ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
TOMS Shoes is a private company producing footwear. It gives a considerable part of its profit to provide children from disadvantaged regions with shoes. The paper presents a case study conducted for this company. Major factors influencing TOMS Shoes can be classified as external and internal. The external factors include:  1. business competition – as a for-profit company with a charitable purpose, TOMS Shoes is in a different position than other companies, who do not have to distribute much money for charity. On the other hand, a company with charity purposes may attract more buyers than other companies.  2. social factors – mainly child poverty in various countries, which influences the organizational goal, i.e. to provide these children with footwear;  3. ethical factors – they affect the understanding of the company’s mission, i.e. helping children (Wheelen and Hunger 765-768);  4. legal and political situation – general factors affecting all businesses, such as laws regulating production and selling, the political situation that influences these laws and the rights of businesses, etc. The internal factors are:  1. the leadership style of B. Mycoskie, his ethical leadership, and the inspiration he gives to the followers;  2. the organizational culture of TOMS Shoes;  3. the organizational structure – it involves both for-profit and non-profit elements since it is built as a regular for-profit company but includes volunteering workforce along with paid employees (Wheelen and Hunger 767-768);  4. the current mission and vision of the company – producing quality footwear, providing disadvantaged children with it, becoming a global charity initiative. It is clear that B. Mycoskie, the founder of the company, is a great, talented leader, who operates TOMS Shoes successfully at the moment. However, people do not live forever, and it is hard to implement such an ambitious mission without sharing responsibilities with other people. The major problem of TOMS Shoes is that it is too dependent on the talents and enthusiasm of its leader. There is no other figure in the company equal or nearly equal to Mycoskie in meaning, which needs to be changed for the sake of the company’s future. A set of measures can be recommended to TOMS Shoes as a solution of this problem. First, it is necessary to enhance the scope of tasks given to subordinates. Second, a culture of responsibility needs to be created or promoted in the company. Third, employees need to be encouraged to lead more often, even if it does not seem a good idea at first. For instance, during a meeting, a team member other than the Chief Executive can be put in charge. Such measures will help to develop leadership skills in the company’s employees, which will solve the problem of dependence on the Chief Executive. The SWOT analysis performed for the company produced the following results:   * strengths: the business project gives TOMS Shoes advantage over others since it includes charity purposes, which yields a strong mission statement and perfect marketing promotion;   * weaknesses: dependence on the leader;   * opportunities: the mission of the company can help it to become
Introduction Mercury International Ltd is a worldwide company that operates internationally; therefore, it has to operate under consistent growth with positive returns. But the Mercury’s Board of Directors realized the company was performing below its capacity. With the aim to find out key issues and hence strategies needed to accelerate the company growth, the Board of Directors instituted Bolt Consulting firm to carry out consultancy work for the company. As a result, Bolt Consulting made numerous recommendations that can work well and turn around the current company position in the market. Hence, evidence shows that product leadership strategy will be the best strategy for the company. Proposed High-Level Action Plan Findings by Bolt Consulting show that product leadership strategy is the most viable strategic action the company can take if long-term growth is to be realized. In identifying product leadership strategic actions, key issues were factored that call for such strategic actions by the company: Overemphasis on Corporate Strategy The consultancy report indicated that Mercury International Company was concentrating in corporate strategy, and in the process, it was striving to do everything. These particular actions have resulted into the company lacking identifiable key strategic actions to pursue in order to maximize its returns. Given the current times where economic resources are limited, it would be prudent for the company to pursue a specified strategy that will bring greater satisfaction to the consumers while at the same time increasing company returns. Product leadership strategy has the advantage in that the company will invest much in innovation strategies. The current market research indicates that companies that invest in product and service innovation tend to have an upper edge as far as competition is concerned (Rainey, 2005). With greater product improvement and development, Mercury International Ltd will be responding timely and adequately to the changing market trends with ability to satisfy its global consumers more effectively. The strategic objectives in accordance to this value proposition will include: outstanding performance, along dimensions such as speed, accuracy, size or power consumption, which appear to be superior as compared to other competitor’s products (Kaplan and Norton, 2004). Need for improved Innovation in products and services Product leadership strategy is largely rooted in product innovation, thus dwells more on research and development. Bolt Consultancy report found out that Mercury International Ltd, uses only 1.68% to 1.75% in terms of research and development. This shows how the compan
Poets are known for their outstanding poetic styles as well as their core concerns in the society. As one specializes in poetry, chances are that as a poet he or she will evaluate the various available styles and finally settle on the one they consider the best. The same poet will also tend to be inclined and only write about particular types of issues in society which may include love, civil wars, politics as well as religion. This was more common with early poets and each poet had a trademark poetic style as well as a particular interest in society. Once the poet chooses a particular line of specialization, say love, then the whole of the poet’s literary works would be about love and nothing else. Subsequently, poets chose between free verse poetry and stanzas. The choice of style was majorly affected by the region of origin and as a matter of fact, most American poets advocated for free verse while British poets seemed more comfortable with poems in stanzas. Walt Whitman was a renowned American poet who also worked as a teacher and a journalist besides poetry. These occupations placed him in command of large linguistics as well as literary knowledge. Some authors and poets refer to him as the “The King of American poetry” due to his poetic prowess. Furthermore, he is remembered for adherence to the American free verse style of poetry and also regarded as the father of American modern and democratic poetry. During his period, Whitman was known for his opposition to the spread of slavery in America as he advocated for the inclusion of African-Americans in the American legislative system (Reynolds 30). His literary works are characterized by romantic, political and social thematic concerns. He emphasized the relationship between poetry and society and in most cases opted to use the average common personas in his verses rather than the usual heroic personas. In line with this, most of his works make use of the first person narration or omnipresent narrators. Another outstanding feature of his poetry is the musicality in his rhymes. In fact, he is ranked among poets with the highest number of literary works that have been set to music by a large number of composers. The diction in his verses is such that the musicality in the articles clearly comes out. The subject matter of the verse is about human love for nature. However, the themes are indirectly presented in that one needs an in-dep
Zappos is an international online company located in Las Vegas that deals with the sale of clothes and shoes. Having been founded in 1999, the company has managed to gain an international reputation for quality products, thus seeking admiration from other online shops and companies. The two main founders of Zappos were Nick Swinmurn and Tony Hsieh, who first gave the company the name ‘Zapatos’ which later changed to Zappos. The main reason behind the success of Zappos is its unorthodox culture, which has gained admiration globally. This paper is, therefore, an in-depth analysis of the Zappos culture by looking at its origin, employee implementation, and maintenance of the culture. As the company CEO, Tony Hsieh puts it, “if you get the organizational culture right – then everything else that you need to be successful will fall into place” (Riley, par. 2). Despite its current success, the origin of the Zappos culture has had many downhill moments. The company initially began with only 20 employees and could not get any more because they had exhausted all their friends. During this time, the company was, however, focused on the skills and experiences of the employees they hired. In fact, by the time the company had about 100 employees, it realized that not all of them could fit into its organizational culture. Hence, this created the need to train and educate the employees on the Zappos culture. The culture of Zappos is one of its kinds given the customer base that it has since its foundation. By the year 2008, the company had over 100 million customers who made its sales shoot up to $1 billion. According to the company’s CEO, Zappos culture revolves around its customers and employees whom it regards highly. He goes on to say that “at Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—like great customer service, or, building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers—will happen naturally on its own” (Riley par. 5). The Zappos culture is actually their brand, which they have managed to sell over the years. The employees play a significant role in organizational culture, hence the need to teach them. Zappos has been keen on educating its employees because they are the key players of the culture. For instance, upon employment of an individual, the employees are inducted and taken into a four weeks training in the culture of the organization. During the training, the employees get to know who Zappos is, what they do, and how they operate. After the training, it is with no doubt that, the employees become part of the culture. As such, they become responsible for the Zappos culture and are accountable to it. This is different from other organizations where only the top management is responsible and accountable for organizational culture. Zappos has really had an easy time maintaining its
Abstract The paper involves an analysis of Britain’s banking sector rescue plan. Various strategies are considered by the government. These include increasing banks liquidity, loan guarantees, deposit ensure, quantitative easing, reduction of value added tax and the interest rate. The analysis also considers the benefits and weaknesses associated with the rescue plan. The benefits considered include enhancing economic recovery, boosting public confidence, and an increase in bank lending to the small banks. The possible weaknesses of the rescue plan are also considered. There will be an increase in moral hazard amongst the banks due to government protection. On increasing the VAT, the country’s rate of economic growth will be reduced due to an increase in price of goods. The effects of the rescue plan will be felt in the long term and not in the short term. Reduction in the rate of interest may not stimulate the rate of economic recovery forcing the government to consider other policies. Banks will also be required to increase their minimum capital requirement. The rescue plan will result into an increase in government deficit. The various implications of the bank’s rescue plan to Britain’s economy are also considered. Introduction The economic crisis has resulted into a devastating impact on the global economy. The crisis has resulted into devastating impact on the global economy. As a result, various governments are faced with increased demands to stabilize their financial, goods and labor markets.According to Gustav(2009,p.3), the collapse of the financial market affected other markets since these markets mutually support each other. For instance, the increase in the 2007 US subprime crisis resulted into an increase in housing prices in US culminating into an increase in loan default rate. According to Carmen and Kenneth (2008, p.4), increase in loan default rate resulted from the fact that the US banks had issued loans to borrowers with a low credit rating. The banking industry has played a significant role in the economic growth of Britain over the past decade. In addition, there has been emergence of various derivatives as alternative financial investment vehicles. For instance, there has been increased investment in credit derivatives in the form of Residential Mortgage Backed Securities in UK. With the decline in the performance of the real sector industry as a result of the economic recession, the UK banking industry was adversely affected and is currently in a serious structural crisis (Nadeem, 2007, Para. 3). In addition, Britain banking industry has
Introduction Financial stability can be listed among the key factors that define the degree to which particular organisations or countries in general are developed. Speaking about financial stability, it is necessary to pay focused attention to the fact that economic systems are extremely sensitive to social and political changes. Therefore, all significant changes that relate to the way that any society is governed have immediate consequences that can include financial instability as well. When it comes to financial stability, this term is used in order to define the condition of economic systems (that can be presented by companies of the entire countries) that involves as few cases when the latter are unable to operate properly as possible. To put it in other words, financial stability is related to the ability of a financial system to provide companies that constitute various branches of economic activity with enough economic resources to operate properly. Financial Stability and Threats The ways that financial systems and their official representatives react to temporary difficulties is also extremely important when it comes to financial stability. Thus, a stable system will always have a few mechanisms helping to prevent the negative impact of unexpected events that relate to natural resources or human resources on the entire nation. If a financial system of a country is stable, it is able to perform its key functions on a regular basis, and the impact of factors that prevent the transformation of household savings into investment is eliminated (Agbloyor et al. 2014). The key threats to financial stability on a national level relate to the insufficiency of primary capital that banks possess. This threat to the stability of national financial systems is extremely important as those banks that do not have enough assets are unable to operate in an effective manner in case of financial damages. To some extent, a lack of financial resources can be caused by the changing attitudes of the population towards banks and the power that they have. Another threat to financial stability that needs to be mentioned is related to the current liquidity mismatch risks. It is known that assets that banks can use are not the same in terms of their liquidity, and the significant imbalance between different types of assets that are available to banks in different countries can act as a factor that poses a threat to financial stability. Among liquid assets that banks can use to support their operations, there are precious metals that are often considered as the most reliable type of assets. In addition, liquid assets include money in cash, financial credit documents, traveler’s cheques, the available balance on accounts, short deposits, and short-term government securities (De Angelo & Stulz 2015). In reference to illiquid assets that banks in all countries have, they can include non-performing loans, buildings, and other types of physical property (Simic, Lauenstein & Prigge 2016). In some situations, banks are urged to liquidate some of their as
Online groups People who live in terms of stress or in some complicated environment are subjected to various psychological problems. The latest research findings evidence that about 65% of the population of a big city suffers from disorders and other complicated challenges (White, n.d.). Counseling might help them by providing support and outlining possible treatment. However, some individuals might have hesitations about the given practice and the positive effect it promotes on their personality. The self-help groups are created to help this sort of person and provide support. They give the opportunity to discuss a problem, sharing various experiences and remedies which helped to recover. The efficiency of these groups is based on the idea that all members have the same problem and the confession becomes not so embarrassing. The information about the recovery presented by a person who used to suffer from the same problem considered to be more credible and is followed by the members of the group. Feelings connected with the session Modern technologies introduce the possibility to use the Internet as a remedy which could help to organize self-help groups and provide consulting services to people. Smart Recovery belongs to the sites of this sort and it suggests the possibility to participate in one of the groups related to various issues. The group Overcoming Addictions was chosen for the investigation. Describing the feelings before attending the self-help group, it is vital to admit the absence of fear. The site guarantees the total anonymity as the information provided by the members of the group is treated with a great level of confidentiality ( Overcoming Addictions , n.d.). This factor has a positive impact on a potential participant and encourages a person to involve in this sort of activity to find a solution to the nagging problem. Admission of the problem is often taken as the major concern of the given sphere and the provided anonymity makes this process easier. Self-help groups impact on the health of a person Participating in the functioning of the group, I felt confident and relaxed. The benevolent atmosphere resulted in the appearance of the ardent discussion and the increase in the level of trust. All members of the group shared their thoughts, touching upon the most complex and embarrassing aspects of their addiction. Many of the critical issues discussed during the session were of great importance for the participants and they were quite satisfied with the process of their recovery. Finally, the positive experience connected with the overcoming of the addiction was also discussed during the meeting and some members decided to use the same practices. It is vital to admit the positive feelings after the session and the positive image of the self-group formed unde
Being a math teacher in a primary school is a great challenge not only in terms of planning and conducting lessons, but also in terms of self-development and professional growth (Cameron, Berger, Lovett & Baker, 2007). It is very easy to get stuck unless an efficient strategy is used to approach teacher’s duties, address students’ needs and achieve the goals set for the curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). With that being said, it is reasonable to consider the differentiation approach as the possible means to improve my teaching skills and advance as a professional within the current setting (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2009). Before going any further into the details of the entire process, it is necessary to mention that the very experience of differentiation will help a teacher learn to respond to the students needs (Kane & Mallon, 2006) – and, as a matter of fact, the idea of motivation as the fundament for successful learning process. To be more exact, the principle of differentiation in math lessons will allow for a teacher to coordinate such elements as content, process and product with the students’ readiness, interest and learning profile (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2005). When thinking about differentiation as the tool of acquiring teaching experience, it is necessary to keep the priorities in line (Grudnoff, & Tuck, 2003). One of the main strategies that were utilized in the course of the given experiment concerned the analysis of the school environment and the process of shaping new visions of students, teaching and learning processes, differentiation consisted of several minor strategies (Corcoran, 1981). To start with, the analysis of the school environment was conducted. The given process allowed for specifying the ways in which the opportunities for student motivation can be detected (Cameron, 2007), i.e., the subject matter for teaching mathematics could be developed. As a result, the school program could be tailored to each student’s specific learning needs (Cameron, Lovett & Garvey, 2007). The given experience allowed for shaping my professional identity as a transformational leader, i.e., the teacher who changes students’ attitude towards the subject. Therefore, my experience started at analyzing the microsystem (class) (Cameron, Baker, & Lovett, 2006) and evolved into the analysis of a macrosystem (statutory bodies’ regulation) (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2009). The last, but not the least stage of the differentiation strategy concerned the analysis of such an aspect of my work as collaboration with the partner (Grudnoff & Tuck, 2005), i.e., with the teacher who was supposed to supervise my work and provide guidelines (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2005). The rationale behind the given strategy can be defined as the need to develop the ability to motivate students after analyzing their needs, as well as the factors of t