ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Identification A case study, Costco Wholesale in 2012: Mission, Business Model, and Strategy, provides a comprehensive overview of a retail company Costco Wholesale. The author covers many aspects of Costco Wholesale operations from its business model and corporate philosophy to compensation strategy and warehouse management. In addition, the case study includes a brief overview of Costco’s competitors. Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American retail company that operates through membership warehouse concept. The selection of goods at Costco’s warehouses is limited to approximately 3,600 items, which is ten times less than the selection of items in a typical supermarket (Thompson 11). The business model of Costco is focused on generating high sales volumes of a limited number of brands at low prices (Thompson 9). While this does mean that the selection of items at Costco is smaller than in other warehouse chains, it also means that prices can be kept low due to the fact that an individual item can be bought in large volumes. The major challenge faced by the company’s management is the competition. Warehouse segment of the retail business is a ferociously competitive environment, dominated by several large companies, some of which use the same subscription model (Dougherty par. 2). Analysis and Evaluation Costco’s mission is “to continually provide [their] members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices” (“Mission Statement and Code of Ethics” par. 1). As such, Costco’s strategy is focused on maintaining ultra-low prices. With 14 percent markup on brand-name products, the company is operating at low gross margins. Rapid inventory turnover and high volumes of goods sold allowed the company to finance its operations without large capital, “through the payment terms provided by vendors” (Thompson 9). The company’s business’ processes are designed to minimize operating costs are heavily influenced by lean thinking philosophy. The philosophy of lean thinking implies achieving greater efficiency by eliminating waste, i.e. such practices or activities which negatively affect business performance, and use lean principles to create better customer value (Radnor & Johnston 905; Fullerton, Kennedy & Widener 415). Costco removes non-essential
Introduction The article is comprehensive and quite informative. To start with, I like the way reasons why major software programs fail have been clearly outlined and the precautions or action that need to be taken discussed broadly. I have noted that major software-intensive acquisition programs fail mostly due to poor size estimation. The size of the program as a result determines the cost, schedule and effort. It is for this reason that size estimation must be constantly updated with actual courts throughout the life cycle. If software is assessed to determine status of the program then meaningful, effective remedial action needs to be taken, for example, improving response to the developer, relaxing performance requirements, controlling requirement changes, extending schedule, adding money or any other alternative. Problems The article illustrates clearly how one need to take control to keep software acquisition and development process from breaking down. As for the case of software estimation, I have been enlightened that the key to credible software sizing is to use a variety of software sizing techniques and not rely on a single source or method for the estimate. To improve the accuracy, programmers are advised to base estimates on the smallest possible unit of each component. I have also liked the fact that problems that commonly arise as a result of deviations in software size data are clearly listed for this will help the program developers to plan well. Some of the problems include.  1. Problems in requirements stability, design, coding and processes.  2. Unrealistic interpretation of original requirements and resource estimates to develop the system.  3. Problems in the model(s), logic and rationale used to develop the estimate.  4. Faulty software productivity rate estimates. The basic methods for measuring software size have also been clearly outlined, that is; Function points, feature points and SLOC (source lines- of-code). Most SLOC estimates count all executable instructions and data declarations but exclude comments, blanks and continuation lines. Function points are the weighted sums of five different factors that relate to user requirements i.e. Inputs outputs logic [or master] files, inquiries and interfaces. Feature points were developed to estimate or measure real-time systems software with high algorithmic complexity and generally fewer input /outputs than management info
Like the proverbial phrase goes, we are now living in a global village. Globalization has been a subject of discussion for decades now and it is still among the world’s greatest progressive achievements. It can be defined as the process through which markets and businesses, across the world, get increasingly interconnected with time. There are four main reasons why globalization is growing at an accelerated pace. These include Information Technology, growth of regional trading blocs, development o reliable transport links and consumer expectations of quality. This paper is an, in depth, exploration of the reasons why these factors are contributing to accelerated globalization. As it has been stated above, among the reasons why globalization is growing at an accelerated pace is the presence of Information Technology (IT). IT is a major accelerator of globalization due to its unique support for remote transactions and marketing. That is, IT makes it possible for companies targeting a global customer-base to reach these customers encountering many problems. This is usually done by advertising on the internet. IT has also enabled interconnectivity of Management Information Systems for branches of the same company located at different locations across the world. This has made IT-related globalization touch the service delivery sector. IT is suspected to be the single largest main contributor to globalization this decade and thus its contribution cannot be exhausted (McHenry, 2009, p 12). Similar to the information transmission highways that have been created by the resources of Information Technology, transport networks also have a great contribution to the accelerated globalization that we are currently experiencing. Transport networks have been increasingly growing and improving in efficiency and effectiveness (Appadurai, 2001, p. 66). This makes the provision of goods and services to international clientele easy and thus it promotes globalization. Regional trading blocs also have a role to play in the accelerated globalization that the world is currently experiencing. These blocs promote globalization by ensuring that there are limited cross-border trade restrictions. This enables goods and services to be traded among countries and thus better trade relations and better infrastructure for trade are created. This way, globalization is accelerated. In addition to this, consumer expectations of quality are a main contributor to accelerated globalization. Consumers are increasingly becoming choosey in terms of the quality of products or services they pay for (Appadurai, 2001, p. 67). This is the main reason why consumers are now purchasing products from companies abroad. This is indubitably a contribution to acce
The Status of the Police Department in my County The mission of the police is to maintain law and order among the citizens. In the US, a large amount of the county’s budgetary allocation goes to the criminal justice department. At the moment, this department in my county takes more than 50% of the total budget. The county has experienced high rates of crimes and drug abuse for a long time. It was for this reason that our local government decided to raise the amount allocated to the police department from 20% in 2013 to the current amount. However, this amount is still not enough for fighting crime. We have been struggling to satisfy all the requirements for proper policing with this little amount of money. Alternative Solutions to High Costs of Security Our county appropriation authority has asked us to reduce our expenditure by 20%. However, reducing our budget by this percentage will greatly affect our service delivery. Levels of insecurity are likely to reach a critical. As the Chief Administrator of Police in this county, I decided to come up with three possible solutions to this crisis. The solutions are; community policing, strict legislation, and a crackdown on known gangs. Community policing entails involving members of the community in the provision of security (East Auston Stories, 2009). This program has existed in different parts of this country for many years. However, in my county, this service has not achieved the same results as other county governments did. I plan to revamp community policing by equipping members of the community with basic military skills. I want to attain this goal by bringing military officers to the community to train the citizens. Individuals who go through this training program will then provide security to the rest of the citizens. This training will help reduce the amount of money the county spends on transporting police to places where people live. Citizens will acquire skills that will help them take care of themselves, their families, and their friends. My second solution is constraining criminal gangs. The department of police has identified all criminal gangs and their hideouts. I would schedule several police operations on these gangs to completely stop them. The police will have arrested and taken to court members of all criminal gangs within the next two months. Arresting criminals will minimize the rate of crime, and, therefore, the department will reduce the money it spends on fighting crime by close to 50 %. The third solution involves putting in place strict laws to control and punish offenders. I am planning to present a bill to our parliament seeking to introduce a curfew in all our major towns and cities. If this bill comes into law, it will prohibit people from walking around the town after 11 pm. People who will go against this
The film A Beautiful Mind is a film revealing the life of outstanding mathematician and Noble Prize winner John Nash. The movie starts with early years of the scientist when the first signs of paranoid schizophrenia were revealed. Despite incredible skills and abilities, his psychological disorders somehow contribute to his perception of the reality. Moreover, Nash learned to define which of his experiences were paranoia and hallucinations and which ones were his real perceptions. In the movie, the hero seems to have an ability to control his illusions and choose the one that help him solve mathematical problems. With regard to this assumption, schizophrenia may suddenly develop and can influence greatly career, family, and communication within social medium. For instance, John Nash can see mysterious people resembling undercover agents whom others cannot see. He believes that he is chased by those agents, which is in fact is false. The emerged confusions and misconceptions lead to conflict and disagreement with real people. The psychological disorder presented in the movie refer to one of the most common of schizophrenia – paranoia. It is characterized by the emerging hallucinations accompanying delusions that often have grandeur character. Specifically, there is an assumption that “…stressful life experiences and a combination of biological factors, including heredity, biochemical imbalances, and structural abnormalities in the brain, contribute to its development” (Nevid, 2008, p. 546). Hence, scholars are inclined to believe the genes influence the development of the disorder and, therefore, they point out a person’s propensity for schizophrenia. However, heredity cannot serve as a sufficient explanation for causes of the disease. In other words, genetic vulnerability does not imply a 100 % possibility of the disorder occurrence. Additionally, there is an argument that the development of schizophrenia can be caused by biochemical imbalances in the brain (Nevid, 2008, p. 547). Brain abnormalities are proved to be associated with the disease and, therefore, they may influence the reinforcement of deviated behavior. Finally, biological influences and psychological pressure occurred in the early childhood could also be a reason for the appearance of brain trauma. Judging from the above-presented assumptions, the movie proves that that John Nash initially presents himself as a strangely behaved person revealed through specific way of thinking and expre
Although trendy cafés are currently experiencing their renaissance due to the popularity of artisanal caffeinated drinks and hipster ambiance, they will not exist in the future as for modern workers, coffee should be cheap and fast accessible. In the present day, in response to people’s desire to drink crafted coffee, artisanal cafés are appearing everywhere producing tasty drinks, providing good-paying jobs for talented and skilled baristas, and being great places for work, study, and social activity. In passage one, the author states that artisanal cafés will not last for a long time as people require coffee fast through local diners or small coffee shops in order to work productively, while in cafés, drinks take a lot of time to be made. However, in passage two, the author argues that artisanal cafés are great places that provide tasty drinks, jobs for talented baristas, and a place for multiple activities. These opposing points of view demonstrate that while trendy cafés are currently popular among people who prefer crafted drinks and a particular atmosphere, they may be useless for people who need coffee as a cheap and fast fuel to increase working productivity and think that these cafés will disappear soon.
Introduction There are several conflicting views on what society perceives as justice. One common view that will be maintained in the course of this discussion is the perception that maintains the approach of the philosopher John Rawls (Sen 2009, p. 53). According to the work of this philosopher justice has to be considered based upon the demands of fairness. If this approach were to be considered it becomes crucial that we possess an understanding of fairness prior to developing the principles of justice (Sen 2009, p. 54). Given this scenario one must then determine what constitutes fairness? This concept can be shaped in numerous ways but the main point in the construction of understanding on fairness must avoid any bias and vested interests. Broadly speaking fairness can be taken to denote impartiality (Sen 2009, p. 54). Further, Rawls suggests that such impartiality is based upon a notion known as the ‘original position’. This position is based on a primordial equality condition that is characterized by both parties involved lack any knowledge of vested interests or in relation to personal interests. This original position is the status quo that ensures that any judgments or agreements reached will be fair (Sen 2009, p. 54). Rawls suggests that people can cooperate in provision of justice despite having opposing doctrines. This is because the people share a political conception of justice. This shared vision allows them to hold public discussion on fundamental questions and proceed to reasonably decide on what is the most just solution to various social issues (Sen 2009, p. 55). Through this approach it is expected that society can identify and incorporate just institutions that are essential for the structure of society (Sen 2009, p. 56). According to Rawls, the principles of justice are based upon two essential requirements. The first requirement is that the liberties of an individual can not be violated for any reason such as increase of wealth, improved distribution of economic resources, etc (Sen 2009, p. 59). The second requirement being that there is an institutional framework that ensures public opportunity for all individuals. In line with this the institutional frameworks must give preference to distributive equity thus providing greater protection to marginalized sections of the society. Jurisdiction based on Traditional Rules Traditional rules apply in all cases that are not governed by the Brussels, Modified or the Lugano conventions. The rules are often referred to as traditional based on their history which can trace them to the mid 19 th century. Prior to the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act of 1982 these rules applied in all cases (O’Brien and Smith 1999, p. 179). However, there are three questions that arise with regard to the traditional rules; whether the courts had the authority to hear the case leading considerations with regard to serving of the writ; whether the court will stay proceedings or decline jurisdiction of the case and whether any limitations exist upon exercising jurisdiction. Th
For successful performance, justice and security organizations need an effective risk management system that consists of control activities and effective resource allocation to achieve the overall objectives of the company. Strategic vision and planning, risk assessment, and analysis are important elements of any management. The development of effective risk management becomes important in the maintenance of human relationships and ensuring the physical well-being of employees so that they give the maximum contri­bution to efficient working. Risk management is a broad concept which involves business operations in an enterprise. Risk is defined as ‘uncertainty of financial loss, the variations between actual and expected results, or a probability that a loss has occurred or will occur (Broder 2002, p. 1). Risk can be explained as the very acts of using equipment, maintaining an order processing system, hiring new personnel, packing items to be shipped, accepting the financial decision, and developing strategic plans create risk. Risk management implies uncertainties and threats which can weaken organizational positions of the market and harm organizational performance. The main categories of risks are “personal, property and liability” (Broder 2002, p. 1). The importance of risk management for justice and security organizations s explained by the ability of a company to reduce and minimize a possible financial loss and improves its performance. Risk analysis consists of three main elements: risk assessment, management communication (Sennewald, 2003). There are cases in which risk analysis can reduce risk by uncovering the previously unknown cause and improve relationships. In many organizational situations, risk analysis is approached by searching for correlations between variables that are suspected of influencing each other. Risk assessment analysis helps to identify the overall stability of the environment or decision-making. Also, it allows managers to take into account change and possible limitations of their estimates (Sennewald, 2003). Some of the dependent vari­able data in the forecast may be significant and may be sensitive to variations in forecasted values of other independent variables. Injustice systems, risks, and unexpected incidents prevention have become an urgent need from the standpoint of national safety (Sennewald, 2003). Unlike corporate management issues where the manager can step back away from the table and do a re-assessment of the situation based on the data presented, justice and security organizations do not have that option. For this reason, justice and security organizations view risk management as a bridge between theory and practice which helps them to eliminate risks to services and business activities. Even
Introduction Victoria University is located at the city of Melbourne, constitutes of ten campuses across the city suburbs, and has its origin in Australia. It is of importance to note that, VU was founded in 1916 as ‘Footscray Technical School’ but ascertained in 1990 after its consecutive merges with TAFE collages in Melbourne. As a result of its success, VU has emerged as one of the major and most culturally varied education institutions in the entire Australia. In connection to this, VU is among the five multi-sector universities that provide courses in TAFE and higher education. Additionally, VU provides graduate and post graduate courses as well as vocational education and TAFE. It should be noted that, VU has approximately ten campuses both local and international that have enrolled more than 50, 000 students. The central operation of VU is at the campuses found at Melbourne city in Australia where courses, researches and engagement activities are provided which have been proven locally pertinent and internationally important (Sheth, 1988). On this basis, this study aimed at conducting a research on the perceived quality of the university by VU students. In this connection, this research will be useful both locally and worldwide in marketing this university as one of the best globally. In order to adequately carry out this research, a number of research methods were used which included interview, use of questionnaires and group discussion method. In relation to this, the hypothesis tested in the field was; ‘the quality of Victoria University is perceived positively by students’ (Pride & Ferrel, 2006). Literature review Australian higher education has had an important number of critical inflexion points when speaking about its quality in both contexts, national and international. It is said to be shifting from and “educational based” industry, to a “business” based industry that have changed the character and hierarchy of its institutions (Raciti 2010). The partial commercialisation and a corporative perspective of higher education institutions in the 1990’s, introduced to Australia the notion of the academic enterprise (Symes 1996; Marginson 1998). Universities at the turn of the 21st Century began to use marketing strategies to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The need to adopt marketing strategies was not only to protect the undergraduate student ‘consumer’ base that was under threat by intensified competition, but to also consolidate a position in the market (Raciti, 2010). Australian universities at the turn of the 21st Century were diverse in character and served the interests of Australian society with their primary purpose being to create, acquire, apply and transmit knowledge (DETYA 1998). Established under parliamentary Acts, Australian universities used to be autonomous, self-accrediting post-secondary institutions with international links. Their essence and main purpose was to promote knowledge, its development and acquisition through research and the sharing of ideas and thoughts. They offered both undergraduate and postgraduate teachi