ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Starbucks’ Challenges in Venturing Indian Market According to the case study, lack of appropriate partner in India was one of the major challenges faced by Starbucks in its internationalization venture given that Indian market was composed of many small individual retail shops. Selecting a partner from the many retail outlets was a big challenge because of their number and retail standards that did not meet the requirements of Starbucks. It was a challenge for Starbucks to find an appropriate partner and co-venture to grow and market its brand in India because of issues, such as Starbucks’ working ethics and intense advertisements for the brand to survive the cutthroat competition from the other competitors. Starbucks’ pricing was another major challenge in entering Indian market. Coffee costs at Starbucks were set at their best as compared to other world companies. In India, the prices must be lowered in order to compete with the prices of other coffee retailers, which may result in loss or little profits for the company. Another major challenge was the rising rate of sugar related diseases, such as obesity, heart diseases, increased blood pressure and diabetes. Starbucks has been the target of many consumer health groups’ movements and World Health Organizations worldwide. These groups have been campaigning against the high-fat and high-calorie products sold by Starbucks. If Starbucks products are introduced in Indian market, it may cause the increased cases of heart diseases, obesity and cancer. For example, such Starbucks product as Banana Mocha Frappuccino mixed with Whipped Cream contains 11 grams of inundated fat and 720 calories. Consumer health groups recommend Starbucks to publicize the smallest cup size and apply healthier coffee shortenings. The North Indian culture largely prefers tea so people in the region have little preference for coffee. Research carried out by the Indian government proved that the coffee consumption had stagnated at 50,000 tons per year, hence making it a challenge for Starbucks to venture into Indian market. The purchasing power parity in India is too high, and this has attracted all coffee retailers to locate their shops in India, hence increasing the rate of competition in the market. For instance, South India has intense competition for coffee customers because the region’s culture prefers coffee to tea. All the coffee shops in the country are targeting the southern market, thereby having prompted a fierce competition. For Starbucks to survive in the southern market, it will be forced to enter it with a price below the existing market prices in order to attract some customer. This may make Starbucks operate at negative profits for some time, thereby posing it as a challenge to the company. For example, the amount of coffee consumption in South India was estimated to be 39%, while that of North India was 15%, showing how intense competition for coffee will be focused on Southern Indian market. Indian
Introduction HIV/AIDS has become a concern to everybody in the world. Many countries and individuals have found it very hard to deal with it because of the lack of funds. Therefore, organizations have come up to help them handle this problem. Notable organizations that have offered their support include WHO, PEPFAR, the Clinton’s AIDS Initiative, the Gates Foundation and the Global Fund. WHO HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention Program Policy The World Health Organization Department of HIV/AIDS provides normative and policy support to its members basing on enough evidence ( WHO | Guidelines, 2014). The purpose of this support is to improve the treatment, care provision and prevention services ( WHO | Guidelines, 2014). The global vision of WHO is to eradicate HIV infections, deaths and discrimination against infected people. It aims at attaining universal and comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment and care. It also aims at combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases ( WHO | Guidelines, 2014). WHO developed strategi
Max Weber, who was a German scholar, was a known fanatic in the world of classic management theories. He was primarily interested in the reasons that orchestrated the actions of the employees, and the reasons behind the people of an organization accepting the roles accorded by their seniors and complying by them. This research paper tries to indulge into the concepts that this theory portrays. First we look at the true meaning behind the theory. Weber in his research, made a distinctive analysis on the differences between authority and power. In his argument, he portrays power as something that induces obedience or the power to accept commands through the art of force which forces the affected individuals to abide by the put rules and regulations (Hunter 154). On a contrary view, Weber portrays an authority as something that the individuals are already acquiesced to when exercised by their superiors. This concept further looks into three different types of authority as portrayed by Weber. The first of this is the traditional authority which he defines as the authority which is readily acceptable and leaves no particular questions to the individuals since it comes from customs that are deeply set (Shavinina 11). An example of this type of authority is the monarchy. Weber goes further to unfound a second type of authority which he refers to as the charismatic authority. This type of authority is gained or earned by individuals who exhibit the trust and respect required by their followers. The last type of authority is the rational-legal authority which comes from the main setting of an organization and the persons’ position while in authority. This particular type of authority is practiced within the set procedural measures and the regulations of the organization in question. The concept will further look into the major characteristics of bureaucracy. The first of these as coined by Weber is that it is a management by rules. A bureaucracy follows a particular set of rules that must be consistent in controlling the working mandates of an organization. The hierarchy lower levels of an organization are controlled by the management by invoking regulations in a manner that is predictable and consistent. The second characteristic is that of the division of labor where the authority and the responsibility are stipulated clearly and sanctioned in an official manner (Carmen 13). The lines of authority and the responsibilities are clearly stipulated in the job description. The third characteristic as Weber epics is that its hierarchical structure must be formal. The hierarchical setting of an authority must follow a well set chain of command that efficiently disintegrates the lines and subordination of the lower levels to those of the upper level in the hierarchical setting of the organization. The fourth characteristic is that the personnel hired should be hired based on the competence of their technicalities. Work in a particular organization should be based on the competence and the experience of that particular person. The art of bureaucracy as defined by Weber has also the characteristic
In every sphere of life, human behavior is guided and safeguarded by core values. Education is no exception, at that. The core values of integrity, service, and excellence are present throughout the childhood, school, college, and teacher education (Gordon ad Browne 224; Bowen 43; Astin, Astin, and Lindholm 6; Giardiello et al. 15). “Integrity First” is a primary value that stands for directness and transparency in every action. Be it the teacher-to-student, teacher-to-parent, leader-to-teacher, or any other type of interaction, integrity should always be a priority. The reason is that the process of education is densely intertwined with leadership. Without trust, no leadership is possible; without sincerity, trust cannot be established (Paul 103). For the process of education to be sincere, all the shareholders should be aware of the ethical component of education, which is even more important than competence. A teacher that is open to new knowledge and ready to admit they lack some information can be forgiven; an insincere or unethical teacher cannot. Integrity is what raises the ante for the morale of all persons concerned and the institution as a whole. “Service Before Self” is another core value that prioritizes duties over everything else. In higher education, there is a set of disciplines related to this value – the “service learning,” as it were (Astin, Astin, and Lindholm 146). Such learning consists in relating the students’ academic work with the real world experiences, which is where they learn to apply altruistic values to practice. Service in education may amount to volunteering and charity. Apart from service learning, the core value guards the teachers’ and the students’ conduct in terms of discipline and self-control. Students serve their school by following rules and helping their peers; teachers serve their community by attending the students’ and parents’ needs first. Such practice requires strong will and continuous self-improvement, which makes it interrelated with another important value – excellence. “Excellence” is the driving force behind promoting the core values and implementing them into practice in any area of life, especially education. Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and honing one’s skills to perfection; at the same time, there is always a space for improvement. The process of development and the urge to reach proficiency is the reason excellence can be regarded as a paramount value (Astin and Antonio 6). Indeed, this value encompasses the other values discussed: the necessity of being sincere and addressing other people’s issues in the first place takes a who
Executive Summary The Green and Clean Kuwait Company (GCKC) is a Kuwaiti company with environmental and ecological technology and know-how and the company is interested to bid in the CSR project of McDonald’s Corporation as its project partner to introduce and implement an innovative approach that would reduce the environmental hazards by producing organic fertilizers generated from the food wastes of McDonald’s. GCKC would like to set up composting bins outside of every outlet of McDonald’s in Kuwait where the waste would be gathered and then transported to a factory outside the city where the foods and vegetable wastes would be turned into organic fertilizer. The GCKC also develop a network of organic vegetable producers that would supply green products for McDonald’s at a cheap price in exchange for organic fertilizer. The project aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through advanced technology integrating organic materials management strategies for Kuwait with waste composting bins, trucks, haulers, waste processors, gas generating set, boilers, and 1 master fertilizer with conveyor and packing line that would produce 5000 MT of organic fertilizer per year. It is predicted that the project would be feasible from the commercial and ecological viewpoint, as GCKC is striving for ecological sustainability in Kuwait and McDonald’s is eager to demonstrate its CSR concerns in the country, the joint effort would delegate environmental awareness in this region. Introduction and background to the proposal In the global arena, the environment has turned into the major focus of the global communities because the environmental degradation would generate ecological imbalance and hamper socio-economic development all over the world, the United Nations have taken intuitive for global negotiation in this regards. Kuwait is an integral part of global awareness for environmental and ecological sustainability, global warming also drawn significant attention of the government and local administration have taken three-layered waste management projects at the central and local level that incorporated municipal solid waste management, material recovery facility, and anaerobic digestion process (Al-Salem and Lettieri, 2009). Under such a scenario, the corporate houses in Kuwait have kept their highest priority on environmental issues as part of their corporate social responsibility where the multination
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. is a rational and honest response of the leader of the anti-segregation movement in the 60s to church representatives who criticized the peaceful protest in Birmingham. The letter is very detailed and long, and the author himself notes that it looks like a book (King, p. 10). However, its size is an advantage as King has consistently and convincingly responded to criticism of the activity of his organization. In the beginning, the author explains that a peaceful action in Birmingham was thoughtful and inevitable. The refusal of local authorities to respect the rights of black people, enter into negotiations and fulfill their promises forced opponents of segregation to come on the streets to claim their rights (King, pp. 2-3). The author also talks about the humiliation and injustice towards colored people that force them to act
Introduction: Brief background history Power Water Corporation (PWC) is public corporation that avails water, sewerage and electricity services to an estimated 80,000 clients spread across Australia’s Northern Territory. In measurement, this expansive region sums up to 1.3 million square kilometres (Power Water Corporation, 2012). To ensure that this business entity retained its competitive advantage of meeting the ever highly demanded resources, its management has strategically established 5 core values. These values summarized the themes of the ‘missing’ vision and mission statements. Despite the management of the corporation insisting on its website that the authority has presented an inspiring success story since its establishment, this report established that this was not achieved on a silver platter. This was and is still the case because a number of inefficiencies and challenges did and continue to exist within its operational facets. As such, the author of the report went ahead to use various theoretical frameworks to practically identify and analyze the activities and areas for improvement. This was demonstrated in the succeeding paragraphs below. Presentation and analysis of report findings Analysis of internal capabilities based on McKinsey’s 7’s of strategy and the balanced scorecard concept In this section, the author decided to apply the theoretical frameworks derived from the above change diagnostic and measurement tools to analyze the current status of PWC’s internal capabilities. This was done with the intention of identifying gaps and weaknesses for strengthening the corporations business. This was so because as Simister (2011a) asserted, there was no ‘one size fits all’ solution that can guarantees continued success in business. This important finding was also upheld by two reputable scholars, Kaplan and Norton (2006), when they revealed that these change tools were vital in determining a business’ internal capability status. This was the case since majority of corporations were made up of various enterprise units and multiple supports. However, Kaplan and Norton (2006) averred that the efforts of various units were not properly coordinated. This resulted in emergence of conflicts, diminished performance and reduction in opportunities. PWC was no exception to this assertions hence the need to apply findings from the two measurement tools in the manner below. McKinsey’s 7’s To begin with, the author derived that the 7-S framework was important since it offered sound approaches to combining all essential factors that sustained strong organizations (Cadle et al., 2010, p.19). To add, research established that this model was divided into two broad categories namely the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ issues that
The suggested policy aims to increase the frequency of HIV testing among African American women, age 18-25, by educating them on HIV/AIDS-associated issues and raising awareness of the importance of testing. The expected long-term measurable goal of the initiative is the reduction of HIV incidence among the members of the target group. The policy is developed by using the components of the high-impact prevention framework suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These components include prioritization, interaction and targeting, coverage within the target population, feasibility of implementation, and cost-effectiveness (CDC, 2015). HIV testing promotion is prioritized in the given policy project because it is deemed most potential in reducing the infection rates among African Americans. As stated by Bogart et al. (2015), in the USA, about 1.2 million people currently live with HIV, and nearly 20% of them are unaware of their positive status. It is estimated that 19 % of undiagnosed HIV-positive individuals are African Americans, while only 15% are Whites (Bogart et al., 2015). Moreover, it is observed that representatives of racial minority groups are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of HIV (Bogart et al., 2015). The numbers are defined by many socio-cultural factors that contribute to the development of the population-specific cognitive and psychological barriers to HIV prevention outlined in the policy brief. Thus, it is essential to combine HIV testing promot
Introduction The 21 st century has one of the well-known threats namely the degradation of the environment, which has led to eventual climate change and the demise of man. Urbanisation is a major factor in the preservation and destruction of the environment. However, despite the risk, it is progressing at a very fast rate. Over the past number of decades, there has been an observed increase in the number of people living in cities. The rapid growth of cities in the face of the modern-day urbanisation has also created awareness in the threats that the change poses to the environment. The two trends have posed significant challenges in the development of modern cities that can accommodate as many people as possible while at the same time being friendly to the environment. Particular observations in the rapid growth of cities have been made in the developing countries. Experts predict that the number of people in developing countries living in urban areas is likely to triple in the next 15 years (Dassen, Ton, Eva, and Lieke 200). The trend will likely see an increase in gases emitted into the atmosphere, with the current natural resources being at the blink of depletion (Clarke 42). In light of the above observations, some governments and international bodies and companies have set out to device cities that have been popularly known as “ecocities” or “sustainable cities”. This report details an example of such a project in the Parana state of Brazil that was created with the view of developing a sustainable city and ensuring environmental conservation. Parana State in Brazil Brazil is the largest country in South America. In fact, it has 26 states with Parana being one of them. Parana state is located in the southern part of Brazil. It has a large part of its border adjacent to the Atlantic sea on the East. The Northern border of Parana is next to Sao Paulo state. It also shares a border with the Santa Catarina state and Argentina to the South (OECD 4). To the west, the state borders the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraguay, with the common border here being made by the river after which the state is named. Important to note in relation to this essay is that the Parana state has one of the most important indigenous forests in the world. This forest is called the Araucaria forest. A significant part of this forest has been lost in the past. Only part of it can still be found in the Parana state. The Parana state has some major tourist attraction cites, with examples being the State Park, the Iguacu national park, and the manmade dam, which is the largest of its type in the world (Santana, Gabriela, and Luis 723). Among the major attractions, the state of Parana has its capital city as Curitiba. The city has a significantly different life compared to the rest of Brazil as a whole. The state is reported to have a population of over 10 million people, with a population density of about 51.48 people per square kilometre (Dassen, Ton, Eva, and Lieke 200). The degree o
Dementia refers to a group of psychological disorders that reduce the cognitive ability of an individual leading to loss of memory and impaired language. People with dementia usually experience reduced quality of life, as they are unable to perform activities of daily living such as bathing, washing, and eating among others. Several mental, neural, and systemic disorders such as hydrocephalus, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease cause dementia. Although dementia has no cure, several management strategies are available. Cholinesterase inhibitors help in regulating neural activities while psychotherapies target behavioral and cognitive changes. Therefore, this essay suggests that art therapy, music therapy, and storytelling therapy could be applicable in stimulating reminiscence and memory retention of an 80-old-year-female patient with dementia. Art therapy is an effective intervention in the management of dementia because it stimulates reminiscence and enhances memory retention among patients with dementia. Given that the patient in the case study is an elderly woman experiencing early-onset dementia, the use of art therapy could effectively reverse the progression of dementia. According to Chancellor, Duncan, and Chatterjee (2013), art therapy is effective in the management of dementia because it “engages attention, provides pleasure and improves neuropsychiatric symptoms, social behavior and self-esteem” (p. 10). In this view, as art therapy primarily engages attention, it has the potential of improving reminiscence and memory retention. The process of engaging attention using both visual and performance arts requires creativity to stimulate memory. For example, the film called I Remember Better When I Paint (2009) illustrates how art therapy strengthens the imaginations and memories of patients. The use of colors, shapes, and lines in painting provides a means of communication among patients with dementia. Music therapy is also applicable in the management of dementia as it stimulates reminiscence and memory retention. Since music has a soothing effect, it reduces anxiety and depression associated with dementia. The findings of a prospective study by Chu, Yang, Lin, Ou, O’Brien, and Chou (2013) reveal that music therapy is effective in the management of dementia because it reduces depression significantly and considerably increases cognitive function in the experimental group compared to the control group. Fundamentally, music influences cognitive functions, which makes it an effective form of therapy in the management of dementia. For instance, Music and Memor