President Obama's Relationship with the Media

The relationships which individuals in society have with the media tend not only to be beneficial for their public image but also determine how powerful their influence is within that society. A good relationship with the media ensures that the opinions and the agenda of such an individual are widely propagated and the message which he is trying to get through to the public is delivered. In this paper, we shall look into the media relationship of President Barrack Obama and how it has helped him throughout his political career to eventually achieving and maintaining his popularity in the highest office of the United States. It has been noted that President Obama has continued to have a very good relationship with the media even after becoming president and this partly explains why he has remained very popular with most of the American public because the media tends to give very positive news concerning him.

One of the most effective tools which the President seems to have used for developing solid and lasting media relationships has been the background sessions with reporters where he has discussed his opinion of events with reporters off the record (Olsen, C, 2003). This has ensured that reporters have come to know him as an individual and consider him to be more down to earth than those politicians who tend to have a very impersonal relationship with reporters. As a consequence of this personal relationship with reporters, President Obama gets more coverage from the media than his political rivals and this has ensured his continued popularity with the American public because the media is one of the most powerful and influential institutions in the United States. Obama’s use of this institution has been very skillful especially considering many politicians consider it to be the enemy unless it is serving their own interests. Obama on the other hand has embraced the media, often using it to transmit his message to the public and as a tool for garnering public support for legislation that he backs in Congress (Kidwai, S, 2007).

Many would consider the President’s relationship with the media to be unhealthy due to the fact that were it not for the media, then he would not be as popular as he currently is. It can further be stated that the media is so much in favor of him that it may be tempted to only reveal the positive aspects of him and cover up any negative image that he may have (Rand, H, 1998). The great relationship he has with the media may also ensure that he gets his way in many matters concerning the governing of the United States and that the legislation he supports gets passed in Congress despite the fact that some o the legislation may be highly unpopular with the public. A good relationship with the media can give an individual unlimited power over those whom it has influence over and this is exactly what it has done for President Obama. Such power in the hands of an individual can be very dangerous to the democratic systems of the nation because in the hands of an individual, it can lead to a type of dictatorship which is not healthy for the people of the United States.

Business Organization and Policy

The cost leadership strategy is an incorporated set of actions taken by a firm designed to produce or else deliver goods and services respectively with characteristics that are satisfactory to customers at the lowest cost relative to that of its rivals (Hoskisson & Ireland, 2008, 135). In this paper, we shall discuss five of these strategies and how they work in favor of the firm which applies them.

Demand forecasting is the dedication for understanding consumer goods or services and this understanding is harnessed and used to forecast consumer demand (Kazmi, 2008, 126). This enables the firm to keep the right amount of stock at hand because if the demand is underrated, sales can be lost due to a shortage of supply of goods. If, on the other hand, the demand is overrated, then the firm is left with an excess stock and that could also be a drain to the firm financially. It is therefore imperative that a firm understands demand and is able to accurately predict the market outcome since understanding demand makes a firm more competitive in the market. In order for a firm to be better able to meet its customers’ needs, it has to set up appropriate forecasting models so that it can be prepared to meet the actual demands of its customers.

Economies of scale are the things which cause the standard cost of producing a product to reduce while the quantity of its production increases. There are two varieties of economies of scale: internal economies of scale which are the funds that accumulate to a firm in spite of the industry, market or atmosphere in which it functions; and external economies of scale which benefit a firm because of the way in which its industry is organized. An example of economies of scale is the ability of large firms to carry out sophisticated research because they are able to spread this expenditure across a greater volume of sales and this has led to many mergers in recent years.

The standardization of products is basically an attempt by a firm to reduce costs while increasing the quality of the product it produces by using more efficient methods of production. This is done by minimizing the differences in the product which a firm produces and by doing so, production is rapidly increased, in the process reducing the cost of raw materials.

Aiming at the average customer makes it possible to offer a generalized set of utilities in a product to cover a greater number of customers (Kozami, 2002, 229). This means that a firm will be able to spend less in producing the product but gain more because the average customers are a large market. The cost of production will be quickly recovered and in the process, a large profit will also be made.

Firms often invest in research and development leading to cost saving technologies and as a result, they often trade an increase in fixed costs for a reduction in variable costs (Harrison & St. John, 2009, 91). Examples of cost saving technologies include Internet Banking services provided by most banks, and the reservation systems maintained by major airlines. Investment in cost saving technologies allows for the lowering of overall costs and provides a degree of information and control that was previously impossible to achieve.

Innovations at Apple, GE and Visa

Innovations are very important things to modern companies because they not only make them competitive in the world market but also ensure that they remain relevant to their customers. It is central to any company’s strategy and for many companies it is one of their top priorities in driving growth. The most significant drivers of innovation are culture and people and companies face various challenges when tackling both of these. Furthermore, different companies take different approaches when dealing with their new innovations. In this paper, we shall look at how the innovations at Apple, GE, and Visa have had an impact on them.

Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the world whose influence can be felt by almost everybody on the globe. This company was founded in a spirit of innovation and it is this that has made it one of the leaders in the world market. The Economist (2007) declares that Apple is well known for its ability to create technology that can be adapted for a wide range of purposes such as using an iPad to help in the arrangement of data as well as using it to read eBooks. Furthermore, Apple products tend to be environmentally friendly and this has made many people in the world to adopt them for their day to day use. This has made Apple one of the most successful companies in America and it has made it a world leader in almost all the products it produces with very little sign of it being overtaken any time soon.

GE has also invested in innovations such as the creation of electric powered cars and jet engines among others. It is one of those companies which invest heavily in technological innovations in almost all sectors including health. The MENA Report (2012) states that the new technologies developed are adapted to other products that GE produces and this enables it to remain competitive in the market even after more than a hundred and thirty years of existence. Its main aim is to bring affordable and advanced technologies that will ultimately bring a lot of benefit to many people around the world and this will undoubtedly keep this company among the top technological companies in the world.

Visa is also one of those companies whose innovations have revolutionized the financial system of the world. According to Soukar, M (2000) the introduction of the Visa Card has made payments easier for those who use them because not only can they be used domestically, but they can also be used all over the world. Furthermore these cards also enable payments to be made safely online instead of one having to go to a bank to wire the money. The relative safety of using visa cards to make payments has enabled people not to go around carrying paper money because this innovation allows the electronic transfer of money. Due to this technological innovation among others, visa has ensured that it remains one of the best financial companies in the world.

In conclusion, we have briefly looked at some technological innovations of the three companies above and how these innovations have kept them at the top of their fields of specialization. These companies are the leaders in technological advances that have changed the lives of many and it is these which also keep them competitive. The relevance of these three companies relies heavily on their innovative strategies because if they do not produce products that are relevant to the ever evolving tastes of their customers, then they would be overtaken by their competitors.