Unit2crim discuss Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit2crim discuss - Essay Example Scott Roeder does not deny killing George tiller, but the key to the case is to understand what was going on in Scott Roeder’s mind at the time of the killing. As the trial judge, this case depends on whether Scott Roeder’s idea in the use of deadly force was sensible. It is evident that he acted in an imperfect defense of the unborn children since he believed that the â€Å"preborn children† were in looming danger of being killed. This verdict by the trial judge indicates that the anti-abortion activist believed that the direct use of deadly force was essential in protecting against danger. In the recent decades, several states have expanded the debate to incorporate issues of unborn children killed by violent acts alongside expectant women. In some states, legislation increases criminal penalties for crimes that involve expectant women. Other legislation in other states has defined the unborn child as a person under feticide laws or fetal homicide (Steinbock 129). These laws create awareness on the mischief done to an expectant woman and the consequent pregnancy lost, but not on the unborn child’s rights. Therefore, if this case happened in a state that did not have a fetal homicide statute, I believe that the trial judge will do the same thing, by considering the mitigating factor of imperfect self defense. This is because they emphasize that fetal homicide laws impartially criminalize these cases and that they provide a chance to save from harm the fetuses and their mothers. These laws grant a fetus legal status different from the expectant woman, perhaps cre ating an adversarial bond between a woman and her unborn child (Steinbock 130). Several individuals and pro-life groups support these laws. They believe that human personhood starts at conception. Consequently, when an expectant mother is killed, the perpetrators are seen as having committing two murder acts. These are the killing of the pregnant

Social Entrepreneurs Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Entrepreneurs - Research Paper Example This definition of social entrepreneurship is seen to model it along the lines of the functionalist perspective or theory. Social entrepreneurs are able to act as change makers in today’s society through their seizing of the opportunities that might have been missed by others, improving the existing systems in use, creating more sustainable solutions and inventing new approaches designed to encourage the society to change for the better (Roger and Osberg, 2007). The United States’ history is rife with numerous examples of social change movements. These movements included the Civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the students movement, the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender rights movement as well as the currently ongoing occupy Wall Street movement for social change. The civil rights movement has had a colorful history in the United States. Some of the highlights of this history include the 1775 publishing of African Slavery in America by Thomas Paine who was an abolitionist, the removal of Indians from their lands and their subsequent revolts, the fight for the rights of African Americans by Martin Luther and the recent fight for gay rights. And the women’s sufferance movement that sought to establish the right for women to be allowed to vote (Banmaszak, 2001). The functionalist perspective generally attempts to try and explain social institutions as being collective means which can be used in meeting both social and individual needs. In formulating the theory, Durkheim was primarily concerned with answering the question of just how societies are able to effectively maintain their internal stability and survive over time. The functionalist perspectives society as functioning in a similar manner to organisms and it is the responsibility of social institutions such as social entrepreneurship to work together so as to effective reproduce and maintain these organisms (Boundless, 2013). As a result of the various parts

Poetry and Sonnet Essay Example for Free

Poetry and Sonnet Essay Sonnet by bill Collins is a great example of modern day sonnets. The sonnet has everything that a sonnet should acquire to be considered a sonnet. In this sonnet Bill Collins seems to criticize the sonnet form of Shakespeare. Also, in the sonnet of Bill Collins he puts many allusions in his sonnets. For example, in the beginning of the sonnet where he mentions in an alliteration form in line 3 where you get the allusion of the story troy; to launch a little ship on loves storm-tossed seas. The next allusion when he mentions A famous sonnet writer named Petrarch in line 12, as well as the final last allusion motioned towards the end of the sonnet in line 13, where he mentions shake spears act called Twelfth night. The first allusion in bill Collins sonnet is in the beginning of the poem. In this allusion he writes; launch a little ship on loves storm-tossed seas. (Collins, sonnet line 3) Researching this line of the sonnet you find the phase to be the story of troy. According to phrase finder, the phrase of the line is a reference to the mythological figure Helen of Troy Her abduction by Paris was said to be the reason for a fleet of a thousand ships to be launched into battle, initiating the Trojan Wars. (Phrase finder, web) The idea of bill Collins adding this into the sonnet is because he is showing from the beginning of the sonnet the love of the poem, which is needed for an iambic pentameter. In the next allusion in the poem Sonnet by Bill Collins, he mentions Petrarch. According to Petrarch biography, Petrarch is an Italian poet who is best known for the Iyric poetry of his Canzoniere named Lura and is considered one of the greatest love poets of world literature. (Your dictionary, web) In addition, according to Peter Sadlon, Lura was a married woman. As a result, for being a married woman Lura would turn down all advances Petrarch had made towards her. (Sadlon, web) For this reason bill Collins decided to add the allusion of Petrarch towards the Volta stage. This is because towards the end of Bill Collins sonnet, he wants to point out that Petrarch will never gain the love of his canzoniere. The final allusion Bill Collins writes; take off those crazy medieval  tights.( Collins, sonnet line 13) This line in the sonnet is reference towards Shakespeare act called Twelfth night. According to the summery of no sweat shake pear, Malvolio was teased into putting on tights by some tricksters, after believing the widowed queen could fall for him.(no sweat shakespear,web) In addition, at the end of the act Shakespeare speaks of the madness of love. As a result, bill Collins add this line to his sonnet to signal the ending of the sonnet. To conclude, Bill Collins poem called sonnet was filled with many allusion and is a perfect example of modern day poems. His work followed the rules of an iambic pentameter. It seemed like he criticized the poetry of Shakespeare but yet he made meaning to the sonnet filled with love of other acts, famous writers and sonnets.

Data Mining in a Nut Shell Essay example -- Essays Papers

Data Mining in a Nut Shell In today’s business world, information about the customer is a necessity for a businesses trying to maximize its profits. A new, and important, tool in gaining this knowledge is Data Mining. Data Mining is a set of automated procedures used to find previously unknown patterns and relationships in data. These patterns and relationships, once extracted, can be used to make valid predictions about the behavior of the customer. Data Mining is generally used for four main tasks: (1) to improve the process of making new customers and retaining customers; (2) to reduce fraud; (3) to identify internal wastefulness and deal with that wastefulness in operations, and (4) to chart unexplored areas of the internet (Cavoukian). The fulfillment of these tasks can be enhanced if appropriate data has been collected and if that data is stored in a data warehouse. According to Stanford University, "A Data Warehouse is a repository of integrated information, available for queries and analysis. Data and information are extracted from heterogeneous sources as they are generated....This makes it much easier and more efficient to run queries over data that originally came from different sources." When data about an organization’s practices is easier to access, it becomes more economical to mine. â€Å"Without the pool of validated and scrubbed data that a data warehouse provides, the data mining process requires c onsiderable additional effort to pre-process the data† (SAS Institute). There are several different types of models and algorithms used to â€Å"mine† the data. These include, but are not limited to, neural networks, decision trees, rule induction, boosting, and genetic algorithms. Neural networks are physical cellular systems which can acquire, store, and utilize experiential knowledge (Zurada). Neural networks offer a way to efficiently model large and complex problems. Decision trees are diagrams used for making decisions in business or computer programming. Branches are used to represent choices with associated risks, costs, results, or probabilities. Rule induction is a way of deriving a set of rules to classify cases (Two Crows). These set of rules differ from those in a decision tree in that they are independent from one another. Boosting is a technique in which multiple random samples of data are taken and a... ...networks, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms. http://www.partek.com/ . MIT WINROSA WINROSA is a software tool which generates automatically Fuzzy If-Then Rules from your data. The generated data set can be run by most of the existing fuzzy tools like e.g. DataEngine, fuzzyTECH, and Matlab. http://www.mitgmbh.de/ Attar Software XpertRule Data Mining using high performance parallel SQL technologyA Windows PC client being able to intelligently query the data source on the host server can achieve knowledge Induction. The speed of the process is therefore dependant upon the server - not the speed of the client PC. This allows data mining to exploit the speed offered by MPP servers (Massive Parallel Processors) and database architectures that are optimized for serving queries. http://www.attar.com/ Works Cited Cavoukian, Ann, Ph.D. â€Å"Data Mining: Staking a Claim on Your Privacy.† Jan. 1998 Pryke, Andy. â€Å"The Data Mine.† 23 Sep. 1998 SAS Institute Inc. â€Å"Data Mining.† 12 Jan. 2000 Two Crows Co. â€Å"Introduction to Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.† 1999 Zurada, J.M. (1992), Introduction To Artificial Neural Systems, Boston: PWS Publishing Company, p. xv:

Contemporary Issues in Work and Occupations: Precarious Employment Essay

Employment is of various forms. An employee can work on temporary terms, permanent terms, under contract terms, or under subcontract terms. In temporary employment terms, there are the temporary employment relationships. Contract and subcontract terms of employment are defined under certain rights and responsibilities that are specified under the labor law to govern the agreement terms of the two parties. In contract or subcontract employment, an individual is engaged to carry out a specified set of tasks with the employer and employee having a relationship whose establishment is based on a written employment contract specifying the employment terms and conditions. A defined length of employment is set including the salary, bonuses, and any other benefits that are likely to accrue to the employee under the contract. In temporary employment, the employment is specified within a given time in the same case of contract and subcontract employment. The worker may hardly work for other businesses until the specified time elapses, but they can work full time or part time. The two cases of employment can be compared and contrasted as well as pointing out how they connect in some way. In contract employment, a contractor is engaged by a business to provide a task within a given duration of time. A decent contractual agreement involves the defined terms of payment, all benefits, any bonuses, and the terms of works, which sometimes may hardly apply especially in precarious employment. In a decent or high rated contract, the specific role to be played by the contract employee is defined clearly, before the contract starts. All contract employees are usually engaged for a specified term but the conditions of work in the case of precarious employment contractual terms are poor and unfavorable in many aspects such as poor salaries, few or no benefits, and poor employee relationships (Irs. gov, 2013). Sometimes the contract could have a provision for a renewal but only under circumstances that are specified under the contract agreement if an agreement applies effectively. In precarious cases of contract employment, contractual agreements may hardly play key roles in ensuring employee freedom. At the same time, the lengths and terms of contract engagements varies from one organization or employer to another but the term is typically associated with tackling a specified task or defined to work for a specified length of time, mostly in terms of years. In terms of the payments, precarious employment contracts receive less payments that they would require given the chance to dictate their compensations. The agreement in a high contract employment specifies the exact amount as well as the manner in which the contract employee would be paid by the employer. This aspect of employee determination on the compensations to be provided hardly applies to precarious employment contract employees. In precarious employment, conditions of employment are poor and could be caused high completion of employment and the unwillingness of organizations to offer permanent employment. Organizations in this case also want to avoid risks associated with taking full responsibility of workers and thus cut on their costs and risks by making use of low paid contract employees. Sometimes provisions are set in the contract employment terms that include cases of having to include salary increments at various milestones, which are usually set forth in the contract agreement for most contractors. The contractor in high-level contract employments is hardly entitled to salary increments or additional benefits, which may not have been included in the contact agreement before the start of the contract activity (McKendrick, 2005). Any increments or additional benefits would require an amendment done on the contract. The amendment of the contract can only take place if the two parties establish consent to do it. In contract employment, breaching the contract would call for a lawful consideration of the contractual agreement. The employer may terminate the contract prematurely but he or she would be required by law to pay the contractor the full amount of money in terms of salary, benefits, and bonuses as specified in the contract agreement terms and conditions (McKendrick, 2005). Sometimes the contract employee may engage in misconduct resulting to termination of the contract by the employer in which case the employer may fail to pay the amount specified in the contract terms and conditions. This case of considering the terms and conditions hardly apply to precarious employment contracts given that most of the contract employees are more careful with the terms and conditions provided by their employer. The high possibility of losing the contract to another individual makes it hard for a contract worker in precarious employment conditions mess up in his or job task. The willingness of a contract worker in precarious employment conditions is hardly driven by the salary but rather the condition of life and lack of option to worker elsewhere. Contract employment can be of two major forms of contractors. A contractor can be either a contact employee or an independent contractor. A contract employee is termed to be an employee of a certain business or an organization (Peck, & Theodore, 2002). Many case of precarious employment contract employ workers who are contact employees. On the other hand, and independent contractor works in free style and engages in providing service for a particular organization or business while working as high leveled contractors. Contract employment involves a direct link with the employer unlike the case of subcontract employment whereby the subcontractor depends on the general contractor for employment. The case of direct link to employers is however hardly prominent in the case of poor working conditions associated with some contract employments. Precarious conditions for contract employment provide limited connection between the workers and top managements. Most of the working conditions are similar to the cases of temporary employment and the relationships in precarious employment contracts are similar to those of temporary working employees (Armstrong, Pat & Kate, 2006). Like in the case of contract employment, subcontract employment involves various types of subcontractors. One of the various types of subcontractors is domestic subcontractor whose obligation is to contract with the general or main contractor in supplying or fixing materials, goods, or executing work thereby forming part of the core contract. The general contractor employs the domestic subcontractors. A nominated subcontractor creates a permit to an architect or supervising officer in serving the final selection right as well as approval of subcontractors. In this case, the main contractor is given permission to make profits from hiring nominated subcontractors, but he or she is required to provide attendance information. In the case of nominated subcontract employment, direct contractual relationship is established between the client and subcontractor of a given task (McKendrick, 2005). A subcontractor ould be a named contractor who contracts with a general contractor in supplying or fixing materials, goods, or could be involved in executing tasks thereby forming a section of the core contract. It is challenging to determine whether an individual offering service to an organization is an employee or a contractor who is very independent. Some contractors are employees and could portray the same characteristics as in the case of temporary employment relationships who work under poor conditions, poor compensations, and unfavorable employer-employee relationships. The similarity in this case may reduce a person who is seen as a contractor to a temporary employee but in some case, precarious employment contracts are seen to be worse than temporary employment relationships (Kalleberg, Barbara, & Hudson, 2000). In the case of an employee under precarious contract employment conditions, the employer is expected to withhold income taxes, provide payments on social security fund, pay Medicare taxes, and provide unemployment taxes on employees’ wages. In the case of independent contractors, the employer can hardly withhold their income taxes or even do payment taxes on to them. Contract employment could sometime be considered as self-employments just like the case of one being the owner of a business or a contractor providing services to another business firm although in precarious employment conditions, contract employees can hardly term themselves as self-employed. In this case, one has own obligations on taxes and other deductions from their incomes (Flippen, & Chenoa A2012). In an organization, determinations of how payments would be treated on offered services have to be initiated from the relationship existing between the organization or employers and the people offering services (Armstrong, Pat & Kate, 2006). Differentiating an independent contractor from a contract employee would call for looking at all information providing evidence on the worker independence and the organization’s degree of controlling the worker. Degree of control or independence of the worker can be established from behavioral aspects, financial aspects, as well as the type of relationship existing between the worker and the organization or employer. In case the company has no control, over whatever the worker is doing, and how he or she does the task, it implies that the type of employment is contract employment whose conditions are hardly attractive to a real contractor or someone willing to work under permanent employment terms. Again, if the worker’s business aspects are hardy controlled by the organization or the payer, including the way the worker would be paid, expense reimbursements, tool, and equipment provision, then the worker is an independent contractor. An independent contractor also seems to have little or no relationship with the organization or employer. The employer has no power over what the contractor does given that any mistakes are taken to be a liability to the contractor (McKendrick, 2005). The employer only waits for the task accom0lishment in order to place his comments or point any disagreements with the contractor. The employer is therefore hardly allowed to take part in making decisions on the way the contractor does his or her job but he or she does in precarious cases of contract employment. The financial control over a worker, the relationship between the worker and the employer or organization, and behavior of the worker are aspects that distinguish between an employee and an independent contractor. It comes out that, in the contract and subcontract employments, workers have control over their way of performing tasks including the payments terms as well as the time duration they can perform a given task or a set of activities. In some cases, an independent contractor may perform a given task within a shorter time than the provided time, but still earn the same amount of salary and benefits as provided by the contractual terms or even more in case there are any amendments to increase the payments and benefits of the contractor (McKendrick, 2005). Contract and subcontract employment terms are different in many aspects from temporary employment and the relationships existing in temporary employment terms. Temporary employment terms provide that, an employee would offer services to an organization within a specified time or duration. The temporary employment relationships are faced with issues such as how the workers in the term of employment should plan for their time and the freedom they should have. The only thing hardly understood in this case is that even some eople having the mind that they are working as contractors are usually under temporary employment terms and relationships (McGovern, Deborah, & Stephen, 2004). The relationship in temporary employment is that face with control from the organization. Contract employees are sometimes categorized in the temporary employment relationships since they have to take orders from their employers as long as they are working within the specified time of the contract. In temporary employment, a worker is required to leave his or her employer within specified time duration. The relationship existing in temporary employment is mainly contractual; it is also referred to as interim or seasonal relationship. The workers are said to be casual, and their efforts could give way to permanent employment. Just like in contract employment, temporary workers are given the option of working on a full-time or part-time basis. The time depends on the employer or organization. The employer or management controls all hours of work or service. Working as a part-time worker may lead to fewer benefits or compensations or having to work for a longer duration depending on the agreement and terms of service. Unlike in the contract and subcontract employment, workers in temporary employment relationships receive benefits such as Medicare and health insurance (Peck & Theodore, 2002). Such benefits are given to permanent employees, occasionally to temporary employees, and hardly to independent contractors and subcontractors. Temporary employment relationship may involve temporary work agencies or temporary staffing in which case workers are retained within a specified length of time after which they are dismissed. Sometimes, temporary work agencies form contractual agreements with organizations and companies requiring temporary workers to provide them with temporary workers. Temporary workers are sometimes considered for cyclical economic situation in which case restructuring workers or employees in a company would be highly required (Kalleberg, Barbara, & Hudson, 2000). Recruiting firms do not supply companies with temporary workers, but temporary work agencies do provide firms with temporary workers when they require them. In establishing the competences of temporary workers during their recruitment, a temporary work agency uses a set of standardized tests to provide judgment on the competence of the workers being recruited. Hiring a temporary worker would depend on the score obtained from the test, an aspect that fully contradicts with the way people are employed in contact employments. In contract employments, individuals earn contracts based on various factors including their competence with respect to their work records, the license they have acquired based on their licensing body, and their bargaining power (Peck, 2002). The best contractor in terms of all the factors considered wins the contract. In temporary employment relationships, the employer requires that the temporary employees be given adequate instructions as per the job structure as well as information on the required attire for the job. The work hours are also specified, including the wages, and the person to whom the temporary employees would report. This aspect is also not specified in the contract and subcontract terms of employment since contractors and subcontractors have control over their work and working hours. Contractors and subcontractors can hardly be assigned an additional task without having to amend the contractual agreement in terms of the salary increments and any additional benefits (Broemmel, 2013). In temporary employment relationships, temporary workers may not have control over their time. They can be required to tackle extra duties without having to adjust any agreements. Any complaints would call for the use of the right channel, but not directly with their employer like in the case of contract and subcontract employment. The worker in a contract employment has a direct communication with the employer or organization’s management. Any complaint may require the amendment of the written contract terms and conditions and may lead to adjustments in the employment terms in the aspect of payments and benefits. Contrary to the way complaints are handled in the contract and subcontract employment, in temporary employment relationships, discrepancies may lead to the termination of the employment terms, decreased pay, or undermine any chances of getting better employment opportunities including permanent employment (Kalleberg, Barbara, & Hudson, 2000). A temporary work agency may require that their temporary employees be provided to some organizations terminate their terms of service if they are working outside the initial agreements between the agency and the organization offering the temporary employment. This factor happens if the employees feel that they are exploited or employees are facing difficulties in the tasks they are assigned to offer their services. In the temporary employment relationships, the temporary employees are required to maintain constant contact with the respective authority in case things had gone astray according to the way their activities were organized. In contrast to contract and subcontract employment, temporary employment is easy to venture into since those with the required technical requirement in the required industry or job field get the job (McGovern, Deborah, & Stephen, 2004). In many cases, the job is provided without a selection process being applied like in the case of contract and subcontract employment. The temporary work agencies also absorb workers without them submitting their resume or going through an interview process. Contract and subcontract employment face many issues given that any misconduct or mistakes, in the task being offered, becomes a liability to the subcontractor, but the liability could turn out to be the organizations loss. Just as in contract employment, temporary employment relationships create room for flexible hour, but the flexibility is limited to the total time in terms of hours worked and the pattern of reporting to work. The respective human resource personnel also watch the time flexibility closely as a way of determining worker productivity and performance; this may give way to permanent employment terms or contract employment (McGovern, Deborah, & Stephen, 2004). The temporary employee is likely to strive hard to get better working conditions or better terms of employment that may only come with accumulation of great wealth of experience. A contractor or subcontractor finds his or her job ultimate as far as working conditions and specialty are concerned.

Writing News Angry White Men

You were born a white man and an American, so you have the right to get admitted to the best universities of your country in the first place, over women and colored people. You have the right to get the best job and the highest salary. Your wife looks up to you, your children are always polite and obedient – they should be, because if they are not, they will pay for it dearly. You are always the boss. This is fair; this is how it always should be. But hey, what is going on? At first an Asian gets admitted to the university you’ve chosen for yourself in front of you and thus you have to find another college to apply to. Then a woman – goddamned woman, for the Christ’s sake – is chosen over you when getting a promotion. And guess what? Your President is black! But you are the white man! How dare they to take your rights for you, your rights of superiority? All these women and colored people – how dare they declare equality? The rich men – how dare they to be more successful, than you? You have to get back at them†¦ †¦Michael Kimmel in his book â€Å"Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era† explores the phenomenon of the rage of middle- and lower-middle class white men towards the terms of modern reality. He calls it aggrieved entitlement. The problem is that white men were raised to believe that everything in the world belongs to them just because they were lucky enough to be born white and male. Unfortunately for them, their â€Å"superior rights† are gone, along with many unfair traditions and customs. Nowadays Angry White Men are glancing behind, hoping for the world of the past to become the world of the future. Oh, if they could they would bring everything back. They long for their lost unlimited power over women, blacks, gays, immigrants. They – all of these activists from â€Å"men’s rights† organizations and from â€Å"white wing† fractions want to feel themselves important, more important, than anyone else on the planet. But it is impossible to make the USA go back to where they started. The society does not belong to white men alone any longer. And the only way for them to regain their dignity is to learn to share. They have to accept the fact, that there are other people, of another gender, with another skin color, who have the right to own this world. Michael Kimmel tries to explain it in his book – but do angry men ever listen to the voice of common sense?..

Case Study - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1252 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/09/23 Category Advertising Essay Type Argumentative essay Tags: Study Essay Did you like this example? BSB, INC. : The Pizza Wars Come to Campus —Source: This case was prepared by Dr. Brooke Saladin, Wake Forest University, as a basis for classroom discussion. Renee Kershaw, manager of food services at a medium-sized private university in the Southeast, has just had the wind taken out of her sails. She had decided that, owing to the success of her year-old pizza service, the time had come to expand pizza-making operations on campus. However, yesterday the university president announced plans to begin construction of a student center on campus that would house, among other facilities, a new food court. In a departure from past university policy, this new facility would permit and accommodate food-service operations from three private organizations: Dunkin’ Donuts, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. Until now, all food service on campus had been contracted out to BSB, Inc. CAMPUS FOOD SERVICE BSB, Inc. , is a large, nationally operated food-services company serving clien t organizations. The level of service provided varies, depending on the type of market being served and the particular contract specifications. The company is organized into three market-oriented divisions: corporate, airline, and university or college. Kershaw, of course, is employed in the university or college division. At this particular university, BSB, Inc. , is under contract to provide food services for the entire campus of 6,000 students and 3,000 faculty, staff, and support personnel. Located in a city of approximately 200,000 people, the campus was built on land donated by a wealthy industrialist. Because the campus is somewhat isolated from the rest of the town, students wanting to shop or dine off campus have to drive into town. The campus itself is a â€Å"walking† campus, with dormitories, classrooms, and supporting amenities such as a bookstore, sundry shop, barber shop, branch bank, and food-service facilities—all within close proximity. Access t o the campus by car is limited, with peripheral parking lots provided. The university also provides space, at a nominal rent, for three food-service facilities. The primary facility, a large cafeteria housed on the ground floor of the main administration building, is located in the center of campus. This cafeteria is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. A second location, called the Dogwood Room, on the second floor of the administration building, serves an upscale luncheon buffet on weekdays only. The third facility is a small grill located in the corner of a recreational building near the dormitories. The grill is open from 11 A. M. to 10 P. M. daily and until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Kershaw is responsible for all three operations. THE PIZZA DECISION BSB, Inc. , has been operating the campus food services for the past 10 years—ever since the university decided that its mission and core competencies should focus on education, not on food service. Kershaw has been at this university for 18 months. Previously, she had been assistant manager of food services at a small university in the Northeast. After 3 to 4 months of getting oriented to the new position, she had begun to conduct surveys to determine customer needs and market trends. An analysis of the survey data indicated that students were not as satisfied with the food service as Kershaw had hoped. A large amount of the food being consumed by students, broken down as follows, was not being purchased at the BSB facilities: Percent of food prepared in dorm rooms Percent of food delivered from off campus Percent of food consumed off campus 20 36 44 The reasons most commonly given by students were (1) lack of variety in food offerings and (2) tight, erratic schedules that didn’t always fit with cafeteria serving hours. Three other findings from the survey were of concern to Kershaw: (1) the large percentage of students with cars, (2) the large percentage of studen ts with refrigerators and microwave ovens in their rooms, and (3) the number of times students ordered food delivered from off campus. Percent of students with cars on campus Percent of students having refrigerators or microwaves in their rooms Percent of food that students consume outside BSB, Inc. , facilities 84 62 43 In response to the market survey, Kershaw decided to expand the menu at the grill to include pizza. Along with expanding the menu, she also started a delivery service that covered the entire campus. Now students would have not only greater variety but also the convenience of having food delivered quickly to their rooms. To accommodate these changes, a pizza oven was installed in the grill and space was allocated to store pizza ingredients, to make cut-and-box pizzas, and to stage pre-made pizzas that were ready to cook. Existing personnel were hired to deliver them by bicycle. In an attempt to keep costs down and provide fast delivery, Kershaw limited the comb inations of topping available. That way a limited number of â€Å"standard pizzas† could be preassembled and ready to cook as soon as an order was received. THE SUCCESS Kershaw believed that her decision to offer pizza service in the grill was the right one. Sales over the past 10 months have steadily increased, along with profits. Follow-up customer surveys indicated a high level of satisfaction with the reasonably priced and speedily delivered pizzas. However, Kershaw realized that success brought with it other challenges. The demand for pizzas had put a strain on the grill’s facilities. Initially, space was taken from other grill activities to accommodate the pizza oven, preparation, and staging areas. As the demand for pizzas grew, so did the need for space and equipment. The capacities of existing equipment and space allocated for making and cooking pizzas now were insufficient to meet demand, and deliveries were being delayed. To add to the problem, groups were beginning to order pizzas in volume for various on-campus functions. Finally, a closer look at the sales data showed that pizza sales were beginning to level off. Kershaw wondered whether the capacity problem and resulting increase in delivery times were the reasons. However, something else had been bothering her. In a recent conversation, Mack Kenzie, the grill’s supervisor, had told Kershaw that over the past couple of months requests for pizza toppings and combinations not on the menu had steadily increased. She wondered whether her on-campus market was being affected by the â€Å"pizza wars† off campus and the proliferation of specialty pizzas. THE NEW CHALLENGE As she sat in her office, Kershaw thought about yesterday’s announcement concerning the new food court. It would increase competition from other types of snack foods (Dunkin’ Donuts) and fast foods (Taco Bell). Of more concern, Pizza Hut was going to put in a facility offering a lim ited menu and providing a limited selection of pizzas on a â€Å"walk-up-and-order† basis. Phone orders would not be accepted nor would delivery service be available. Kershaw pondered several crucial questions: Why had demand for pizzas leveled off? What impact would the new food court have on her operations? Should she expand her pizza operations? If so, how? Questions 1. How would you describe the mission of BSB, Inc. , on this campus? Does BSB, Inc. , enjoy any competitive advantages or core competencies? . Initially, how did Renee Kershaw choose to use her pizza operations to compete with off-campus eateries? What were her competitive priorities? 3. What impact will the new food court have on Kershaw’s pizza operations? What competitive priorities might she choose to focus on now? 4. If she were to change the competitive priorities for the pizza operation, how might that affect her operating processes and capacity decisions? 5. What would be a good flow strategy fo r Kershaw’s operations on campus to meet the food court competition? Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Case Study" essay for you Create order