Taking a Leadership Position In The IT Business Environment

Well-defined Industrial economics have been based upon internal, specialized, and proprietary business models.  Success in that economy has been dependent upon the ability to produce and distribute products and services faster, better, and cheaper than competitors (Economy of Scale).  The opportunity for such competition translates into executable capabilities primarily by building specialized plants, jobs, and workers that support that opportunity.  Then, and only then, an Economy of Scope will develop when those capabilities have been established.  The business value is heavily dependent upon that ability to leverage an existing business infrastructure with a launch of a new opportunity.  Job specialization, hierarchical supervision, and assembly line approaches have been techniques that have successfully leveraged a launch with an existing business structure.  Those models have had little success in the Information Age.  For example, a need has risen to leverage supply and distribution with existing business models.  Therefore, a new infrastructure must be created to develop and execute external proprietary strategies and capabilities

The Changing Workforce And Marketplace

The makeup of the labor force has changed dramatically in the last 25 years and will continue to change at an even faster pace. Businesses and/or organizations will achieve many benefits from including the ageing population and people with disabilities in both the workforce and marketplace.  Viewing the ageing population and people with disabilities as strategic business partners will achieve a strong, competitive advantage

Transforming Business And Society: The Impact Of IT

Business operations and processes are revolutionizing at a rapid speed and as we continue to dive into this digital age, it is of great importance to understand the impact Information Systems and Technology has on a society as a whole, the world of business, and Main Street. With this in mind, it’s clear to see that technology solutions must conform, attribute to, and honor the triple bottom line - people, planet, and profit

Leadership Styles of Small Business Owners: Linking Theory to Application

To understand small business owners' management and leadership styles, an analytical examination of the different elements of the organization is useful. Although each owner manages a company differently, some fundamental principles are more successful, and yield higher opportunities for achievement, growth, and enhanced productivity over the long term. Business planning is vital. One essential step in planning is to develop a vision for the organization that conveys meaning. Effective management and leadership styles that promote an optimistic vision shared with all members of the organization, especially customers and the general community, yield a higher point of accomplishment for business owners

Organizational Hiring Practices Of Persons With Disabilities: A Study And Review Of Corporations, Small Businesses, Non-Profit Organizations, Foundations, And The US Government

This paper presents findings from research conducted to identify organizational hiring practices of people with disabilities. Despite the passage of the American with Disabilities Act in 1990, employment rates for people with disabilities remain far lower than for people of any other minority group. Further, this paper will offer best practices in hiring people with disabilities and resources available through federal, state and private sectors

Research And Development Investment

The United States has long enjoyed a leadership role in research and development investment and they invest more in both basic and applied scientific research than any other country.  The U.S. preeminence in R&D investment, however, is at a critical point.  U.S. R&D investment has been declining as a percentage of the nation’s GDP since 2009, and in 2013, U.S. R&D investment is expected to decline in real dollars as well.  Declining investment in R&D is the result of budgetary constraints and the lack of political consensus as to the economic value of the government’s continued commitment to R&D programs.  This decline in U.S. investment comes at a time when global R&D investment is increasing significantly.  Economic rivals, led by China in particular, have made investment in R&D a core component of their plans for economic growth and have committed themselves to increasing and substantial R&D investment.  U.S. policymakers need to take action now to reverse what could become a policy trend of decreased government investment in R&D, which has both a short-term and long-term impact.  R&D spending is an “economic and employment driver” and ultimately employs 8.27 million U.S. workers, generating $1.238 trillion dollars to the U.S. economy.  In addition, government investment funds the majority of basic scientific research which, in the past, has led to such innovations as digital recording technology, communication satellites, global positioning systems (GPS), and the Internet.  It is unclear if the private sector alone can make up the difference in government R&D investment.  If the U.S. fails to protect its leadership position in R&D investment, it consequently risks its leadership in science, technology, productivity, and innovation which is the basis of the nation’s employment and economic activity

Transforming City Governments Through IT

City governments have implemented the use of technology in an attempt to enhance their service and operational capabilities. The efforts of the past were well intended, however, the disjuncture of these combined efforts have created “islands of information” within their administrative infrastructure. Many corporations today face similar issues that city governments do; decentralized IT infrastructure, dwindling cash flows, and overall operational inefficiency. For medium sized urban centers to have a chance for a brighter future it is absolutely imperative to effectuate change at all levels of city government. The kind of change necessary is not only in an operational capacity, but that of a culture shift as well. Information technology, when used appropriately, has the ability to be the catalyst for the kind of change required to resurrect communities

Law, Business Strategy, And Social Change In The Global Environment

In this article, we examine the dynamic relationship between law, economics, and sustainability. Increased legal regulation is not a sufficient condition for the mitigation of economic and social crises. Corporations are not legally required to respect global social and human rights under international law. In addition, select legal regulations increase social harm through the preservation of corporate financial interests. Laws that attempt to protect social rights at the expense of corporate interests can provoke hostile reactions from the business community. However, recent trends and examples from within the pharmaceutical and information industries suggest a new era of global corporate citizenship where socially responsible organizations achieve profit through pursuing ethical goals

Subtractive CRISPR screen identifies the ATG16L1/vacuolar ATPase axis as required for non-canonical LC3 lipidation

Although commonly associated with autophagosomes, LC3 can also be recruited to membranes by covalent lipidation in a variety of non-canonical contexts. These include responses to ionophores such as the M2 proton channel of influenza A virus. We report a subtractive CRISPR screen that identifies factors required for non-canonical LC3 lipidation. As well as the enzyme complexes directly responsible for LC3 lipidation in all contexts, we show the RALGAP complex is important for M2-induced, but not ionophore drug-induced, LC3 lipidation. In contrast, ATG4D is responsible for LC3 recycling in M2-induced and basal LC3 lipidation. Identification of a vacuolar ATPase subunit in the screen suggests a common mechanism for non-canonical LC3 recruitment. Influenza-induced and ionophore drug-induced LC3 lipidation lead to association of the vacuolar ATPase and ATG16L1 and can be antagonized by Salmonella SopF. LC3 recruitment to erroneously neutral compartments may therefore represent a response to damage caused by diverse invasive pathogens

An isoform of Dicer protects mammalian stem cells against multiple RNA viruses

In mammals, early resistance to viruses relies on interferons, which protect differentiated cells but not stem cells from viral replication. Many other organisms rely instead on RNA interference (RNAi) mediated by a specialized Dicer protein that cleaves viral double-stranded RNA. Whether RNAi also contributes to mammalian antiviral immunity remains controversial. We identified an isoform of Dicer, named antiviral Dicer (aviD), that protects tissue stem cells from RNA viruses—including Zika virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)—by dicing viral double-stranded RNA to orchestrate antiviral RNAi. Our work sheds light on the molecular regulation of antiviral RNAi in mammalian innate immunity, in which different cell-intrinsic antiviral pathways can be tailored to the differentiation status of cells