition: What are the hand signals? Are they complicated? 2. Show rigger bring ball to load [ (SS Crane & Rigging, 2012) ]. Transition:How does he attach the load? 3. Show cinch and types of cinches. [ (America, 1992) ]. 4. Adjust cinch and show spreader bar [ (America, 1992) ] 5. Direct crane to operator [ (SS Crane & Rigging, 2012) ] 6. Place the load and direct bac k to rigger [ (BrassMeIn. com, 2012) ]Transition: These are the most common signals used; there is no way I could show you every signal there is. Conclusion: 1. Everyone on site around the crane should know these proper hand signals and rigging procedures to maintain a safe construction site. 2. The rigger should safely direct the operator to his load and then cinch it up. 3. A load should always be tested at a very low height before being transported. 4. The rigger then directs the operator to the laborer. 5. After the load is securely in place, the laborer directs the operator back to the rigger, and starts the process all over again. . Questions? Works Cited America, T. A. (Director). (1992). Controlling The Load: Crane Rigging Safety [Motion Picture]. BrassMeIn. com. (2012). Standard Hand Signals for Crane Operation. Retrieved October 10, 2012, from BrassMeIn. com: http://brassmein. com/tech/signals/hand. htm SS Crane & Rigging. (2012). Crane Hand Signals – Directing Cran e Movement. Retrieved October 10, 2012, from SS Crane & Rigging: http://www. sscrane. com/crane-hand-signals-directing-crane-movements/