First Solar Turns Sunshine into Profits Essay Example for Free

First Solar Turns Sunshine into Profits Essay Case Summary: First Solar was founded in 1999 from the Walton family. According to the Marketing Sun Power, First Solar’s mission is â€Å"to create enduring value by enabling a world powered by clean, affordable solar electricity.† (p. 90) The company manufactures solar modules, which have razor-thin cadmium telluride. They are manufactured this way because it can still produce electricity even when clouds are blocking the sun. With this product First Solar wants to promote that it is socially responsible. It not only markets its cost efficiency through solar energy, but it also helps maintain sustainability by reducing the use of fossil fuel. First Solar products have advantages with rival companies because its product does not depend on silicon wafers. Silicon wafers is the preferred product from other solar companies. Silicon wafers is a costly product and it’s also a scarce resource. Key Marketing Issues †¢Competition: In the business world competition is when businesses or firms enter the market with similar products. Per the article First Solar does not seem to have great threat of other firms, as it is the leading manufacture of solar power. First Solar uses razor-thin cadmium telluride material, while other companies use silicon wafers. Silicon is a scarce material and expensive as well. †¢Oligopoly: I would consider First Solar to be an oligopoly. Since it seems that there are few sellers that control the solar panel market. I would also say that since First Solar uses different material it has an upper hand when it comes to solar modules. This can change if different innovations enter the market. †¢Political Forces: Political force can always influence the wellbeing of a company. For example Germany and other European nations are encouraging  alternative energy and that is why Germany has become First Solar’s target market. †¢Technological Forces: Technological forces will continue to change the marketing perspective, because technology changes. Marketing strategies change to adapt and become appealable to consumers. †¢Government: Governments from various nations can influence with providing subsidies that help corporations maintain a decreased rates for solar energy. A problem that First Solar and other solar companies will have to tackle, because Germany will be reducing its subsidies soon. Personal Case Analysis As a personal analysis I was intrigued by the product differentiation between First Solar and other solar companies. Most solar companies use silicon wafers for their solar cells and panels. First Solar uses a razor-thin cadmium telluride solar cells and panels, which makes them an innovator of this product (what makes them marketable). They expect to decrease its cost to .50 cents per watt by 2014, which is 50% less than what is being paid at this moment. First Solar is not only based out of Tempe, Arizona, but it’s also marketed globally. Germany use to be its primary market, but now it is moving to the North American market. Case Questions 1-Which marketing environment forces are likely to have the greatest impact on First Solar? The greatest impacts from environmental forces are Economic Conditions (buying power), Political Forces, and Technological Forces. Economic conditions change in which can affect the buying power. A perfect example would be the subsidies that are being received in Germany. Buying condition can decrease when the subsidies are lost. Unless there is a political agenda or lobbying involved. This is when technological advancement can be improved  to provide a less costly product. 2-What types of organizations are most likely to exert the strongest competitive forces on First Solar? In order for a competitor to compete against First Solar, they would need to develop a superior product then what First Solar has produced. First Solar has produced a razor-thin cadmium telluride product that even works on cloudy days. One company that I think could bring competition would General Electric. General Electric is a well-established company that is looking into being a sustainable company and has the wealth to pursue solar panels. 3-How did technology affect First Solars responses to the changes in the marketing environment? How can it continue to maintain its technological edge in its industry? First Solar started out because of high oil prices, environmental concerns with natural resources. First Solar does not use expensive material like silicon wafers, which is a scarce material and very costly. It will continue to maintain its technological edge because it is aware that it needs continuous assessments in every aspect of the market (fossil fuel, government, technologies, innovation, and consumer demand). Conclusions: First Solar has developed a product in which reduces the use of fossil fuel and creates alternative energy. Its marketing strategy has been focused on its unique development of technology (cadmium telluride cells) and the need to provide consumers and businesses a more sustainable product with a lower cost. Due to these advantages the company can attack the market aggressively. First Solar is aware of the challenges that will arise in the future. Environmental forces keep companies always on edge, which makes them continue to improve with new technological innovations. Marketing plans need to be adjusted on a continuous basis due to changes that may arise from government, natural resources, political views and social views.

Buddhism in Fight Club Essay -- Literary Analysis

â€Å"Whenever we find one who has come unscathed through every test in childhood, youth, and manhood, we shall set him as a Ruler to watch over the commonwealth; he will be honoured in life, and after death receive the highest tribute of funeral rites and other memorials.† Great philosophers like Plato and Machiavelli raised a lot of arguments in how a true guardian is like. Although there have been some oppositions on how guardians should execute duties, it is noticeable that both philosophers agree that a true guardian is more than just a leader. A true guardian assumes active responsibility to the society of which he or she is part. As discussed in Plato’s The Republic and Machiavelli’s The Prince, guardians are leaders that don’t own any possessions and they are active in ruling the society. True guardians are enlightened from shadows of lies. These rulers desire to offer his people a better world to live in. True Guardians must be very skillful in fighting. Siddhartha Gautama is a great example of a true guardian. 'Siddhattha Gautama' means descendant of Gotama who is efficacious in achieving aims. He later became known as Buddha, which means "one who is intuitive, awakened, or enlightened." But how does one achieve enlightenment and what do you do after gaining it? Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini, near the Nepalese-Indian border. Asita, a famous wise sage, predicted that he would become a great king or a great religious teacher. Siddhartha’s father, King Suddhodana, wished for his son to be a king so he shielded him from religious teachings or any knowledge of human sufferings. King Suddhodana evidently thought that any contact with unpleasantness might prompt Siddartha to seek a life of renunciation as a religious... ...mber 8, 2010, http://www.san.beck.org/EC9-Buddha.html. Sanderson Beck, â€Å"Buddha and Buddhism,† accessed December 8, 2010, http://www.san.beck.org/EC9-Buddha.html. Buddhist-Tourism.Com, â€Å"Buddhism Statistics,† accessed December 8, 2010, http://www.buddhist-tourism.com/buddhism/buddhism-statistics.html. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2005), 46. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2005), 41. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2005), 43. Robin Chew, â€Å"The Essences of Buddha’s Teachings, accessed December 6, 2010, http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/buddha2.html. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2005), 48-49. TeachingsOfBuddha.com, â€Å"Do Not Believe in Anything,† accessed December 10, 2010, http://www.teachingsofthebuddha.com/do-not-believe-anything.htm.

PHP vs. ASP Essay

Introduction PHP and ASP are the two best web technologies this century is to offer. In their own ways, they have created trust and market for their product and development environment. Anstey (2003) mentions that PHP belongs to a free software community and open source general purpose software which is very easy to use and correct its bugs from the community of developers around the world. ASP is a program that runs on IIS server and is a free component with windows operating system and offers various features (Argence, 2008). ASP.NET is a unified Web development platform that provides services necessary for developers to build enterprise-class Web applications. ASP.NET provides programming model and infrastructure for more secure, scalable, and stable applications. ASP.NET is a compiled, .NET based web environment developed in any .NET compatible languages like Visual Basic .NET, C#, JScript.NET, etc. Additionally, the entire .NET Framework is available to any ASP.NET application. Developers can easily access the benefits of these technologies, which include the managed common language runtime environment, type safety, inheritance, and so on. The foundation of all Web applications is that they deliver dynamic content over a protocol which by model is stateless. Most of the ASP.NET developments fall in client-server architecture programming model. Minimal points to be considered for a typical web application modeled as client-server architecture are given below. User interface and client environment (Page layout). Data verification, transfer and store. Security. Scalability, reliability and availability of the application. Optimized resource utilization and performance. Handling unpleasant instances gracefully. Navigation. Literature review PHP traces back to the development of Perl and C which emerged quite successfully as a result of the contribution of the various programmers around the globe and as a result of its being an open community. The various versions came out successfully through 1997 to 2004 where the features were added and successfully taken up to cater to the development paradigm of the large scale of internet users. ASP came handy with Windows 95 with the features of IIS server installed. It was an established standard which takes into account the various databases into consideration and is based on the COM model. The various differences among PHP and ASP make sure that all to a good extent the feature are compiled and carries enough advantage to understand the loopholes and make sure that all the various utilities are enforced well.   PHP and ASP depict large scale differences in the form of various factors like cost, integration of features, speed, platform compatibility, additional costs, base language, database connectivity and many others. Cost: As PHP is not single handedly owned by any individual or an organization it does not requires to be purchased for use. Even for the support of the backend, it uses a database technology named MySQL which is also available free of cost (DuBois, 2002). The hosting of the PHP pages into the Linux server and their deployment is quite affordable and can be done with ease. Glass (2004) mentions that ASP is synchronized with Microsoft Windows operating system and comes along with it bearing the cost of the operating system. Moreover hosting ASP pages is expensive over the internet and features like email, file uploading and other features are quite expensive at the same time. Integration with operating environments and databases: PHP makes sure that all the operating environments are taken care to its fullest capability and is compatible with Windows, UNIX, Linux, Solaris and others. Its platform dependency format makes sure that all the various compatibility with operating environments makes it quite viable in nature. PHP integrates with the databases like MySQL and others in a great fashion. ASP on the other hand is compatible with Windows only and makes sure that Microsoft oriented databases like MSSQL server would be well integrated with it. For other database platforms it requires to download various libraries and components for integration and workability (Hull, 2002). Performance: PHP is an interpreted language and make sure that the interpreted nature makes it fast for getting the customization done. The memory requirement of the PHP pages is quite optimizable and runs very fast with the greater understanding of the various features. Database connections of PHP are also quite flexible and make sure that all the various database functionality like stability, transactions, replication, triggers and stored procedures are handled quite well (Merrall, 2000). ASP on the other hand is a compiled language and the software glitches are quite often not corrected or take a long time to get it done. The compiled nature makes sure that all the various factors like throughput and response time is quite low for the hosted pages. Its exclusivity with Microsoft windows operating system makes it platform independent with regard to various hosting and access problems. Enhanced capabilities and compatibility: These include file transfer programs and utilities, compression of data, uploading of files, integration of XML an MD5, encryption techniques and email facilities are not included in ASP, even if it does it requires the support of large third party packages installed, which are very easily integrated in PHP. PHP.net (2008) mentions that complex functions like dynamic images, IMAP, SNMP, dynamic flash, PDF, native access to Oracle, Ovrimos, Postgre, Sybase, mSql, MSSQL, Ingres, Interbase and Informix databases, LDAP, and sockets and many others are easily integrated with PHP, however it would create a big problem with its integration with ASP. PHP is compatible with various web servers for its functioning however ASP requires it to be easily integrated with only IIS and PWS as explained by Pires (2005). Conclusion   Although both ASP and PHP are web server end languages for web development, it makes sure that the factors like cost, installation, performance, compatibility issues are economized to its full   extent. PHP offers the best integration of the speed and performance factors and make sure that all the various promises are met for catering to the web development (Zhang, 1999). ASP is most suitable with the Microsoft platform and makes sure that all the features are captured and managed for the various services. References Anstey, Marty (2003). PHP vs ASP. Retrieved 19, February 2008 from http://marty.anstey.ca/programming/php/articles/ Argence d Ricardo (2008). Web Hosting, PHP vs AS.P. Retrieved 18, February 2008 from http://articles.topofhosting.com/web-hosting-php-asp.php DuBois, Paul (2002). MySQL Cookbook. O’Reilly, October 2002. Glass, Michael (2004). Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL ® Web Development. Wiley Publicizing sons. ISBN: 0-7645-5744-0. Hull, Sean (2002). PHP vs. ASP.NET Redux. Retrieved 18, February 2008 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/columns/hull_php2.html Merrall, Graeme (2000). PHP/MySQL Tutorial PHP.net (2008). See: http://www.php.net/manual/en Pires, Halstatt (2005). ASP vs. PHP. Retrieved 18, February 2008 from http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2005/12/22/asp-vs-php Zhang, Ying (1999). Web Database Step-by-Step Guide.

The Black Swan Film Directed By Darren Aronofsky - 1219 Words

The Black Swan film, Directed by Darren Aronofsky is a phycological thriller. This story is about a mid aged girl named Nina, who is a ballerina trying out for a swan queen part, in the play, swan lake. It’s complicated because she is a goody two shoes who’s only good for the white swan part. Nina is going through some changes with coming to age, and confusion with sexuality. Which helps her grow from a pure and white swan, into a black sinful swan. The new dancer (her understudy) known as Lilly, who is a rebellious girl. Lilly helps Nina evolve into the â€Å"black swan† almost referring to her maturity into womanhood. The stress for the part becomes too much for her and she begins to lose touch with reality, not sure what she seeing in front of her is real or not. The scene I am analyzing is the final performance scene. In this scene, Nina finally becomes the black swan by killing herself, making herself having the perfect performance she has always dreamed of. The lighting on the stage is set up the way it is to make it seem like we are in the theater watching the performance, yet we see through Nina’s eyes as she takes her last glimpse at her successful performance. The lighting reminds me of a spotlight. The whole stage is lit up and beautiful, while the crowd is dark. The light moves from the performers, then to Nina as she moves upstage to the sun because she is the center of attention in this scene as her and her character she plays dies. As she falls, the lighting growsShow MoreRelatedMovie Analysis : Black Swan And Gone Girl1921 Words   |  8 Pages The directors Darren Aronofsky and David Fincher key concern in Black Swan and Gone Girl are to convey how destructive, unhealthy relationships can be to women. Women have become dependent on the peoples in their lives for their sense of purpose. Both films depict women in a negative way. 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Ballet dancersRead MoreHollywood And Its Commercial Aesthetic2007 Words   |  9 Pagesinclination of Hollywood narratives comes not just from good chronicles but from good story telling. The following essay will discuss Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic as applied to storytelling, expand on the characteristics of the â€Å"principles of classical film narration† and evaluate alternative modes of narration and other deviations from the classical mode. a) Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic as applied to storytelling: According to Richard Maltby (2003) commercial aesthetic is used to describe Hollywood’s