ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Abstract Sony Corporation was not afraid to embrace change. In fact, the company was proactive when it comes to implementing change, hoping to guide a successful organization into the 21 st century. The moves made were radical considering the fact that the company’s core business was in manufacture of consumer electronics goods and yet it acquired Columbia Pictures and CBS Records. From the point of view of change management, the company leadership did everything right in securing the cooperation of various stakeholders even when it was clear to many that Sony was in uncharted waters. The acquisition of a movie company and a recording company was difficult to justify, however, Sony was able to pull it through. Finally, change was implemented but at the end Sony realized that the commitment to implement change is not enough, it is also crucial to apply due diligence to figure out the long-term effect of a strategic move. Introduction In the decade of the 80’s and 90’s there was an electronic gadget that was ubiquitous from Tokyo to New York. It was none other than the Sony Walkman. At the same time household from Asia, Europe and America were entertained using a Sony Television set and the most popular model was the Sony Trinitron. The once humble and unknown Japanese electronics company has taken the world by storm and was one of the most profitable corporations in the 20 th century. They key to their success was innovation, specifically the creation of miniaturized and portable music machines as well as cutting-edge technology that powered their TV set. Music lovers used their Walkman to enjoy music whenever and wherever they want to listen to their favorite songs. At the same time TV viewers were delighted with the picture quality of the company’s Sony Trinitron TV set. Needless to say, Sony became the undisputed leader in consumer electronics and was considered a savvy innovator with a knack for knowing what the people really wanted when it comes to consumer electronic goods (Nathan, 1999, p.10). However, change management was not the strongest suit of the company’s corporate leaders during the latter part of the 20 th century. It was difficult to change something that was profitable for a long time. The corporate leaders at Sony made the decision to expand its presence in the United States and set their sights on the U.S. entertainment industry. The company tried to change but the attempt failed (Tabuchi, 2012). The corporate leaders and major investors at the Sony Corporation must think long and hard on how to implement an effective change management program that could help the company succeed in the 21 st century. Literature Review Sony was a
Introduction To begin with, it is necessary to emphasize that McDonald’s Corporation is the largest network of fast-food restaurants in the world. It is said that nearly 47 million customers are served every day in this network. The clients are mainly attracted by the simplicity of the choice, low prices, and high-level service (in comparison with the other fast-food restaurants and cafes). Lots of restaurants on this net have included a playground and special hall for children. These are positioned as the best place for a birthday children’s party. The others are designed in a more natural style, and these restaurants are aimed to emphasize special comfort and an opportunity to relax: providing lounge areas and fireplaces, and refusing from hard plastic chairs and tables. As for the financial position of this net, it should be mentioned that McDonald’s Corporation as it was stated in Dalton (2004) held a minority interest in Pret A Manger (a UK-based sandwich retailer) until 2008, and owned the Chipotle Mexican Grill until 2006 and the restaurant chain Boston Market until 2007. The company has also expanded the McDonald’s menu in recent decades to include alternative meal options, such as salads and snack wraps, to capitalize on growing consumer interest in health and wellness. History The business of fast-food restaurants started in 1940. These were two brothers Dick and Mac Macdonalds. They opened their first restaurant in San Bernadino, California, and this was the first restaurant with the introduced and properly incorporated “Speedee Service System”, which was initiated in 1948. This system further became the main principle of the modern fast-food industry. From 1955 the company started working according to an absolutely innovative scheme, based on franchising. This scheme allowed McDonald’s to become the largest restaurant net in the world, as franchising is regarded as the most comfortable way of starting a business. Constraints The fact is that, in spite of the successful business performance, Mcdonald’s was involved in several lawsuits on various issues. Mushi-Brunt (2007) emphasizes that some of them entailed conflicts on the matter of the trademark. The company has threatened many food businesses with legal action unless they drop the Mc or Mac from their trading name. In one noteworthy case, McDonald’s sued a Scottish café owner called McDonald, even though the business in question dated back over a century . The company was also involved in several cases on the matters of workers’ rights. The case was aimed to regard the conditions of the work and to regard the fact of breaking the law on the matter of child working conditions. It was the largest ever fine, imposed upon a company (£12,400) Still, the main accusation relates to the issues of he
There are rules put in place by the government to regulate a company’s social behaviour. The regulation is important since companies have been known to act unfairly when it comes to rivalry with other firms for customers and profits. The Anderson Company did not pay sufficient attention to the laws that regulate competition. In the midst of their rivalry with other accounting firms for profits and customers they behaved unethically. They issued unqualified opinions on erroneous financial statements so that their big clients would give them higher volumes of consulting jobs. In the 1950s the company began offering consulting services which became highly profitable over the next thirty years. It was fast-growing, highly profitable and recognized globally. Through their unethical practices the company was able to edge out other accounting firms and increase their market share in consultancy. Other firms would receive less work since they did not behave in an unethical manner. These practices constitute unfair competition. There are laws that protect consumers when it comes to the goods and services that a company sell. There are also laws that protect the consumers of the financial statements. The consumers of the financial statements are the regulators, shareholders, potential investors and the employees. Anderson did not consider the consumers of the financial data of their clients. They allowed the companies to publish incorrect financial statements and even participated in covering up irregularities. The consumers were not alerted of financial difficulties. The senior management at Enron had overstated the net profit and shareholder’s equity by $1.58billion and $2.59billion respectively over the four year period 1997 to 2000 (Norwan, Mohammed & Chek, 2011). The potential investors would not have bought any stock in the company if they knew of the difficulties. The current stockholders would have sold off their investments. The employees would have looked for jobs elsewhere. The government would have stepped in to control company operations in order to protect the stakeholders. The effect of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Arthur Anderson case The Anderson Company faced ethical dilemmas when it started to offer consulting services to its audit clients. The consulting section was bringing in so much revenue that the senior management were willing to cover up the unethical actions of their clients. Managers were getting promoted based on fees collected from consulting clients rather than their performance in quality audits. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act eliminates conflict of interest arising from such situations. Section 201 prohibits public accounting firms from providing both audit and non-audit services to a public company without the express approval of the audit committee. Another area that created conflict of interest was the lack of rotation of the company’s auditors. The Act states that two senior auditors should not be in charge of a client’s auditing responsibilities for more than five years. The other audit staff cannot w
Introduction One of the most important, but often forgotten communities in the world histories is the Indian community, which has a remarkable history of evolution (Crinson 55). In the 1800s, the Indian community was still traversing the world and one of its destinations was Britain, even as the British people crossed to the Asian zones as well. The British Raj is a historical moment between 1858 and 1947, when the British colonized part of the Indian subcontinent and established their British rule (Deb 32). During this moment, people had discovered the essence of writing stories about the life of the people. One of the renowned journalists and poets of the era of the British Raj is Joseph Rudyard Kipling, who lived and travelled widely across India, South Africa, England, and the United States. The intent of this essay is to examine “ The Jungle Book” of Joseph Rudyard Kipling and the prehistoric lifestyle or culture of the Indians during the ancient times. The Indians during the Old era Culture is a multifaceted concept in the history of the people because culture means the people’s way of life or the manner in which people live (Crinson 16). In the simplest perspective, culture generally describes the intellectual and the spiritual way of living, where the sense of living philosophies, religion, economic activities, literature, music, leadership, art, and legal systems are the major facets that guide the human life (Crinson 27). The ancient Indians had their unique lifestyle or their standard of living that guided the manner in which they behaved, interacted with people, and interacted with the environment. Culture being a mainstay of history, was the major interest of Kipling in his Jungle Book . Kipling used animal characters and described the lifestyle of the Indians as a form of life where lawlessness, social rejection, lack of appropriate leadership, poor agricultural practices, primitive customs and beliefs, and archaic cultures were common lifestyle issues (42). Kipling showed interest in the lives of the Indian people and the way these people practiced their culture during the period of 1882 and 1889. In The Jungle Book , Kipling discusses numerous cultural aspects of the Indian people of the primitive days. Indians have continuously maintained most of their cultural values, and often practiced their religious dogma just as it was in their prehistoric days (Crinson 35). In his book, Kipling discusses the manner in which the Indians struggled to civilize into a modern society through the western civilization principles. The Jungle Book presents animal stories that remarkably highlight the Indian culture and their major traditional beliefs. In this book, Kipling relates the animal’s life of individualism, collectivism, and lawlessness, with the real issues that affected the Indians while under the British rule (Kipling 3). The book generally portrayed the naïve India, where lawlessness, racial discrimination, cultural civilization, and social concerns were major problems between the ancient Indians. Lawlessness and the people The Indian people during the 1880s were still naïve about lawmaking and they never
Thesis statement: communication strategies in accounting and auditing environmental. What strategies are used in the accounting environment? My profession is accounting and auditing. While carrying out auditing for one of my clients, I came across a transaction in the financial statements with serious misstatements. The misstatements in the financial statements arose from either embezzlement through collusion, financial fraud, or intentional asset misappropriations. Upon inquiry from the relevant authority, the management refused to cooperate. Instead, they branded me as incompetent and unable to handle and undertake any professional work and they requested my company to remove me from the position. I had to explain myself and convince the management of the client of the misstatements and the impact they had on the financial accounts (Louwers, T.J., Ponemon, L.A., Radtke, R.R 1997). The situation I was in was the situation of being kicked out from the assignment because of the purported incompetence. I had to employ a number of strategies that are known in professional circles to overcome the problem of incompetence as mentioned by my perpetrators. To begin with, I had to explain my professional integrity and ethics as applied. I did not want to do what the management of my client was asking to do, that is to assume the materiality of the misstatements and collude with them in concealing the act. I had to explain to them about principles of a professional auditor which I was using. I explained about the integrity of the auditor, the objectivity of the audit, the competence of the auditor, the fairness in the audit, the confidentiality in the audit report, the professionalism in carrying out the duty, and due diligence in decision making regarding transactions. These few statements made the management not believe. They reacted by kicking me out as an incompetent auditor who ought to see the door. They wrote a letter to the management requesting them to replace me with a competent auditor who is ready to follow instructions. Unfortunately, I had to defend myself before my organization and before my client’s board. Strategies In getting out of the situation, I prepared the statement relating to the work I was carrying out detailing my findings, the impact of the misstatements, and the possible source of the problem. In my letter to the management, I detailed that the discrepancy in the books of account may have arisen from forgery, financial statement fraud, due to asset misappropriations, document falsification for purposes of embezzling some assets within the company. I detailed in my letter that auditing standards and professions that an auditor to carry out auditing under some principles (Likierman, A.,1989). The principles I mentioned in my letter stated that:  1. in carrying out my audit, I was required to maintain independence from other professio
Introduction Luxury brands are highly specific products of consumer culture which are associated with the high cost and supreme characteristics. Such an approach requires specific marketing techniques and presents several unique challenges. The following paper aims at exploring the history of the Porsche brand, by determining cultural conditions that influenced it, identifying its perception by the target audience as well as the underlying messages it conveys and trying to project its future development. The research will provide us with insights into the specificities of luxury marketing and their differences from accessible ones. Background, Historical Overview, and Brand DNA Porsche was started in the early 1930s as a small company and gradually built the reputation of innovative designs. Interestingly, it was not initially conceived as a luxury brand, and while its image was associated with quality and responsibility, it was associated with a utilitarian approach for the first decade of its existence, combining quality with affordable pricing. Its first success was in 1934 when the company had obtained an order from Adolf Hitler to work on the concept of the ‘Volkswagen,’ or people’s car. This resulted in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the iconic cars of the century. However, the company has quickly shifted the focus towards racing cars. By the end of the 30s, the company has built three racing prototypes (“Porsche AG history” par. 3), but the progress in the field was for some time hampered by World War II. Starting from 1946, the company has resumed the development of high-performance designs. Simultaneously, Ferry Porsche, Jr., son of the firm’s founder, has conducted market research aimed to determine whether there is a niche for expensive sports cars. This has determined the approach exercised by the company for several decades to come. By the early 1950s, Porsche has relocated to Stuttgart which allowed production growth. In 1951, the production passed the mark of 1000 units. At this point, the production still relied heavily on the manual labor, but the firm has already had a reputation of being the car of choice among the elite customers (“Porsche AG history” par. 5). By 1956, 70% of the cars were exported overseas. The growing demand has triggered the expansion of the production capabilities and the introduction of the new services, such as car delivery and service, spare parts shops, and the sales department. In 1964, Porsche 911, an entirely new design, was introduced. Both the design and the quality of parts indicated the shift towards the luxurious and expensive look and feel. Major investments in sophisticated research were also seen during this period. Finally, in 1973 the firm became a joint-stock company and was renamed Porsche AG (“Porsche AG history” par. 6). The 80s marked the most prolific era for the company, with the steadily growing revenues up to 1986. However, starting from the early nineties, the market rapidly declined. Some reasons include the overall decline of the US economy and the constantly growing prices of the cars (“Porsche AG history” par. 9). To amend the situa
Summary Research Topic A primary goal of the article Errors in the Making and Perception of Art Images of Human Gait: Psychological Explanations by Meltzoff is to determine the psychological cause of wrong human portrayal in the drawing and paintings (Meltzoff, 2014). A research topic is the development of the occurrence of this error. It has a strong connection with art, as it discusses the portrayal of gait in the pictures. Literature Review The literature review consists of precise and convincing materials, which are related to the historical background of gait and its origin. For example, moving poses of the figures on the ancient vases were discussed (Meltzoff, 2014). Design/Methodology Three empirical studies were used. The primary goal of the first survey was to measure the awareness of the error and ability to recognize it, 30 participants partook (Meltzoff, 2014). As for the second study, the sample is 43 adults, the green traffic signal was shown, and the participants had to distinguish between right and left legs (Meltzoff, 2014). Lastly, the stop pose was evaluated for the third study. 301 pictures were assessed (Meltzoff, 2014). Conducting several experiments made the article convincing, the existence of the problem was determined. Results The first study revealed that many participants make a mistake. The second study showed that there are no significant differences between the answers of people of different sex and educational level (Meltzoff, 2014). The third study revealed that 208 participants made a mistake while posing (Meltzoff, 2014). The further literature review revealed that the possible reasons for this phenomenon are intentional usage by the artists, dynamics, and “aesthetic choice” (Meltzoff, 2014, p. 327). The author also defines psychological factors, such as “difficulty making the implicit explicit” ((Meltzoff, 2014, p. 327). Discussion The study addresses if it makes any difference for an individual. People enjoy the painting despite the error (Meltzoff, 2014). The author suggests including this topic in the curriculum (Meltzoff, 2014). The discussion section is rather ambiguous, as the author criticizes his points. Recommendations for Future Research Recommendations were combined with discussions and conclusions. The author suggests using the wooden doll in the future (Meltzoff, 2014). His suggestions are allowed to exist, as the results have shown that there might be a necessity in the wooden doll. Personal Reflection One of the primary reasons for finding this article important is my curiosity, as the goal of the article is unusual. Moreover, I did not pay attention to the matter of gait, and I did not
Introduction Organization training design is an activity that involves six key steps, namely, organization analysis, laying out training program objectives, creating a detailed lesson plan, creating a before, during and after matrix, evaluation rating and doing cost benefit calculations. The outcome of the design process is a training program whose integration into an organization facilitates the realization of the organization’s mission as it is outlined in its mission statement. According to WebFinance, a formal definition of an organization is a social unit made up of people who systematically work together with unity of purpose to achieve collective goals that reflect the mission of the organization (2010, 3). For the synthesis project, the process of organization training design is applied to Netsoft, a private sector company. Netsoft is a global telecommunications company that has it’s headquarter in the United States. It has one of its branches in Kenya, Netsoft Kenya, where a submarine fiber optic communications cable is to be installed that will link Africa with the rest of the world. The fiber optic cable is to bring a world of opportunities not only to the country but to the continent as well. Netsoft wants to seize this opportunity and increase its dominance in Africa’s internet market as a strategic move towards increasing its earnings. However, its five-telecommunication engineers in Kenya are not conversant with fiber optic technology that is already in use in the rest of the world (Kenya is a third-world country). The engineers are, however, individuals with high academic qualifications and with vast experience in telecommunication and its related fields. Thus, considering these facts the top management of the company has commissioned a one-day training program to teach the Kenyan engineers on fiber optic technology. Discussion Organization analysis According to Miller and Osinski, organization analysis is one among the three levels of the needs assessment phase of designing an organization’s training and development program (2002, 2). The other two levels as given by the authors are task analysis and individual analysis whereas the other phases of designing an organization’s training and development program are instructional objectives (2 nd phase), design (3 rd phase), implementation (4 th phase) and evaluation (5 th phase) (Miller and Osinski, 2002, 1-2). The purpose of the needs assessment phase is to aid a training manager set the objectives of the organization’s training program. Therefore, by the end of the needs assessment phase the training manager has to have established if the training program is necessary and if it is, what is it on and who are the participants. It is the idea that a pro