SWOT Analysis

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For this weeks discussion, please respond to the following:

Complete the SWOT Matrix [DOCX]  (attached) to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the company (as approved by the instructor) you described in the Week 1 discussion.
Your selected company may be a startup company of your choosing or it may be based on the snack food company scenario provided to you.
Include four items in each category.
As you complete each quadrant of the SWOT Matrix, consider these questions:
Strengths.
What are your selected companys likely strengths?
Is your product or service in a growing industry and does it lack an entrenched competitor?
Are you in a niche market with great potential?
What strengths do you and other team members bring to the company?
Weaknesses.
What are your chosen companys likely weaknesses?
How entrenched is the competition in your industry segment?
Is your management team inexperienced?
How challenging will it be to produce the product or offer the service and maintain quality?
Opportunities.
What are your companys opportunities?
Does your segment have more demand than supply?
Have larger corporations stopped serving smaller or niche markets that you could enter?
Is a new market emerging because of demographics, immigration, changing tastes, et cetera?
Threats.
What are your companys threats?
Does a clear market leader exist that will be hard and expensive to displace?
Are downward-pricing pressures in the segment making profit margins slim?
Are there few or no barriers to entry for new competitors?

Raw Food Diet

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Please number the questions as referenced below and follow the directions for each question. If you quote the article, you must cite and reference it appropriately, otherwise it is plagiarism.

Please read the two articles provided in reference to raw pet diets and answer the following questions:

1. What groups of people are at a higher risk of developing a serious infection from being in a household with a pet who eats a raw food diet? Why are these groups of people at a higher risk?
2. What are the symptoms of a salmonella infection in a human?
3. Who is the FDA and should we support and communicate their recommendations to owners?
4. You are a vet tech working in an animal hospital. Why is it important for you to know if the pet you are working on is fed a raw food diet and what precautions, if any,  would you take if you were working with a pet who eats a raw food diet?
5. In this digital era, we see that opinion is often valued more than facts and information provided on the internet does not have to be verified. During your studies to become a veterinary professional, and after graduation, how will you differentiate between fact and opinion?

Short Discussion

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We are going through what many call an unprecedented health crisis in the US and around the world.  However, this crisis is not exactly unprecedented.  What became known as the Spanish Flu  – a global pandemic of 1918-1919 –  was a modern pandemic.  Even though the sophisticated  data collection techniques we have today were not available a hundred years ago, vital statistic information collection for death rates and cause of death were around.  According to the US Centers for Disease Control,  “it is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the worlds population became infected with this virus.  The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.” 

The object of this assignment is for you to listen to the program – An Unfinished Lesson: What The 1918 Flu Tells Us About Human Nature  – linked below and then respond to and address the questions below.  The program is an interview with Dr. Nancy Bristow, an historian with an investigative sociological bent who has studied  and written about the Spanish Flu pandemic.  Bristow’s interview covers several topics that relate to society and sit right in the middle of sociological study.  Listen for those as you play through the interview as they will be part of what you will need to address in your discussion. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/23/820066211/an-unfinished-lesson-what-the-1918-flu-tells-us-about-human-nature (Links to an external site.)

(1)  One of Bristow’s points is that the information about this topic has been largely ignored.  Before this module, had you ever heard about the Spanish Flu and if so, in what context?

(2)  Can you see any similarities in societal behaviors and social  justice between what was described in how people responded to the 1918 pandemic and  what you are observing today?  Yes or no and explain.

(3)  Although there is no vaccine and no cure for COVID-19,  putting our society on a par with the 1918 pandemic, we do understand more about viruses in general and how the virus is spread.  And, we also have medical technology like ventilators that can assist people’s breathing while their bodies fight off the virus, thus, are in a better position for more people  to survive.  This leads to a very difficult question.  We know that in a bad case scenario, there will not be sufficient ventilators for all who need them.  Reaching into your system of values and ethics, if medical equipment has to be rationed, should scarce supplies go to those who are the sickest or those who are most likely to recover?  Why?

(4)  What did you find most surprising about the story of the 1918 pandemic and what are you likely to take away from this discussion?

Short Discussion

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In Sociology, when we study religion we primarily examine religion as an institution in society, albeit an important and interactive institution. In our society, whether we define ourselves as a religious adherent or not (adherent is the sociological term for belonging to), because religion is such a powerful institution, it affects all of us. If we look globally, the strength of religious identity shapes much of the conflict that happens in the world. And while this may seem ironic, disagreement over religious belief has been at the center of conflict for centuries.

Now to your assignment. First, let me stress that there is no expectation that anyone be or not be an adherent of any tradition.

In your content folder for this week are a number of articles that describe religious traditions and research on religious observance.  For this discussion forum, read (as well as your related text) at least 2 articles and discuss what you learned from those articles.

In your discussion, be certain to include the following (labeled 1, 2, and 3):

1)  Did the articles dispel any myths you might have had about religious traditions or secular humanism?

2)  Were you able to find commonalities among the groups described in the articles?

3)  And since this chapter also discusses families, how did your family shape your experiences and decisions related to religious group adherence or not?