Let us consider the case of John, an entrepreneur and the CEO of a startup, named “Home Service”. The company started a small scale service where a couple of signed-up workers of the company were giving various services to the dweller of Ballarat, a city in Victoria. The services include plumbing, electric works, gas appliances’ works, and car wash. The people are Ballarat dwellers (roughly 20k in total) needed to download the software from App Store/Google Store and try to find someone in Ballarat who can provide the required service. They post a job in the app with estimated pricing, and then the interested workers pick the task. Then they go after a couple of rounds of message exchange through the app to understand the weight of the work and they finalize the total costing for that. The app then takes a service charge for the task, while the workers receive the remaining money. The business got tremendous popularity among the inhabitant of the city while people from other cities were also looking for services. Currently, John’s system is receiving around 10 requests per hour for various services.

As mentioned above, due to selecting only one city and a fixed number of services, John’s current system is like a simple computer where he deployed all his codes. To be more specific, the webserver, backend API codes, and a database server are installed in one virtual machine (VM) in the cloud, while the mobile apps are deployed in the Apple store and Google store.

John has decided to extend his business by outspreading the service area to all over Australians and to incorporate more services like catering, food delivery, carpet cleaning, gardening, and many more. To incorporate the above requirements, John’s current platform (i.e., one VM with everything installed in that VM) is not capable of meeting the future requirements.

You are hired by John to extend his current platform to a distributed system so that your proposed system will be capable to deal with millions of users, thousands of workers, hundreds of services, and thousands of requests per hour to the system.

You have to propose a new distributed system so that it can cope with future demand. You are not required to draw any diagram, rather you should mention how many (roughly) new VM, Database servers/Web servers are required to deploy. Most importantly, you have to discuss thoroughly how your PROPOSED system takes the advantages of a distributed system (i.e., Resource sharing, sharing of hardware and software, Openness, Concurrency, Scalability, Fault tolerance, Transparency).

Huston Makena is the owner and CEO of H3 Solar Inc., a startup that makes and installs solar panels. In January, H3 Solar received 4 independent orders. The company applies overhead at a rate of $6 per direct labor hour. Direct labor wages average $10 per hour.

Fill in the blank

Huston Makena is the owner and CEO of H3 Solar Inc., a startup that makes and installs solar panels. In January, H3 Solar received 4 independent orders. The company applies overhead at a rate of $6 per direct labor hour. Direct labor wages average $10 per hour.

What is the number of units being produced for Job# 213?

1. A researcher working for a Silicon Valley startup was interested in understanding differences in the productivity of Uber drivers and traditional taxi cab drivers. She selected a random sample of 18 drivers and compared the number of rides each gave on the previous day. The data representing the number of rides given in the previous day are shown below. Using these data and a .05 level of significance, test the null hypothesis that Uber drivers and taxicab drivers do not differ with respect to number of rides per day. Make sure to report the critical value and obtained value of the test statistic, and interpret the meaning of your decision about the hypothesis.

              Uber               Taxicab   

                18                      13

                19                      18

                15                       9

                12                      11

                18                      16

                22                      21

                14                       8

                18                      16

                23                       

                11                        

FiscalNote is a startup founded by a Washington, DC entrepreneur and funded by a Singapore sovereign wealth fund, the Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame, and others. It uses machine learning and data mining techniques to predict for its clients whether legislation in the US Congress and in US state legislatures will pass or not. The company reports 94% accuracy. (Washington Post, November 21, 2014, “Capital Business”) ConsideringjustbillsintroducedintheUSCongress,do a bit of internet research to learn about the numbers of bills introduced and passage rates. Identifythepossibletypes of misclassifications, and comment on the use of overall accuracy as a metric. Include a discussion of other possible metrics and the potential role of propensities.

The SAI Inc. is planning to set up a new store. The startup cost of the store is $650,000. The store will increase revenue by $270,000 each year for the next six years and all costs including costs of merchandise, labor, utilities, and taxes are $130,000 per year. The store will require upgrade to the store front every two years at a cost of $35,000 each time. At the end of the six years, the store inventory will be sold off at a super sale to receive $10,000 after taxes and the company will cease operations. The company’s cost of capital is 4.5 percent. The level of risk of the product sales is the same as the overall risk for the company.

What is the NPV of the new store decision?

Allpro clubs is a startup company that manufactures golf clubs. The owner of the company is upset because allpro has reported losses for the last three quarters, despite increased productio and acquisition of new customers. The owner is worried about his ability to obtain additional financing. In reciewing the operating performance of allpro, you notice that the company's income statement has been prepared using variable costing. You know that although the company is not required to use GAAP, the absorption costing method maybe a better method for Allpro to use for financial reporting purposes. As the senior accountant, draft a memo to the owner explaining the differences between variable and absorption costing and how a change in methodology could impact the company's profitability.

cenario You are the global marketing vice president at Dyson. You have been asked to attend a meeting with James Dyson, the company's founder. Dyson's CEO and the head of Dyson's New Product Innovation department will also be in attendance. "Thanks for meeting with me today," James says. "Market intelligence has shown that our major competitors—Hoover, Shark, and Bissell—are all developing new cordless vacuum cleaners with a longer battery life than what's currently available." James Dyson looks to you: "I need you to participate in a new cross-functional product development team that will research the feasibility of creating a cordless vacuum cleaner that works for one hour on a single charge. We also need to know if there's even a market for this type of vacuum," he says. "We envision that this new vacuum will be used primarily in the home, but keep in mind, we want to be able to adapt it easily and cheaply for light commercial use. One way of doing this is by using swappable battery packs." "Have an actionable marketing plan ready for me in three weeks," James says. You know that to give the CEO the most thorough report, you'll need to conduct an internal analysis of Dyson and an environmental scan for the new vacuum cleaner. You'll need to have a detailed plan for identifying marketing opportunities, and you'll need to research the home and commercial vacuum cleaner industry, market trends, and Dyson's major global competition.

Your financial analysis should include average unit cost, average unit price, number of units per batch, any outsourcing costs, a breakeven analysis, a sales forecast, and an expense forecast (including marketing and sales expenses). In addition, explain your schedule for implementation, the controls you intend to put in place, and how you intend to proceed (i.e., contingency plans) when your benchmarks are not met.

Milestone 6: Submit a one page document explaining your financial analysis and implementation for the startup of a new Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Consider the following scenario:

The privately owned Baker Company was founded in 1960. The company manufactures kitchen cabinets and has been very successful, expanding from one facility to twelve facilities in the same and other states. All facilities but the original are located near interstate highways. The original facility, which is no longer the headquarters, is in a downtown area of a major city (which grew up around it) with relatively high real-estate taxes. It has had a negative contribution margin and a net loss for the last five years. The founder is retired and three of his children want to close the facility. The fourth does not, because it "was Dad's first place and I went there every day after school." She believes they can bring the facility back to profitability if the city's downtown revitalization project succeeds and they dedicate the first floor of the facility to retail.

Consider:

• Your definition for "negative contribution margin."
• Whether the fact that the facility is not near an interstate makes a difference in the decision.
• Would it make a difference if the company were publicly traded?
• Might there be additional costs, in addition to revenues, to convert the first floor of the facility to retail?
• What risks may be associated with leasing to retail stores?
• What is your recommendation? Close and sell the facility or modify the first floor to be able to lease to retail stores.

Store Closing?

For this discussion, consider the following scenario:

The privately owned Baker Company was founded in 1960. The company manufactures kitchen cabinets and has been very successful, expanding from one facility to twelve facilities in the same and other states. All facilities but the original are located near interstate highways. The original facility, which is no longer the headquarters, is in a downtown area of a major city (which grew up around it) with relatively high real-estate taxes. It has had a negative contribution margin and a net loss for the last five years. The founder is retired and three of his children want to close the facility. The fourth does not, because it "was Dad's first place and I went there every day after school." She believes they can bring the facility back to profitability if the city's downtown revitalization project succeeds and they dedicate the first floor of the facility to retail.

• Your definition for "negative contribution margin."
• Whether the fact that the facility is not near an interstate makes a difference in the decision.
• Would it make a difference if the company were publicly traded?
• Might there be additional costs, in addition to revenues, to convert the first floor of the facility to retail?
• What risks may be associated with leasing to retail stores?
• What is your recommendation? Close and sell the facility or modify the first floor to be able to lease to retail stores.