...analyses will allow companies to solidify their position and direction for the future. In addition, the conduction and review of risk analysis involving various critical factors aid any business when determining the feasibility of any new organization venture. Every business must scrutinize every aspect of their prospect operations to ensure they have covered every single component to ensure maximum success going forward. Once companies have gathered the necessary information through their research, they can properly assess the feasibility of their vision and make an appropriate decision. Comprehensive Analysis The fast food industry is continuing to grow and expand throughout the world, and each company is contemplating their role and position within this competitive environment. Chick-fil-A is no exception to this movement and is currently the number one fast food chicken venue in the United States. Despite their regional popularity, they do not have a significant presence in the international market for fast food. As Europe specifically the UK continues to add more fast food chains, Chick-fil-A has set their sights upon this market to expand their global presence. Before they begin organizing and planning their new vision, a high level of market research is necessary including a crucial analysis involving regional, country, and product. Region Analysis Regional Alliances and Economic Integration The UK is the third largest economy in Europe after Germany and France. Sixty percent...
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...nurses returning to school for a bachelors degree in nursing: Issues emerging from a meta-analysis of the research TANYA K ALTMANN Division of Nursing, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA, USA ABSTRACT This literature review was conducted to determine what is known about nurses’ attitudes and perceptions about returning to school. There are four societal influences making nursing continuing education important: (1) Many nurses are still practicing with an Associate’s degree or diploma and few continue their formal education; (2) Recent studies have indicated that there are improved patient outcomes in hospitals which employ higher educated nurses; (3) A poor economy during a nursing shortage means high demand and less incentive for nurses to return to school for higher education; and (4) The worsening faculty shortage means an increased need for nurses to advance their education. Understanding nurses’ attitudes and perceptions may help identify gaps in our knowledge, determine ways to foster positive attitudes toward education learning among nurses, and allow us to entice nurses to return to school. It may also identify crucial steps to ensure the provision of quality healthcare. Keywords: nursing; attitudes; continuing education; RN-BSN; post-registration education; literature review THE PROBLEM H ealthcare is a fast paced, dynamic environment where providers of care should continually renew, update, and challenge their knowledge. ‘The complexity of medical...
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...The Health Care reform bill has the creation of an Institute for Comparative Effectiveness as a key component with the hope of improving quality and reducing health care costs. The institute would have the authority to make official determinations of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of medical treatments, procedures, drugs, and medical devices. President Obama's initial nominee as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), former Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), has likewise proposed the creation of a supremely powerful Federal Health Board, which would have similar authority to make decisions that would be binding on health plans and providers financed by federal taxpayers, and potentially on private health insurance coverage.[2] While Senator Daschle has withdrawn his name from Senate consideration, the concept of such a board or institute is strongly indicative of the Obama Administration's policy orientation toward centralized health policy decision-making. Last year, congress has passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1, which would establish a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. The bill provides $1.1 billion for the new council and delegate spending authority to the HHS Secretary to investigate the effectiveness of different drugs and medical devices.[3] Of course, there is no reason why anyone should not have access to information on what works and what doesn't. There is no reason...
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...Ben’s®. FRoZen BAKeRY Our Frozen Bakery segment includes operations in North America and the U.K. The North American bakery business is a major producer and distributor of frozen unbaked, par-baked and fully-baked bread products. Our U.K. bakery business is a leading specialty bakery producing bagels and croissants. Key brands include California Goldminer® frozen bakery products, Tenderflake® ready-to-bake pastry products, and New York Bakery Co.® in the U.K. Through our Fresh Bakery and Frozen Bakery segments, we serve retail stores, in-store bakery departments and foodservice customers across North America and the U.K. Canada Bread employs approximately 5,400 people and operates 25 facilities across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. The Company is 90% owned by Maple Leaf Foods Inc. Contents Message to Shareholders i Management’s Discussion and Analysis 1 Audited Consolidated Financial Statements 28 Notes to the Audited Consolidated Financial Statements 34 Corporate Information 67 2013 was an inflection point in the history of Canada Bread. Our significant efforts in recent years to reduce costs and deliver innovative products to meet evolving consumer demands paid off in a very strong earnings year. We increased both our Adjusted Operating Earnings for the year by 8%, and our Adjusted Earnings per Share by 9%, driven largely by strong gains in our North American frozen and U.K. bakery businesses. We also...
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...GBUS-180 Case Synopsis Candidate Name: Harshit Bhalla Session: Spring 2015 Subject: GBUS-180 Due: 4/30/15 Professor: D. Flynn Candidate Name: Harshit Bhalla Session: Spring 2015 Subject: GBUS-180 Due: 4/30/15 Professor: D. Flynn 1. Historical Analysis: - A. Business In: * Overview: * Apple Inc. “is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electron1ics, computer software, online services, and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. Its online services include iCloud, iTunes Store, and App Store. Apple's consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites.” * Apple generates revenue through many mediums. Consumer electronics is by far generating most of its revenue. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that with just one of its products, the IPhone, generating 50% of its revenue. It also generates revenue through its Apple Mac Sales, IPad, and IPod, IPod accessories, ITunes and App store and of course it’s AppleCare services. We will focus mainly on the specific consumer electronics mentioned below when describing its financial, competitive, and environmental areas. * Products & Services: ...
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...By Sameer Khatiwada and Emily McGirr, International Institute for Labour Studies2 What is happening? On the heels of the near bankruptcy of a major insurance company and the effective end of all major US investment banks, financial markets around the world sustained severe losses in the first two weeks of October, 2008, accelerating the downward trend that started at the beginning of the year. As a consequence, from New York to Moscow, and London to Sao Paulo, equity prices have fallen sharply – with the major stock indices of the G7 and BRICs losing nearly half of their value since the beginning of the year. This has seriously damaged banks’ balance sheets and restricted their lending capacity. With the cost of short-term credit rising dramatically and liquidity drying up, these events have been dubbed the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression in 1930s. More importantly, the shock waves from the US financial market have spread throughout the globe, with many countries on the brink of recession (see Figure 1, Appendix). How did a “house fire” in America turn into a global banking crisis? Sub-prime mortgages are a financial innovation designed to provide home ownership opportunities to borrowers in the U.S. with a higher risk profile (such as borrowers with low incomes, bad credit histories or limited disposable income). Most of the sub-prime mortgages were given out on a variable interest-rate basis, with the risk of potentially large...
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... Public Health 2009, 6, 492-525; doi:10.3390/ijerph6020492 OPEN ACCESS International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ISSN 1660-4601 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph Article Emerging Patient-Driven Health Care Models: An Examination of Health Social Networks, Consumer Personalized Medicine and Quantified Self-Tracking Melanie Swan * Research Associate, MS Futures Group, P.O. Box 61258, Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: m@melanieswan.com; Tel.: +1-415505-4426; Fax: +1-504-910-3803 Received: 9 January 2009 / Accepted: 2 February 2009 / Published: 5 February 2009 Abstract: A new class of patient-driven health care services is emerging to supplement and extend traditional health care delivery models and empower patient self-care. Patient-driven health care can be characterized as having an increased level of information flow, transparency, customization, collaboration and patient choice and responsibility-taking, as well as quantitative, predictive and preventive aspects. The potential exists to both improve traditional health care systems and expand the concept of health care though new services. This paper examines three categories of novel health services: health social networks, consumer personalized medicine and quantified self-tracking. Keywords: Patient-driven health care; health social networks; personalized medicine; quantified self-tracking; health care delivery; predictive health care; preventive...
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...competitive markets in health care can offer patients greater quality, more options, and lower costs. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and Medicare Part D serve as two illustrative examples of competition in health care today. Proper reforms to add further competition to the health care industry would be quite significant and would further America’s position as the world’s leader in health care for years to come. KEY POINTS 1. The body of peer-reviewed academic literature suggests that health care can and should operate like a traditional market. 2. Market-oriented reforms have the potential to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of care, as demonstrated by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and Medicare Part D. 3. Consumer-driven health plans are viable alternatives to traditional plans, and consumers should have the option of choosing such plans. 4. Proper risk adjustment mechanisms can prevent adverse selection. 5. Migrating toward value-based payment systems will result in greater quality of care at lower costs, in part by incentivizing the health care industry to make great strides in offering integrated care, innovative treatments, and personalized medicine. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kevin D. Dayaratna, Ph.D.Senior Statistician and Research Programmer Center for Data Analysis Over the course of the past several decades, federal and state lawmakers have proposed a variety of initiatives to reform America’s health care system...
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...C H A P T E R T W O Communicating Strategically In the first chapter, we examined the changing environment for business over the last half century. In this chapter, we explore how these changes have affected corporate communication and why it has become imperative for modern companies to communicate strategically. Strategic communication can be defined as “communication aligned with the company’s overall strategy, [intended] to enhance its strategic positioning.”1 An effective strategy should encourage a company to send messages that are “clear and understandable, true and, communicated with passion, strategically repetitive and repeated, [and] consistent (across constituencies).” We begin this chapter with a summary of the basic theory behind all communication, whether individual or organizational in nature. We will also briefly discuss influential models in modern communication theory. Although many communication experts have adapted these theories to help leaders communicate in writing and speaking, few have looked at how these same basic theories apply in the corporate communication context—that is, the way organizations communicate with various groups of people. Communication, more than any other subject in business, has implications for everyone within an organization—from the newest administrative assistant to the CEO. Thanks in part to important strategy work by academics such as Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad, most managers have...
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...Communicating Strategically In the first chapter, we examined the changing environment for business over the last half century. In this chapter, we explore how these changes have affected corporate communication and why it has become imperative for modern companies to communicate strategically. Strategic communication can be defined as “communication aligned with the company’s overall strategy, [intended] to enhance its strategic positioning.”1 An effective strategy should encourage a company to send messages that are “clear and understandable, true and, communicated with passion, strategically repetitive and repeated, [and] consistent (across constituencies).” We begin this chapter with a summary of the basic theory behind all communication, whether individual or organizational in nature. We will also briefly discuss influential models in modern communication theory. Although many communication experts have adapted these theories to help leaders communicate in writing and speaking, few have looked at how these same basic theories apply in the corporate communication context—that is, the way organizations communicate with various groups of people. Communication, more than any other subject in business, has implications for everyone within an organization—from the newest administrative assistant to the CEO. Thanks in part to important strategy work by academics such as Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad, most managers have learned to think strategically...
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...1. iPhone marketing plan Yesterday I’ve found a very interesting document on Google Groups and decided to post it here. iPhone marketing plan Market Summary The iPhone targets consumers who need to store information and communicate or people who want entertainment on the go. Apples target segments consist of professionals, students, corporate users, entrepreneurs, and health care workers. Currently, the market for high-end phones like the Apple iPhone is small. Few people want Internet, video, and PDA features in one device because of the high price. The smart phone market is still relatively small compared with general phone market. The market will rapidly increase in coming years due to lower prices and greater power. [pic] SWOT Analysis Strengths Innovative – The iPhone has an innovative touch screen that is patented and unmatched by any other mobile product today. It also has many functions of other mobile products all in one device. Compatibility –The phone will work with iTunes and with other Mac/Apple products like the new Apple TV, allowing for wireless connectivity to the big screen. The iPhone is also compatible with many Mac OS software tools. Mac OS compatibility means that the iPhone has limitless potential for upgradeability. Ease-of-Use – The all-new touch screen interface making operations extremely intuitive. It is radically different from those of other phones or PDAs that recognizes multi finger gestures, just as the human hand normally...
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...BUS884 Hoffmann-la-Roche and Accutane Controversy Stakeholder Analysis Team 1: Whitney Lettin Yuliya Kaliada Yafei Wang Savan Mandalia Executive Summary Embracing the ideals of CSR has become imperative for Roche in order to maintain its competitive advantage. The controversy around Accutane, one of the company’s best performing and most powerful drugs, only reinforces this fact. When Accutane appeared on the market, it became a “miracle drug” for those who were suffering from the most severe types of acne. At the same time its powerful side effects, including teratogenicity, clearly outweighed the “miracle effect” for many patients. Roche’s failure to implement an effective risk management program (RMP) concurrently with the release of the drug triggered frequent pregnancy exposures, severely deformed babies born as a result and following lawsuits. Our analysis shows that Roche wasn’t proactive enough in managing its stakeholder relationships – namely, with the FDA, its main customers (doctors and patients) and various pressure groups. Had the company been more responsive to their needs, it probably wouldn’t have had to eventually remove Accutane from the U.S. market. We believe that Roche needs to make pregnancy prevention its #1 priority when disbursing Accutane in other countries (and if it is ever released in the United States again). We recommend creating a comprehensive RMP with effective compliance enforcement mechanisms attached to it, such as requiring...
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...2011 Annual Report at every occasion chaiRman’S letteR In an era of constant, rapid and unpredictable change, the concept of staying the course, especially in business, can seem like an impossible mission. It takes strong and confident leadership, a clear and focused strategy and a team of talented people who are willing to go the distance in order to achieve the goal. Since fiscal 2010, the goal at Constellation Brands has been a singular one: profitable organic growth. During this period, we have embarked on an evolutionary journey that has taken us from a collection of stellar brands and acquired businesses to a highly disciplined and tightly aligned company that is, at every occasion, capitalizing on company-wide efficiencies and best practices to strengthen our operations, our people and our brands. Our fiscal 2011 results serve as a shining indicator that our collective efforts are paying off. More importantly, they validate the importance of staying true to one’s commitments. At Constellation Brands, our commitments are unwavering…to continue to grow our business and our premium brands, to enrich the communities where we live and work and to elevate life with every glass raised. These commitments are being realized every day because of our people, who are among the best and brightest in the industry. Dedicated, innovative and determined, our employees have stayed the course through unexpected challenges and increasingly higher expectations placed on them. We are...
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...from 1996 to 2001. Then came the investigations into their complex network of off-shore partnerships and accounting practices The saga of the ENRON Corporation has been unfolding in the media for well over a year. In the span of only three years, ENRON has gone from public and professional acclaim of the company and its senior executives to scorn, infamy and bankruptcy. Its public auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, has basically been destroyed, as well as publicly disgraced. Tens of thousands of employees and investors have been emotionally and financially affected. Major financial services firms in banking, securities brokerage and insurance have been, and may yet be, drawn into the legal battles regarding who is to blame for the ENRON failure. Enron grew wealthy due largely to marketing, promoting power, and its high stock price. Enron was named "America's Most Innovative Company" by Fortune for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2001. It was on the Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list in 2000, and had offices that were stunning in their opulence. Enron was hailed by many, including labor and the workforce, as an overall great company, praised for its large long-term pensions, benefits for its workers and...
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...SPECIAL ISSUE: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS: FROM BIG DATA TO BIG IMPACT Hsinchun Chen Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 U.S.A. {hchen@eller.arizona.edu} Roger H. L. Chiang Carl H. Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0211 U.S.A. {chianghl@ucmail.uc.edu} Veda C. Storey J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-4015 U.S.A. {vstorey@gsu.edu} Business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) has emerged as an important area of study for both practitioners and researchers, reflecting the magnitude and impact of data-related problems to be solved in contemporary business organizations. This introduction to the MIS Quarterly Special Issue on Business Intelligence Research first provides a framework that identifies the evolution, applications, and emerging research areas of BI&A. BI&A 1.0, BI&A 2.0, and BI&A 3.0 are defined and described in terms of their key characteristics and capabilities. Current research in BI&A is analyzed and challenges and opportunities associated with BI&A research and education are identified. We also report a bibliometric study of critical BI&A publications, researchers, and research topics based on more than a decade of related academic and industry publications. Finally, the six articles that comprise this special issue are introduced and characterized in terms of the proposed BI&A research framework. Keywords:...
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