ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Genzyme’s focus on orphan drugs affecting the degree of competition The Genzyme company has used a strategy somewhat similar to the “blue ocean strategy”; although it did not create a unique market, it was able to provide rare products to a target market that did not have any significant rivals during the time. The company did have fewer clients, but the number of competitors reduced as well; insurance companies were also less likely to resist reimbursement (Schilling 2012). Due to high switching costs for customers (if any alternative was present at all), the bargaining power of customers was low. The drugs manufactured by Genzyme are nonstandard, rare, and difficult to obtain. As larger pharmacological companies are not interested in this niche market, Genzyme’s competitive advantage continues to increase. Genzyme’s focus on orphan drugs affecting the needed types of resources and capabilities As orphan drugs require specific resources (e.g., human placentas), biotech companies either need to cooperate with larger pharma firms or seek resources independently (as Genzyme did). The bargaining power of suppliers can increase in this case, as recourses for orphan drugs are rare, and the number of available suppliers is low. Genzyme’s decision was to handle resources independently, without the support of any large firms, which eventually contributed to its success in the market, as it was not as dependent on suppliers as smaller start-ups were (Köhler & Rammer 2012). At the same time, a company that does not cooperate with other firms can have fewer capabilities in conducting tests and invests less in research and development in general, which can undermine their success in the market. Genzyme’s focus on orphan drugs as a long-term strategic intent The long-term strategic intent of Genzyme is evident: it aims to focus on a small niche market that provides customers with high loyalty and is protected by government regulations and a small number of rivals. Using technology and innovation, it plans to profit from a small but steady number of customers and continue manufacturing medicine for rare diseases, thus expanding its target market. One of the most important aspects of targeting a niche market is specialization: “specialization is primarily related to the product knowledge and the ability to create unique and differentiated products” (Toften & Hammervoll 2013, p. 277). Genzyme’s specialization in products is clear; it continues to support research on potent
Introduction This memorandum is submitted per your request regarding the agenda setting in President Obama’s State of the Union speeches of 2009 and 2016. The memorandum contains the analysis of two policies mentioned in the SOTU speech of 2016. It also examines two policies introduced in the SOTU speech of 2009, one achieved and one not achieved. SOTU 2016 The final SOTU speech of President Obama referenced several policies. I would like to review two of them: the fuel reform and the gun control action. In the speech, President Obama mentioned a reform of the energy policy. According to him, it was planned to make the country’s transportation system carbon free and allow the use of public land by fossil fuel developers. He emphasized that it would be a transition to clean energy. To my opinion, the three-stream approach of Prof. John Kingdon can be used to understand this policy. In this case, the political stream is the concern of the public about the environmental problems and the use of dirty energy. The policy stream is the solutions proposed by Obama (using public land for drilling fossil fuel). The problem stream is the protest of the recent protests by the residents of the southeast Atlantic coast against the proposed measures. It is quite clear that the achievement of this policy in the incoming year is highly unlikely since the government withdrew its plan about a week ago. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that the policy would be reversed because of the protests. Another policy referenced in the President’s final speech is the gun control. Obama mentioned that he would continue his efforts toward the restriction of gun ownership to prevent gun violence. The three-stream approach can be applied to this policy. In this case, the political stream is the extreme concern of the American public about mass shootings and other forms of gun violence, especially in schools. The policy stream is the measures proposed by the Obama administration, mainly the restriction of gun ownership. The problem stream is the refusal of Congress to aid the Presidential Administration or at least to comply with its decisions. To my belief, this policy can be achieved in the incoming year. However, serious obstacles have to be overcome. First of all, the resistance of Congress should be bore down in order to allow the presidential measures pass. Second, it is necessary to outdo some opposition in the public. Despite being concerned about gun violence, many Americans consider gun restriction a violation of their rights. If this opinion is changed, the policy is likely to be achieved. SOTU 2009 In the SOTU speech of 2009, President Obama referenced such policies as the healthcare reform and finding a cure for cancer. While the first one was implemented, the second one was not achieved. Having announced the upcoming healthcare reform in his 2009 SOTU speech, President Obama and his administration devoted considerable time to developing this reform. The goals of the policy were to make healthcare more affordable for Americans and ensure better health outcomes. As a result, the so-called Obamacare was adopted during the time o
Pixar is one of the leading companies in the global animated film market. The company’s leadership is one of the reasons for this unprecedented success. John Lasseter, the company’s vice president, is a visionary and inspirational leader who makes people work effectively on every project. Lasseter chooses a team that works on a specific project and generates ideas as well as realizes them. There is also the so-called brain trust culture that implies the involvement of other people who share their ideas on ways to improve the project. This collaboration and inspirational leadership make Pixar a successful company where creativity remains one of the highest priorities. In addition to effective leadership, Pixar’s focus on creativity and innovation is one of its major competitive advantages. The story is the core of Pixar films, which makes the company’s products successful as the stories appeal to viewers due to well-thought details and creativity. Pixar is also an innovator who tries new technologies, novel approaches, and innovative ideas. One of the potential risks is the focus on technology rather than stories. Weak stories (such as The Good Dinosaur ) can lead to failures and the loss of reputation and profit. To maintain its competitive advantage, Pixar may employ a product expansion strategy that encompasses the development of more products or adding new features to the existing ones. The leadership of the company has started trying to develop more films at a time, which is a potentially successful approach. By producing more films annually, Pixar may increase its profit. As to new features added to its products, the company may try to produce animated films for diverse age groups and address different topics. Post-Acquisition Disney: Porter’s Five Forces
Characters, Setting and Roles Written by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged cuts across several issue that characterize most societies around the world. Part one of the novel begins by presenting determined attempts by Dagny to leverage the Taggart Transcontinental, a family pioneered company. Rand presents a fictional American setting in which collectivism characterizes the economy. It is in such situations that Dagny works to keep the company in operation single-handedly even after her brother, James, the company’s president, decides to overlook the troubles of the company. According to Dagny, James’ decisions are unrealistic to the condition of the company. For instance, when James orders steel from a poor service Boyles’ Steel Associated, Dagny appeals for that decision and pursues her policy by contracting the efficient Rearden Steel Company. Meanwhile, on discovering Francisco’s destruction of his family copper company, Dagny becomes disappointed since she has known him from childhood. Part 1 concludes by illustrating uproar among the steel competitors sparked by Rearden invention of the strongest metal alloy in the world. Government Role and Romance Part two of the novel demonstrates the Government’s intervention into the claims raised by the jealous competitors against Rearden innovation. The government seems to back these claims and the pressure mounts on Dagny to deploy conventional steel rather Rearden’s. Dagny refuses to stomach the pressures. Rand illustrates Ellis Wyatt, a young entrepreneur and a founder of Wyatt Oil, who in conjunction with Dagny and Rearden fights for government withdrawal from interfering with business affairs of the country. While the government enforcement into business control intensifies, Dagny gradually notices disappearance of nation’s brilliant innovators including her business friend, Wyatt. On the same note, the reader is acquainted with the individual behind the government control of business, John Galt. In their romantic relationship, Hank and Dagny end up in what the writer refers to as ‘pure love’. Since they have similar goals in life, Rand descr
American society is one of the most diverse in the world as people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds come to the USA in their search for a better life. Andrea Smith notes that these people often face certain hostility as Americans are not friendly and may have a quite distorted view on people coming from other countries. The author notes that the society is not unified as different groups and minorities alienate themselves from the rest of the society, and their fight for their rights becomes less effective (Smith 67). The author singles out three pillars which create tension within the American society. Orientalism/War is the pillar that got a second life after 9/11 and other terrorist attacks and has contributed to the creation of tension in the US. Some believe that terroristic attacks made Americans adopt an image of a terrorist who is Muslim fighting against the rest of the civilized world. However, this is not a decisive factor which led to the development of such an image. Smith claims that western civilization has developed a specific view on people of the Middle East and Asia. Western people saw oriental culture exotic, but it was still inferior and hostile in their opinion. This idea is manifested in a variety of crusades when Christians thought they had the right to intervene in the affairs of nations living in the eastern part of the world. International terrorism is also an outcome of the idea of orientalism as people of the East started avenging people of the West. Apart from military conflicts and wars, Orientalism is apparent in Americans’ daily life. Hostility and fear contribute greatly to the emerging misunderstanding between Americans and
Compare and contrast the 1959 steel Strike and the strike of catfish workers in Mississippi delta 1IN 990. What characteristics did both strikes contain that might make them instructive for organized labor as it tries to revive itself in 2010? Both strikes were properly organized by trade unions which championed for better wages and working conditions for their members. Both the steel workers and their catfish counterparts were oppressed by their employers since they got poor salaries even though they were being overworked (Dine 11). There were no allowances for overtime and unionization was either prohibited or restricted. The catfish workers’ strike was accompanied by a well organized boycott from the entire society to all products from Delta Pride Company under the trade dispute. Since the products were perishable commodities, the company lost millions of dollars through the boycott that was well received by all the businesses in support of the workers’ grievances 1 . The media was equally instrumental in propagating workers’ plight from the townships to the countryside. Even though farmers and other shareholders of the company felt that the strike was not genuine in view of the massive losses, they were later enlightened of the need to share profits equitably (Dine 17). As such, the entire community boycotted Delta Pride products in all the supermarket chains and retail outlets forcing the management of the company to give in. The management later presented offers that were too good to believe for the workers including better salaries, contract employment, skilled worker benefits, disability allowances in addition to gender and human rights privileges. Workers were therefore entitled to compensation and health insurance for work-related injuries as well as guaranteed privacy with no supervision when visiting washrooms. The strike was therefore a labor dispute and a civil right battle that involved political leaders, businessmen, workers and union leaders in a concerted effort to improve standards of living in Mississippi 2 . The success of both the strike and the boycott was characterized by a prevailing labor-sensitive society in the region with an informed media that combined with democratic political and social institutions to end impunity in factories. Workers were therefore at the forefront of the entire society in advocating for better remuneration and working conditions (Dine 23). Union leaders organized for the whole exercise but did not spearhead the actual strike due to established democratic institutions in the labor movement at that time. Politicians were equally e
Introduction The war in Afghanistan that broke in2001 evoked the intervention of the United States and United Kingdom. The main aim of intervention was to topple the Taliban and ensure there is liberty in the capital invaded by the Taliban. Helmand province has been the center of concern of the British army. British have the largest troop in Afghanistan followed by the United States. The number of British troops amounted to 9500 in 2009 and consisted of marine, sailors and even airmen. From 2001 to around March 2010, the British military forces have lost about 275 military personnel in this war and most of them died in Helmand. British have been applying conventional military forces in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations. The war in Afghanistan started with the conflicts between the British army and the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban group as the supporters of Al-Qaeda squad. The struggle between these groups has turned out to be a complex counterinsurgency effort, which is an armed conflict carried out against an insurgency or a revolt. This is usually carried out by the armed forces allied with the government that is in power in the territory where the conflict is happening. The insurgency group aims at controlling the authorities in the territory they target like the case of Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency seeks to eliminate these insurgents as well as protecting the authority invaded by the insurgents. This has been the mission of British army in Afghanistan. British army has been using conventional military forces in their attempt to eliminate the insurgents in Afghanistan. This approach has been conflicting with the United States approach where they use unconventional military forces. The use of this approach by the British army has been criticized of being ineffective but British army still push for it. It could be argued that this is the only approach that the British army has and therefore they see every problem in Afghanistan as being solvable using the approach. This could be related to Abraham Maslow’s quote that “when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail” The objective of this essay is to discuss the extent to which the quote compliments the British use of conventional military forces in the conduct of counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan. The quote explanation applied For purposes of this essay, the quote “when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail” is taken to mean that when one has only one approach (hammer) to a problem, he sees all problems (nails) similar to the one solvable using the approach. In another case, if the approach has worked in the past for several diverse problems, it may be viewed as a universal approach. Also where all the other methods have failed, the remaining options becomes like the hammer and all the other problems becomes the nails. This may sound vague but the British a
Introduction Public policy, when examined from a sociological perspective, leads to very intriguing and startling revelations. Public policy evolves over time out of experiences in the social arena, and the effectiveness or otherwise of the public policy depends, in a major fashion, on the level of assimilation and empathy of the policymaker with the affected population. The motivations of the policymaker may be varied –most important among them being franchise collection. Most public services that are involved in the task of delivering public policy depend to a large extent on the efficiency and sincerity of the public servants involved in delivering public good and services of varying hues. It has been variously argued that public services and the public sector suffers maximum neglect and is characterized by a bureaucratic set-up that demonstrates typical characteristics of rule-based slow and tardy delivery of its purpose. This paper examines the application of the management concepts such as Total Quality Management(TQM) to public service and the public sector so as to bring about a change in the manner such sectors deliver the objects for which they have been set up. The common themes that run across few chosen papers from literature are identified, and arguments build upon therefrom to examine the feasibility and extent of the application of the concept of TQM to such government-owned and controlled services and organizations. Discussion The following arguments contained in the discussion are identified as common themes in select literature on TQM in government. One common refrain has been some kind of Business Process re-engineering (BPR). It was in the early 1990s that many US corporations, and subsequently companies all over the world, began to adopt the concept of business process reengineering (BPR) to obtain long-lost competitiveness that they had lost during the previous decade. The primary feature of BPR is the sole focus on business processes rather than functional organizational structures. Davenport (1993) defines a (business) process as “a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organization, in contrast to a product focus’s emphasis on what. A process is thus a specific ordering of work activities across time and space, with a beginning and an end, and clearly defined inputs and outputs: a structure for action…. Taking a process approach implies adopting the customer’s point of view. Processes are the structure by which an organization does what is necessary to produce value for its customers.”  1. Hammer & Champy’s (1993) definition can be considered as a subset of Davenport’s. They define a process as “a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer.” At th
Some monks have come up with belief that obstructions like lust and sensual pleasures cannot obstruct anyone from practicing their religion. This is however a misrepresentation because these obstructions only lead to self-gratification which lead to perpetual suffering. Because of the debates that have clouded the sexuality of the monks many have had to believe that monks can marry. This is a misconception because monks must remain celibate. Clear line has to be drawn between those who dress like monks and marry and the actual monks. Those who put on monks and have wives should never be mistaken for monks. Whoever feels like abandoning the monk’s way of life if free to go because it is their individual right. But once they have given up their vows they must stop putting on like monks. Buddhism gives a lot of credence to scholarship that is anchored on the practitioner’s investigation and his experience. This scholarship is not in essence a textual tradition. The scholarship is intended to enlighten someone under the Bodhi tree. Many people have mistaken Buddhism to be a religion. In actual sense it is a philosophy of life. That there is god in Buddhism is a misrepresentation because the original scriptures do not talk of any conscious higher being in the world. The scriptures regarded nature as the highest being. The Indian who started Buddhism died some time back and is not immortal (Nakamura, 1990). The fact that his followers called him Buddha simplify imply that he is enlightened but does not render him immortal. Buddhism is against praying to idols but encourages individuals to think. The scriptures encourage people who practice Buddhism to challenge the existing teachings. This is meant to encourage thinking while discouraging blind following. Individuals must no what the verses in the scriptures actually mean. Scriptures tend to discourage offering of prayers to idols and statues. One must not just go to the temple to pray but to think. It is likely that people who pray to idols do not engage in constructive thinking and tend to leave everything to Buddha and assume that things will resultantly be well with them. Individual is called upon to understand the ultimate source of suffering by engaging in thinking. One can only fully understand how the world works when he or she is enlightened. Unless one is enlightened it is very difficult for them to attain happiness. Buddhism calls upon its adherents to be compassionate towards everything, plants and animals included. This compassion makes one to attain higher level of enlightenment. This kind of enlightenment compels a man never to run but offer himself as food to the lion. The lion will be converted to a vegetarian by this higher enlightenment. Scriptural teaching on retribution has up to today been misconceived because of the theories that have been advanced from the original scriptural teachings. Many stories have been told about the 18 levels of hell. Good and bad in Buddhism context is relative. Quite often whatever is perceived to be good or bad depends on how one was brought up, the state of their mind, and their level of education. Becau