Chalice Wine Essay Example for Free

Chalice Wine Essay Chalice Wine Group is a publicly traded company that, through numerous partnerships, owns and/or operates a number of vineyards and wine manufacturing companies in California’s Sonoma valley. Previously, they enjoyed a time of profitability. Yet in recent years, expansion has saw a decrease in their level of profitability, followed by a repeating period of net income losses. The goal of the case is to determine whether the operation of a small winery can be a profitable venture. Upon reading the Chalice Wine Case, the primary issue that I have identified, is that the management of the company has not crafted a clear and identifiable mission. †¢As currently structured, Chalice Wine Group is attempting to be a â€Å"vertically† integrated company. In this they are attempting to accomplish ever step in the wine business. They are making their own grapes, processing their own grapes, bottling, and lastly shipping them to various distribution outlets. This is fine, as long as they are able to create an extremely efficient model to do so. But unfortunately, as their results indicate, they are not efficient enough to make this current model work. There are a number of possible avenues that Chalice Wine Group needs to explore, among those are: -Why are they paying a price for grapes(from themselves! ) that is so in excess of the market rate? There are currently some transfer issues in place, management needs to explore these costs. -Pressing and manufacturing of the wine: The costs of the machinery involved, is extremely expensive. What is Chalice doing with their equipment during the time periods in which there is no production? How are they utilizing this excess capacity? They can either outsource this to another company, or utilize this capacity to process wine for others. -Shipping and distribution: Why are they handling this process themselves? This is easily something that should be handled outside. †¢Secondly, they wish to be a niche wine provider, by manufacturing a high quality, high cost product. The problem is that this statement essentially contradicts their company’s vertical structure. This is illustrated through examination of some of their shipping/bottling practices and part of their distribution chain. -They do not package and bottle their products according to the same quality standards. For example, they are using different quality bottles and boxes for different products. In this eyes of the consumer, this can be inferred as different levels of wine quality. -Next, the desire to be a small niche provider is a direct contradiction to the thought of distribution through food markets. This alone can allow the consumer to infer a mass marketed, broadly distributed product of lower quality. If they want to be a niche provider, they need to market and distribute themselves as such. Chalice Wine Group needs to decide what kind of company they want to be, and as such, needs to structure themselves in a way that will help best meet that mission and goal in the most efficient manner possible.

Remote Network Administration for the Home and Small Office User :: Design and Technology

Remote Network Administration for the Home and Small Office User Remote network administration is a fast growing and widely used technology in the IT field today. It gives system and network administrators as well as home users the ability to fix problems, allow or deny access to websites, download information directly from another computer, and give program permissions for different users from the office that they are at or from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. With this very powerful technology, come some very significant problems such as securing remote access sessions via data encryption, the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s) and a vast amount of networking and connection problems that can occur. There are very useful tools and articles that have been written and programmed to help the network administrator or the savvy user that wants to connect to his computer at home. This paper will focus on network administration for small business and home users using a VPN, Remote Desktop Connection and Symantec’s PC Anywhere for Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Personal experience has shown that working remotely is very difficult to set up. This tends to discourage many users from using this kind of technology because it requires a large amount of know-how and patience. A SOHO user must have at least a basic knowledge about home and office networking. Microsoft has put together a wealth of information about not only their operating systems, but networking using windows as well. The Microsoft knowledge base is a fantastic source for information. It covers everything from error codes to troubleshooting internet connectivity problems. Microsoft TechNet (http://technet.microsoft.com/default.aspx ) is a collection of information about slightly older content. Lastly, the Microsoft Developers Network (http://msdn.microsoft.com ) is a collection of articles, forums and journals straight from IT professionals that develop for windows applications. Almost any SOHO user can get the information that they need about any problem from these websites. XP Pro is now the industry standard for an operating system with advanced networking features. Working remotely for the SOHO user starts with the configuration of the network in the home or office. The small business users need to access all of their data at all times. This is most efficiently done by having all computers in the office connected to a central server, having the server host all of the other computers and have all of the computers connected via a workgroup. After that is accomplished, the SOHO user can then attempt to establish a connection remotely. A VPN is one of the most secure ways to connect to the home or small office to date.

An Article on Facebook from the Times of India Essay

For once, I was ahead of the curve, and, having rarely been in this exalted place, I can tell you it feels good. The backlash against Facebook, the social networking site, has begun, with rumblings of discontent being heard from distant corners of the globe. Word is going round that it is time-wasting, trivial, and a pathetic substitute for meeting friends in person. This is precisely what I have been saying to my friends all along but they used to recoil in horror as though declining to open a Facebook account was like refusing to bathe. They muttered darkly about certain people being pig-headed. I was reated like a Luddite, vainly holding out against penicillin or the electric kettle. Every time i asked them what exactly was so wonderful about this site, they gave the same feeble answers. Oh, it’s a great way to keep in touch. You can post your photos on it. Through the links to other people’s pages, you can see what your ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands are up to. Well, according to me, this is a waste of time. I can barely keep in touch with the friends who really matter to me four to five at the most, at any given stage in my life much less maintain an online relationship with old college friends or colleagues from years ago. If one has never bothered to make contact with them in all these years, it’s because one has never needed or particularly wanted to. It means that they don’t matter hugely to me now. They did then, but now i’m in touch with another set of friends. My life is full enough with them. If one has a spare few hours, one would rather meet a friend over coffee or wine. That real-time, face-to-face conversation is contact, not exchanging trivia online. Why would i want to see a friend’s holiday snaps when i can barely summon up enough interest in my own to get them developed? Few things, bar waiting for milk to boil, are as boring as other people’s holiday pictures. Much as i love my friends in various parts of the world, i’m perfectly content with a ‘broad brush’ update. An occasional e-mail telling me they are fine, their teenage son hasn’t become a drug dealer and their dog’s arthritis is better is fine with me. Any more detail is redundant. I assume they are equally uninterested in the daily mundaneness of my life and that is exactly as it should be. Even assuming i wanted to sign up, i would never have the time. If i, blessed with two maids and only one child to look after, cannot find the time to go on this site, how do millions of others, particularly those in the West who have many household chores, do so? hurry! No wonder companies are banning this site. God knows what it is doing to global productivity. But even outside work, don’t people have to walk the dog? Check up on an elderly aunt? File their tax returns? The Facebook phenomenon has confirmed yet again what we have always known that human beings are sheep. They see someone going off in one direction and they follow blindly for no apparent reason beyond the comfort of numbers. All my efforts at persuading my 12-year-old son not to get onto Facebook failed. I spoke cogently about the charm of being different, of having the moral strength to resist peer pressure, of the infinitely greater pleasures of reading, but my efforts failed. His school friends looked at him as though he had gone soft in the brain. As for twitter, don’t even get me started. The very name cutesy and twee irritates the hell out of me. Facebook and twitter are fads. Like all fads, they’ll end up in the dustbin, not of history, but of history’s footnotes.

The Legalization Of Marijuana Legalization - 1660 Words

Kyler Smith 9/15 â€Å"Marijuana Legalization† The legality of cannabis varies from country to country. Possession of cannabis is illegal in most countries and has been since the beginning of widespread cannabis prohibition in the late 1930s. However, possession of the drug in small quantities had been decriminalized in many countries and sub-national entities in several parts of the world. Furthermore, possession is legal or effectively legal in the Netherlands, Uruguay, and in the US states of Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and Washington as the federal government has indicated that it will not attempt to block enactment of legalization in those states. The federal district of Washington D.C. legalized cannabis for possession and use in 2015 but was blocked by a Congressional rider from instituting commercial sales and taxation. Cannabis is also legal in some U.S cities such as Portland and South Portland, both of which are in Mane. And the United States Department of Justice is allowing all recognized Indian Reservations to regulat e the legalization of cannabis, and the laws are allowed to be different from Federal and state law. On 10 December 2013, Uruguay became the first nation in the world to legalize the sale, cultivation, and distribution of cannabis. The medicinal use of cannabis is legal in a little bit of countries, including Canada, the Czech Republic and Israel. The federal law in the United States no longer has a ban on the use of medical marijuana. States thatShow MoreRelatedThe Legalization Of Marijuana Legalization Essay2566 Words   |  11 Pagescurrent prohibition on marijuana reforms has put the United States in a similar situation. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, â€Å"95 million Americans age 12 and older have tried pot at least once, and three out of every four illicit-drug users reported using marijuana within the previous 30 days† (ONDCP). The decriminalization and eventually legalization for the recreational use of marijuana will bring forth benefitsRead MoreThe Legalization Of Marijuana Legalization1061 Words   |  5 PagesThe Legalization of Cannabis in Ohio Marijuana is a controversial topic all across the United States. Recently marijuana has been voted on, legalized, and denied legalization in multiple states. There are still more states trying to fight the green fight for marijuana. The fight for legalization hasn’t been an easy one for cannabis supporters; they have been fighting tooth and nail to make it happen. One of the main concerns in the marijuana debates are whether or not marijuana is a gateway drugRead MoreThe Legalization Of Marijuana Legalization1282 Words   |  6 Pages On November 8th, 2016, the California Marijuana Legalization Initiative may be included on the ballot. The people of California will vote on whether to legalize the recreational use of cannabis for adults. The move targets at regulating the consumption of the drug and taxing it like other legalized drugs. California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996 (National Institute of Drug Abuse). The state prohibited any legal actio ns from being taken on patients and recognized caregiversRead MoreThe Legalization Of Marijuana Legalization996 Words   |  4 Pages the monetary gain of its legalization for most has been productive to say the least. For example, Denver Colorado is on track to more than triple the marijuana tax revenue this year alone. $44 million was collected in 2014. In July 2015, 73.5 million was collected, while 19.6 million went to schools. A place such as Chicago could really use the legalization to help with the school system infrastructure issues they have. With a deficit of over 1.1 billion marijuana sales could alleviate bothRead MoreLegalization of Marijuana1550 Words   |  7 PagesLegalization of Marijuana: Benefits and Statistics The topic of legalizing marijuana has been a topic of controversy for quite some time now not only throughout our local streets, but throughout the local and into the state government. The legalization of marijuana is such a controversial topic because some are for it and some are against it. People are for the legalization because of the great uses it has towards medicine, the money that could come from the taxation of legalized marijuana, andRead MoreLegalization of Marijuana972 Words   |  4 PagesOn January 1st the states of Colorado and Washington officially began the regulation of legal marijuana sales. Thousands of people from all over the country including tourists from Wisconsin, Ohio, Chicago, and even Georgia lined up out front of dispensaries to make a purchase. Recreational marijuana is being regulated and monitored like alcohol; you must be at least 21 years old to make a purchase. The drug, which is controversial in many states’ legislations, is currently l egal for medical useRead MoreLegalization Of Legalization For Recreational Marijuana1204 Words   |  5 Pagescalled Maryjane, Pot, Reefer, Ganga, Green and many other names, but this little plant seems to be causing a big controversy in recent decades. Can Marijuana really help us or is it a problem in the making? This question may seem simple, but in reality, it is more complex of an issue than we think. The opposing sides of legalization for recreational marijuana are so varied with many points of view to consider. Only a few of those views will be addressed in this article with simplified information to speakRead MoreThe Legalization of Marijuana628 Words   |  2 PagesThe Legalization of Marijuana Marijuana, the plant of the cannabis, has been around since the early 1900’s. Throughout history, marijuana has been used illegally, for both recreational and medical uses. Recently, marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes, like aiding HIV/AIDs patients, healing migraines and controlling nausea caused by chemotherapy. Today, there are currently 21 American states that have legalized medicinal marijuana including two states that have legalized recreational marijuanaRead MoreLegalization of Marijuana2735 Words   |  11 PagesLegalism and Marijuana People have been smoking marijuana for thousands of years while also using hemp for everything from fabric to make clothes and other items. Unfortunately, Harry J. Anslinger with a bit of power and enough determination decided pot was evil and addictive. The struggle continues to this day to overcome the lies about marijuana (â€Å"Marijuana (Weed) History and Facts†). There are many benefits to legalizing marijuana and the government should take advantage of it. Marijuana is evenRead MoreMarijuana Legalization1212 Words   |  5 PagesMarijuana Legalization COMP 1500 April 20th, 2009 Word Count: 807 Outline I. Introduction Thesis Statement: Although America is the land of the free you do not really have  too many  free choices you can make. Americans  should have  the right to  choose whether or not  marijuana should be legal. II. Background III. The tax benefits that can be created A. If legalized they can tax it how ever much they want B. Can be regulated IV. Drug enforcement money can be diverted