I Don’t Have a Topic for My Research Paper, So I’m Writing about Nothin

What is nothing? Though at first, the response may seem like little more than a play on words, the simple answer is this: Nothing is not. No word such as anything or everything can be added at the end of the statement to further clarify the crucial concept, which is non-existence: the dictionary definition of nothing. In actuality, though, although the denotation of "nothing" insists on absolute absence and void, in today’s society "nothing" is actually quite present, masquerading as something indeed. Of course, there are concepts in existence that accurately represent our limited understanding of nothing. One such concept is zero. In a simple counting sense, when one, two, or eight hundred items could be present, but there aren’t any, there are zero. Zero items are present, and nothing is there. Kept strictly in a counting sense, this works. Zero is non-existence. Yet, in the actual study of mathematics, one learns that zero may be many things, but never nothing at all. Zero is perhaps the most powerful number in all of mathematics, and its influence on the way we work with numbers is clear. Multiply a number, any number, from the greatest to the small, from positive to negative infinity, by zero. Divide zero by any of these numbers. Zero absolves, absorbs, changes said number completely - it becomes zero. Surely, such a drastic effect cannot be the result of nothing. Divide by zero. Or attempt to, anyway, and find it impossible, "undefined." A graphed function involving a division of zero will form unreachable vertical asymptotes that stretch to positive and negative infinity. Zero, though, does have its weaknesses. Add zero, subtract zero, it’s all the same: no effect at all. The other numbers or variables invo... ...tranger. San Francisco: Knopf, 1998. Descartes, Renà ©. Descartes: Selections. Ed. Ralph M. Eaton. San Francisco: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927. Family Medical Guide. Lincolnwood: Publications International, Ltd., 1990. Miller, Charles D. and Margaret L. Lial. Fundamentals of College Algebra. Third Edition. Glenview: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1990. Naparstek, Belleruth. Your Sixth Sense. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1997. Reid, Constance. From Zero to Infinity: What Makes Numbers Interesting. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1964. Satre, Jean-Paul. "Nausea." Nausea, The Wall, and Other Stories. New York: MJF Books, 1964. Twain, Mark. "The Mysterious Stranger." Great Short Works of Mark Twain. Ed. Justin Kaplan. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1967. "Vacuum." The Columbia Encyclopedia. Fifth Edition. Columbia University Press, 1993.

Listo Systems

Listo Systems is a graphic service agency with a long history of success. In the early 1990s, the company quickly grew into one of the top graphic service companies in the world. The rapid growth of technology in recent years has both helped and hindered the company. Advancements in technology have allowed Listo Systems to provide quality services and products faster and more efficiently. However, new technology has also been beneficial for Listo Systems’ competitors. The competition has grown significantly in number and in the quality of services and products that they provide.The increase in technology has also led to an increase in customer demands and expectations. Customers want services and products faster and cheaper and will go to a competitor without hesitation if their needs are not met. The advancements in technology have also created new threats to the industry in terms of security and theft of products. Answer the following questions by applying the concepts learn ed in Chapter 1. Also, conduct literature reviews on the subject of discussion and use to support your case study answers:How has Listo Systems felt the impact of power shifting from the Seller to the Buyer? Ignorance of customer behavior is the greatest strategic risk facing businesses today. Every day they vote with their time, with their word of mouth, with their money and with their allegiance, for the business designs that best serve their evolving priorities. The results of their shifting decisions are value creation and value destruction. Customers determine profits. In many markets, not all customers are profitable.An examination of true pricing and the true costs of serving customers may reveal that a company is actually losing money on many customer accounts. The shift from â€Å"all customers are profitable† to â€Å"many are not† has been triggered by declining gross margins and increasing variability in the cost to serve customers. Suppliers will be reward ed for being much more rigorous in: 1. Measuring current and potential profit customer by customer 2. Selecting the promising customers, and 3. Choosing how much to invest in those customers. Customer profitability is a relative concept.When a firm's capacity utilization is low, even a â€Å"bad† customer is valued because the incremental volume helps to cover fixed costs — in the short term. For the long term, however, the fundamental issue remains: either replace the â€Å"bad† customers with good ones, or reduce capacity, or do both. The key to reversing this downward spiral into unprofitability is the ability to continuously re-segment the customer base. A customer profitability system can reverse the process and enable a company to exploit profit shifts to its advantage.By developing an accurate and dynamic model of how profitability varies at the individual customer level, a company can select and develop strategic customers who yield the greatest long-ter m value. The distribution of power between sellers and buyers influences every negotiation or transaction and profoundly influences the allocation of profits and value. Significant power imbalances can translate quickly along the value chain. Several factors can trigger the power shift pattern: 1. Customer consolidation 2.The formation of professional purchasing groups that bring tremendous expertise to the purchasing process 3. An overabundance of information on suppliers' costs and performance 4. Suppliers' lack of differentiation in either the products offered or the business models used to serve customers. When a company's customers have gained the upper hand, there are a few options available: 1. Out-concentrate the customers. If key customers are more consolidated than you, then consolidate back, merging to ensure that customers can't do without your portfolio. 2.Change the offer, change the customer. 3. Leapfrog the customer. Companies can vault past their customers via a str ong end-user brand, direct channel initiatives and innovative strategies to minimize their current customers' response. 4. Become the customer. The most radical move of all is to buy your largest customer. To generate value, make this move just before power starts shifting to customers, not after it has progressed. Purchasing of a distribution channel lets you join rather than fight the rise in customer power. 2. What external environmental factors are affecting Listo Systems?External environment consists of forces that directly or indirectly influence organization’s business activities. The actors and forces outside marketing that affect management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationship with target customers. Changes are often quick and unpredictable and offers both opportunities and threats Company must use its research and marketing intelligence systems to monitor the changing environment. Systematic environmental scanning helps Listo System to revi se and adapt business strategies to meet new challenges and opportunities in the marketplace.Technology can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These developments can benefit consumers as well as the organizations providing the products. Every company faces a wide range of competitors and Listo System is also not apart from this fact. Listo System must secure a strategic advantage over competitors by positioning their offerings to be successful in the marketplace. A PESTLE analysis for Listo must consider all the important external factors impacting on the company. These factors may have political, economic, sociological, technological, legal or environmental dimensions.The political analysis must include the impact of local and national government, and the international situation. The Economic analysis needs to investigate the influences of the stock market and tax increases, amongst many other monetary matters. Sociological analysis is all about analyzing the bac kground culture. Technological factors are usually easier to spot, because new technologies involve change, and change is always noticed. For instance, online shopping has had a major impact on Listo's recent success.The change created by technological advances often lead to legal problems, which is why legal analysis is always an important part of a PESTLE analysis. Listo's operations obviously have a significant environmental impact, from fossil fuel use to packaging issues. Reducing the demand on the planet is a challenge for any big company. A PESTLE Analysis for Listo must look at all the six factors we have mentioned. Here they are again, with examples of each: Political: an increase in unemployment due to a downward turn in the world economy.Economic: impact on sales of the credit crunch. Sociological: an increase in immigration from Eastern Europe resulting in a demand for new goods. Technological: how can Listo take full advantage of the World Wide Web? Legal: how can Listo avoid legal opposition to expanding into new high streets? Environmental: – climate change is affecting supply and transport, how can Listo adapt? In summary, any PESTLE Analysis for Listo must consider all external factors if it has any hope of capturing the essence of the company. Listo Systems Listo Systems is a graphic service agency with a long history of success. In the early 1990s, the company quickly grew into one of the top graphic service companies in the world.The rapid growth of technology in recent years has both helped and hindered the company. Advancements in technology have allowed Listo Systems to provide quality services and products faster and more efficiently. However, new technology has also been beneficial for Listo Systems’ competitors. The competition has grown significantly in number and in the quality of services and products that they provide.The increase in technology has also led to an increase in customer demands and expectations. Customers want services and products faster and cheaper and will go to a competitor without hesitation if their needs are not met. The advancements in technology have also created new threats to the industry in terms of security and theft of products.Answer the following questions by applying the concepts learned in Chapter 1. Also, conduct literature reviews on the subject of discussion and use to support your case study answers: 1. How has Listo Systems felt the impact of power shifting from the Seller to the Buyer? Ignorance of customer behavior is the greatest strategic risk facing businesses today. Every day they vote with their time, with their word of mouth, with their money and with their allegiance, for the business designs that best serve their evolving priorities. The results of their shifting decisions are value creation and value destruction. Customers determine profits.In many markets, not all customers are profitable. An examination of true pricing and the true costs of serving customers may reveal that a company is actually losing money on many customer accounts. The shift from â€Å"all customers are profitable† to â€Å"many are not† has been triggered by declining gross margins and increasing variability in the cost to serve customers. Suppliers will be rewa rded for being much more rigorous in: 1.Measuring current and potential profit customer by customer 2.Selecting the promising customers, and3.Choosing how much to invest in those customers.Customer profitability is a relative concept. When a firm's capacity utilization is low, even a â€Å"bad† customer is valued because the incremental volume helps to cover fixed costs — in the short term. For the long term, however, the fundamental issue remains: either replace the â€Å"bad† customers with good ones, or reduce capacity, or do both. The key to reversing this downward spiral into unprofitability is the ability to continuously re-segment the customer base.A customer profitability system can reverse the process and enable a company to exploit profit shifts to its advantage. By developing an accurate and dynamic model of how profitability varies at the individual customer level, a company can select and develop strategic customers who yield the greatest long-term value. The distribution of power between sellers and buyers influences every negotiation or transaction and profoundly influences the allocation of profits and value. Significant power imbalances can translate quickly along the value chain. Several factors can trigger the power shift pattern:1. Customer consolidation2. The formation of professional purchasing groups that bring tremendous expertise to the purchasing process3. An overabundance of information on suppliers' costs and performance4. Suppliers' lack of differentiation in either the products offered or the business models used to serve customers.When a company's customers have gained the upper hand, there are a few options available: 1. Out-concentrate the customers. If key customers are more consolidated than you, then consolidate back, merging to ensure that customers can't do without your portfolio. 2. Change the offer, change the customer.3. Leapfrog the customer. Companies can vault past their customers via a strong en d-user brand, direct channel initiatives and innovative strategies to minimize their current customers' response. 4. Become the customer. The most radical move of all is to buy your largest customer. To generate value, make this move just before power starts shifting to customers, not after it has progressed. Purchasing of a distribution channel lets you join rather than fight the rise in customer power.2. What external environmental factors are affecting Listo Systems? External environment consists of forces that directly or indirectly influence organization’s business activities. The actors and forces outside marketing that affect management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationship with target customers. Changes are often quick and unpredictable and offers both opportunities and threats Company must use its research and marketing intelligence systems to monitor the changing environment.Systematic environmental scanning helps Listo System to revise and adapt business strategies to meet new challenges and opportunities in the marketplace. Technology can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These developments can benefit consumers as well as the organizations providing the products. Every company faces a wide range of competitors and Listo System is also not apart from this fact. Listo System must secure a strategic advantage over competitors by positioning their offerings to be successful in the marketplace. A PESTLE analysis for Listo must consider all the important external factors impacting on the company. These factors may have political, economic, sociological, technological, legal or environmental dimensions. The political analysis must include the impact of local and national government, and the international situation.The Economic analysis needs to investigate the influences of the stock market and tax increases, amongst many other monetary matters. Sociological analysis is all about analyzing the backgroun d culture. Technological factors are usually easier to spot, because new technologies involve change, and change is always noticed. For instance, online shopping has had a major impact on Listo's recent success.The change created by technological advances often lead to legal problems, which is why legal analysis is always an important part of a PESTLE analysis. Listo's operations obviously have a significant environmental impact, from fossil fuel use to packaging issues. Reducing the demand on the planet is a challenge for any big company. A PESTLE Analysis for Listo must look at all the six factors we have mentioned. Here they are again, with examples of each: Political: an increase in unemployment due to a downward turn in the world economy. Economic: impact on sales of the credit crunch.Sociological: an increase in immigration from Eastern Europe resulting in a  demand for new goods. Technological: how can Listo take full advantage of the World Wide Web? Legal: how can Listo av oid legal opposition to expanding into new high streets? Environmental: – climate change is affecting supply and transport, how can Listo adapt? In summary, any PESTLE Analysis for Listo must consider all external factors if it has any hope of capturing the essence of the company.

The Price Of College Tuition - 1162 Words

Hello class of 2016! We’re at a point of our high school career when we are looking at colleges and thinking about possible careers we want to pursue in the near future. But has the price tag on certain colleges have you thinking â€Å"I can’t afford that†, and made you look the other way? Well, I am here today to show you that the price of college tuition is an investment and will benefit you in your future careers. My opponent here might say that college costs have been increasing, or prestigious universities have priced out students from lower income and middle class and maybe add in that colleges are spending on unnecessary things like luxurious dormitories and non academic facilities. Well, I would say that colleges education is an investment and returns financially due to the better jobs and the higher salaries in your future career. Although the tuition of college has been increasing every year it is actually in the benefit of the student. It is unrealisti c to expect colleges to reduce tuition while still providing the best possible learning experience. Schools with high tuitions offer generous need based scholarships and financial aid to ensure a socioeconomically diverse class. Also, colleges spend money on making dormitories better to keep up with the student demands for more spacious dormitories, better safety measures and better food. None of that comes for free. If you want to have a good job, whether it be an office worker, brain surgeon, or an accountant, it allShow MoreRelatedThe Prices Of College Tuitions967 Words   |  4 PagesThe trend continues with the skyrocketing prices of college tuitions. This is not an uncommon issue the days of college tuition being affordable are slowly fading into the past. This conundrum has brought to light the idea of using tax money to help pay tuition. This idea has vast potential, but can it reach its potential. This is an issue that affects many people thus there is a multitude of literature on the issues of tax money being used for tuition. The literature ranges from an online to radioRead MoreRising Tuition Prices1384 Words   |  6 Pagesorder to get a good paying job, a college degree is required. More people are attending college in order to get better paying jobs, but is going to college worth a good job with rising tuitions across the nation? According to College Board, from 2002-2003 to 2012-2013, the average tuition and fees for a private institution rose about an average of 2.4% every year. As tuition prices increases every year, it affects millions of college students. It affects college students who have to use governmentRead MoreThe Cost of Tuition Among Colleges and Universities in Highly Diversified and Indefinite926 Words   |  4 PagesThe cost of tuition among colleges and universities is highly diversified and indefinite. Students shouldn’t be financial problems that are associated with the high tuition cost for their education because it creates unnecessary stress and financial problems. The student’s primary concern should be their academic performance and learning. The tuition fee includes extracurricular expenses such as lifestyle amenities that may not be essential toward the student education yet they are still being chargedRead MoreAmerican University Should Seriously Consider Lowering Tuition Costs892 Words   |  4 Pages The price of a Soft Taco Supreme at Taco Bell is $1.49. The price of attending New York University (NYU) is about $61,997 (Jacobs, 2013). That is approximately 41,609 Soft Taco Supremes from Taco Bell, enough to feed someone for 38 years if they ate one for every meal. While most universities in the USA do not cost quite as much as NYU, tuition is still very high, even for in-state public schools. If tuition continues to rise, the amount of students that cannot afford to go to college will increaseRead Mor eShould College Tuition Be Paid?884 Words   |  4 PagesIn America college tuition has quadrupled in the last 35 years. College administrators like to tell the story that baby boomers paid their college tuition from the money they made during summer break. A few years later colleges decided to raise tuition price because people wanted to get a college degree. Colleges were seeing that people wanted to go to college they decided to raise the prices and make business out of it. In Germany, however college tuition is free, and by doing this Germany getsRead MoreThe Tuition Increase Affected Enrollment Rate1473 Words   |  6 Pagesthe Board of Ursinus College, raised its tuition from $19,331 to $23,460. This turned out to be a 17.6% increase. Surprisingly, the tuition increase proved to be a positive change for Ursinus College. The college received more than 200 applicants than its previous year (Brickley, Smith and Zimmerman, 2009, p. 110). Other regional institutions such as Unive rsity of Notre Dame, Bryn Mawr College and Rice University also experienced a similar trend once they increased their tuition rates (Brickley, SmithRead MoreDriving The Cost Of Higher Education1063 Words   |  5 PagesDriving the Cost of Higher Education It seems as though the correct step for young people to follow after high school is college. We are constantly told that if we wish to be successful, then we must get a degree. However, with the rising costs, it’s seeming like fewer people are willing or able to take the next step into higher education. Cries about the sheer insanity of the rising costs blur into a cacophony of anger and frustration. The discussion of whether it’s even worth the cost have alsoRead MoreAffordability Of Our Education : Is A College Education Worth The Cost?1729 Words   |  7 Pagesfew decades the tuition fee for most public and private colleges increased by 250 percent while income increased by 16 percent (Politico, 2013). The statistics have since then become a trend that has now evolved each year, hence; making it difficult for parents to send their children to school that can cause them to miss out on great opportunities (Dorfman, 2013). According to Justine Draeger (2009) â€Å"W ith the cost of college rising, many have asked a central question: Is a college education worthRead MoreCollege Tuition1075 Words   |  5 Pagesacknowledged them through correct documentation.† Student Loans Today college tuition prices are rising. Paying for college can often be a stressful responsibility. A college education is very important for many students, but when stressing on how to pay for college gets in the way, it becomes more of a burden. Kim Clark effectively states the rising prices of college tuition in her article, â€Å"The Surprising Causes of Those College Tuition Hikes.† Clark states that the cost of attending a public universityRead MoreTuition Increases at University of Pennsylvania962 Words   |  4 PagesIn 1914, the tuition cost to go to the University of Pennsylvania at the Wharton School estimated at about $150 with a general fee of $10. This does not include other expenses such as room and board- which estimated to $180 and textbooks- estimated to $10. It is now 2014, one century later, and the tuition cost to go the exact university and school is $40,594, general fee of $3,772, technology fee of $716, and a recreation fee of $324. Once more, this d oes not include the expenses of residence halls