Saturday, May 16, 2020

Who Invented Trivial Pursuit

It was the board game Time Magazine called the the biggest phenomenon in game history. Trivial Pursuit was  first conceived of on December 15, 1979, by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott. At the time, Haney worked as a photo editor at the Montreal Gazette and Abbott was a sports journalist for The Canadian Press. Haney was also a high school dropout who later joked that he only regretted not dropping out earlier. Scrabble Was the Inspiration The pair were playing a game of Scrabble when they decided to invent their own game. The two friends came up with the basic concept of Trivial Pursuit within a few short hours.  However, it was not until 1981 that the board game was commercially released. Haney and Abbott had taken on two more business partners (corporate  lawyer Ed Werner  and Chriss brother John Haney) starting in 1979 and formed the Horn Abbot company. They raised their initial funding by selling five shares in the company for as little as $1,000. An 18-year-old artist named Michael Wurstlin agreed to create the final artwork for Trivial Pursuit in exchange for his five shares. Launching the Game On November 10, 1981, Trivial Pursuit was trademark registered. That same month, 1,100 copies of Trivial Pursuit were first distributed in Canada. The first copies of Trivial Pursuit were sold at a loss as the manufacturing costs for the first copies came to 75 dollars per game and the game was sold to retailers for 15 dollars. Trivial Pursuit was licensed to Selchow and Righter, a major U.S. game manufacturer and distributor in 1983. The manufacturers financed what would be a successful public relations effort, and Trivial Pursuit became a household name. In 1984, they sold a record 20 million games in the United States, and retail sales reached nearly 800 million dollars. Long-Term Success The rights to the game were licensed to Parker Brothers in 1988 before Hasbro bought the rights in 2008. Reportedly, the first 32 investors were able to live comfortably on the annual royalties for life. However, Haney died at age 59 in 2010 after a long illness. Abbott went on to own a hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League and was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. He also owns a horse racing stable. The game survived at least two lawsuits. One lawsuit was from a trivia book author whose charged violation of copyright. However, the court ruled that facts are not protected by copyright. Another suit was brought by a man who alleged that he gave the idea to Haney when the inventor picked him up while he was hitchhiking. In December 1993, Trivial Pursuit was named to the Games Hall of Fame by Games Magazine. By 2014,  more than 50 special editions of Trivial Pursuit had been released. Players can test their knowledge on everything from Lord of the Rings to Country Music. Trivial Pursuit is sold in at least 26 countries and 17 languages. It has been produced in home video game editions, an arcade game, an online version and launched as a television game show in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Another Leader, James Birney, Was A Powerful Abolitionists

Another leader, James Birney, was a powerful abolitionists leader and â€Å"he believed that political action and the power of religion were the keys to ending slavery,† and his proposal, â€Å"proposed measures that would allow the legislature to emancipate slaves and prohibit selling slaves brought into the state,† allowed for him to be known as, â€Å"one of the nation’s most prominent abolitionists† (American Experience†). James Birney was also the Liberty Party’s presidential candidate during the 1840 to 1844 presidential campaign (Abolitionists). According to historical evidence, Birney and Garrison did not get along on the issue of how to best emancipate slavery, â€Å"Birney’s ideas about achieving abolition using political means and moral†¦show more content†¦Without these white and black abolitionist leaders, the fight to emancipate the slaves and the Civil War might not have happened; therefore, each leader influe nced the nation. Religion was another factor in creating and solidifying the abolitionist movement. The first religious group to reject slavery was the Quakers, â€Å"standing almost alone in professing that slaveholding was incompatible with Christian piety† (McKivigan). Not long after the Quakers stand against slavery, did the northern states and the federal government take a stand, â€Å"federal government prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory and banned the trans-Atlantic slave trade.† (McKivigan). Out of all the states, â€Å"Virginia was the first territory to ban slavery within their borders,† and not long after that, â€Å"Pennsylvania followed suit† (American Experience†). As the churches from the North and the South began to preach differently upon slavery, the churches started to reject and despise each other, â€Å"abolitionist ideas became increasingly prominent in Northern churches, which contributed to the regional animosity between the North and South† (Abolitionist Movement). Therefore, religion was an integral component to instigating the start of the Civil War. When the churches started believing that slavery was inhumane and that emancipation was greatly needed, the abolitionist cause becameShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Road to Freedom—the Underground Railroad2714 Words   |  11 Pages where the bloody lash was not buried in the quivering flesh of a slave.... (7,p.i). Such were the conditions of the Underground Railroad. It was a fictitous railroad but served the same purpose: to transport people from one place to another. This railroad, however, was not sanctioned by any government, in fact if it had been discovered many would have died. The Underground Railroad was a huge risk. If you used it, and were caught, you could die. For some that was better than being treated

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Overseas Expansion for Case Study of Mcdonald - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theOverseas Expansion for Case Study of Mcdonald. Answer: Overseas expansion is now very common with many small and large size organizations. This is full of opportunities to many while on the other hand it offers bunch of challenges as well. Despite the fact there is an incrementing trend in the overseas expansion. The expansion has benefitted the many while on the other side it has challenged the survival of few others (Pan et al. 2017). McDonald is no other exception. The company has started its journey from being just a family burger to become a global recognition (Hak and Gr?bosz 2016). The study shows a brief journey of McDonalds to the position it is at present. Moreover, the main purpose of this assignment is to understand the process of internationalization through the example of McDonalds. Types of Motivation had kept on changing with McDonald. They had initially used the traditional motivation, which is one of the kinds of motivation. McDonald had used traditional motivation while the company was in the stage of resource seeking and market seeking. The first international expansion came in the year 1967 when it opened up its store in Canada. The expansion occurred when McDonald has successfully crossed the resource seeking stage after 27 years of its establishment. After 27 years of the establishment, the company had felt the necessity to look for the market seeking strategy and therefore, it started its operations in Canada (Hutchinson, Singh and Walker 2012). The company had also used emerging motivation through competitive positioning and global scanning. The company had shown their extensive focus on the emerging markets, which is why it had used the competitive positioning and global scanning strategy to capture the target market. McDonald is very less active wit h the competitive positioning strategy as they are almost the same across the globe. However, minimal level of differentiation can still be found in the company. For example, McRice in Indonesia is a food that suits the food culture of the people living in Indonesia (Budiman 2012). McBeers are sold in Europe and Asia to satisfy the cultural beliefs of people living in those regions (King et al. 2012). Global scanning is the other strategy that McDonald has used to expand into the international market. McDonald has been sequential in approaching to the various international centers. Global scanning has actually helped the company expand to the various international markets at a very appropriate time. For example, McDonald started its expansion in the year 1967 in the closest markets. Later on, it moved to more distinct nations. The maximum expansion happened in the period of 1990s when there was political, technical and economic changes on a global scale. However, the expansion proce ss slowed down after 2000 due to international economic downturn and due to some internal issues (Badal 2017). Prequisition or prior to expanding into the global market, McDonald use to adopt a specific strategy such as providing location specific advantages. It is specific to McDonald that they provide location specific advantage to customers to grab their attention. For example, they have not used beef in preparing their food just to encourage the beliefs of a large group living in the country. Another example is of targeting both the lower and the middle income group as their population is very high in the country. In doing so, the company has actually targeted a mass population (Gerhardt, Hazen and Lewis 2014). Another example is of differentiation in their foods, which they bring to satisfy the requirements of diverse customers across the globe. One of such examples is that they offered McRice to the Indonesian people (Zhang and Zhou 2012). The process of expansion had started in the year 1967. The company had first entered into Canada. By doing so, it actually followed the Uppsala model, which guides for a sequential expansion into the global market. McDonald is one of few such companies that have set trends for some useful strategies such as Franchising. The concept was very new to the fast food industry when McDonald took the full advantage of it and expanded into the United States. The company had used three methods to operate locally and expand to international markets. Those three methods are franchising, joint ventures and wholly owned outlets. The first franchising operation had started in the year 1953 with Arches Logo in Phoenix, USA. However, it has also used wholly owned outlet strategy depending on the external environment in the target market. They have adopted this technology in Mexico and the United Kingdom (Steenkamp 2014). The company has planned to refranchise approximately 4,000 restaurants. This wil l take their worldwide franchised percentage to around 93% (Forbes.com 2017). According to the Uppsala model, McDonald has constructed its international expansion in both the sequential and strategic mode. It first entered into Canada as it is very much close to the United States in terms of culture. Later on it moved to a little distinct society such as the European countries. At the very end, they moved to an entirely distinguish society such as the Middle East and the Asian countries (Sameer 2012). McDonald has used two strategies to expand into the international markets. Franchising and Wholly Owned Outlet are the two dominion concepts that the company had used. The dominion of these two factors encourages a fact that McDonald feels less secured with the Joint Venturing. However, it has still opted for joint venturing as it did in India and China (Zhang and Zhou 2012). Franchising has always remained a dominating strategy for McDonald; however, they have used a Wholly Owned concept in some parts of world such as Mexico and the UK. This has happened because the respective governments did allow franchising option (Abdelgawwad 2012). The dominion ride of McDonald has been challenged immensely by various local and international fast-food brands. The dominion has been challenged by many such as Starbucks, Subway, KFC and Burger King. The utmost competition from the rival companies and the changing perceptions of millennial customers has both contributed to a negative progression of the McDonalds business (Shen and Xiao 2014). The circumstances are very hard to displace; however, an alternative option can be taken to remain solid in the ever rising competition. It is recommended that the company should stick to what has helped it become the leading fast-food brand at the global platform. The setbacks have probably come from ample of changes in the menu that has been offered to the customers. It can be concluded that it is full of opportunity if a company wish to expand into the international market. On the other hand, the various international markets are also full of challenges. The fact has been clearly understood from the journey of McDonald Company. It is therefore advised to take cautious move and trusting the self-potential elements to remain competitive and selling in the market. References Abdelgawwad, M.A.A., 2012.Quality management: success and failure factors for new global product development in global quick service restaurants: a case study of McDonald's Egypt(Doctoral dissertation, Cardiff Metropolitan University). Badal, P.A., 2017. McDonalds Corporation-2015 (MCD). Budiman, A., Chhor, H., Razdan, R. and Sohoni, A., 2012. The new Indonesia consumer. Forbes.com. 2017.Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/06/09/why-investors-should-not-worry-about-mcdonalds-declining-revenues/#4aa2cd483144 [Accessed 6 Nov. 2017]. Gerhardt, S., Hazen, S. and Lewis, S., 2014. Small Business Marketing Strategy Based on McDonald's.ASBBS Proceedings,21(1), p.271. Hak, A. and Gr?bosz, M., 2016. International expansion based on Uppsala modelcases of McDonalds and Sfinks Poland.Zeszyty Naukowe. Organizacja i Zarz?dzanie/Politechnika ?dzka, (63, nr 1207), pp.45-57. Hutchinson, D., Singh, J. and Walker, K., 2012. An assessment of the early stages of a sustainable business model in the Canadian fast food industry.European Business Review,24(6), pp.519-531. King, G., Mattos, J.C.S., Mulder, N. and Rosales, V., 2012.The changing nature of Asian-Latin American economic relations. ECLAC. Pan, F., He, Z., Sigler, T., Martinus, K. and Derudder, B., 2017. How Chinese financial centers integrate into global financial center networks: an empirical study based on overseas expansion of Chinese financial service firms.Chinese Geographical Science, pp.1-14. Rowley, B. and McMurtrey, M.E., 2016. McDonald's and the Triple Bottom Line: A Case Study of Corporate Sustainability.Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability,11(1), p.33. Sameer, S.K., 2012. Strategy and Repositioning the Brand McDonalds in India.International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications,2(9), pp.1-5. Steenkamp, J.B., 2014. How global brands create firm value: the 4V model.International Marketing Review,31(1), pp.5-29. Zhang, Q. and Zhou, L., 2012. Cultural adaptation pattern analysis of McDonald's and KFC in the Chinese market.