...Michael Jordan is a Hall of Fame shooting guard who played in the NBA from 1984 to 2003 for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, and is currently the primary owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Winner of five regular-season MVP awards, he is widely considered the best basketball player ever to play in the NBA. Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles, and was voted the Finals MVP a record six times. Michael Jordan scored more points per game than any player in NBA history, with a 30.1 average, and his 32,292 career points scored rank as the third-most in NBA history. His career postseason scoring average of 33.5 points is also the best in NBA history. Michael Jordan was a 14-time All-Star, averaging 20.2 points per All-Star game, and became the only player to ever record a triple-double in an All-Star Game when he achieved the feat in 1997. He was named Defensive Player of the Year in 1988, and was on the All-Defensive First Team nine times. Michael Jordan also held the record for consecutive games scoring in double-digits (866). In 1996, Jordan was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Michael Jordan became a world-famous star as his Bulls kept winning, and he kept scoring. He graced the cover of countless magazines, including Sports Illustrated a record 51 times. He also had his own line of basketball shoe -- the introduction of the Nike Air Jordan, embroidered with Jordan's signature symbol of him jumping in the air, basketball in one hand and legs...
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...Spider-Man® “with great power, comes great responsibility.” This applies particularly to professional athletes, who, to an extent, experience even more pressure directed towards them than politicians, due to the constant exposure under the limelight and the demand to win from fans all over the world. Expectations towards young and talented professional players are tangible; family, peers, community and agents are only a fraction of the people lining up to share in the fruits of success. Needless to say, this recognition comes with the assumption that they will have a share of the athlete’s financial earnings. So how do these players react to such vast demand and how do they perceive money and its use in different aspects of life? Sports Illustrated published an article in 2009, which shows that on average, 78% of former NFL players go bankrupt within two years of retirement, and about 60% of former NBA players are penniless within five years of ending their career (Torre 1). How is this possible? What are the crucial factors that drive successful athletes to lose all their money, and more importantly, is there a way to avoid such stalemate? “We always felt like if you looked good, played good, they pay good. That was our philosophy” (qtd. in Corben). This is a quote from Keith McCants in Broke, an episode of ESPN’s acclaimed documentary series 30 For 30, that examines professional athletes’ financial behavior and reasons leading up to the substantial amount of sports retirees that are...
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...and reinvent themselves in order to appeal to another segment of the market. At the same time, rookie player Michael Jordan was already endorsing several products, but Nike hoped that his appeal would generate sales. Jordan, though, had other ideas. He had always preferred Adidas or the Converse shoes endorsed by North Carolina Coach, Dean Smith, and hoped to sign on with either company. Converse, with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson on board as spokesmen, were not interested in offering a better deal than Nike, and Adidas wasn't interested at all at the time; perhaps due to Kathe Dassler's death the same year. While Jordan, himself, did not initially see the significance of Nike's offer, his agent, David Falk, saw a golden opportunity in Nike's offer to create a new line of shoes called "Air Jordans." and urged him to give Nike a chance. Really Not That Interested.. At that time, there was not a tremendous impact from a shoe endorsement, and few companies were willing to risk so much of their marketing budget to bet on one athlete to promote their products. An athlete as paid for wearing the products but little else resulted from an endorsement. It's possible that Jordan's reluctant attitude stemmed from this fact as much as his allegiance to Converse and Adidas products. Nike saw something special in Michael Jordan, though. They saw a chance, an opportunity. He was a champion with personality, charisma, and heart, and they were willing to put the company on the line. They knew...
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...participation is to submerse them into a program which offers a positive environment with encouraging coaches who instruct with constructive criticism and work to “minimize negative experiences” (Seefeldt & Ewing, 1996, p.3). Research has shown that children who participate in frequent physical activity, such as sports, experience improved academics, have better mental health, and are less likely to take part in risky health behaviors than their less active counterparts. Dr. Daniels, author of “Interscholastic Sports and the Middle School Student”, finds six main points of interest pertaining to the benefits of and liabilities for children who get involved in sports. Out of the six, four are beneficial, and only two are considered to be liabilities. The four positive characteristics of sports are scholastic achievement, competency, fitness, and self-esteem. Whereas the two negative characteristics are sports injuries, stress and anxiety (as cited by Daniels, 1999, p.2). Although Dr. Daniels doesn’t talk about it in her dissertation, one more benefit of kids getting active is their likelihood to avoid the appearance of evil, in other words they are unlikely to get involved in risky health behaviors such as, unprotected sex, drugs, gangs, and violence (Jones-Palm, Palm, 2004; Pate, Trost, Lexin, & Dowda, 2000; Seefeldt & Ewing, 1996). Since fitness is an obvious benefit of physical activity it will not be discussed in further detail as to how or why, however all other benefits...
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...following the strategic direction, the club had detailed analyses of its own existing situation as well as the environmental analyses. The strategies were made upon these analyses, such as prescriptive approach that indicated the club should have a plan in advance. On the other hand, it used emergent approach, which could support the club to maintain its sustainability development. Finally, the club evaluated their strategies frequently. Through the evaluation process, the club reflected itself. And then, it could provide useful information for them to sustain competitive advantage. For keeping the club running effectively, they should consider more activities and events to entertain the members. 1. Introduction An awareness of the importance of the strategy to the sport organization has been recognized over these years. According to Johnson and Scholes (2002), strategy decided the direction and scope of an organization’s activities, and connects its external environment. In addition, as Hoye et al (2009) state, strategy can be an explanation of how sports organizations survive with competitions and sustentation. As Forster (2006: 72) claims that “sport is intermediated, controlled and contested by great numbers of organizations” and “every sports organization must consider its own situation before developing a strategy and should not necessarily follow the strategy or direction of another” (Watt, 2003: 53). However, this does not mean to let the circumstances lead all activities...
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...In Latin America, the popularity of the sport is growing rapidly and the most recent of talent into the NBA is migrating from Latin America. The cultural popularity of the sport was growing exponentially and is well documented in China with the likes of Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin who are Asian sensations. With Latin American backgrounds integrating into the game of basketball, I wonder how these international translations are in turn changing the game we see at home. In Latin America, where the climate and geographies are so much different than the one in the United States, we find growth in basketball. Though the NBA in Latin America is growing, it is still not a hit in Central and South America. Though whenever you go either it is Latin America, China, America, etc… there is always someone playing the game. Even in the likes of Mexico, they are mostly known for militant based political revolution than anything else, but basketball courts do exist. The courts might be used for other things like farming during the day, but you will always see some kid playing and working on his game. Just like what I do when I am in my hometown hooping outside of my house, no court just the concrete and the hoop I have next to my garage. The growth of basketball throughout Latin America region is unexpected, only because they compete for national attention in their number one sport soccer. Basketball has to compete in Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, and...
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...Converse Inc. Situational Analysis ID: 936605550 ID: 911484064 ID: 933327329 ID: 919538922 ID: 938345647 Table of Contents Company Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3-‐6 Consumer Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……. 6-‐7 Product Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………. 7-‐9 Competitive Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9-‐14 Market Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14-‐15 Other Considerations (Past and Present Communications)…………………………………………………………………… 15-‐17 SWOT………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 18-‐19 Primary Research Considerations………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 19 Work Cited and Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20-‐29 2 ID: 936605550 ID: 911484064 ID: 933327329 ...
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...The Skinny on Fad Diets Jessica Johnson DeVry University FAD DIETS You had to stay over at work, pick up the kids, taking them to their various activities, running through the drive through for a quick meal, and begin to unwind on the couch. You could have gone for a walk on your lunch break, hit the gym after work, and made a well-balanced meal for all to eat at the dinner table but with deadlines, a demanding job, and a family to raise with an even crazier schedule; by the end of the day you are beat. However, those extra thirty pounds are just sitting there, waiting to be shed. One day, a thought occurs to seek out a solution, naturally this leads to the internet. A quick Google search and you are now being overloaded with a list of diets, pills, and drinks that will completely change your life around. All without having to rearrange your daily planner to make the life style changes needed for healthy weight loss. Sites with stories of “I lost 20 pounds in the first 2 weeks on diet ABC.” or “Diet XYZ gave me energy to accomplish everything I wanted in the day, while becoming and looking like the person that I want to be.” In other words, the search has brought up results on fad diets. As the schedules of Americans become more and more jam packed, the rate of becoming an unhealthy adult is rising. Currently 69% of Americans are overweight or obese (Jadhav, 2010). Stress from family life, a job, and a tight schedule has a way of causing one to gain weight and having...
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...that may arise when union officials and management personnel undergo the process of collective bargaining. In conclusion, there is an evaluation of measures such as privatization or contracting as an effective means of disbanding public employee unions. “Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.” Samuel Gompers American Federation of Teachers (AFT): The American Federation of Teachers was founded in 1916 and now enjoys a membership of approximately 1.5 million persons. This union falls under the AFL-CIO umbrella and represents teachers, professors, educators, paraprofessionals and other school-related support staff. There are more than 3,000 affiliates’ local affiliates throughout the nation. This union consists of five divisions: pre-K through 12th grade teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff, university and college instructors and professional...
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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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...HBSP Product Number TCG239 THE CRIMSON PRESS CURRICULUM CENTER THE CRIMSON GROUP, INC. Boulder Public Schools Edward Caton, a teacher in a midsize elementary school in Boulder, Colorado, hoped someday to rise through the administrative ranks to serve as a principal of his own school, but he felt that to do so, he should understand more about the position to which he aspired. This was especially important to him in terms of the control he might have over the budget, which he knew was central to real power in many organizations. In an effort to learn more about the operations of the Boulder Public Schools, he set up some informational interviews with the principals of an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. Before making those rounds, he visited the headquarters of the Boulder School Committee to obtain background information for his interviews. BACKGROUND Mr. Caton learned that the Department of Implementation (DI) was central to the school system. It’s manager reported directly to the Superintendent of Schools. The DI was responsible for making school enrollment projections each December for the coming fiscal year (which ran from July to June). These projections were important since annual staffing needs for each school were determined by a rather complex formula that used the DI's projections as the starting point. Moreover, since personnel formed the bulk of the budget, these projections effectively determined a school's budget. Each school...
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...Advertising and Public Relations 1) Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor is called ________. A) sales promotion B) direct marketing C) advertising D) personal selling E) public relations Answer: C Diff: 2 Page Ref: 430 Skill: Concept Objective: 15-1 2) A company's total marketing communications package consists of a special blend of advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct-marketing tools that the company uses to communicate customer value and build customer relationships. This is also called ________. A) the communications method B) integrated marketing C) the promotion mix D) competitive marketing E) target marketing Answer: C Diff: 1 Page Ref: 428 Skill: Concept Objective: 15-1 3) According to the opening scenario, GEICO has become the fourth-largest insurance company by ________. A) integrating humor and creativity into its minicampaigns B) targeting a niche market of people with exceptional driving records C) offering cost savings directly to customers without sales personnel D) marketing its product through creative print ads in major magazines E) creating a website that is appealing to both young and old drivers Answer: A Diff: 3 Page Ref: 428 Skill: Concept Objective: 15-1 4) All of the following are important decisions during the process of developing an advertising program EXCEPT ________. A) setting advertising...
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...anyone quite realizing what has happened. The company is still growing, but not as strongly as before, not as efficiently. Everyone’s maxing out, but it seems like there’s molasses in the works. Sound familiar? Sooner or later, it hits you in the face. Imagine you are meeting up with a senior analyst whose opinion counts with some of your company’s biggest investors. You think you’re on safe ground—after all, your company is doing better than the competition. But the analyst is in full gimlet-eyed, illusion-killing mode. “That’s nothing to crow about,” she says. “Yeah, you’ve got reasonable growth, but it’s nothing exceptional. You’re a safe bet, nothing more. Okay, I might tell my mom to buy, but 3 The Momentum Effect then she’s happy with inflation plus one. The way we see it, you’re really grinding it out. We reckon the strain’s getting harder, too. There’s no impetus—no momentum.” Words like that can really take the gloss off a day. The next time you gather your team, you don’t congratulate them on beating their targets—you want more. Sure, our results are up, you say, but that’s not enough—where’s the impetus? When are we going to do something exceptional? With all the resources at your disposal, when are you going to start building some momentum? The team members look at their papers. Then Paul, an anxious member of your team, looks up and says: “Okay. Got any ideas about how?” What are you going to say?...
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...Aware “ E very man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world,” wrote philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The wider a person’s field of vision, of course, the deeper and more accurate his or her grasp of everyday experiences. The chapters included in this section of the book will enlarge your understanding of the thinking process; clarify the important and frequently misunderstood concepts of truth, knowledge, and opinion; identify the habits that corrupt thinking; and show you how to become a more critical reader. ISBN 1-256-46689-1 The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought, Tenth Edition, by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 1-256-46689-1 The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought, Tenth Edition, by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. Published by Pearson. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. C H A P T E R 1 Developing Your Thinking: An Overview Is thinking an activity that is done automatically, without conscious effort, or one that we can direct? Is daydreaming a kind of thinking? Are feelings an effective substitute for thinking? Do exceptional thinkers experience mental blocks, lapses in concentration, and confusion the same way average thinkers do? Can thinking skill be acquired, or does one have to be born with it? In this chapter, you will find answers to these questions and other basic facts that will enable you to use this book confidently...
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...Chapter 1 Case Study: Harmonix Embrace Your Inner Rock Star Little more than three years ago, you had probably never heard of Harmonix. In 2005, the video game design studio released Guitar Hero, which subsequently became the fastest video game in history to top $1 billion in North American sales. The game concept focuses around a plastic guitar-shaped controller. Players press colored buttons along the guitar neck to match a series of dots that scroll down the TV in time with music from a famous rock tune, such as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Players score points based on their accuracy. In November 2007, Harmonix released Rock Band, adding drums, vocals, and bass guitar options to the game. Rock Band has sold over 3.5 million units with a $169 price tag (most video games retail at $50 to $60). In 2006, Harmonix’s founders sold the company to Viacom for $175 million, maintaining their operational autonomy while providing them greater budgets for product development and licensing music for their games. Harmonix’s success, however, did not come overnight. The company was originally founded by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy in 1995, focused around some demo software they had created in grad school and a company vision of providing a way for people without much musical training or talent to experience the joy of playing and creating music. The founders believed that if people had the opportunity to create their own music, they would jump...
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