Wednesday, January 29, 2020

The European Modern Art in the Period of WWI Essay Example for Free

The European Modern Art in the Period of WWI Essay The early 20th century was a period of impetuous change. The First World War profoundly altered peoples understanding of their worlds. Early 20th-century art movements powerfully reflect this new mind-set. It was a brutal reality of war that was to give abstraction its edge. To those who survived the First World War it came to embody the collapse of traditional Western culture. What had started as an exercise in honor and chivalry (for Futurists) ended as mass destruction (for Dada artists). Moreover, the First World War forced many to reconsider the kind of value system and culture that could have permitted such an atrocity in the first place. As the war dragged on, more and more artists felt themselves compromised by the act of making art at least the kind of work that seemed so much a part of a larger, hypocrisy-hidden cultural machine. For many, to continue meant a drastic re-evaluation of the role of the art for themselves and their society. The result was a radically new way of looking at the world and at art – one that survives to this day. Daringly innovatory in technical terms, movements such as Cubism and Futurism, both of which were at their height around 1910–13, neglected traditional painting to probe the structure of consciousness itself. Though, it is to Dada and Surrealism that we should look for the most compelling explorations of the modern psyche, not least because both movements placed considerable emphasis on mental investigation. Dada partially saw itself as re-enacting the psychic upheaval caused by the First World War, while the irrationalism celebrated by Surrealism could be seen as a thoroughgoing acceptance of the forces at work beneath the coating of civilization. In this work I summarize the overlapping histories of movements of Futurism and Dada, first of all, and what common features link them. Also on particular examples of Boccioni and Jean Arp’s works I endeavor to find similarities and differences of these two movements. Futurist painting is a fascinating example of how seemingly innocuous pictorial movement can take on political and social aspects. The Futurists were for the most part a collection of modernist Italian painters who saw the destruction of the old and the glory of the new as the hallmarks of a truly modern artist. The Futurist movement burst upon the consciousness of an astonished public in the years 1909-1910. For the first time artists crossed over the line between conventional taste and new ideas. Taking their cue from the anarchists with whom as youths they were in sympathy, the self-styled Futurists published shocking manifestoes, governing their art and thoughts, the most famous of which was the Futurist Technical Manifesto  negating all past values, even art itself. Fighting their way towards a new liberty against apathy, nostalgia, and sentimentality, they became for a very wide public the symbol of all that was new, terrifying, and seemingly ridiculous in contemporary art. As for the term Futurism, there is no mystery about its origin, nor was it a word thrust by chance upon the artists as were Fauvism, and Cubism or Dada. It was coined in the autumn of 1908 by the bilingual Italian poet, editor, and promoter of art, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, to give ideological coherence to the advanced tendencies in poetry. Because the Futurist painters early adapted to their own use some of the formal language of Cubism, their painting has often been considered a kind of speeded up version of that classically oriented movement. However the significant difference consisted in Futurism’s aim to represent motion, a goal better realized in moving pictures. Motion for the Futurist painter was not an objective fact to be analyzed, but simply a modern means for embodying a strong personal expression. In their iconoclasm and concern for the vagaries of the mind, they had not a little in common with Dada. The Italian Futurists were fighting the estrangement from the world, the lonely isolation of the individual that was not only the inheritance of the artist but a common threat to modern man. They rejected firmly the temptation to brood over mans plight, sentimentalizing over his helplessness in the way fashionable at the turn of the century. With Nietzschean arrogance they despised the weak and the timid, the thoughtful or hesitant, and wished to feel themselves rash, bold, and capable of infinite accomplishment. They wanted their art to restore to man a sense of daring, an assertive will rather than submissive acceptance. Perhaps the most talented Futurist artist was Umberto Boccioni, whose work and interests included both painting and sculpture. In his The Street Enters the House (Fig. 1) of 1911 it is quite apparent that he employed Cubist inventions for the depiction of a fractured space and the breaking down of forms across the picture plane. But to this he adds something Cubists had shied away from: color – the kind which illuminated and even decomposed forms. In this work forms, light and color melt into a frenzy of simultaneous activities, each actively pursuing the other for visual authority. The result is something like a visual noise, where each gesture or diminished form takes on the personality of a boisterous shout in a turbulent crowd. It appears that the radical Boccioni’s treatment of forms was to certain extent conservative. He never completely let go of the descriptive character of his work. In his sculptural work (Fig. 2) he maintains an awkward balance between the radical character of Cubist traditions and his desire to maintain a likeness. In this case, the piece looks like an icon to motion and progress and ironically discloses disdain for the whole history of figurative sculpture. Perhaps the greatest irony was the artist’s welcome to the First World War as a â€Å"cleansing† of culture. When the war was declared, he, like many of Futurists immediately enlisted and shortly after he was killed. Thus, with the horrors of the First World War, Futurism died too. Chronologically, the Dada movement (1915-1922) followed the Cubist style, from which it borrowed the papier collà © technique[2], and preceded the Surrealist movement for which it laid a foundation. Dada artists dismissed the canons of the traditional arts as well, considering their work to be non-art and, in some instances, even anti-art. More than anything else, Dada was an ‘avant-garde’ movement. The term ‘avant-garde’, which was first employed by the French utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon in the 1820s, initially had military connotations, but came to signify the advanced socio-political as well as aesthetic position to which the modern artist should aspire[3]. By the early 20th century, several key art movements such as Futurism in Italy, Constructivism in Russia or De Stijl in Holland, as well as Dada and Surrealism were pledged to contesting any separation between art and the contingent experience of the modern world. Appearing almost simultaneously in Zurich, New York, and Paris, the Dada movement did not represent a particular style of art as much as an intellectual rebellion of artists against the war and a general rejection of the formal traditions of culture and society. The term Dada was selected for the movement by opening a dictionary at random and arbitrarily selecting a word. This use of chance as a factor of determination and decision making would become systemized by the Dadaists in their work. The main practitioner of the art of chance was Jean (Hans) Arp, a Dada artist less inclined to grand gesture than on establishing a liberating, and thus in his opinion moral, work method for his art. The result can be seen in his Collage Arranged According to the Laws of Chance (Fig. 3). In this particular case, the actual work method is perhaps more noteworthy than the image it produced, and it hints at much larger issue in later art making – the supposed unlocking of the unconscious. Arp strongly believed that the unconscious existed and could be triggered, but revealing it required a radically different approach to art making. To produce this image, Arp simply dropped pieces of torn paper in a random manner onto a field of background color, and then glued the shapes down exactly where they fell. Such a method denies all possibility of craft concerns technical skills or even the simplest discretionary gesture on the part of the artist. All aspect of its production are left to chance. These pieces are seen as triggering mechanism to the unconscious, an activity in harmony with nature. The importance of Arp’s work lies in its acceptance of an uncontrollable event as at least as real as all of the intellectual conventions on which the European tradition was grounded. And at the time when many of these intellectual and cultural ideas were shattered by war, the unconscious might have seemed like the only place to hide. So we can conclude that both movements resemble each other in their striving to abandon conventional artistic approach and methods. However, in terms of art, Dada could be said to have had the most wide-ranging post-war impact, a fact which is paradoxical given Dadas anti-art inclinations. Dada committed itself to the deconstruction of lethal culture and its reconstruction according to more humane principles. Its success was constituted in the intensity and scope of its critique. The attitude towards the war of each of the movement was considerably predetermined by the period of their existence. Unlike Dada artists who survived the horrors of the war and under this experience reconsidered their understanding of art, Futurist artist believed in positive effect of the war. The analysis of the two artists’ works, representatives of both movements, displays the most striking difference existent between Futurism and the Dada movement, that is, art vs non-art forms. Figure 1. Umberto Boccioni The Street Enters the House 1911 Oil on canvas (100à 100.6 cm) Sprengel Museum, Hanover    Figure 2. Umberto Boccioni Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913 Bronze Height 110.5 cm Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Figure 3. Jean Arp Collage Arranged According to the Laws of Chance 1916-17 Torn and pasted paper (48.6à 34.5 cm) Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Bibliography: Braun, Emily. â€Å"Futurist Fashion: Three Manifestoes†. Art Journal. Vol.: 54. 1995: 34-49 Hopkins, David. Dada and Surrealism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 â€Å"Papier collà ©.† Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved on December 16, 2005 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papier collà © Taylor, Joshua C. Boccioni. New York: Double Company, Inc [1] Emily Braun in the article Futurist Fashion: Three Manifestoes presents a profound insight of Futurists manifestos. [2] Papier collà © (French: pasted paper) is a painting technique and type of collage. With papier collà © the artist pastes pieces of flat material (paper, oil cloth and the like) into a painting in much in the same way as a collage, except the shape of the pasted pieces are objects themselves. (Wickipedia) [3] David Hopkins in his book Dada and Surrealism gives detailed survey of the historical, political and social backgrounds of Dada and Surrealism, as well as examines their relation to other movements that emerged at that period, 2.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The Japanese Attempt to Erase Korean Culture, History and Identity :: Japanese History Korea Japan Essays

Even though none of my relatives were killed or tortured by the Japanese, I am still afraid. I am afraid that my vicarious wounds still linger inside me, affecting everything I do. I know that they destroyed our cultural and spiritual circle that we maintained for five thousand years. They just had to leave a natural trace that actually became part of us. I don't know if I should hate them. It is ignorantly and unwittingly buried deeply in our unconsciousness. Natural hatred and attraction, like two inseparable sides of a coin, had confused me for so long. Because the scar still remains unhealed and too painful to ignore, and because I hesitate to hate what's part of me. Broken wings were all over the country. They were forced to tear their skin and delicate white feathers off, replacing them with acute and heavy pebbles that filled their lives with sharp pain and humiliation. It all came too naturally. My childhood desk was decorated with cute dolls in red kimonos, a gift from my father, and pictures that I took with Jini. Affectionately-spoken Japanese often filled my house, enabling me to learn some of the foreign words gradually. Kawai, kawai, Jae san wa kawai. I blinked my eyes and laughed a ticklish and bright child's laughter at what my grandma said to me. What does it mean, grandma? A calm, peach colored smile blossomed on grandmother's face. It means very, very, adorable. Another warm smile and a soft pat on my head. Kawai. I recited the word carefully while grandma and mom were having a short conversation in Japanese. In downtown Kyoto, Japan, there lies a small stone monument at the spot where the ears of Koreans taken to Japan during one of its invasions in 1592 were buried. Japan has invaded Korea numerous times in known history, but when it invaded in 1592, Japanese soldiers were known to have cut off the ears of Koreans they either killed or wished to humiliate. One Japanese scholar suggests that later Japanese regimes came to value noses over ears because, somehow, cutting off noses sounds more cruel" (Lee). Koreans love everything from Japan. On cafà © tables in Ap-Guh-Juhn-Dong, the Beverly Hills of Korea, Japanese fashion magazines lay arrogantly. Sony and PlayStation products are sold fiercely in electronics markets. Some Koreans even say that we should admire Japan for their economic success, technology, and lifestyle. Only when it comes to history do they go hysterical and anti-Japan, remembering repeated attempts at invasion until the Japanese finally succeeded in 1910.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages

Case Study: Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages ————————————————- [email  protected] com 1. What are the strategically relevant components of the global and U. S. beverage industry macro-environment? How do the economic characteristics of the alternative beverage segment of the industry differ from that of other beverage categories? Explain. Demographics: The total sale for beverages in 2009 in the US was about 458. 3 billion gallons and it is one of the largest markets with dollar value of 1,581. billion in 2009 and with a forecast of $1,775. 3 billion for 2014. 48. 2 percent of industry sales were from carbonated soft drinks and 29. 2 percent of bottle water industry sales. In 2009,The Alternative beverage industry included sports drinks, flavored or enhanced water and energy drinks made up 4%, 1. 6%, and 1. 2% of industry sales r espectively. The global market for alternative beverages in 2009 was $40. 2 billion, while it was $17 billion for alternative beverages in US market. It was $ 12. 7 billion and $9. billion for Asia pacific and European markets respectively. Market growth: The market growth has huge potential with the dollar value of the global market for alternative beverages grew at a 9. 8% annually between 2005 and 2009, but was expected to slow down to 5. 7% annually between 2010 and 2014. US is the country which has strongest growth internationally in term of alternative beverage sales with an annual growth rate of 16. 6% between 2005 and 2009 and a forecasted growth rate of 6. 7% between 2010 and 2014.Europe and Asia-Pacific grew at annual rates of 5. 3% and 5. 6% between 2005 and 2009 and were expected to grow at a rate of 4. 4% and 5. 1% respectively between 2010 and 2014. However poor economic conditions in the US in 2008 and 2009 led to a 12. 3% decline in sports drink sales and a 12. 5% de cline in flavored and vitamin waters sales. It was also the reason why energy drinks sales increased only 0. 2% between those years. Rivalry between competitors: Coca Cola, Pepsico and Redbull are the three big players that made the industry rivalry become global.However, there were hundreds of brands like Otsuko which were specialty yet regional brands that did not have a foot print internationally but were doing well in their own terms. Beverage producers had made various attempts at increasing the size of the market for alternative beverages by extending existing product lines and developing altogether new products. Social Forces: * Global beverage companies such as Coca Cola and PepsiCo had relied on such beverages to sustain in volume growth in mature markets where consumers were reducing their consumption of carbonated soft drinks. Expanding the market for alternatives beverages and increasing sales and market share, beverage producers also were forced to content with criticis m from some that energy drinks, energy shots, and relaxation drinks presented health risks for consumers and that some producers’ strategies promoted reckless behavior, the primary concern of most producers of energy drinks, sports drinks, and vitamin-enhanced beverages was how to best improve their competitive standing in the market place. Driving Forces for this industry: * Expanding Market share Desire to reach out to Consumer needs and meet the demand * Personalization of the Market Segments* Branding * Market Size * Maximization of Growth Potential General Economic Conditions: * Global growth is projected to grow at 3. 5 percent in 2012, then accelerate somewhat to 3. 6 percent from 2013-2014. In 2012 It is expected that emerging economies will be slow in growth by 0. 7 percentage points on average, going from 6. 3 percent growth in 2011 to 5. 6 percent in 2012, partly as a result of slower export growth and partly because several of them have been growing above trend an d the GDP Growth for the world is predicted to be at 3. . Things look a little slow but are picking up slowly and there is no recession in sight so far. This could really help the industries like Food, Beverages, Health surge ahead like they already are into the market with more percentage of market share and consumer usage based on the increasing numbers in the trend. Impact of Economic Factors: * Demand on beverages and alternative beverages should remain incremental or stable * Branded alternative beverages with national and international presence should do well * Business opportunities should be encouraged with fair and encouraging interest rates 2.What is competition like in the alternative beverage industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest? Which is weakest? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness and the potential profitability of new entrants? The Beverage industry is highly competitive and the segments that come into picture when it comes to competition are Distribution, Shelf management, Licenses, Brand name and Image, Pricing, Labeling and Packaging, Marketing and Advertising, Quality and taste, Trade and Consumer promotions and Branding. Competition with non-alcoholic beverages * Competition with Carbonated beverages * Competition with regional beverage producers and private label soft drink suppliers * Competition in maintenance of distribution network * Competition on quality and pricing* Competition on Branding, Labeling, Marketing, Packaging and Promotions. Bargaining power of Buyers: Strong * Convenience store, grocery store, and wholesale buyers had considerable leverage in negotiating pricing and slotting fees with alternative beverage producers because of their bulk purchases. New entrants with comparatively lower market shares are most affected with this like how it is mentioned in the case where the shelf space is limited to top brands like Coke, PepsiCo and Red bull for that p articular market segment. The larger brands like coke and Pepsi also already have spaces worked out with them for their other products and this makes it easier for the bigger brands to get their newer products in the shelf’s too. * Delis and restaurants have low switching costs to other brands but they have less volumes compared to stores and less space, shelfs etc. nd also will not have the same bargaining power that a store enjoys. * Demand is highly dynamic Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Weak * Suppliers for alternative beverages do exist in huge numbers and the competition is high * The producers of alternative beverages are important customers of suppliers and buy in large quantities. * Packaging is readily available Threat of Substitutes: Medium* Many substitutes like tea, bottled water, juices, nutrition water etc. have surfaced but the market is not as big as alternative beverages and this customer preference had weakened the competitive power of substitute beverages. Many substitutes that can quench the thirst of the consumers * Price point of substitutes is less compared to alternative beverages Threat of New entrants: Weak * Brand leaders already exist in the industry with competitive prices and well established distribution system * Convenience stores and Shelves across the stores are already in partnership with existing big-wigs * Customer loyalty towards branded products is high * Need for large financial resources and funds * High Brand equity for already existing and successful brands Threat of Rivalry: Strong Competition centers among major brands based on brand image, appealing taste, packaging, R&D, Marketing and Distribution capabilities * Attempts by all the brands to increase the number and types of products in their product line * Low switching costs for the consumers of the industry * Strong marketing campaigns by each brand to gain customer loyalty The Bargaining power of consumers and rivalry that exists between the competi tions in this industry contributes to the attractiveness of the industry.The numbers are promising, the industry is dynamic and increase in demand each year. The factors that affect the potential profitability of the new entrants are the Brand image, Distribution network and Product line breadth. 3) How is the market for energy drinks, sports drinks and vitamin-enhanced beverages changing? What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those forces individually or collectively make the industry more or less attractive? * Driving forces of the alternative everage industry are dependent on the creating/sustaining market demand, dynamics of the growth rate and product innovation. * Industry leaders established: Segments within the alternative beverage industry have consolidated as markets have matured and leaders have been established. Red Bull GmbH and Hansen Natural Corporation remained independent in 2010, Coca-Cola controlled such brands as Powerade sports drink, Fuze vita min-enhanced beverages, glaceau vitamin water and NOS.In addition, Coca-Cola distributed Hansen’s Monster energy drink in parts of the United States, Canada, and six European countries. * Changes in Long term Growth Rate: The recession had an impact on sales of sports drinks and flavored or enhanced water and has stalled growth in the market for energy drinks; there was also growing market maturity for most categories of alternative beverages. The annual rate of growth for the dollar value of the global market for alternative beverages was forecasted to decline from the 9. percent annual rate occurring between 2005 and 2009 to an anticipated annual rate of 5. 7 percent for 2010 through 2014. While dollar value growth rates were expected to decline only slightly in Europe and Asia-Pacific, the annual rate of growth in the U. S. was projected to decline from 16. 6 percent during 2005 – 2009 to 6. 7 percent between 2010 and 2014 * Product Innovation: The industry is conti nuing to evolve with introduction of new products that enable rise of new category of products.The recent introduction of energy shots is an example of how an innovation that has given rise to an altogether new sub-segment in the industry. * The creation of new product segments, the increasing positive trends in growth rate and increasing market share for each product are a good indication and good drivers of change that increase the attractiveness of the market for an emergent industry. 4) What does your strategic group map of the energy drink, sports drink, and vitamin-enhanced beverage industry look like?Which strategic groups do you think are in the best positions? The worst positions? The strategic group maps show the industry participants competing with axes of Geographic foot print and Brand. The Map shows that Industry giants like Coke and Pepsico are positioned strongest in the industry due to already existing contracts, supply chain, distribution network and shelf spaces i n retail spaces. * Red Bull is seeing a successful brand in Europe and the U. S. Hansen's Monster is also doing good standing up to the other market giants with distribution partnership with coke giving it the required space and opportunity to grab the market and hence can be considered at a favorable position. * Rock star has also been at a favorable position due to the same reason of distribution network partnership with PepsiCo* Companies with a single brand and regional distribution like Otsuko, Vitamin water etc. appeared to be at an unfavorable place with chances of competition gulping the market share of the small players very soon. ) What key factors determine the success of alternative beverage producers? The Key success factors for Alternative Beverage producers are * Constant Product Innovation: A company must be able to identify what a consumer is looking for and also maintain the ability to adapt with the changing market trends. They must be able to keep up and not lag behind. * Price: Price is always a factors in many cases and in this case consumers with a low brand preference will buy a product based on its competitive pricing * Brand Loyalty: Consumers are particular about what brand they purchase and they stick to it in most of the cases.This stresses for a superior brand image and quality * Distribution system: Probably one of the most important, Effective distribution channels will not only help reduce costs but also helps a company remain competitive. * Size and Scale: Successful alternative beverage producers were required to have sufficient sales volumes to keep marketing expenses at an acceptable cost per unit basis. 6) What recommendations would you make to Coca-Cola to improve its competitiveness in the global alternative beverage industry? To PepsiCo? To Red Bull GmbH? Recommendations to Pepsi Pepsico have to launch a major image building campaign for the most promising products it has. * Pepsico also needs to develop its own energy shot brand try to convince Rockstar to add an energy shot to its distribution agreement. * In addition, Pepsi should negotiate for distribution rights to European and Asia-Pacific market with Rockstar or launch its energy drink brands in attractive international markets. * PepsiCo can expand its foot print and focus on other international markets in energy drinks for more international presence and to utilize the demand of a branded and standard product.Red Bull is currently the number in the energy drinks category and they should really take advantage of that and come up with more product line extensions and more products so people can identify with that brand and try other products too. They should focus more on product innovation and product line extensions. Recommendations to Coca Cola * Coca cola should improve its product by innovating and building up good image to recapture the market share it lost in energy drinks category. * Coca cola should also try to create more rapid gr owth in vitamin-enhanced beverages and energy shots product. Coke should focus on products and Branding efforts to gain market and regain lost market share in energy drinks * It should build up its strength in term of alternative beverage sales in by pursuing acquisitions and focus on building its strength of sales in Asia and react quickly to solve the problem of lacking competitiveness in the European market for alternative beverages. * Coca cola can use a combination of new flavors and formulations, brands, line extensions, improved image building, and distribution capabilities to increase sales of alternative beverages internationally.Recommendations to Red Bull GmbH * Redbull should improve the performance of its recently introduced energy shots and continue to expand into rapidly growing country markets for energy drinks. * It is necessary for the company to maintain its lead in the U. S. and European energy drink market with additional product line extensions based upon produ ct innovation. * It should develop sports drinks or vitamin-enhanced beverages that can further exploit the appeal of the Red Bull brand 7. Using the data in Ex. 11, 12, 13 compare Pepsi, Coke, and Hansen.Who has been the most profitable? Who has better managed their expenses? Which business has shown the most growth? Which of the three would you give the strongest grade for their performance? * Using the data from Exhibit 11,12 and 13 for Coke, Pepsi and Hansen, Hansen seems to be the most profitable so far as it became the largest seller of energy drink in the US by leading most of alternative beverage categories. PepsiCo’s global market share in 2009 was 26. 5 percent, overcome by 11. 5 percent to Coca-Cola.The Coca Cola has better managed their expenses it was the third-largest seller of alternative beverage and in the top five best-selling non-alcoholic beverages worldwide in 2009. But they have lot of catching up to do. I would give the strongest grade for performance t o Hansen for its market share, range of products, product innovation and distribution strategies. Hansen also managed to have higher revenue growth and higher cash flow growth. Net Revenue| 2007| 2008| 2009| CAGR| Pepsi| 39374| 43251| 43232| 3. 17%| Coca Cola| 28857| 31944| 30990| 3. 40%| Hansen| 904465| 1033780| 1143299| 4. 50%| | | | | | | | | | Net Income| 2007| 2008| 2009| CAGR| Pepsi  5674| 5166| 5979| 1. 76%| Coca Cola| 5981| 5807| 6824| 4. 49%| Hansen| 149,406| 108032| 208716| 11. 70%| | | | | | | | | | | Operating profit| 2007| 2008| 2009| CAGR| Pepsi| 7182| 6959| 8044| 3. 85%| Coca Cola| 18451| 20570| 19902| 2. 55%| Hansen| 230986| 163591| 337309| 13. 40%| The company growth rate analysis of the three companies in terms of revenue, income and profit show that Hansen has higher percentage of growth rate well above the industry average. Hansen has greater revenues in the industry segment and higher customer demand and financial success.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

The Body Shop International - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 466 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/09/15 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? |Body Shop International PLC 2001 Case Study Solution Introduction to Financial Modeling | [pic][pic][pic][pic]The first question that usually proposed for this case study is in regards to the revenue issue; What was the cause of the lack of growth in revenue during the late 90s? The 2nd question deals with the rapid growth in 2001; What was the cause of the rapid increase in sales in 2001 and what were the negative impacts of the rapid growth. Issues surrounding the lack of growth in revenue: In the early to mid 90s, the revenue growth for Body Shop was at least 20% each year. But by the late 1990s, the revenue growth fell to 8%. Body Shop was able to grow at a fast pace early in the decade because of the lack of competition. But by the end of the decade, the competition grew fierce. Another reason for the slow growth in the late 90s was the over expansion in the previous years. Almost every mall in America (and shopping street in Britain) had a Body Shop. How would the Body Shop forecast earnings so they would not be blind-sided by another decline in OIBT? Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Body Shop International" essay for you Create order Financial Forecasting This case study is very simple and straight-forward. It usually is one of the first cases presented in class, as it is the first case in the book because it is the easiest. Because of the lack of revenue growth, Anita Roddick (founder of the Body Shop) was forced to step-down from the CEO position. The fresh management team, assembled by the new CEO Patrick Gournay, was able to increase revenue by 13% in their first year (2001). However, in their attempt to grow the revenue, they lost 21% in their OIBT. The major reason why this occurred was because of a lack of forecasting through the use of financial modeling. Key Aspects of the Body Shop Case Study (based on implied assumptions) 1. Because the hybrid method of financial forecasting is used, the cost of goods sold as a percent of sales should be addressed in your analysis. For example, the COS % of Sales is 42% in 1999, 39. 7% in 2000, 39. 8% in 2001, and you need to provide a forecast for 2002 2004. The COS % of Sales in the 3 year forecast should never go above 42% because of the current market conditions, and at best should increase to 41% in 2004. To be conservative, the 2002 and 2003 %s should average 40. 25%. (Another way to handle this is to do a sensitivity analysis; say the % was 35 for all 3 years, then do it again at 37, 40, 42 and 45 and show how this impacts the bottom line. Then choose the best estimate) 2. Revenue should grow 10 15% in 2002 2004. 3. Working capital should keep increasing over the forecasted time period. 4. At least 1 major competitor will go bankrupt, and another will be acquired by a company that is not the Body Shop.