...eHarmony Final Paper December 15, 2010 If you are single and looking for long-term love, eHarmony.com Inc. wants to find you the "perfect mate." With traditional values and modern matchmaking possibilities, eHarmony.com has taken the electronic dating scene by storm. eHarmony has united more than 10,000 couples in marriage in its short history and, during 2008, had more than seven million registered users. Background In 2000, eHarmony was founded by Dr. Neil Clark Warren an evangelical Christian who worked for 30 years as a psychologist specializing in counseling married couples. He also authored two books, “Finding the Love of Your Life” and “Date…or Soul Mate?”, the former selling over one million copies. After a successful career of counseling married couples and research into marital problems, he came to one solid conclusion. In his biography on eHarmony’s website he states, “In almost every case, these were two persons who should never have married each other! They really didn’t belong together. They thought they did, but they were not well matched”. From there, he identified 29 dimensions that he found were consistently present in successful marriages. Dr. Warren found online dating as an opportunity to take his match making theories to a new level. eHarmony’s competitive advantage is that it established its credibility by using a scientifically developed questionnaire based on Dr. Warren’s 29 dimensions. The questionnaire does not...
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...9-709-424 JULY 1, 2008 MIKOŁAJ JAN PISKORSKI HANNA HAŁABURDA TROY SMITH eHarmony Greg Waldorf, the CEO of eHarmony, was in his car driving down the Interstate 10 Freeway after a day-long meeting with eHarmony’s senior leadership team. The sole purpose of this October 2007 meeting was to decide how the company should address recent competitor actions. After many deliberations, Waldorf’s executive team was able to identify four strategic options. Now, Waldorf and Greg Steiner, the President and COO, who was sitting next to him, were debating which option the company should pursue. As the two whizzed down the car pool lane, passing cars stuck in traffic, they reflected on eHarmony’s success. This online personals site targeted marriage-minded individuals and offered a unique product which combined an extensive relationship questionnaire, a patented matching system and a guided communication system. Despite charging a premium for its services, eHarmony had experienced phenomenal membership growth while its competitors stalled. As a consequence, it was able to increase its paying membership base to slightly less than a half of its largest competitor, even though it entered the market six years after they did. The success of eHarmony did not go unnoticed. From the beginning, competitors had been copying some of the company’s product features and closing the price gap. More recently, Match, eHarmony’s biggest competitor, had increased its advertising expenditures...
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...1 SCHULICH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS YORK UNIVERSITY SGMT 6000 3.0 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Wednesday 2:30-5:30 pm (A) - Room N108 Tuesday 08:30-11:30 pm (B) - Room W136 Fall Term, 2011 Professor: Moshe Farjoun Email: mfarjoun@schulich.yorku.ca Room: N311 SSB Office Hours: By appointment Secretary: JoAnne Stein Office: N305B SSB Telephone: 416-736-5087 Brief Description This course examines business and corporate strategy. The focus is on strategic management, the process of choosing and defining purposes and objectives, formulating and implementing a viable strategy and monitoring strategic performance. It deals with the organization in its totality and demonstrates how and why the various functions of business are interdependent and need to be coordinated if the organization is to perform effectively. The course elaborates on the applicability of the strategic management discipline to a variety of sizes and types of organizations. Prerequisites Students are required to complete all 5000-series Required Foundations of Management Core Courses before enrolling in this course. Extended Description and Objectives One of the classic definitions of strategy is as follows: “A strategy is the pattern or plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole. Well-formulated strategies help marshal and allocate an organization’s resources into a unique and viable posture based upon its relative internal competencies and shortcomings, anticipated...
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...XXX10.1177/1529100612436522Finkel et al.Online Dating 2012 Research Article Online Dating: A Critical Analysis From the Perspective of Psychological Science Psychological Science in the Public Interest 13(1) 3–66 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1529100612436522 http://pspi.sagepub.com Eli J. Finkel1, Paul W. Eastwick2, Benjamin R. Karney3, Harry T. Reis4, and Susan Sprecher5 1 Northwestern University; 2Texas A&M University; 3University of California, Los Angeles; University of Rochester; and 5Illinois State University 4 Summary Online dating sites frequently claim that they have fundamentally altered the dating landscape for the better. This article employs psychological science to examine (a) whether online dating is fundamentally different from conventional offline dating and (b) whether online dating promotes better romantic outcomes than conventional offline dating. The answer to the first question (uniqueness) is yes, and the answer to the second question (superiority) is yes and no. To understand how online dating fundamentally differs from conventional offline dating and the circumstances under which online dating promotes better romantic outcomes than conventional offline dating, we consider the three major services online dating sites offer: access, communication, and matching. Access refers to users’ exposure to and opportunity to evaluate potential romantic...
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...Running Head: DISHARMONY AND MISMATCH Disharmony and Mismatch: The Truth about Online Dating Isioma K. Ehiobu CAS 4703-993 April 27, 2011 Disharmony and Mismatch: The Truth about Online Dating Five years ago American journalist, Thomas Friedman, wrote a book entitled The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. His main reason for writing this book was to point out that the world in which we live in was being flattened by technology. What he meant by the term “flatten” was that the things that couldn’t be done decades ago due to the lack of technology are now being conducted today at a fast rate because of how advanced the technology is today. Take for instance, the Internet, decades ago not that much could be done on it but now it allows people to communicate with one another across the globe. He goes into detail as he talks about the workflow software, which was one of the ten forces that flatten the world as it contributed to the improvement of the Internet (Friedman, 2006, p. 78). Now it allows people to interact with one another through various means like social network, emails, and now with the upcoming of Internet dating. Internet dating, once considered taboo, is now an effective way to meet others like ourselves that we may have otherwise not met in a public setting. Today, this type of dating appears to be replacing our traditional ways when looking for a soulmate, especially for those who have had an unsuccessful face-to-face...
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...Chapter 12 Business Intelligence and Decision Support Systems Goals of the Chapter The primary objective of this chapter is to recognize the importance of data, the management issues that relate to it, and its life cycle. Other objectives include relating data management to multimedia and document management, explaining the concept of data warehousing, data mining, analytical processing, and knowledge discovery management. An Overview Section 12.1 – The Need for Business Intelligence – The section serves as an overview of Business Intelligence and its use in business. It discusses the problems associated with disparate data stores where data are not integrated into a single reporting system. The section discusses the technologies involved in Business Intelligence and the vendors involved. It also talks about predictive analytics, alerts and decision support. Section 12.2 – BI Architecture, Reporting and Performance Management – This section discusses the modes of data extraction and integration into a standardized, usable and trustworthy one. It also discusses the different types of reporting systems available to organizations, data mining, query and analysis. The section provides an insight into Business Performance Management (BPM) as a way for business managers to know if their organizations are achieving their strategic goals Section 12.3 – Data, Text and Web Mining and BI Search – This section discusses data mining technology, tools, and techniques. Information types...
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...Chapter 1 | Foundations of Information Systems in Business The Fundamental Roles of IS in Business Support of Business Processes and Operations . As a consumer, you regularly encounter information systems that support the business processes and operations at the many retail stores where you shop. For example, most retail stores now use computer-based information systems to help their employees record customer purchases, keep track of inventory, pay employees, buy new merchandise, and evaluate sales trends. Store operations would grind to a halt without the support of such information systems. Support of Business Decision Making . Information systems also help store managers and other business professionals make better decisions. For example, decisions about what lines of merchandise need to be added or discontinued and what kind of investments they require are typically made after an analysis provided by computer-based information systems. This function not only supports the decision making of store managers, buyers, and others, but also helps them look for ways to gain an advantage over other retailers in the competition for customers. Support of Strategies for Competitive Advantage . Gaining a strategic advantage over competitors requires the innovative application of information technologies. For example, store management might make a decision to install touch-screen kiosks in all stores, with links to the e-commerce Web site for online shopping. This offering might attract...
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...Federal Government Exam 1 Review: The first exam will consist of questions generated from the following review sheet. Make sure you understand each of these topics before proceeding to the test. The exam will be timed so you will not have the ability to peruse your notes or retake the exam. The exam itself will consist of 30 multiple choice questions and you will have 35 minutes to complete the exam. Federalism: The Basic elements of a Federal system of government (i.e. how is it structured/how power is shared) • Layers of gov • Equal power • Distinct powers Powers of the federal government: delegated powers, implied powers (necessary and proper clause), and concurrent powers. • Delegated Powers: (expressed/enumerated powers) powers given to the federal government directly by the constitution. Some most important delegated powers are: the authority to tax, regulated interstate commerce, authority to declare war, and grants the president role of commander and chief of the military • Implied Powers: Powers not expressed in the constitution, but that can be inferred. “Necessary and proper clause” • Concurrent powers: powers shared by both levels of government. Ex: Taxes, roads, elections, commerce, establishing courts and a judicial system • Reserved powers: powers not assigned by the constitution to the national government but left to the states or the people. Guaranteed by the 10th amendment. Include “police power”-health and public...
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...CONTENTS: CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 1 Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A): The Role of the Operating Manager in Information Systems CASE STUDY I-1 IMT Custom Machine Company, Inc.: Selection of an Information Technology Platform CASE STUDY I-2 VoIP2.biz, Inc.: Deciding on the Next Steps for a VoIP Supplier CASE STUDY I-3 The VoIP Adoption at Butler University CASE STUDY I-4 Supporting Mobile Health Clinics: The Children’s Health Fund of New York City CASE STUDY I-5 Data Governance at InsuraCorp CASE STUDY I-6 H.H. Gregg’s Appliances, Inc.: Deciding on a New Information Technology Platform CASE STUDY I-7 Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (B): Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle CASE STUDY II-1 Vendor-Managed Inventory at NIBCO CASE STUDY II-2 Real-Time Business Intelligence at Continental Airlines CASE STUDY II-3 Norfolk Southern Railway: The Business Intelligence Journey CASE STUDY II-4 Mining Data to Increase State Tax Revenues in California CASE STUDY II-5 The Cliptomania™ Web Store: An E-Tailing Start-up Survival Story CASE STUDY II-6 Rock Island Chocolate Company, Inc.: Building a Social Networking Strategy CASE STUDY III-1 Managing a Systems Development Project at Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc. CASE STUDY III-2 A Make-or-Buy Decision at Baxter Manufacturing Company CASE STUDY III-3 ERP Purchase Decision at Benton Manufacturing Company, Inc. CASE STUDY III-4 ...
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...thomas a . meyer How Great companies Get Started in terrible times Innovate! Innovate! How Great Companies Get Started in Terrible Times THOMAS A. MEYER John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2010 by Thomas A. Meyer. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose...
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