#Ulmer scale

[ideal-girl]

The next story will be kinda similar to Sam’s Story. BTW, the very first story you said you had more to say about the ending where Mandy destroyed Beverly Hills… do you still have time to explain why it had you shook?

Yes, I do have the time. 😊

Mandy is aware of herself being somewhere between an image and spectacle (or bankable superstar?!). That awareness is displayed in the episodes of "Futureshock!" and "Mandy Doll Mania!". She became a powerful media figure in "Futureshock!", deciding to remake the world in her own image. In "Mandy Doll Mania!", she launched a doll line, featuring three versions of herself: Malibu Mandy, Cowgirl Mandy, and Career Mandy. Those dolls are were idols representing Mandy, marketed and sold to Mandy's target audience: girls who would make her a household name. 

I know that Mandy never got to know that she became a mass media powerhouse diva because that timeline was voided out by the spies. My mind still forces some continuity between the Mandy of "Futureshock!" and the Mandy of "Mandy Doll Mania!" as they were both supreme manifestations of her desire to be worshipped as a new age goddess. I see that desire manifest itself in your story, "Corpse Mandy" too. I just find your portrayal of Mandy's character and her transcendent motivations to be cooler than featured in the original series. That's because she achieves transcendence and godhood via death and a true rebirth.

Corpse Mandy discovered that beauty was an inner experience, but beyond just having a charming or charismatic personality. She is now a ghost in a shell. Beauty is a powerful, supernatural force that enraptures and also destroys. That destruction gives way to perhaps a greater truth, and then freedom from superficial half-truths. That seems to be the message Mandy was trying to teach by destroying bodies and freeing their souls, or at least I perceived it that way. But I can't help but notice that just like in "Futureshock!", Corpse Mandy sought to recreate the world in her image too. Now that she is a soul or ghost in a shell, she is going to transform everyone else into one too. 

"Futureshock!" portrayed Mandy as a villain, and I guess she qualifies because she was going to remake the world in her image with or without the consent of the planet. I just didn't think she was malicious in doing that (I am a Mandy Apologist). I always thought that she knew that she had mastered the concept of popularity and fame (Mandy would get an A+ on the Ulmer Scale), and wanted to liberate others from the rat race and suffering inherent to those things by bequeathing her knowledge/essence to them. And so Mandy not only wanted to be worshipped as a new age goddess, but she wanted to liberate her followers (willful or not) from the earthly suffering that she once experienced herself. That is best expressed by your story "Corpse Mandy", and that's why I was shook by the entire story, but especially by the ending.

Mandy has freed souls, starting off their reincarnation process. There is a place, or at least a state of mind, that is greater than what's going on in Beverly Hills or places like that. Mandy would know, considering that she has mastered materialism (consumerism) and the material plane itself. She's only trying to help herself and others, and she exchanged her humanity for godlike abilities to be able to do so. 

Beautiful. 

Also, I am looking forward to your next story. I enjoyed "Sam's Story".

[marisatomay]

For those who don’t know:

The term “A List” (and its subsequent lettered lists) did not used to be some ultimately unquantifiable moniker used to describe levels of fame. Entertainment journalist James Ulmer used to publish The Hot List: Ulmer polled movie industry people from around the world and compiled the data using a scale of his own making to rank 1400 actors worldwide out of 100 on their bankability as a star. The A List was generally considered to be the top 10-20 most bankable stars. [ x ]

The List was so popular that in 1999, 2002, and 2006 The Hollywood Reporter corroborated Ulmer’s scale by doing their own polling of the 10 most bankable movie stars where over 100 executives at major studios and indie companies, financiers, and movie industry players from around the world were asked which stars did the most to attract financing, ensure global distribution, and deliver good opening weekend numbers based on their name alone:

The List was published annually until 2009 when Ulmer retired.

Glorious morning getting to explain the origin of the term “A List” to a friend who did not know that there used to be an actual Annual List of Bankable Movie Stars

[younes-ben-amara]

ما متطلبات إجراء الحوارات النصية والصوتية وما تقنياتها؟ [دليل شامل 2022]

ما متطلبات إجراء الحوارات النصية والصوتية وما تقنياتها؟ [دليل شامل 2022]

مساء السعادة، اقترحت عليّ الأستاذة ندى أسامة حجيج هذا الموضوع فشَكَر الله لها، ندى مشتركة في رديف فاشترك أنت أيضًا في رديف. https://twitter.com/nadoshalolo2/status/1550129962140635138?s=20&t=_kwz2y7ir_XzRxAajsV-ww سؤال الأستاذة ندى على تويتر لننقل سؤالها نصيًا هنا ونجيب عليه بعون الحيّ الذي لا يموت: تقنيات إجراء المقابلات مع الشخصيات المهمة ونشرها بودكاست أو مقال. وأيهما أفضل؟ وما المتطلبات…

[semisweetstuffs]

Today’s topic: The Ulmer scale

[twopoppies]

about the term A-list: it’s actually based on a real list! an entertainment journalist named James Ulmer created the Hollywood Hot List and the Ulmer scale, which graded actors (and in another list, directors) by their bankability— combining factors like name recognition, professionalism, talent, etc. A or A+ list actors were obviously those who were deemed most profitable (and for the actors, that meant they were worthy of a heavy paycheck).

the Hot List is still the industry standard, but now it’s used more colloquially to refer to all celebrities, usually on the basis of name recognition and physical markers of success (awards, sales, etc.) so theres no official ranking system for singers, but it was easier to just use a similar scale. sorry to be a nerd about this but I find it interesting!

No, don’t apologize! That’s totally cool info. Thank you.

[skyfire85]

-A Bell X-2 at Edwards AFB. A Boeing B-47 is visible in the background. | Photo: NACA/USAF

FLIGHTLINE: 159 - BELL X-2 STARBURSTER

The X-2 was built to investigate the "thermal thicket" at speeds above Mach 2, but the two examples completed had a short service life.

Building on the work of the Bell X-1 and Douglas D-558 aircraft, the X-2 (nicknamed Starburster, though it was rarely used) was designed to explore speeds in excess of Mach 2. Engineer calculations, backed up by flights of the former aircraft, indicated the existence of a "thermal thicket"; that is: escalating aerodynamic heating as speeds increased. As a result, Bell devoted extensive time to development of advanced materials, aerodynamics, and control systems all with the goal of creating an aircraft capable of flying faster and higher than any human had done previously.

-Orthograph of the X-2. | Illustration: NASA-DFRC

The X-2 incorporated numerous advances over the X-1, including a swept wing and horizontal stabilizer. The airframe was built from K-Monel, an alloy of coper and nickel, as well as stainless steel. An XLR-25 two-chamber throttleable rocket motor provided 2,500 to 15,000 pounds of thrust, burning a mix of liquid oxygen and alcohol. The XLR-25, produced by Curtiss-Wright, was actually based on a WWII RATO bottle developed by Robert Goddard for the US Navy. The aircraft were designed with a skid rather than main landing wheels, though a nose gear was equipped, as well as skids on the wingtips.

-An XLR-25 motor on display at the Aviation Hall of Fame in New Jersey. | Photo: Bill Maloney

In a worst-case scenario, the cockpit section of the X-2 could be ejected. With stability provided by a parachute, the pilot could then eject the canopy and bail out. Like the Skyrocket and X-1 before it, the X-2 would be carried aloft by a bomber (in this case a Boeing B-50), then dropped to begin its flight.

-One of the X-2s, its ground support personnel, the B-50 and its crew, F-86, F-80 and F-100 chase planes, and H-19 rescue helicopter. | Photo: NACA

FLIGHT TEST PROGRAM

X-2 number 1 was chosen to have the first engine installed, so ship #2 was sent to Edwards AFB for initial unpowered tests. The first glide test of the X-2 was on 27 June 1952, and ended rather inauspiciously. During the landing on Muroc dry lake bed, the aircraft pitched unexpectedly, forcing the right wingtip to contact the ground, breaking off the bumper. The nose gear collapsed as well, and the aircraft slid along the lakebed on its fuselage for some distance before coming to rest. The second flight was delayed while repairs were completed, and took place on 8 October, followed by the third flight two days later.

-Bell test pilot Jean Ziegler sits in the cockpit of the damaged X-2 #2 after the 1st rough landing. | Photo: NACA

X-2 number 2 was returned to Bell's factory in New York state afterwards, and the XLR-25 engine was installed. A captive carry flight over Lake Ontario on 12 May 1953 resulted in the loss of aircraft #2, Ziegler, and Frank Wolko from the B-50 crew. During a test of the liquid oxygen system, an explosion rocked the combined aircraft, jettisoning the Starburster, Ziegler and Wolko. The remains of the X-2 fell into Lake Ontario, and neither it, nor the bodies of the two men were recovered. The B-50 mother ship was able to return to the Bell facility, but was judged to be uneconomical to repair, and was scrapped. Similar explosions destroyed one of the X-1s, the X-1A and X-1D, and were eventually traced to Ulmer leather gaskets in the fuel system. The gaskets, treated with tricresyl phosphate (TCP), would react with liquid oxygen, making them explosive if sufficiently jarred. The Ulmer leather gaskets were replaced, and the explosions stopped.

-A Bell X-2 is loaded aboard the Boeing B-50A-5-BO Superfortress “mothership,” 46-011. | Photo: USAF

Modifications to the first X-2 and the engine delayed flights until 1955, with the first powered flight occurring on 18 November, reaching a speed of Mach 0.95. The test series began in earnest at this point, with the Starburster showing both its promise but also its limitations. On his final flight in July 1956, Lt. Col. Pete Everest was propelled to Mach 2.87, earning him (temporarily at least) the title of "Fastest Man Alive". Everest reported that the controls were only marginally effective at those speeds however, as the center of pressure for the aircraft changed at high speed, coupled with aeroelasticity of the empennage rendered the flight surfaces ineffective.

-Photo of the first X-2, showing shock diamonds in both exhaust plumes. | Photo: NACA

Testing continued however, with Captain Iven Kincheloe crossing 100,000 for the first time on 7 September 1956 and Captain Milburn Apt setting a new (unofficial) speed record of Mach 3.2. This mark came a grave cost however, as Apt, likely the victim of a lagging or miscalibrated instrument, attempted a banked turn above Mach 3, far in excess of what the X-2 could achieve. The aircraft tumbled out of control, with Apt unable to counter the control coupling, inertial roll coupling and supersonic spinning faced by the aircraft. Apt triggered the ejection of the nose, but was incapacitated by the forces he encountered, and was unable to release the canopy and free himself to activate his own parachute, and was killed when the capsule struck the lakebed. The nose-less X-2 continued on, eventually returning to Earth with little damage. A proposal was made to salvage the plane and modify it for hypersonic research, but was not funded, and the first X-2 was scrapped.

-Color photo of an X-2 still coupled to the B-50D mothership prior to launch. | Photo: USAF

LEGACY

The two X-2s completed 20 flights between 1952 and 1956, and although they set records in both altitude and speed, their contribution to the knowledge of high speed aerodynamics and heating was debatable. The unmanned X-7 and research variants of the Bomarc missile were capable of the same speeds, and the destruction of both X-2s meant that much of NACA's planned test program was left unflown. Manned exploration of hypersonic speeds and ultra-high altitudes would have to wait for the North American X-15, still several years off.

The X-2 was made a part of the 1956 film "Toward the Unknown", as the movie depicts several real and fictional test programs taking place at the USAF Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB. The climax of the movie depicts and accident roughly similar to Mel Apt's, although the pilot survives the crash.

-Film crews surround the X-2 during filming for Toward the Unknown. | Photo: Bob Rohrer

The plane was later included in the pilot movie "Genesis" for the NBC series "Quantum Leap", in which the main character time travels into the body of a fictional pilot for the aircraft. A full-scale mockup of the X-2 was created for the show, and was later acquired by the Planes of Fame Museum in California. The prop is still in the museum's collection, though years of exposure have not been kind to the faux-X plane, which was not built to last in the first place.

-Photo of the X-2 mockup at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, CA, some time in 1994. | Photo: Jon Goto

[sohoharlem]

My point was more about Morrison being referred to as A list but anywho… Bloggers do not define Celeb listings (A/B/C etc) - box office numbers / net worth and proximity to studio execs do. It’s about bankability. Look up the Ulmer Scale. The “A-list” is actually part of a larger guide called “the hot list” which is the industry standard guide now in Hollywood for movie financing.

Someone close enough to the industry or it’s performers, that they would have the info in the blind, would know the above (especially regarding Morrison). E.g why I think it’s fake. Doesn’t mean we know the rest of their lives though

.

- SH

[businesswriter]

Why Businesses Fail?

Why do businesses fail?

Abstract:

This paper aims to investigate the common reasons of business failure. As economies and organizations are increasingly becoming complex, environment changing more rapidly, and acceptable response times diminishing, the old management structures are simply failing to cope with change and development. The complex, fast evolving, virtual business of this technology driven digital age demands new methods and management systems. This paper has addressed the structure of modern organizations in the context of a fundamental change in organizational structure, which is currently taking place in many businesses in view of their organizations and the deep-rooted requirements and results. Additionally, the paper has discussed the traditional organizational structures and the new evolving ones as well in order to ascertain their relationship with business failure. For this purpose, the paper has outlined in detail the major reasons of business failure among small, medium, and large businesses as well as start-ups. The paper has attached relative real life examples where the international as well as local and regional businesses or their subsidiaries have failed over the years. The prime focus of this paper has been on the European businesses and the impact of their organizational structures on their failure/success.

Key Words:

Business, organizational structures, failure, management, coordination

Introduction:

Business failure is a dynamic term because it is not confined to a set of situations and circumstances as believed and propagated by many analysts. It is a multilayered and multi-faceted phenomenon. Therefore, the question comes to the mind what is a business failure and what constitutes a business failure. There have been countless research studies and surveys probing into the question. Some believe that a business has failed when it files for bankruptcy protection, while for others; filing for bankruptcy is only one component of business failure (J. Watson, Journal of Small Business Management ). According to one school of thought, a business has failed when it reaches a point, where it fails to satisfy the stakeholders of its business including creditors, employees, customers, employers, and suppliers. From entrepreneurial point of view, business failure is dissolution of an entrepreneurial initiative that does not succeed in achieving its goals (W. Weitzel, 1989).

Usually businesses have a life cycle consisting of four stages of introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Businesses and start-ups often face a slow introductory and growth phase, followed by a small maturity phase and reach the last phase too early. The businesses having this kind of life cycle are termed as ‘failed’ by the others (M. J. Ulmer, 1947). Additionally, the businesses that are conceding losses, instead of profits, are termed as failed businesses. Sometimes the reasons can be personal ones such as death, illness or retirement of owner or selling a business to invest in another. In this perspective, business failure is an organization’s inability to exist (L. R. Gaskill, 1993).

Although there is no set criterion as to when a business actually fails, yet Berryman has enlisted certain criteria/parameters. Those parameters, if met, indicate that a business has failed. (1) Earning criterion, this says that a business fails if its return on capital is markedly lower than what is obtainable on the similar investments. (2) Solvency criterion says that a business fails, when its owner withdraws from it voluntarily without paying its obligations. (3) Bankruptcy criterion refers to a situation to describe a failed business that is legally bankrupt. (4) Loss cutting criterion says that a business fails if its owner shut down the organization that is conceding losses in order to avoid further losses (Berryman, ,1982).

Moreover, organizational structures are of utmost importance and play a crucial role for success or failure of a business organization. An organizational structure helps in designating the activities, responsibilities, roles and rules for smooth sailing of a business organization with result-oriented approach. The organizational structures are employed and created in systematic manner in order to divide, categorise, regulate, and co-ordinate activities (Clawson, 2008). The structure of an organization provides a framework in order to organize its resources; influences spatial and power relationships among different components of a business organization (Robert H. Waterman, 1980). Organizational structures have a vast array of benefits such as faster decision-making, improved operative efficiency, increased employee performance, reduced employee conflicts, reduced confusion, better communication, organized activities and reduced stress at workplace among many others (Organizational Structure: Definition and Types, 2021).

Many organizational structures are deployed by different organizations in order to boost their business and fulfil their needs and objectives. Major organizational structures are functional, divisional, flat, matrix, line, network and team-based organizational structures. It is imperative for an organization o pick the right organizational structure, because it plays crucial role for success or failure of that organization.

Organizations with functional structures have specialized groups with specific duties, goals, and rules such as IT, finance, HR etc. This type of structure is usually employed by small to medium enterprises. Every specialized group/department has a manager who is responsible for the activities of that department. An executive who heads many departments supervises the manager (Elina Gurianova, 2015).

Divisional organizational structure groups functions of an organization into divisions, based on products or regions. Each division has its own resources, marketing teams, managers, finance or IT departments. Such organizational structures are employed by large-scale international business organizations (Chapter 11: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES: CONCEPTS AND F0RMATS, 1993). The failure/ success of one division do not directly affect the overall performance of the parent company. Large companies such as Coca Cola, General Motors, McDonald’s and other big shots follow this structure.

A matrix organizational structure is a mixture of functional and divisional structures. It involves the employees reporting to multiple bosses based on their current projects (Williams). Such a structure is followed by small and medium sized organizations, which have small number of employees. However, this structure can be used by all business organizations of any size and volume (Greenbaum, 1983).

Flat organizational structures are decentralized structures where the employees are given more control and authority to carry out activities. It is a kind of decentralized structure, which is mostly used by start-ups. The employees have access to the top leadership and they communicate directly with their bosses (Kenton, 2021).

The team-based structures are less hierarchical and group employees under different teams. Those teams have complementary skills, work together for common goals and may include the members from different functional groups. The members of teams are expected to work certain hours on the common project and work in their respective functional departments as well (J. Hage, 1971).

Line organizational structure is the most simplest of all structures. The authority flows from top to bottom. The head of department has the control over decision-making process in his department. Line structures enable effective communication, which plays a role in stability of business organization. All of the organizational structures are being used in different parts of the business realm and all of them work in particular situations.

Literature review:

Why do businesses fail-some common reasons:

According to a report, around 82% of first-time European entrepreneurs fail (Mallipeddi, 2019). Start-ups, small and medium enterprises as well as the big shots in business industry all face multiple regulatory and taxation issues in Europe, which make it harder for European businesses to compete with their American and other competitors (Laury H. Bollen, 2005). Many factors are responsible for failure of businesses and we need to look closely at those factors in order to understand the reasons behind failure of businesses. Following are some of the most common reasons and issues that lead to failure of businesses.

Lack of relevant leadership skills:

Effective leadership skills of management and owners of businesses are among the key factors for the success of any business organization of ant scale (Probst, 2005). In the same vein, poor leadership is one of the common reasons among the businesses that fail. As leaders are at the forefront of any organization, they motivate and inspire the others in achievement of organizational goals. Leadership skills refer a collection of behaviours, attitudes, temperaments, abilities, tools and strategies that are employed by leaders, in order to succeed at motivating, directing and persuading members of an organization towards actively participating for the overall success of organization (Adair, 2007). Additionally, the organizational structures lacking in bringing effective leadership at the forefront of decision-making, eventually have to roll back their operations. Moreover, a lack of vision for future in the leadership may pave the way for business failure (Laurie L. Barnes, 2018).

One such example is that of Nokia, a Finnish pioneer of cellular mobile phones in the world. Nokia was a global leader in Mobile phone industry in 2000s. When the arrival of internet caused the other competitor companies to go for data driven and software based innovation in mobile phones, the leadership of Nokia kept focusing on the hardware only (Surowiecki, 2013). In the meanwhile, Steve Jobs launched IPhone, a Smartphone without the keyboard, revolutionizing the whole consumer experience. When Nokia leadership finally decided to compete with android in 2008, it was too late, because the tide had been turned in favour of its competitors. Consequently, Nokia lost customers to its leadership’s hesitation in making the right decisions when they mattered.

Lack of management control:

An effective management plays instrumental role for shaping the successful future for business organization of small, medium or large scale (S. Kale, 1998). A good management having the vision and foresight for future risks and potential profits can pave the way for progress of a business organization. Conversely, poor management strategies and control are said to be the common denominator for failure of businesses across the globe, according to Management Review. Plenty of research studies point out the incompetency of managers of small business organizations for failure (S. Haswell, 1989). The common management related shortcomings include the lack of managerial experience, lack of market-specific experience and unbalanced management experience. The organizations that fail to take up competent managers on their panel are sure to decline eventually. The managers with soft and hard skills and relevant competency in their fields lead to effective delivery of services and achievement of excellence for their organizations (A. V. Bruno, 1987).

One prominent example of business failure due to incompetent management is that of Coors, a successful American Beer manufacturer. When it launched its ‘turn it loose’ campaign in Spain, the management’s incompetency and complacent attitude in choosing the tagline led to its decline. The tagline adopted by Coors in Spanish language, literally meant ‘suffer from diarrhoea’, which did not sit well with the natives. Although Coors managed to have a strong base in Spanish market, yet in this case, the management’s lack of knowledge and research regarding culture and language led to the failure of the campaign at the start (MediaBeacon).  

Communication gap among the internal management:

Effective communication leads a business towards success. Communication is an art, a tool and a strategy that can do wonders for any business organization. It is sharing of ideas, messages, information, strategies, risks among the members of a business organization following particular protocols (Mallett-Hamer, 2005). The organizational structures that maintain a steady stream of communication among all its stakeholders have known to fare well in crunch market competitions. Moreover, internal communication is vital for any business, poor internal communication or inconsistency in communication can be lethal (Sabine Müller, 2014). In a workplace, where different members of a team work together, for completion of a shared goal, effective communication is always important (Hunsaker, 1993). Studies have shown that in the organizations with internal communication gap face a breakdown in the way information is being sent, particularly in top-down hierarchy. The common factors that lead to communication gap in an organization are inappropriate channels/timing of communication, unpleasant work environment, and wrong body language of top hierarchy among many others.

One famous example of communication gap is that of Yahoos’ 2014 data breach scandal. The leadership of Yahoo only admitted in 2016 that hacking attacks in 2014 breached the accounts of its 500 million users. The internal investigations found out that the reasons for large-scale data breach incident of 2014 included failures in communication, management, internal reporting and lack of comprehension in handling the incident (McAndrew, 2018).

Lack of adequate managerial experience:

Inadequate managerial experience of business managers and entrepreneurs is another reason that is common in almost all the businesses that face failure. According to a report lack of managerial experience is the reason that 80% of businesses fail within first five years of their establishment (Clark, 2000). Managerial experience refers to the set of capabilities, aptitude, knowledge, practice and experiences play pivotal role in the success of any business, new or already established (TS Bateman, 1996). Most of the times, the lack of managerial experience is a vice that is faced by small and medium enterprises, because large-scale multinational businesses can easily afford the services of experienced and polished managers (Zuzana Papulová, 2007). The management teachers at the academic institutions play a significant role in this regard. It has been recorded in a research that 71% of bankrupt enterprises reported that one significant internal factor for bankruptcy was lack of general and financial managerial experience (J. Baldwin, 1997).

For example, JCPenny has been a leading department store at one time. It has managed the largest catalog retail business. The stores offer clothes for church, school, work etc. However, the company’s revenue started to shrink when Ron Johnson took over the company and became its CEO. During his tenure as CEO, the company lost 985 million, 1900 employees and closed around 138 stores. This led to the temporary downfall of the company. However, with the new CEO Mike Ullman, the retail store has started to see growth again (Mourdoukoutas, 2017).

Inappropriate pricing strategy:

Unrealistic pricing strategies are a major cause of small to medium sized businesses across Europe. The price a company offers for its products or services must align with and cover all costs with some margin of profit as well. However, the pricing mechanism must not be static and must evolve (Keller, 2009). The two common mistakes regarding pricing are (1) prices are lower than customers’ perceived value of the product, or (2) prices higher than the customers’ perceived value of the product. Another mistake while pricing the products is that the companies fail to segment their customers into clients and professionals (Simon, 2015). Moreover, some companies keep their prices at the same level for too long and do not take into account the changing in costs, customers’ preferences, and market competitiveness, which lead to failure.

An example of inappropriate pricing strategy would be Google Glass’ wearable ‘smart glasses’ launched in 2013-14. Although, Google Glass had many issues such as cultural backlash, privacy issues, yet the sky-high prices was a significant reason for its collapse in 2013-14. Google attempted to associate the product with fashion designers as well. However, the product did not garner many customers (WEIDNER, 2020).

Lack of control on cash flow:

A huge amount of cash flows in and out of every business on daily basis. This cash flow needs to be managed and monitored effectively, because this cash flow is the source of profit, covers bills, and manages surprise expenses needed for growth and innovation. It suggests that cash flow is vital for the growth and health of a business (Florentina-Simona, 2010). Cash input and output flows are categorized under the following headings. Cash flows from operational activity are receivable or payable for unfolding of the main business. This evaluates the amount of cash produced or used by the company during sale or production of goods or services. The cash flow for operational activity is needed to be positive mostly. These are employed for paying dividends, credits, investing in new ventures or reinstating new production capacities (John, 1991). The cash flows for investment activity refer to the cash receivable or payable for buying or selling products, assets or services. These assets or services maintain the operational capacity or insure the future development of any enterprise. The cash flow statements from financial activity represent the cash that is receivable or payable by the company during the movements between the businesses, creditors or debtors. Therefore, this kind of cash flow statement represents net flow of a business organization or company, available for funding (John, 1991). Overall, the cash flow statements provide the details regarding where the money is spent, help in creating excess cash flow, reveal cash planning returns, present the optimum level of cash balance, helps in analysing the working capital (Thakur, 2021).

A positive cash flow refers to the situation where the amount of incoming cash is greater than the amount that go out of company in the form of costs and bills. Most companies aim for positive cash flows, particularly the start-ups and new businesses. A negative cash flow represents that the business is receiving less than what it is spending (Pearson, 1991). Such a business may struggle in covering the immediate bills and may need to borrow money to pay its debts. Poor cash flow will slow down normal operations, future investments and overall future growth of a business. The companies and lenders take long-term negative cash flow as the indicator for credit worthiness, value generation and stability (DelVecchio, 2020). Therefore, the businesses with negative or poor cash flow could find themselves on the brink of disasters, as the lenders or creditors would not be available for lending funds for operational activities.        

Tink Labs, a billionaire start up closed down in 2019. The company tried to pursue growth aggressively. However, the profits of the company could not materialize its vision. Additionally outstanding bills also contributed to Tink Lab’s downfall (Inside the unravelling of Tink Labs, 2019).

Theft of assets in cyber security attacks:

In this age of digitalization, every company or business organization is at the risk of cyber attacks in the form of ransomware, viruses, phishing attacks, Trojan attacks and other related cyber attacks. Today more than 61% of full industry exchanges occur on the internet, so the area prerequisite high quality of security for best exchanges (Rohit Kalakuntla, 2020). Cyber Security refers to the umbrella term for proactive and reactive measures, which focus on confidentiality, integrity and availability of information, contrary to potential vulnerabilities (Mihaela, 2019).The most common categories of cyber security are following. Application security, which refers to keeping the devices and software secure from the cyber attacks. Today the applications are designed while keeping in mind the risks of cyber attacks, because a compromised application may render the important data insecure. Information security focuses on integrity and privacy of data present in storage. Network security centres on the safety of computer networks, while preventing the intruders from carrying out targeted or opportunistic cyber attacks (The Economic Times, 2021).

Cyber security is essential for businesses as it surrounds everything that is concerned with protecting our sensitive data, personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), personal information, intellectual property, data, industry and governmental information systems from theft and damage perpetrated by cyberspace criminals and hackers. Cybercrime is a term for any illegal action that uses computer as its main source of commission and theft. The ever-increasing list of cybercrimes includes network intrusion, dissemination of computer viruses as well as computer-based variations of existing crimes such as identity theft, stalking bullying, and terrorism. Some of the major cyber attacks of 2020 in the crucial time of Corona virus pandemic ranged from attacks on international health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Magellan Health; to telecommunication applications such as Twitter and Zoom; to hospitality behemoths such as Marriot internationals and MGM Resorts. The security researchers at the firm, Check Point said that ransomware attacks increased by 80% in the UK and 98% in the US, in 2020. It is incumbent on the businesses that function electronically, to have proper security protocols in place for disaster management and recovery in case of a cyber attack. The security measures include strong passwords, effective authentication, firewall, antivirus software, data encryption and backup protocols (Rajasekharaiah, 2020). Most of the businesses targeted for cyber attacks end up following the downhill journey. Additionally, cyber crimes are going to cost businesses $5.2 trillion worldwide across the globe, within five years (Ninth Annual Cost of Cybercrime Study, 2019).

Apple’s iCloud data breach happened in 2014, costing it $500 million. The hackers accessed the company’s online data storage system and posted private photos of celebrities. Apple authorities admitted that the celebrities’ iCloud accounts were broken into, yet they denied any breach into their data security system (Solomon, 2014).

Lack of market research:

Inadequate market research before starting a new business or even expanding an already established line of products can lead to business failure. Whenever a new business organization move towards innovation or starts a new line of products, it is imperative to have a thorough background research regarding market trends, demands of consumers, nature of competitors. The business management and leaders must know what their customers are going to like and how they are going to handle the influx of customers, once a new products hits the market (Hague, 2006 ). A lack of market research often results in mismanagement, indecision or failure of a new venture categorically. The relevant market research helps in making the rights decisions through systemic collection of relevant data. A good market research does not remain limited to collection of data; instead, that data needs to be analysed and interpreted to make successful business decisions in future (Hague, 2006 ). A lack of market intelligence is a sure recipe for business disaster.

An example concerning the lack of market research would be KFC coupon riots. KFC collaborated with Oprah Winfrey to promote a new line of chicken product in 2009. Winfrey announced on her website that she would be giving free coupons to customers; the staff at KFC did not have proper market intelligence on how overwhelming the Oprah effect would be. It resulted in customers being angry when the free coupons did not grant them free chicken. Finally, KFC had to reimburse the customers with rain checks. The incident left a bad taste and a dent on KFC’s reputation (Kludt, 2009).

Bad debt:

Business debt is major contributor and a common denominator (mostly) for businesses that fail, irrespective of their magnitude. Borrowing for expanding or even establishing new businesses is inevitable, which helps in boosting a business organization (Lachowski, 1995). However, due to some external factors such as recession, pandemic or internal factors such as uncontrolled growth, unmanaged costs and decrease in revenue, business debts can take an ugly turn. For ordinary business organizations, bad debt represents the losses that arise from transactions that are made on credit (Lucia Michalkovaa, 2018). The businesses that fail to deal with high debts need to adopt certain organizational changes in order to rectify credit management procedures. There are certain strategies that can be employed in order to get rid of bad business debt such as cutting on costs, increasing revenue (The Financial Situation and Bad Debts of Enterprises in Poland, 1995), and negotiating better terms with creditors, consolidating your debt, setting realistic credit limits, among many others.

Tower Records, the immensely popular music store is the classic example where the bad debts led to bankruptcy of the brand. It took a debt of 110 million USD to expand it into a chain of music business, led to its decline (Sisario, 2018). The business did not anticipate the competition offered by rising online music sources such as Napster or iTunes, and low prices of CDs offered by other companies. Finally, the huge debt led to company’s bankruptcy in 2006, after around 40 years of business.

Hesitation in going for organizational change:

Organizational change is relatively an uphill task for many organizations that have established themselves and made a reputation. Change is inevitable in uncertain, dynamic and variable business circumstances that every business has to go through (Todnem, 2005). In this age of global revolution, technological innovations, shifting democracies, and mounting competition, organization are required to be vigilant in the face of unpredictable work environment (Burnes, 2011). Most of the times, organizations fail to respond to the changing expectations in the business climate and lag behind the other attentive and hawk-eyed competitors. This results in losing customers, decline in sales and altogether failure (in some cases) of organizations (Daft, 2018). Change does not occur in isolation, it is a team effort. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to install change in systematic manner. It will speed up the process of change, in order to compete with the competitors and to maintain its repute. Certain strategies can speed up the process of organizational change including establishing a sense of urgency, developing a shared vision, empowering people to act upon the vision, forming a guiding coalition, consolidating change and institutionalizing the change (Kotter, 2008).

MySpace used to be a leading social networking site until Facebook came along. The CEO of MySpace Chris DeWolfe met Facebook’s CEO Mark Zukerberg in 2005 for business collaboration. In the meeting, Zukerberg offered to sell Facebook for 75 million USD to MySpace. However, the CEO of MySpace hesitated and rejected the offer. Meanwhile, Facebook grew fast and became one of the leading social networking sites in the next decade. MySpace could not compete with Facebook and started a downhill journey. Finally, in 2011 it fired around 500 employees due to continuous decline in users (Dredge, 2015).

Corruption and malpractices of management:

Corruption encompasses all kinds of fraud, misconduct, price/value manipulation, and other forms of malpractices (Carol Alexander, 2020). Corrupt business organizations and their owners manipulate by starting insider trading, false disclosures, frontrunning, option backdating, bribery and improper execution in order to extract money from ordinary investors and to build false reputation. Such practices ultimately result in failure and collapse of organizations that indulge in these activities. Often times, the corrupt owners and entrepreneurs are sentenced to several years in prison along with gravely damaging the organization’s honour (Paunov, 2016). Corrupt practices often stem from greed and lead to hampering growth, innovation, organization’s sustainability and continuance (D. Athanasouli, 2015).

For example, WorldCom was a telecommunication giant at one time, when it used to handle 50% of US internet traffic and all of the world internet traffic. However, the company started conceding losses in 1999 as the prices started to fall. At that time, the company’s CEO Bernie Ebbers started cooking the books, in order to boost earnings and make the company look valuable. WorldCom started categorising the operating expenses as the long-term capital investments, and started turning its losses into 1.38billion USD. Its competitors grew suspicious, because all of them including AT&T were losing money (Stefano, 2005). Finally, an internal audit returned that WorldCom was inflating its profits. Ebbers was found guilty of fraud and manipulating securities laws. Consequently, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail. The company announced bankruptcy in 2002.

Unrealistic goals:

Setting workable goals for any business is the first step towards growth and success. Goal setting plays a motivational role and inspires the whole organization towards working hard to materialize the set of goals (Goerg, 2015). However, such ambitious and enthusiastic entrepreneurs may end up setting goals that are not practicable. Therefore, it is important to set the goals that are realistic, and within the bounds of unpredictable business culture (McGrath, 1999). This leads to collapse of newly established businesses mostly. Because the young minds are full of all kinds of ideal notions, yet they lack in experience and vision to recognize the probability of meeting those goals.

On the contrary, if goal-setting process is thoroughly thought out and researched, then it can do wonders for the business. For example, large technology firms including Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Intel have started to install goal-setting approaches for providing real tie feedback to their workers (Goerg, 2015). In this way, the inspired workers may lead the firm to completion of goal and ultimately contribute in the success of the organization.

For example, Best Buy purchased 50% stakes in UK mobile phone company Carphone Warehouse in 2010. It set the goal to launch 200 stores in UK. However, upon entering the market, the electronic retailer revised its goal and decided to open only 100 stores in UK, but even the company could even manage this. Finally, in 2011 the company announced that it was going to shut down the 11 stores that the company managed to open. The reason was unrealistic goals in the time of worst economic condition in UK. This fiasco cost the company a whopping 318Million USD (Groth, 2011).

Lack of preliminary cultural knowledge and red tape protocols:

Globalization is on the rise and many international brands keep extending their businesses to different international markets. This requires the international firms and businesses to have knowledge about different cultures in which, they intend to operate their businesses. In this regard cross-cultural communications play strategic role (M. A. Aneas, 2009) for companies that are bound to employ culturally diverse work force. It is important for successful business venture to understand the culture and particularly business culture/behaviour of the country, where you want to establish subsidiary business platform (R. M. Frankel, 2012). For instance, many multinational companies commit the grave mistake of bringing unmodified set of employee management strategies from one culture to the other, without taking into consideration the working behaviour and laws of the host country. This leads to employee turnover and de motivates the remaining employees. Consequently, the operations of the company are hindered and it affects the overall functioning of the company (Dr. Mohan Dass, 2019). Additionally, excess bureaucracy and regulations (red tape) also obstruct dynamic adaptation and entrepreneurial activities of multinational firms in Europe. There has been evidence that administrative red tape in UK hinders many businesses, while their counterparts in USA thrive due to less administrative regulations (Wesley Kaufmann, 2018).

For example, Wal-Mart opened a chain of 84 stores in Germany in 1997. The owners wanted to tap into Germany’s frugal lucrative discount department market. However, it failed to take into account the cultural and government’s layered regulations. Germany’s intricate labour laws, restricted working hours, rows of regulatory red tape made it harder for Walmart to crack the market. For instance, Wal-Mart did not adhere to fair trade practices under German law. The German law prohibited it to sell the goods below cost price, yet Wal-Mart was found guilty of selling goods below cost. Finally, Wal-Mart pulled out of Germany in 2006, at the cost of 1billion USD (Barbaro, 2006).

Poor marketing strategies:

The rise of globalization has transformed the realm of business marketing altogether with the introduction of digital marketing platforms such as social networking sites and other online applications. Most of start-ups and small businesses do not take into account the potential impact and importance of digital platforms for marketing purposes. Marketing realm is constantly changing and according to 67% marketers, marketing is evolving at light speed (Sands, 2014). Multichannel Marketing is on the rise currently, where businesses and start-ups try to engage their customers via multiple channels such as social media sites, electronic and print media etc. However, enthusiastic new start-ups and in some cases small to medium enterprises have lagged behind in their PR strategies, which take a toll on their business growth. According to CBInsights, poor marketing has led to failure of 14% start-ups out of 101 in UK (CBInsights , 2019). Moreover, sometimes well-intentioned marketing campaigns turn out to be biggest blunders, when businesses fail to go through the mandatory three strategic business marketing phases namely planning phase, swot analysis and marketing mix strategy (McDonald, 2006). Poor swot analysis often lead to poor decisions regarding the launch of products and targeted customers.

The American fashion brand, Abercrombie & Fitch, was one of the trendiest and leading names in fashion industry in early 2000s, for casual wear and accessories. Their target clients were the teens, who were impressed by the pop culture of 2000s. However, in 2006 the CEO of A&B came out with a poor marketing statement, which was offensive and scandalous. The CEO said that their target clients were good-looking people and they would prefer to burn their clothes instead of catering to the clients that do not meet the criterion of beauty. This statement was considered poor in taste and led to public criticism. After this fiasco, the store is completely out of touch with its target clients. Now the company is trying hard to rebrand, yet it remains one of the most hated brands in US (Taylor, 2017).

Poor entrepreneurial skills:

Entrepreneurship has positively changed world economies (Quadrini, 2000). Research studies have talked about different factors that influence the success or failure of a business and entrepreneurship is one of them. Effective entrepreneurship skills contribute to growth success of their business (Dafna, 2008). Entrepreneurship skills represent entrepreneurial competence. It refers to a collection of abilities that lead towards sustainable business diversity of organization’s resources and opportunities (Widji Astuti, 2019). Some researchers have described the entrepreneurship as a wide term, with different dimensions. According to Kotzhanova, there are four dimensions of entrepreneurship. They are technical skills, managerial skills, entrepreneurship skills and personal maturity skills (T. Kutzhanova, 2009). Other researchers have included leadership skills and innovation skills in this list as well.

Moreover, there is also a subjective dimension to entrepreneurship skills and their link to business success/failure. The intentions of entrepreneurs play a significant role for growth of a business, which include factors such as financial implications, contributions to community, work family balance, stress and loss of control among many others. The external factors that affect the performance and growth of entrepreneurship initiatives include management capability, funding, shortage of orders, poor product services, marketing capacity among others (Cooney, 2012).

Poor entrepreneurial skills were one of the many reasons that the famous British Home Stores (BHS) went out of business after 88 years of service. In the earlier decades, it enjoyed huge success in UK including a place on FTSC100 index. However, the incompetent entrepreneurs with the lack of creativity could not keep up with the growth standards. The poor shopping environments, personal greed of leadership and recklessness of its owner Sir Phillip Green were the major reasons of its downfall (Quinn, 2016).  Moreover, the debts of £1.3 billion including liabilities of £571 million proved to be the last nail in the costly coffin of BHS. Finally, Sir Philip Green sold the company for £1 to the investors (Curwen, 2016).

Failure to re-align/adapt goals:

Change is the only constant factor in the life cycle of a business enterprise. Usually businesses start with a business model and stick to that model in order to attain certain goals and objectives. However, sometimes the rigidity to stick to unmodified business models and structures may lead to decline an enterprise. In business world, change is inevitable and a prerequisite for growth and success (Cornett, 2011). Additionally, management’s unwillingness to change and adapt the goals is another reason behind slow organizational change. A firm’s routine business strategy turns into its behaviour and it becomes an impediment towards bringing change. The inadequate innovative ability of a business organization can also be a cause of slow or low business adaptation. Such a situation makes it difficult to take risky and critical decisions at the right moments, hence leading to the loss of potential business opportunities (George Wright, 2004).

In this age of digital revolution, the businesses and organizations are required to go digital in their operations. However, statistics have shown that most organizations resist digital transformation and lose potential customers thereof. According to a report, 56% CEOs have admitted that digital transformation has led to increased revenue (Morgan, 2019). Slow change or realignment of goals often lead to losing competition among the competitors that are more inclined to change their policies according to circumstance (Hughes, 2018).

The best example in this regard can be provided by dissecting IBM’s history. The multinational technology company, IBM, was launched in 1960s. It had a breakthrough when it designed a family of computers to cover a complete range of applications. However, in early 1990s the tech giant failed to adjust to the personal computer revolution, heralding the downfall of IBM. Nonetheless, IBM quickly adjusted its policies and priorities, started to work on its shortcomings. Further, its management changed and the new management succeeded in turning around the company’s fortune consequently (Markoff, 1991).

Poor customer support services:

Customer support services have taken the front seat in this technology driven business environment. Instant feedback mechanisms and tools lead to instant reviews of customer services by bloggers, reviewers, analysts and public. Therefore, streamlining customer support services should be priority for businesses and start-ups that are venturing to grow and establish themselves. However, bad customer services may turn the tables for even a throbbing business organization and latest statistics endorse this trend.

Bad customer services cost $62 billion to businesses across the globe annually (Hyken, 2016). Bad customer service is defined as an inability of a business organization in order to meet the expectations of its customers in terms of quality, response time or overall customer experience. Poor customer services can be in any form such as putting customers on hold for too long, using negative language by staff, lack of empathy of agents, asking customers to repeat, rude attitude of agents among others (Bhat). According to Salesforce Research, around 89% of customers are expected to make another purchase after a good customer service experience (Mulcahy, 2020).

Bad customer services may result due to a number of factors including putting wrong people at desks, employee burnout, lack of training of staff members, inclusion of dysfunctional advanced applications, ignoring the value of customers’ time, increased pressure from customers, software errors, etc. Bad customer services often result in loss of customers, loss of profit, loss of employee, increase in debts, negative reputation and overall decline of a business. According to Global Customer Service survey report of Microsoft, 62% customers switched brands due to poor customer services in 2018 (Dynamics, 2018).

A case customer services blunder unlocked during a twitter exchange between an Austrian user and T-Mobile Austria’s official account. The twitter user asked whether the T-Mobile stored the user passwords in clear texts, the official account of the mobile company replied casually in affirmative. It led to a heated discussion on twitter from privacy and ethical perspective. However, the backlash forced the mobile company to announce that they were no longer saving the password details of their users (Kan, 2018).

Discussion:

An organization is a structured social unit, where people work collectively for common goals (R. M. Burton, 2004). The management structures of organizations determine the relationships among various activities and members; subdivides roles, assign roles, responsibilities and authority to perform different tasks. The organizational structures and related activities are required to be coordinated in order to excel in business endeavours (Kuprenas, 2003). Coordination refers to bringing different areas and units together through communication, leadership, IT, marketing, culture, routines, incentives, training and procedures (A. H. Van de Ven, 1976). The major reasons that have been discussed above are the most common among the businesses that have failed over the years, they include

(a) Lack of relative leadership

(b) Lack of management control

(c) Communication gap among the internal management

(d) Lack of adequate managerial experience

(e) Inappropriate pricy strategies

(f) Lack of control on cash flow

(g) Theft of assts in cyber security attacks

(h) Lack of market research

(i) Bad debt

(j) Hesitation in going for organizational change

(k) Corruption and malpractices of management, unrealistic goals

(l) Lack of preliminary cultural knowledge, red tape protocols

(m) Poor marketing strategies

(n) Poor entrepreneurial skills

(o) Failure to re-align goals

(p) Poor customer support services

The business organizations that are discussed above had different organizational structures in place including functional, Divisional, matrix, and flat. For example, Nokia had functional and product based organizational structures in place earlier. It had different functional groups like finance function, human resource function and engineering function. However, the market competition by other mobile companies led Nokia to come up with the new organizational structure that was combination of both functional and divisional structure to put more focus on power, resources and products. Nokia came up with the divisions such as market division, functional groups, and smart devices divisions etc. In the new matrix structure, there was more flexibility for competitiveness. However, during the course of time many issues arose and, Nokia’s market value declined by 90% a few years after Apple’s arrival (Lee, 2013). The core reason behind Nokia’s fiasco revealed by case studies afterwards was its leadership. The temperamental leaders and frightened middle managers of Nokia did not push for the much-needed changes and did not tell the truth for fear of being terminated. It has also been revealed that the top leadership knew that its operating systems could not compete with Apple’s IOS, yet they did not acknowledge it for fear of losing investors, suppliers and customers. The inexperience of middle managers in tackling the issue was also a contributing factor in this fiasco. Instead, the middle managers/leadership lied to the top leadership, which lacked technical competence in order to see through the cover ups of their leaders and managers (Minds, 2018). This led to the management’s failure to re-align goals according to changing market competition. For instance, it was only in 2008 that Nokia’s management thought about entering the software realm. Likewise, there is the example of JCPenny that managed one of the largest retail businesses. However, the new manager Ron Johnson’s tenure as CEO of JCPenny led the company towards decline. Mostly, the reason was the inadequate managerial expertise of CEO; as after his successor Mike Ullman took control, the retail business restarted its uphill journey (Mourdoukoutas, 2017).

In another example, the CEO of WorldCom’s greed and malpractices led to the bankruptcy of the telecommunication giant. As the hierarchical organizational structure of WorldCom offered more authority to the CEO and some board of directors. The board of directors only acted as rubber stamp management and endorsed all the fraudulent activities of CEO in order to create false reputations that helped the organization in obtaining investors (Verma, 2004). However, the European regulators doubted the inflated statistics offered by the management of WorldCom and finally they found out about the discrepancies in their accounts.

Moreover, poor customer services, unrealistic goals and poor market research are somewhat interconnected issues of businesses that play a major role in promotion of business, obtaining new clients, creating sound reputation and overall success/failure of marketing campaigns. KFC, a popular global fast food chain has divisional organizational structure. Such a structure divides organizations into numerous units based on operational requirements. Each division has the responsibility to handle specific operations, campaigns and other stuff. However, such a big shot can also not escape marketing failures, due to poor market research.

For instance, the Oprah Winfrey fiasco where the customers were rendered unsatisfied due to huge influx of customers on free chicken. The marketing team did not anticipate the huge number of customers, did not take into account the social media hype that the campaign obtained (Kludt, 2009). Consequently, the campaign ended up staining the name of popular food chain giant. Further, the issue of unrealistic goals is the major cause of failure of most of start-ups. The over-ambitious newcomers in the field of business often set unrealistic goals for their firms and end up failing in the early duration of businesses (Berryman, ,1982). Such start-ups follow flat structures with little authoritative control over expenses and resources. The example of ‘Best Buy; is fitting in this regard. Although, it was an established firm, yet it failed to gauge the true potential of its operations.

Additionally, IBM also has divisional organizational structure; the divisions are geographic, regional, and product-based. The decision-making is carried out by evaluating and investigating the overall performance of many divisions spread on many geographical/ regional arenas. The structure was the leading technology company with diverse operations and products. However, in late 1990s, the company’s indecision and lack of co-ordinated efforts in going for personal computers jolted the company for a time being. A quick revisit of its policies and realignment of objectives brought the company right on track (Markoff, 1991). The company did not change the organizational structure altogether, instead made the necessary changes to make it more profitable and competitive. Here, we can say that the organizational structures may be one of the contributing factors towards the success/failure of a business. However, the mandatory changes and adaptations can change the situation altogether in terms of reputation and revenue.

Further, the T mobile company is a telecommunication giant; has branches in many European countries including Austria, follows hierarchical structure. As discussed earlier, a hierarchical structure concentrates power in a few stakeholders and given that it is a multinational company, there are many employees. One of the disadvantages of hierarchical structure is that it creates a huge distance between the leaders and employees. The communication gap often leads to issues within the employees, leaders, or investors. Moreover, the training of employees also proves to be somewhat lacking when it comes to dealing with customers and their satisfaction. One such example, where the employees ended up being too blunt with customers happened when Austrian branch of T mobile company’s official twitter account responded that they store the first four letters of their users (Kan, 2018). It led to public backlash and ended with an apology and announcement from the company that it no longer pursued the policy of storing user passwords.

In case of British Home Stores (BHS), the investigators had delved into the real issues that led to its decline and came up with the reasons such as poor administrative control, personal greed of Sir Philip Green, poor risk management and poor corporate governance (J. Stimpson, 2013). Moreover, the consumer market had revolutionized with the digitalization. However, the BHS did not have an online presence. It totally ignored the potential of online shoppers and only relied on shoppers who wanted to shop in-stores (Ruddick, 2016). The business model of BHS did not consider all these facts and certainly did not go for the important changes. The hierarchical structure was being followed by BHS and it created communication issues, governance issues, administrative control issues as well as bad debt. Although, we cannot say that the hierarchical structure was the reason of the retail store, yet it was one of the core-contributing factors. The foundation of policies and activities of a company are dictated under the organizational structure that is being followed by the said company.

Furthermore, the administrative red tape in Europe is the bane for many start-ups and other businesses. Many start-ups and small to medium enterprises in Europe are the victims of over regulations and administrative red tape. They require the reduction of red tape protocols in order to boost competition and remove extra burden from the nascent and established businesses. The former Prime Minister of Finland was also seen to be endorsing the same at a roundtable in Brussels (Europe, 2018). The member of European Young Leaders forum also confessed that red tape slows down businesses and it proves to be the reason behind the failure of countless start-ups (European Young Leaders). In this case we can quote the example of Wal-Mart’s failed initiative in Germany, where the strict regulations of the country’s labour and work ethics was one of the many reasons behind the failure of Wal-Mart. Here, we can see that it is not always the organizational structure, which is responsible for complete failure of an organization. Sometimes, the external matters force the companies and businesses to bend that want to do business in multiple geographical locations (Boyd, 2021).

Next, cyber security measures and recovery systems of business organizations also play a vital role in success of failure in this technology driven age. Many large size businesses are investing in cyber security heavily due to dangerous increase in the number of attempted and successful cyber attacks on them (Rohit Kalakuntla, 2020). The businesses are expected to grow smoothly, where the organizational structure puts more emphasis on the importance installing cyber security measures and software (Mihaela, 2019). According to a global research and advisory firm, Gartner, the worldwide spending on Cybersecurity is estimated to reach $133.7billion by 2022. It means that firms and businesses are taking the issue of cyber security seriously across the globe.

In this case, the apple’s iCloud scandal has been discussed earlier. The cyber security vulnerabilities not only mar the reputation of affected businesses but also hinder the progress and anticipated outcomes of business initiatives. Almost all the giant business chains and stores had been affected by the cyber security challenge in the form of ransom ware attacks, phishing attacks, virus attacks, cloud attacks and IoT attacks among others. Companies like Google, Apple, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter), hotel chains (Marriot Hotels) had been among the most famous ones to be attacked by hackers (Irwin, 2021). Different companies according to their requirements in order to address the issue of cyber security are deploying all of the major organizational structures. The large and multinational firms and businesses can afford dedicated security systems and blockchain systems, while the small to medium and most start-ups are working towards creating secure business environment within their limited resources (McAndrew, 2018). Although, in this age, a business can never be completely secure form potential cyber attacks and threats.

Conclusion:

In the paper the major organizational structures and their potential relationships with the failure of businesses have been discussed. After the discussion, we can safely say that no single organizational structure is perfect for all the organizations. Different organizations, with different sizes, volumes, anticipated goals, requirements, and different rules make use of different organizational structures in their entirety or partially (John J. Fay, 2018). We can say that the organizational structures do play an important role in the smooth sailing of a business, assign duties, responsibilities, and create divisions/departments and so on. Yet, the external and internal issues of organizations also play major role in the success or failure of an initiative. It is also important to note however, an organizational structure should not be rigid. It should have flexibility to be moulded and adapted according to budgetary considerations, evolving goals and changing circumstances of a business enterprise (Charles A. Sennewald, 2016).

We can also conclude that the organizational structures with lesser layers of management sometimes work best for businesses such as horizontal and vertical structures. However, in other instances matrix, flat or lines structures may also be the contributing factors for growth of a business entity. The reasons that have been discussed in the paper are the most common ones for failure of an initiative, campaign, start-up or an established. In order to turn the tables, the business organizations have to be more vigilant and proactive. Best managerial practices are at the heart of successful businesses (A. V. Bruno, 1987).

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[daggerzine]

The Simon Provencher interview (by Tom Murphy)

Simon Provencher is perhaps best known for his frenetic and creative guitar work for the post-punk band VICTIME out of Québec. But on March 26, 2021 the musician released his debut EP Mesures via Michel Records. It is six tracks of free jazz collages that bear favorable comparison to the avant-garde compositions of Anthony Braxton as Provencher makes creative and playful use of clarinet, electric guitar, percussion and processing to convey a strong sense of mood and place while making one very aware of aspects of the environment around us we often tune out. In pairing aspects of exploratory jazz and musique concrète, Provencher has given us an album that is both soothing and keeps us grounded in the present. The composer and musician recently answered some questions we presented to him via email about the nature of his music, its inspirations and methods of crafting its elegantly evocative passages.

 Dagger Zine (Tom Murphy): Mesures will probably hit some people's ears as akin to a free jazz or spontaneous composition type of record. How did you approach putting together these songs and experimenting with sound compared with maybe how you do with VICTIME?

Simon Provencher: People wouldn’t be wrong in these assumptions at all. Mesures is a record that was written very quickly. I decided to trust my first instincts for much of the record. With VICTIME, our approach has always been more iterative. By that I mean that we’ll loop “embryonic” parts over and over again, slowly changing elements, morphing the composition until we found ourselves happy with how everything sounded together. I’m still very much into this way of writing, but Mesures was a much more immediate affair.

For me, inspiration almost always comes from timbre, usually through loads of guitar pedals. In this case though, I wanted to see what sounds and textures I could get out of the electric guitar without using any external effects or even amplification. Timbre was still my main concern, but in a more subtle way I guess. I slightly detuned the strings and experimented with resonances, chord shapes, finger placement, fingernails, etc. I also “prepared” the guitar: I jammed objects between the strings and tied sewing thread to the strings (if you pinch the thread with slightly wet fingers and slide them around, you get eerie, reverse-like effects).

Enough about me though, another big change was that this record was made remotely with two new collaborators, Elyze Venne-Deshaies (clarinet) and Olivier Fairfield (percussion). Both of them had “carte blanche” (pardon my french) to do whatever they wanted. I can’t speak much to their personal approach to improvisation, but both of them are seasoned veterans and delivered absolutely amazing performances.

 D: Some people might think of any kind of music declared experimental is a barrier to its acceptance but your album seems to me very accessible as a form of pure expression. Do you have a sense of why your songs seem so open and, as one reviewer put it, welcoming?

 S: I don’t quite know actually. I do agree that the songs have a certain softness to them that was certainly somewhat intentional. When I did the initial guitar parts, I did set out to make something conventionally “beautiful”, or at least “not harsh”. I don’t really have the vocabulary to describe what happened there, but the resonances, repetitions and patterns definitely implied a soft mood from the get go.

I guess this foundation inspired Elyze and Olivier to also play with softer tones, to approach the music with warmth and subtlety in mind. They really “got” the vibe of the music without me ever telling them anything about my intentions. A “shift” of some kind happened when the clarinet parts were added to the drums and guitars. I felt like the mood of the pieces almost completely changed (in a positive way, of course). I think there’s something to the linearity of Elyze and Olivier’s playing, in contrast with the repetitive, hypnotic guitars that gives the music a sense of wandering aimlessness which I really love.

On the audio engineering side, I did intentionally mix the songs with a certain softness in mind. We added some warm tape saturation to some of the sounds and carved out a lot of higher frequencies. On the songs with feedback and noise, Simon Labelle, who mastered the record, made it so that when the clarinets get louder, the high-frequency content ducks out of the way a little bit. This nifty little trick does help out a lot with making the noisy songs more warm and inviting too.

 D: Listening through the album I found it resonated with the albums of Anthony Braxton and Ornette Coleman. The former of which never considered his music part of jazz though he is often associated with that form of music and the latter who expanded the range, dynamics and tonal choices of jazz. Were you inspired by in any way by those forms of abstract yet emotionally expressive music? How might you describe its impact on what you've done?

S: I totally was! I discovered Anthony Braxton through Québec jazz guitar great René Lussier. I’ve been a fan of Le Trésor de la Langue for a while and I got into his back catalog last year: his collaborations with Fred Frith, EAI stuff and more, some of which was released on “Les Disques Victo”. “Victo” stands for Victoriaville, a small city between Quebec and Montreal, where there’s a great contemporary music festival named FIMAV. Shamefully, I haven’t actually been to FIMAV yet, but I’ve loved finding recordings of some amazing concerts, a favourite being Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey’s 1987 Moment Précieux. I was amazed to find out about this rich local history of musical experimentation and improvisation. This record was very much inspired by the whole FIMAV sound.

Coleman is another great point of reference. His records and those of his collaborators, Don Cherry being another big one, all are major inspirations. As a guitar player, I especially got into James “Blood” Ulmer’s career. I really admire his approach to guitar and the immediacy and expressiveness of his music.

 I’m probably paraphrasing it all wrong, but Don Cherry said of Ornette Coleman’s “harmolodic” approach that instead of improvising from chords, like in bebop, you’d start with melodies and improvise to create new forms, harmonies, rhythms to try and reach a certain “brilliance” as he calls it. You’d try to make the music transcend. In harmolodic theory, melody, rhythm and harmony are treated as equals, no solos, no lead and accompaniment dichotomy, no strict timing, scale or tonality.

This is both quite simple but also quite hard to actually grasp in a musical setting, and I’m far from mastering any of it, nor is it necessarily something I strive for, but it is an inspiring way to conceive improvised music for sure.

 D: The first half of the album you make great use of what sounds like atonal melodies yet they perfectly convey the mood and lend a sense of texture. What informed employing those sounds in the songwriting?

S: I’ve always written music without much regard for tonality, key, etc. My musical background is still very much anchored in No Wave and noise music, where skronky chords and weird, unstable melodies are the norm rather than the exception. When playing, I really don’t think much about it, I follow what sounds good to me in the moment.

Looking back on the recorded music though, I feel like there is a lot of nuance to be found in atonality and imperfection. Detuned chords ringing out have such complex and interesting decaying resonances, you can almost hear the frequencies battling each other. These interactions between notes and lines that fall just short of resolving are part of the magic and intrigue of abstract music. In the case of Mesures, I think there’s something special with how some of the atonal, out of tune textures and weird synths clash beautifully with the in-tune clarinet parts, making either one “pop out” depending on where you focus your attention.

 D: The second half or at least the second three songs on the album use processed drones and what some might call noise underneath or in the background, although very much a presence in the mix, of the clarinets? What do you feel this almost contrast in sounds conveyed that say a more conventional arrangement might not?

The second half of the record is basically a rearrangement of the first three songs. There’s four clarinet parts in there! On the first side, they fade in and out of focus, but on side B, everything is there all at once.

This is basically the result of me simply “soloing” the clarinet takes in my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, the software used to arrange and mix the music). When I heard the four clarinets at once, I really fell in love with the sound.

 So I knew I wanted this to be the focal point of the rearrangement, and I knew I wanted to add something. I just happened to be working with feedback that week, so it kind of fell in place. Feedback manipulation was a technical interest first, I had gotten a new guitar pedal called a Feedback Looper, which sends some of your output signal back into the input of a series of pedals. This creates self-oscillating and rich, detailed noises that are somewhat interactive and malleable. By turning some knobs and flicking some switches on ordinary guitar pedals, you end up with an infinite amount of possible glitches and shrieking high frequency tones.

I don’t know if my ears got accustomed to it or what, but I’ve come to really enjoy the sound of this process. I also really love the tactile aspect of it, it feels kind of like an unpredictable modular synthesizer. When I had recorded the feedback improvisation, which I did in one single take, I thought this sparse, harsh rearrangement was a nice contrast with the more warm, conventional first three songs. At that point, the record felt complete.

 D: The final three songs also remind me of Philip Glass in his soundtrack work wherein he mixes the playful and flowing with the dissonant. How would you say these sounds complement each other in your own music?

S: Especially on this release, while there are a lot of sounds that are contrasting with each other, I also feel like there is a sense of shared directionality. The song Et quart is a good example of this. The high feedback notes start out in almost complete opposition to the meandering low clarinet lines, but, as the song progresses, the sounds somehow seem to merge with each other and they end up flowing in the same direction for the song’s climax.

 D: What are some other artists operating now that you find interesting and/or inspirational and resonant with what you're doing?

There’s way too many to name them all, but I’ll try! I think there’s a very interesting local-ish scene around me. I admire the work of N NAO, either her solo releases or her collaborations with Joni Void. Sarah Pagé does mind-bending music with harp and effects; I’ve had the pleasure of catching her live in Ottawa just before the pandemic started last year. Kara-Lys Coverdale is also a major inspiration, so is Kee Avil, whose live show and guitar playing blew me away.

I also need to shout out my friend (and bandmate) Mathieu A. Seulement, whose end-year list allowed me to catch up on a lot of fantastic new music, including, but not limited to Ana Roxane’s Because of a Flower, Jasmine Guffond’s Microphone Permission, Caterina Barbieri’s Ecstatic Computation and, last but not least, Holly Herndon’s magnificent Proto.

  **the three Simon photos were taken by Charlotte Savoie

www.simonprovencher.bandcamp.com 

[aliciameade]

random? what makes AK an A-lisr celeb, and is BSnow A or B and why? i find that ranking of status v interesting

I mean…there’s no like, definitive system of ranking…like, there is (It’s called the Ulmer Scale) but you don’t count up points to see where someone lands. haha

But being nominated for an Oscar usually makes you A-list unless you “fall from grace” in some way. It means your movies make money, and you make money when you make a movie, etc. You could maybe argue that Kendrick’s A-minus-list because she’s not taking home $25M to film a movie like JLaw (or rather, JLaw is A+ and Kendrick is A), but I couldn’t make an argument that she’s B-list.

And I would put Snow at B-list. People know who she is, but she’s not making bank or leading movies.

C-list usually means people maybe kind of know them from that one thing.

[architectnews]

David Chipperfield Architects to reinstate "former splendour" of Jenners department store in Edinburgh

British studio David Chipperfield Architects has released visuals of the renovation it has planned for the iconic Jenners department store in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The overhaul aims to bring new life to the listed Victorian building by introducing a hotel to its upper floors while restoring original features, including its glass-roofed atrium.

David Chipperfield Architects has unveiled its plans to renovate Jenners

Dating back to 1895, Jenners is a landmark department store on Princes Street – a major thoroughfare in the Scottish capital. It was extended in 1903 and again in 1966 before trading ceased in 2020.

David Chipperfield Architects' renovation plans, which are being developed with architecture studios 3DReid and Loader Montieth, will also introduce restaurants, cafes and new street frontage to the building.

The renovation will preserve the original Victorian facade

"Jenners is an institution of great significance to the city and associated with many memories for its citizens," explained project architect Oliver Ulmer.

"Acknowledging the tangible and intangible heritage of the site, the project seeks to reinstate the Jenners building's former splendour, restoring the historic department store and removing later components that have compromised the building's integrity," he told Dezeen.

A new facade will also be added

"Alongside this, the project proposes creating new spaces for a hotel and hospitality that will revive the block and reinstate the building's presence within the city," added Ulmer.

Externally, Jenners' Victorian facade will be restored. However, the 1966 extension to the building will be remodelled to better suit the original look of the department store.

The building's glass-roofed atrium will be restored

As part of the remodelling, the studio plans to introduce a turret, which will be a modern interpretation of one that was designed but not built for the extension in 1903.

The updated exterior will be complete with a new green roof to encourage biodiversity, alongside rainwater harvesting facilities.

Various commercial facilities will be introduced to the atrium

Inside, the new hotel will encompass 10,000 square metres, with approximately 100 rooms spread over the building's disused upper floors and a bar on the top level.

Alongside the hotel will be 7,000 square metres of updated retail space, cafes and restaurants.

The building's old second atrium will be reinstated

The proposed restaurants and cafes are imagined around the Grand Saloon – the building's three-storey atrium that will be restored to its original design.

A second atrium, located over the building's entrance on Princes Street, will also be reinstated after it was closed off in the 1930s to increase floor area.

Read:

David Chipperfield Architects set "to restore the grandeur" of Nieuwpoort's Grand Hotel

David Chipperfield Architects' renovation has been commissioned by real estate company AAA United, which acquired the building in 2017. The plans have now been submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council.

AAA United's owner Anders Holch Povlsen said the renovation comes with a "great deal of responsibility".

Restaurants will be positioned around the atrium

"We understand the scale of the challenge and are fully dedicated to honouring this building and its place within the future of Edinburgh," Holch Povlsen said.

According to David Chipperfield Architects, to minimise the environmental impact of the project, the renovation aims to maximise the use of existing building fabric and introduce secondary glazing and internal insulation wherever possible.

A hotel with a bar will be introduced

David Chipperfield Architects was founded by David Chipperfield in London in 1985. Its renovation of Jenners is the latest in a string of projects by the studio involving the overhaul of existing structures.

In Germany, it recently transformed a former monastery into offices and restored the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed Neue Nationalgalerie, while in Belgium it is designing the revamp of the Grand Hotel apartment block.

The post David Chipperfield Architects to reinstate "former splendour" of Jenners department store in Edinburgh appeared first on Dezeen.

[kmp78]

An A-list actor is a major movie star, or one of the most bankable actors in the Hollywood film industry.

The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List, which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood. American entertainment journalist James Ulmer, the guide's creator, has also developed a version including directors, the Hot List of Directors. The Ulmer scale categorizes the lists into A+, A, B+, B, C, and D listings.

In popular usage outside the film industry, an A-list celebrity is any person with an admired or desirable social status. Even socialites with popular press coverage and elite associations have been termed as A-list celebrities. Similarly, less popular persons and current teen idols are referred to as B-list celebrities – and the ones with lesser fame as C-list ones. In the year 2000, Entertainment Weekly interpreted a C-list celebrity as "that guy (or sometimes that girl), the easy-to-remember but hard-to-name character actor".

The D-list is for a person whose celebrity is so obscure that they are generally only known for appearances as celebrities on panel game shows and reality television. In the late 20th century, D-listers were largely ignored by the entertainment news industry; for example, Paul Lynde, by this point in his career best known for being on the daytime game show Hollywood Squares, went largely unnoticed by the supermarket tabloids, and his homosexuality (which would have drawn attention for bigger celebrities) went largely unreported.

👉 BANKABLE 👈

Key word right there!

JL's attempts at bankable have been abysmal at best!

He is not a name who can carry a movie ALONE!

"The Outsider", anyone?

Oof. 💩

[thekolsocial]

India Coronavirus Lockdown Triggers Exodus To Villages

New Post has been published on https://thekolsocial.com/india-coronavirus-lockdown-triggers-exodus-to-villages/

India Coronavirus Lockdown Triggers Exodus To Villages

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px” content_text_aligment=”” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][vc_column_text]

India Coronavirus Lockdown Triggers Exodus To Villages

Rickshaw drivers and food stallholders, hit hard by COVID-19 control measures, are leaving cities like Mumbai as work dries up in India coronavirus lockdown.

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”13px”][vc_column_text]Thousands of poor city migrants whose livelihoods have collapsed due to India’s coronavirus measures headed back to their villages on Saturday, raising fears that the exodus could carry the virus to the countryside.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”13px”][vc_column_text]About one fifth of India’s 271 confirmed coronavirus cases has been reported in the western state of Maharashtra — home to Mumbai, the country’s largest city and economic powerhouse. So far, India has registered four deaths due to the virus.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”13px”][vc_column_text]Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Indians to stay at home to fight the outbreak. Maharashtra state authorities ordered on Friday the closure of all shops and offices, apart from those providing essential services, until March 31.

For Indians who drive rickshaws or run food stalls, the economic shock of such control measures has been huge, pushing them to leave for family homes where they typically do not pay rent and food is cheaper.

“Work has stopped. I’ll go back and work on the farm,” said Rakesh Kumar Gupta, 40, who sells mosquito nets and was heading back to his family house in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

On Saturday, hundreds of people, many young men wearing masks and lugging backpacks, jostled in long queues to board trains at Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus station.

India’s state-run railway operator laid on 17 special train services starting on Friday to ferry people out of the Mumbai area to eastern and northern India, spokesman Shivaji Sutar said.

Health specialists say large-scale population shifts to rural areas could hasten the spread of coronavirus in India, a country of 1.3 billion people with weak public health care – especially in the countryside.

India has about 120 million migrant labourers, according to labour rights group Aajiveeka.

“This really is the beginning of community spread, assuming there haven’t been forerunners,” said Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The Indian Railways spokesman said they were screening passengers and had trained workers on board in case of emergencies. But anxious travellers were cramming into overcrowded trains, according to a Reuters witness, likely increasing the chances of infection.

Highlighting the risk, the Ministry of Railways on Saturday tweeted that a dozen people who had travelled by train in the last few days had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. “Passengers are advised to avoid non-essential travel for the safety of fellow citizens,” the ministry added.

India’s Health Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The virus is underlining the difficult trade-offs countries must make when trying to contain the pandemic, with many fearing that India’s poorest people will be severely hit. “Some people will die of the virus. The rest of us will die of hunger,” said taxi driver Sanjay Sharma on an empty Mumbai street, adding he would travel to the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where his family owns a small apple orchard.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px” content_text_aligment=”” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][vc_column_text]News: Reuters. Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Helen Popper[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[houseofvans]

SKETCHY BEHAVIORS |  Kris Chau (Los Angeles)

Poetic, fluid and much like a song or ballad, the artwork of Los Angeles based artist Kris Chau sings a visual story on paper, focusing on symbols, shapes, and story-telling. We've been following Kris’s various watercolor and acrylic works, and have fallen in love with the murals she’s created for local shops in her neighborhood. We’re excited to chat with this very talented and magical lady about some of the artwork she makes, what inspires her,  and her upcoming projects for 2017!

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What’s a little known fact about yourself?

My name is Kris Chau, or Chau, or Chauface. My friend Emilia who does this amazing thing called Pony Sweat, simply calls me FACE. I am from Honolulu Hawaii and currently reside in the fine city of Los Angeles. More specifically the land of Echo Park. As for something weird or strange, I’m pretty sure my cat is my Grandfather re-incarnated. Mostly because my Grandpa loved cats and was a Chinese herbalist. My cat carries a Datura flower in his mouth and leaves it for me in the morning at the door. 

How did you first become enamored with art and drawing?  Do you remember what your first drawing or doodles were like?

My parents are very stoic, refugees from Vietnam, who laid the groundwork early on in my life that no one is special. So even thought I was drawing things that looked like things as a little kid, it went by unnoticed. And I just thought everyone could draw. It wasn’t until teachers at school or other students started to comment on my assignments or doodles as something different that I realized it was ‘something’ if not special. My first doodles were circle people with legs and arms, and lots and lots of horses. I recently saw some old kid drawings I made my cousins which mostly consisted of Yoshi the Dinosaur and X-men.

Some folks have been drawing from since they were kids, and some folks keep with it and some bail on it.  Did you continue drawing in school or was it something you put away and found yourself doing more and more, till it became your identity and life? 

I am a drawer. There’s no way around it. I knew early on in life and then when I figured out I could trade my drawings for happy meals or erasers in school, it was on. I sometimes wish it wasn’t so much my identity. That this stirring you feel towards such a specific act, didn’t exist. Then maybe I could hold down a great job and not daydream otherwise, or maybe just come home to watch TV instead of turning into a garage art troll. There’s a natural fluidity to your work and some reoccurring imagery.  Can you tell us a little about the things you like to draw?  

Well these days drawing and painting is more about expanding my visual language than it is about just practicing a skill. So if there is a feeling, a story, or a loss, I try to figure out how to sing this song on paper. Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of a universal quiet language that consists mostly of simple symbols and shapes. But I can’t deny i love drawing ladies and weird animals.  

What were some of your early art influences, and who are some of your influences now? 

One of my all time current art heroes is my dear friend Ako Castuera, and when we became friends we realized there were two books that we had in common that definitely defined my art drawing trajectory. One was the Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye and D’aulaires Book of Greek Myths. Later on in life it became Ben Shahn, Andy Warhol’s old illustrations, and pretty much all art from indigenous peoples. And as kindred spirits in terms of their pursuit of their craft and making their way in life I would have to say people like Hellen Jo, Nathaniel Russell, Yumi Sakugawa, Rob Sato, James Ulmer, Chances With Wolves and Jesse Moynihan. 

Can you take us through your artistic process? And how would you say it has changed or evolved since you started?

Well lately I do a lot of meditating and thinking about something before I draw anything. I do lots of research. I try to not be hungry and mostly very comfortable. In the Past I would do sketches or preliminary drawings but these days I think for a very long time and I draw. Very boring, very simple. I try to keep a routine that’s very mundane, so that the rest of my energy goes towards making things. So there’s not a lot of social events or chilling with too many humans. Mostly being alone at least 2-3 days a week, with not too much stimuli. Lots of watering plants and organizing sock drawers.

Artists seem to either keep a sketchbook or just occasionally keep up a sketchbook. Do you keep a sketchbook?  

Keeping a sketchbook is important, it’s not as much a part of my life as it once was, but I keep one that might span a whole year. I think the tactile act of writing stuff down in something you can hold is getting lost in this current world. I normally carry a little travel set of color pencils, a sharpener, and my sketchbook. I try to do more life drawings of wherever I am in those books, or color theory tests. What would be your dream collaboration?  Is it easy for you to collaborate or do you find it can be difficult?

I feel like I am living the dream! I recently got to do some artwork for my dudes at Chances With Wolves and I am currently working on some things with my heros Ako Castuera and Hellen Jo! Lately, I’ve been looking at all my illustration jobs or more commercial jobs as collaborations. Or if its a job where I am just a drawing gun for hire, it had better pay my rent. But since I no longer have the fortitude to be someones drawing monkey, everything has to be a collaboration between me and a client.

These days I feel like the people behind the desks are like, okay we are here, who can we help on the come up and feed some integrity into our design or product. So thank you to those golden hearted desk homies, who are pushing against the tide in terms of the corporate design world. 

You work with various mediums from - ink to acrylics.  What do you particularly love about these mediums or one specifically.  

I’m very curmudgeonly when it comes to my supplies. I use Dr. PH Martin’s Concetrated Watercolors, Lascaux Acrylics, and FW acrylic ink. I like trashy paint brushes that I don’t have to sweat, and if I am doing an ink drawing its with a #2 nib crow quill. I don’t like watercolor paper, i use printmaking paper for all my paintings. Although these days I’m more interested in shapes than any linework.

Is there something material wise new you’ve been messing around with or are looking to experiment with?

A new medium is I would like to go 3D at some point with either fabric sculptures or paper mache. 

Illustrations have been something you’ve been doing for a while with magazine and various clients. Can you share with folks what that process is like? 

Oh man, this is the age old crux of making money off the creative thang you do. Listen up kids, old people, dreamers, fakers, and doers. You make what you make regardless of who is gonna look at it or buy it. I feel very very fortunate that I currently have jobs and clients that are supportive to whatever it is that I currently make and do. But it took a long time to develop my own language that lended itself to peoples needs. When you feel like the act of creating needs to be validated by money or recognition, you end up not giving yourself space to hone your language.

What did you or do you enjoy the most and what are some things you dislike about it?

That being said, my favorite part of illustration work is telling the story or solving the problem with my specific language. The things I dislike about it, is just being someone’s drawing monkey, which can be okay if someone knows what they want. When people romanticize what you do, like you’re a creative unicorn and everything you do will be easy and fun so make me these five logos or graphics in a week. Maybe if I was at home making logos every night for fun, but I’m trying to make paintings, so the day when i make rent with just paintings, maybe the logos will be fun. 

You’ve painted on various surfaces and things–how has been making works on a larger scale been for you? Did it come easily or was it something you had to work through and adapt with?  

Oh man, I love painting real big on something thats not paper or a canvas. Theres something about it that just feels good, which is why graffiti exists I suppose. Well painting big, exercises  the communication between my eyes, brain and hands outside its normal paper sizes. I freehand everything too, no projectors here! Its also athletic in a way that sitting at a desk all day isn’t so conducive to. All the murals and big thangs I’ve painted forced my visual language a certain way, that would read well large scale. 

What’s been the weirdest or coolest thing you’ve put your art on, so far?

One of my very favorite big things I got to paint, is a Pussy Party on my friend Garet’s Van. He gets a lot of attention. What are your thoughts regarding social media for artists? What has been your approach to it?

Whoa heavy topic. Well as someone who was born in 1980, i’m in between. I love how it distributes your work further than you could’ve gotten it just by having shows. I definitely get to live and work from a weird garage and have people find me because of it, so for that I am eternally grateful. What I don’t like about it, is that I feel like people are forgetting what good things look like in real life. Things have to look good on a small screen. So things that pop off or are high contrasted, tend to work very well. But maybe a large scale watercolor won’t translate. Its the same way I feel about going to the movies VS. getting it streamed at home. The ritual of intention is getting lost. Then this new format dictates whats successful out there in the world, when the real life version might be very different. The feed, which does allow for new discovery and wider spread audiences, is taking away the in real life visual impact. 

Having lived in various cities but now residing in LA, what’s it been like and what are your thoughts about the art scene here?

I really love LA, there is a certain magic about this place where if you will it and work hard it might actually be possible. I have my own small community of people who make things that I feel very close to, and keep me working. I always say when the times are hard, that we are all lucky to be here in this city right now in this time. I used to share a studio with James Ulmer in Philadelphia at Space 1026, who really helped me push my drawings and paintings on a bigger scale. But when he moved away to take over New York, I was sort of left without my drawing people. So in my heart I knew all my drawing people, who had the same life ideals when it came to making art, lived and flourished in LA.

What’s a question you never get asked but would love to ask and answer yourself!

Your work is often described as whimsical, how do you feel about that? I actually hate that word and in no way do I identify with that, though I understand where you are coming from when you say it. Look Deeper and allow yourself to hear what you see.

What are your favorite Vans? How would you describe your personal style?

Lately I have been wearing the white cracked leather skate hi slims. But I think the 90’s surly teenager in me is looking for some brown authentic with some black laces.

What’s some of the best and worst advice you’ve gotten as an artist?

The best advice from Ken Rignall : Your problem is that you can draw really well, so that is holding you back. You give up if it’s not easy or you don’t have to try very hard to make things look ‘good’ but all your making is decoration. The worst advice from anyone in the world these days : You gotta work on your brand and your social media presence.

What upcoming projects or collaborations do you have coming up for 2017? 

Guys in the Fall of Los Angeles get ready for a power packed show with Ako Castuera and Hellen Jo. There will be events so get ready for that sign up sheet! It will be only show of 2017 because my brain is very fried. 

Follow Kris Chau Instagram: @chaucfacetime Website: www.krischau.com Tumblr: chaufacetime.tumblr.com

[fcgrblog]

“ラウンジリザーズ”が聴こえる...

今回は、F.C.G.R.の定番【 Pepperシリーズ 】と双璧をなす、ハートを震わすホロウボディモデルをご紹介します。

　コンパクトなシングルカッタウェイのカーブドトップボディながら、豊潤でブルージーなサウンドが、ジャズ、ブルースにぴったりハマる 【 RRCH 】。

　ボディトップに配されたスプルース材特有の、豊かな生鳴りを踏まえた甘いトーンと、バックに配したアルダー材とのコンビネーションが醸し出す太いミッドレンジは、酒と煙草の香りが似合うジャジーなムードにはもちろんピッタリです。

 また、削り出しのセンターブロックを持つボディ構造によってしっかりとした音像を紡ぎ出し、時として食らいつくようなドライブサウンドで曲をリードするフレキシブルさは、ジャムバンド等、さらに広いプレイフィールドでもバンバンに活躍するギターです。

 もちろんF.C.G.R.のフラッグシップシリーズとして燦燦と輝く【 RRシリーズ 】の特徴でもある、程よいテンション感とスムースな運指が持ち味の25inchスケールネックを採用。

 ステージ、スタジオはもちろん、リビングでの長時間におけるプレイでも、快適なフィンガリングをお約束いたします。

 フィニッシュには弾き込むほどに味わいが深まる、ニトロセルロースラッカーを採用し、愛着が加速すること間違いなし。

 また、ホロウボディのメリットとしては、やはり軽量な事も見逃せません。

 ふらっと一本担い��他流試合の如きセッションへ…、なんてシチュエーションで、フッとトワンギィなシングルコイルサウンドを投げかけたい衝動にかられても、心配ご無用。

 こちらも【 RR 】の武器である、【 Hybrid Humbucker 】ピックアップと、シームレスにタップの配分を調整できるコントローラーにより、リアルなシングルコイルサウンドはもちろん、まるでP-90の様なサウンド等も演出し、この1本で様々なジャンル、アレンジ、はたまた使用するアンプに最適なサウンドをマッチングさせることにより、ギタープレイヤーのストレスを解消させてくれるでしょう。

 …と、まあ、今回はTVショッピングの製品紹介みたいになってしまいましたが、フレキシブルな機能と、圧倒的にオーセンティックなサウンドと雰囲気を併せ持つ、この【 RRCH 】。

 個人的にはニューウェーブ、フリージャズ等が渦巻く街で活躍しそうな一面を強く感じるんですね〜。

 例えるなら【 The Lounge Lizards 】の様に三管ホーンサウンドの合間を縦糸横糸の如く紡いでゆくコードワークや、時にはギャリンギャリンの歪みで食らいつくリードサウンドを演出したり、あるいは【 James Blood Ulmer 】の如く、息つぐ間も無く暴れまくるギタープレイで、オーディエンスを圧倒するようなスタイルにもピッタリではないかと思います。

 何はともあれ、百聞は一見にしかず。

 この抜群のフレキシブルさを誇る【 RRCH 】の実力は、あなたの目と耳と、フィーリングで実感していただけましたら幸いです。

 営業部：民谷

【SPEC.】

NECK：Premium Grade Mahogany

GRIP：F.C.G.R.  61U Shape

F.BOARD：Ebony,22F (305R)

SCALE：25inc (317.5mm）

FRETS：F.C.G.R. Stainless SP-SF-09 WARM

NUT：Delrin

JOINT：Set Neck

BODY：Top: Carved Top, Spruce 2pc / Back: Alder 2pc

FINISH：N.C. Lacquer

PICKUPS：F.C.G.R. Hybrid Humbucker (Bridge&Neck)

CONTROL：3way SW, 1Vol, 1Tone, 2Tap Control

Bridge：F.C.G.R. Lockable Bridge

#fcgrblog #guitar #ギター #electricguitar #customguitar #bass #ベース #electricbass #custombass #freedomcustomguitarresearch #music #repair #リペア #修理 #楽器 #音楽 #RRCH

[architectnews]

New Opera House, Düsseldorf

New Opera House, Düsseldorf Architecture, Architect, German Project Images

New Opera House in Düsseldorf

4 Oct 2021

Design: Snøhetta

Location: Dusseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

photo © Snøhetta

Duett Düsseldorf

Situated in the heart of Düsseldorf city center, Snøhetta has been commissioned by CENTRUM GROUP to propose a new opera house and cultural hub for the city. Dubbed Duett Düsseldorf, the new opera house creates clear connections to the nearby Hofgarten park, the Rhein river and the popular Königsallee street, aiming to create a publicly accessible space that brings people together. With a state-of-the-art opera house, a hotel, restaurants and cafés, office spaces and residential units, the project aims to create a shared cultural epicenter for the people of Düsseldorf.

The new opera house will replace the existing one on Heinrich-Heine-Allee 16A, as the current floor plan is not suited to facilitate a well-functioning opera house at an international level. The proposal therefore suggests a 1.350 square meter expansion to the North for a fully integrated side stage and enough space for back-of-house functions and additional program, and a 1.455 square meter expansion to the East to facilitate a larger foyer. To minimize the footprint into the Hofgarten park, the program at ground level is limited and functions that can be placed in the higher-up floors have been lifted.

photos © MIR

A Warm Welcome Bridging from the lush, historic Hofgarten park, the landscape design surrounding the opera house is developed with focus on the flow of people through an urban forest leading to the opera house’s foyer. The curved landscape reorganizes the road systems and strengthens the connection to Königsallee through a new bridge in the south and a connection to the West.

Approaching the foyer and main entrance from the park, the boundaries between indoors and outdoors are blurred, bringing the foyer and the park together. Walking on the clearly defined carpet of granite stone, a 16-meter-tall transparent glass façade reveals a sculptural wood wall within the foyer. With overhanging balconies stretching out from the circular core, the organically shaped wall creates a spatial phenomenon transitioning from a vertical wall to a horizontal sky. From the forest-like entrance from the park, through the transparent glass shell, the meeting with the wooden core creates an intimate, warm and comforting welcome to the opera house.

photo © Plomp

Bringing People Together Generous staircases and ramps lead from the foyer up to a café on the fourth floor of the building – the first of three floors in a horizontal cantilevering volume topping off the foyer and main stage below. From the North-Western part of this horizontal level, visitors can get a first glimpse of the magnificent views of the surrounding area.

From the café, visitors can see into the rehearsal spaces of the opera, including the choir and orchestra rehearsal rooms. The large ballet rehearsal space on the Eastern side of the horizontal volume is extended over two floors, ensuring good light conditions and a great sense of space, while also giving a sense of security and privacy by being placed on the higher floors. When appropriate, the rehearsal spaces can be opened up to the audience for performances.

Wardrobes and smaller exercise rooms are also located on the horizontal volume, while spacious cargo lifts connect this program to storage rooms, the orchestra pit and the back-of-house areas. Administration and the opera canteen can also be found on the fourth and fifth floor.

With approximately 25.000 square meters of mixed-use opera and hotel functions, as well as publicly accessible areas, the horizontal volume represents a significant architectural element. Aimed to build relationships and synergies between inhabitants, visitors, guests, employees and artists, it is also an element binding together the park, the Rhine and the sky.

On the top of the horizontal volume, a publicly accessible roof landscape offers breathtaking views of the city and park. Directly accessible from the foyer with an escalator, the 6.000-square-meter public roof landscape appears as a green courtyard with an attractive 360-degree view. Designed for flexibility and multifunctional use, the roofscape is ideal for cultural events, performances and other activities. Other commercial functions such as restaurants and cafes are connected to the three horizontal levels, creating an appealing public attraction in the city.

photos © MIR

An Iconic V-Shaped Dancing Duet From the horizontal levels, an unmistakable V-shaped silhouette reaches up towards the sky. The ensemble of towers changes its silhouette from each new perspective, creating a constantly changing expression reminiscent of a dancing duet. The towers are strategically designed to reduce shading of surrounding areas of the park and neighborhood, while also creating better daylight conditions in the courtyard.

The towers are programmed primarily for the hotel, residential areas and office spaces. Focus has been put on creating clear divisions between the functions and providing protection from changing weather conditions, while also ensuring a visual connection and uniform appearance of the building. This is enabled through a layered glass façade with different scaling and transparency. Contrasting an opaquer outward-facing tower façade, the inward-facing façades are mostly self-shaded and therefore allow for a high level of transparency and interaction with the public on the roofscape.

The multilayered Duett Düsseldorf is set to create a cultural meeting space and public attraction, further building on Düsseldorf’s standing as a hub for arts and culture.

photo © Snøhetta Design: Snøhetta

Images: MIR, Plomp and Snøhetta

New Opera House, Düsseldorf images / information received 041021

Location: Düsseldorf, Germany

Düsseldorf Building News

Completion of FOM University Düsseldorf, north west Germany Design: J. MAYER H. Architects photo : David Franck New Institute Building for FOM – 27 Sep 2017

Architecture in the Düsseldorf Docks photo © Adrian Welch

“Ballett am Rhein”, Düsseldorf Design: von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) image from architects Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf

New Institute Building for FOM Design: J. MAYER H. image from architects New Institute Building for FOM

Düsseldorf Ulmer Höh Design: BDP Khandekar image from architects Düsseldorf Ulmer Höh

Oeconomicum Düsseldorf Ingenhoven Architects photograph : Hans Georg Esch Oeconomicum Building

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Website : Dusseldorf Germany

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