ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Today, the business environment is characterized by intensifying market entrants, rapid business environment dynamics, and technological innovations. This situation has continued to render the orthodox business models obsolete. Organizations that offer mailing and tracking services have experienced numerous challenges as they are a required to change their strategies periodically to align them with new technological means. Establishing a robust value chain guides the organization in integrating its primary and support activities to enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. To achieve this strategic goal, organizations have embraced the use of integrated systems for both core and support activities. This paper presents the value chain analysis of the United States Postal Services by providing an in-depth analysis of its information systems used in the realization of its strategy. Value Chain Analysis Value chain analysis entails evaluating the contribution of each business activity that underpins the creation of product and service value in the organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). According to Porter, there is a distinction between the primary and support activities of the organization. The primary activities encompass inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing, and sales. On the other hand, the support services facilitate the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the primary services. They entail procurement, technology, human resource management, and infrastructure development (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). In a bid to execute the primary and support activities seamlessly, there is a need to employ integrated information systems that link the different activities together with a view of promoting the creation of value for products and services. Primary Activities for UPS and Systems used The primary activities of the UPS comprise the core involvement in transforming the raw materials into the desired finished products and services. Inbound logistics entails material handling and warehousing. Operations include the manufacturing processes that entail turning inputs into outputs (Rapp & Subramanian, 2010). Outbound logistics is concerned with the processing of customer orders and distribution of the ordered finished products to the customers. Marketing and sales activities encompass the dissemination of information to the customers. Such information concerns the product and service promotions, pricing, and channel management. Services include various installations, repairs, and accessories. The UPS’s inbound and outbound logistics include the packaging of the customers’ mails, dropping, and delivery (Rapp & Subramanian, 2010). The primary operation of the UPS entails planning various schedules including routes, courier requirements, time, and safe delivery of the mails to the customers. The marketing function of the UPS involves frequent customer deals and aggressive branding. The company prints logos on their trucking vehicles and uniforms for the mail delivery staff as a part
Microsoft and Google: Using Information Systems and IT At Microsoft, information systems are used to develop custom solutions that may be used to promote cross-referencing and create additional data entries. The company seriously benefits from a comprehensive data model and exclusive insights into customer behavior and sales prediction. One of the most prominent areas of information systems implementation at Microsoft is the company’s opportunity to customize its software solutions and generate in-depth reports that touch upon the whole organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Another area where Microsoft utilizes information systems is the development of database software. The Office applications are also in line with the IT initiatives of the company because they create room for surveys and questionnaires that can be carried out to gain more insight into the existing strengths and limitations of the company’s strategy. All the data collected by Microsoft may be easily exported and imported. Google, on the other hand, utilizes its information systems to spark ingenuity and imagination in all employees. The process of encouragement helps employees spend more time working independently and contributes to a positive working environment where leisure time and hard work go hand in hand. Every digital project established within Google is an attempt to meet extensive objectives and improve the quality of life for all employees, managers, stakeholders, and end-users (Stair & Reynolds, 2015). Information systems at Google are perceived as a tool that can aid in developing personal versatility and focusing on corporate objectives. Access to information on different organizational levels is efficiently monitored by artificial intelligence instruments that protect Google’s intranet from breaches. Every move that the corporation makes to improve its information systems is required to coordinate activities across Google and introduce new perspectives and ideas. Microsoft and Google: Competitive Advantages of Information Systems The biggest advantage that may be associated with the information system applied at Microsoft is the ability of the management to deal with internal affairs quickly. Owing to the existence of an Office Automation System, every manager gets assess to the data on productivity and existing trends within the organizational environment (Pearlson et al., 2019). Not only do information systems help Microsoft process all the data correctly, but they also seem to improve the team’s productivity on a bigger scale. Many of the corporation’s employees had a chance to work from the comfort of their homes even before COVID-19, which is a serious advantage that not all IT companies possessed. Another competitive advantage that Microsoft gets when implementing information systems is the ability to generate automated decisions via decision-support systems. It helps the company reduce the level of uncertainty and helps it to focus on essential problems that yet have to be resolved. For Google, the key benefit of utilizing information systems is that the company gets a chance to collect all
Jews have a history of conflict with various governments. One of the reasons for this is the nature of their culture and the fact that they share history with Christianity, which most of them did not adopt (Brenner 159). Jews have lived in almost all sovereignties in Europe and have faced constant segregation and mistreatment. Jews have always struggled for equality among other communities with which they have coexisted. For a long time, Jews had settled in Poland after migrating there from other kingdoms of Europe (Brenner 161). Perpetual anti-Semitism in Europe necessitated the migration. However, in the eighteenth century, Poland began disintegrating. By this time, Jews had not managed to acquire freedom and equality among other races in Europe. In 1792, a civil war broke out in Poland and Jews were caught in the middle (Brenner 164). Russia and Prussia divided the country and annexed parts of it. The first partition of Poland by Russia and Prussia occurred in 1793 (Brenner 167). The regimes that took over administration were largely anti-Semitic. For this reason, Poland revolted against the conquerors. However, the revolt ended with the Russian empire capturing a bigger territory with Jews living in it. At first, Jews received a mild treatment from the government (Brenner 169). Education was offered to them, but they were separated from the Christian population by the Russian government. Most of the problems faced by Jews were due to the government’s quest to make Jewish populations to integrate into the rest of the people in religious and cultural terms. While children were sent to schools to learn, the government tried to make them abandon their religion. The failure of the government to make Jews abandon their religion even led to more severe consequences for them. More restrictions and harsh policies were implemented against Jews. One such policy required conscription of Jewish minors into the army (Gartner 51). Several incidences triggered the emergence of Zionism in Europe. The most significant cause of Zionism was the statelessness of the Jewish people. For centuries, several empires hosted Jews and treated them with contempt. Poland, being one of the few states that could accommodate Jews, became a haven for them (Brenne 168). Even then, anti-Semitism was rife. However, with the partition of Poland between the Russian empire and the Prussian empire made life unbearable for the Jews. Their last vestige had been annexed, and was slowly becoming uninhabitable for them. Due to this pressure, an idea developed among Jews that the Jewish community had to become a state rather than a common religion. The Jewish fraternity had to be regarded a nation. Several isolated incidents accelerated the adoption of this idea with some dire consequences for some empires in Europe. Haskala, the education of Jews and Jewish children to adopt cultural ideas of the larger society, was the cause of secul
Introduction One of the most important historical occurrences in the world is the Berlin crisis. The Berlin airlift which was as a result of Berlin blockade is considered a very serious event in diplomatic relations of the superpowers in history. The Soviet Union had decided to put a blockade on Berlin and this lasted from June 8 th to 12 th 1949. This was followed by intervention by the US, France and the United Kingdom. The US was very active in this crisis and greatly assisted the Western Berlin to go over the blockade staged by the Soviet Union. The Berliners were forced to tolerate a lot of adversity and suffering of the United States military that supplied them with everything they needed. The USs hoped that the Germans would re-unite but as a non-communist nation. Since the Soviet Union was dominant in Eastern Berlin, The Us was forced to take such a strong stance and assistance. Since the US was against communism, it had to make sure that it prevent that ideology from being spread all over the world by all and any means available and possible. Historiography Understanding the event of the cold war has been very tricky, with different people having their own perceptions and suppositions of what was taking place or the causes of conflicts. Essentially there are about four schools that have tried to offer explanations of the occurrences or attempted to interpret them. This paper however focuses on three main schools which include orthodox interpretation, revisionism explanation and the post-revisionism interpretation. At the end of the Second World War, Germany which had been accused of provoking the wars was defeated. It was then divided into four sections that were to be controlled by the United States, the UK, France and the Soviet Union. The capital city of the country, Berlin was divided into western and eastern Berlin. The Soviet Union occupied the eastern side while the western was in command of the US allies. The west was to be accessed by road, canals, air corridors and railways. Though this was expected top last for a short time and then peace to return to the area. However the intentions of the Soviet Union were very different from what peace would mean to the region and to the world. Germany was to be reunited when the tension of the war was over and under allied corporation (US Air Force Museum 21). Orthodox interpretation Disregarding this, the Soviet Union decided to undertake some initiatives to make sure that the communist Germans were dominant in the area and Berlin in particular which the union maintained that was a critical part of their region. Their overall intention was to re-unite those Germans who were pro-communist, an objective that soon placed it at odds with its opponents from the west. The reason why the orthodox interpretation of the conflict was founded is that the Soviet Union was to be blamed for the conflict. Orthodox school purports that the post second world war was described by cold war and event like Berlin blockade and airlift due to the Stalin’s dedication to territorial expansion communism as it was evident in his violation of Yalta and Potsdam conferences and imposing the So
It is believed that much can be said about how a person reacts to a situation. In times of successes and positive moments, most people celebrate with joyous reactions. However, in troubled times, people react with different shades of negative emotions. Some spring back right away and take positive action while others dwell in doom and even fall into a dark depressive state. For these people, how do they find their way back to the light? The Psychoanalytic or Psychodynamic theory is premised on the belief that human nature is greatly affected by a person’s early childhood experiences and conflicts between impulses and prohibitions (Myers, 1995). Its founder, Sigmund Freud’s idea of the three systems of personality, the id, ego and superego being in constant battle within a person is likened to a person’s continual debate of what is right and wrong, and then behaves according to his moral decisions. Such decisions are affected by what society dictates as well as what the person truly desires for himself. Freud views human behavior as determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations and biological and instinctual drives evolving in the first six years of life (Corey, 2005). He has associated each life stage to a body fixation and namely the Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital stages. He theorized that if a traumatic experience has happened in a particular psychosexual stage, an individual gets fixated on that stage, thereby retaining the characteristic of behavior associated with that stage. To survive living with negative experiences that may have marred a person’s personality or life views, he develops “defense mechanisms” that aim to keep those traumatic experiences repressed in the unconscious (Pervin, Cervone & John, 2005). These defense mechanisms are usually practiced by everyone in their daily life not knowing that they are applications of Freudian thought. An example of a defense mechanism commonly used is ‘rationalization’. If a person has strived hard to reach a goal like applying for a certain job position and does not get it, he would rationalize to his family that he was not so interested in it after all. It is much like the fabled fox “sour-graping”. This is an attempt to mask his utter disappointment and maintain an “unaffected” façade to the people around him. Defense mechanisms is one aspect of the Psychoanalytic theory that this author thinks would find useful counseling, as the patterned use of whichever kind already says a lot about the coping style and personality of the client. The goals of Psychodynamic therapy are settling unresolved conflicts in a person’s past that deeply affect his current patterns of behavior and personality. It may involve bringing repressed painful memories to resurface to be dealt with consciously through the techniques of free associati
Introduction Memory is a physiological attribute probably in all living things. In this paper, human memory is the primary concern and focus. The famous psychologist of the 19 th century described human memory as a number of single phenomena connected into a whole. Arguably, human beings bind strongly on the connective power to reach their past remembrance, which in turn creates the individual personality (Rasmussen & Bernstern, 2010). Without the connecting power, every single phenomena of a memory will fall apart into many fragments causing memory impairment (Vanderkerckhove & Panksepp, 2009). Psychogenic amnesia is the medical term
Why it can Prevent Excessive Consumption The government’s intention to set the minimum price for alcohol products is based on the concept of price floors. Under this concept, the minimum selling price is set above the equilibrium prices (Frank, Bernanke & Kaufman 2007, p. 71). For example, equilibrium price for Grant’s whisky was 11 pounds before the proposal. However, it will rise to 11.42 after implementing the proposal. The increase in equilibrium price leads to a reduction in quantity demand. This is illustrated in figure 1 below. P 1 and Q1 represent the initial equilibrium price and quantity respectively. However, the equilibrium price will rise to P 2 after implementing the government’s proposal. When the price increases to P 2, the quantity demand will reduce from Q 1 to Q 2. This is because consumers will find alcohol products more expensive than they were initially (Frank, Bernanke & Kaufman 2007, p. 73). This implies that raising the minimum price above the market equilibrium will reduce the consumption of alcohol. Figure 1: price floor P: price Q: quantity E: equilibrium S: supply curve D: demand curv Why the Proposal will not succeed in this Case Influencing the consumption of alcohol through price control depends on the price elasticity of its demand (Frank, Bernanke & Kaufman 2007, p. 94). The demand for alcoholic drinks such as beer tends to be relatively inelastic due to the following reasons. First, the prices of alcoholic drinks in UK are very low due to the promotions run by supermarkets. For example, the price of a bottle of wine is as little as 2.03 pounds. This means that the price represents only a small percentage of consumer’s income. Thus the demand for alcohol will be inelastic since the consumers will not be sensitive to price changes (Frank, Bernanke & Kaufman 2007, p. 95). Second, alcohol is a necessity to those who are addicted to it. Thus unless its price is significantly increased, consumers will still purchase it. Finally, loyalty to particular brands of alcohol will encourage consumers to maintain their level of consumption even if the prices are raised (Frank, Bernanke & Kaufman 2007, p. 97). These trends indicate that the price of alcohol must be increased significantly in order to reduce its consumption. Thus the government’s proposal will fail because its new price proposals are not significantly high. It is for this reason that earlier proposals fixed the minimum price at 50p instead of 38p as proposed by the government. Importance of the Concept of Scarcity and Opportunity Cost Scarcity implies that that the available resources can not satisfy all the needs of a country or a business (Pindyck & Robinfeld 2009, p. 22). Scarce resources are only spent on projects associated with the highest levels of benefits. Thus scarcity leads to trade-offs when allocating resources. Trade-offs in this case means that some projects must be forgone due to lack of adequate resources. Such trade-offs are associated with opportunity costs which represent “the next best alternative” (Pindyck & Robinfeld 2009, p. 23). Scarcity helps governments to realize the fact that
Synopsis of the Situation The BlackBerry Ltd, formerly known as research in motion, has not been doing well in recent past compared to its competitors. This has been as a result of inappropriate steps taken in the marketing and branding department. This paper, therefore, analyzes the situation of BlackBerry Ltd in an attempt to identifying the possible problems, which has led to the decline of the company’s share value, as well as recommending possible solutions to the problem. The recommendations provided do not only help in solving the current problem, but also aim at helping the company do well in future. Key Issues The mobile phone industry is highly competitive (Grewal and Levy, 2012). BlackBerry Ltd faces stiff competition from other handset manufacturing companies such as apple, which have created a niche in Smartphones. The competition in this industry requires companies to be on their toes in order to always please their clients, make enough profits and at the same time remain at the top of the competition (Hartley 2014). BlackBerry Ltd boasts of a large customer base, which has been increasing over the years. According to Moon (2013), the company had approximately 10.5 million by the time the first apple iPhone was released in the market and 21 million customers by the time the first Google Android hit the market. The author adds that the company had 78 million users worldwide and an active messaging service with about 60 million users by 2012. However, there was a report in 2013, by the media that BlackBerry had lost $1.049 billion (Moon, 2013). The company’s share value was $60 in 2011, but dropped sharply that year and has not risen above $20 since then (Martell and Rocha 2014). In March 2013, the company recorded a 21% decline in the number of phones that were shipped (Moon 2013). This was the least the company had shipped since 2006. These were attributed to several changes in the company’s strategy to address the competitive hardware environment. Most of BlackBerry’s loss was as a result of the fast growth of other handset companies like Samsung. In the US alone, BlackBerry’s market share dropped to 3%, down from 9% forcing the company to adopt a $1 billion cost saving program in 2013 (Martell and Rocha 2014). The company also delayed the release of BlackBerry 10 OS, which was a great disappointment to its consumers (Moon 2013). Since then, the company has made losses in their share value and also lost most of its loyal consumers, leaving behind not too many die-hard followers. BlackBerry has lost most of its market share to other companies manufacturing similar or better handsets for example the Google supported phones. According to Martell and Rocha 2014, 2013 was a dark year for BlackBerry, faced with a number of challenges. There was a sign
Gladiator is a 2000 epic historical drama. It was directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson. Russel Crowe stars as a Hispano-Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius. Maximus is betrayed and enslaved to be a gladiator for the amusement of the Roman people and noblemen. Maximus then makes his way up the ranks of the arena; his only goal is revenge for his murdered family and his overthrown emperor. The central themes of this film are freedom, servitude, slavery, loyalty, and betrayal. This review focuses on two questions. How is the idea of freedom expressed in Gladiator ? And is the desire to be loved is the driving force behind Commodus’ actions? Freedom and Servitude in Gladiator As Maximus Decimus Meridius first enters the life of the gladiator, he refuses to be a slave and a servant to the masses and the ruling Commodus. He refuses even to lift a training sword to defend himself when beaten by another gladiator (Andrews, 2014). The thing that is most important to Maximus is his desire to have revenge and to be free of the gladiatorial slavery. Nevertheless, to Maximus, freedom is only a tool which he wanted to use to avenge his loved ones. Later in the film, Maximus receives a word of advice from Proximo – the gladiator trainer that Maximus was sold to. Proximo pointed out that the only chance to win the freedom that Maximus has is to win the people’s favor, to “win the crowd” (Andrews, 2014). This indicates that however high the royalty can be, ordinary Romans will still have a large influence over the ruler’s decisions. This is explained by the fact that no governor would want a revolution during his time of rule. For Commodus that is even more so because he killed his father to get the crown, and people of Rome did not accept this sort of action so easily. Thus, Maximus tried his best to gain the respect and admiration of the crowd that he fought before. Maximus was a skilled commander that participated in a significant number of conflicts during his period of military service. Therefore, he was a capable warrior that could stand against any opponent that he faced in the arena. The skill that he shows in his fights had quickly brought him respect amongst the common people and the royalty alike. In the scene when Commodus requests Maximus to remove his helmet and tell him his name, one can see how people’s respect and admiration brought Maximus closer towards his goal of winning freedom (dumforbannade, 2014). This illustrates that, despit