Friday, January 24, 2020

Character Study of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers :: Papers

Character Study of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers He is a supporting character in the book who guides Frodo and Sam on their intrepid adventure, to Mordor and MountDoomto destroy the ring. Gollumrepresents the consequences induced by man's greed; he was once a human called Smeagol. He sought to use the ring's power for his own gain, but the ring's overwhelming and evil power poisonedGollum's mind and he became hideous and twisted. His only relation to the characters is his love for the ring; he is trying to remove it from Frodo's possession and make it his own again. He thinks Frodo stole the ring from him, and shows his resentment of him when speaking to himself: "Where iss it, where iss it: my Precious, my Precious? It's ours, it is, and we wants it. The thieves, the thieves, the filthy little thieves. Where are they with my Precious? Curse them! We hates them." The author, JRR Tolkien, created a particularly vivid representation of Gollum in several ways. The author uses "we" in Gollum's dialogue to show he is not one character but in effect two (smeagol, his good side and his evil alter ego). Smeagol is reluctant to bring harm or despair to Frodo, but his evil side convinces him to do otherwise. Sam, another character in the book describes Gollum as "sinister", "deceitful" and "mischievous". Gollum also has varied personalities and attributes. He himself is shown as being very distasteful of Sam, especially his cooking methods. For example when he catches rabbits and Sam Stews them with herbs, Gollum unpleasantly replies to this with "Stupid fat Hobbit!" [IMAGE] This image from the film interprets Gollum's expressions described in the book to the greatest detail "Gollum looked at Sam in dismay" Gollum is very similar to Boromir from the first book of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. They both had very noble intentions, but the ring drove them to insanity and forced them to pursue the ring at all costs.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Aman Resorts Essay

Aman Resorts operates at 26 unique locations all over the world, portraying â€Å"peace, uniqueness and family†. It targets high net worth individuals who like to be out of their normal lifestyle and enjoy their family time relaxed and differently, away from the pressures of work. Aman Resorts are located in select tranquil locations and provide a very unique and localized experience. Such uniqueness is the key competitive advantage against other resorts, which helps it to retain a lot of its loyal repeat customers. In addition to the above uniqueness, Aman Resorts does an excellent job at creating value just by listening to its clients. Customers like to be treated as individuals and enjoy how they are looked after, whether it’s the driver taking them to locations that would most interest them or to stocking the fridge with the customers preferred drinks. While this seems like common sense, customers will prefer to go to Aman Resorts, and pay the premium for going there, even though their rooms are simpler and more expensive than other resorts such as the Four Seasons. The personalized service further reinforces the leading position in its competition against other resorts. Aman doesn’t have more than 40 rooms on average at each location and no two resorts are alike, even if they are in the same country, which helps Aman command a premium price and helps position itself as a premium brand. Meanwhile, Aman Resorts sustains its brand power and relies heavily on word of mouth and online marketing to its loyal clientele, aversive to traditional means of advertising and providing discounts. However, learning more about the customer could theoretically be done by any hotel based on what data is being gathered. If a hotel chain notices that you always drink Diet Coke out of the mini fridge, for example, they can make sure that when you stay the fridge is stocked. While this would be impractical for motels and low to middle end hotels, this would certainly be beneficial for hotels and resorts in the same category as Aman such as the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton, which could provide personalized service in addition to modern amenities. We have listed two possible challenges to the Aman model. The first challenge is from potential customers in emerging markets. China is a huge market for Aman. In China, people used to live in a very simple and natural life.  However, as the economy has exponentially grown in the last thirty years, many people have acquired an increasing amount of disposable income and are in greater need of special places for their vacation and leisure. Aman is undoubtedly a great place for them. However, the idea of simplified lifestyle may not be attractive to customers from emerging markets like China and others in the rest of Asia. That’s why some customers even complained that there wasn’t even a TV in the room or wireless internet at some Aman locations, when all the other luxury hotels in the area offer those as standard amenities for much lower room rates. We suggest that Aman provide luxury amenities, fine dining, and technological equipment and services to Chinese customers. Currently, Aman has only one resort in Beijing, China. Aman can find more great places in the west of China, where there are great and unique views. Generally speaking, Aman can improve on some of the spartan offerings in some of its locations by providing television, internet services and other modern amenities to customers who prefer having them while staying at their resorts. It could also standardize some of the essential offerings that a majority of its customers have requested across all its resorts, to maximize loyalty and appreciation among them. The second challenge Aman faces is from competing resorts in the area. An independant company or an existing resort can always create a new resort chain that offers similar services to Aman with regards to beautiful locations and attention to customer service and undercut Aman on price. While it may take them a while to catch up to Aman’s status, they could theoretically offer the same services in different locations.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Project Management Msc. 7Pjmn009W Project Management Project.

Project Management MSc 7PJMN009W Project Management Project Author: Maria Chico Garrido Date: 06 March 2017 Version: 1.1 Project type: Academic Preferred Supervisor: Proposed Title: How does the use of formal project management methodologies in complex Home Automation projects contribute to project success? Main Deliverables/Milestones: Deliverable Date Project Mandate 09 March 2017 Project Brief: In depth literature review of formal project management methodologies and project success. Background research of the Home Automation industry, theory and concepts of complex projects. Philosophy and rationale behind the chosen research methodology. 22 May 2017 Project Initiation documentation: Creation of questionnaires and experimental†¦show more content†¦In recent years CEDIA has added project management courses to their portfolio, which immediately outlines a problem statement: How is the implementation of such projects managed, are there any formal project management methodologies being used and if so, are these complex projects successful? This research will be of value for the home automation industry as it will appraise the need of using formal project management practices in complex home automation projects and it will constitute a good knowledge base of project management, increasing the chances of project success in a growing industry. Relevant theory of project management and home automation projects will be analysed. Additionally, the topic of construction project management will be studied to gain an understanding of the stages of a construction project and how they are relevant in a home automation project. The research question and the objectives driving this proposal will be outlined followed by the philosophy, methodology and instruments to be used for data collection and analysis. Finally, a timescale for the different activities involved in this research will be given. 2. Literature review 2.1 Overview A narrative literature review will be conducted based on the following main bodies of knowledge: project management and project success and complex home automation projects. The proposed research aims to