How has Uber become so popular among consumers so quickly? How robust is their operating model? Any weak links/vulnerability? Do you agree or disagree with Uber’s surge pricing policy? Is it unfair? Exploitive? Are there risks to Uber? Should it change? Do you agree with Uber’s aggressive business tactics? Is there a more diplomatic way? How well does Uber treat its drivers? What are their benefits vs. complaints? Why has Uber attracted so much media attention? What about its business model makes it compelling and polarizing? Why has Uber achieved such a high valuation? What are the pros and cons ?

In december of 2004, the company you own entered into a 20-year contract with a grain supplier for daily deliveries of grain to its hot dog bun manufacturing facility. the contract called for "10,000 pounds of grain" to be delivered to the facility at the price of $100,000 per day. until february 2017, the supplier provided processed grain which could easily be used in your manufacturing process. however, no longer wanting to absorb the cost of having the grain processed, the supplier began delivering whole grain. the supplier is arguing that the contract does not specify the type of grain that would be supplied and that it has not breached the contract. your company is arguing that the supplier has an onsite processing plant and processed grain was implicit to the terms of the contract. over the remaining term of the contract, reshipping and having the grain processed would cost your company approximately $10,000,000, opposed to a cost of around $1,000,000 to the supplier. after speaking with in-house counsel, it was estimated that litigation would cost the company several million dollars and last for years. weighing the costs of litigation, along with possible ambiguity in the contract, what are three options you could take to resolve the dispute? which would be the best option for your business and why?

Companies in the u.s. car rental market vary greatly in terms of the size of the fleet, the number of locations, and annual revenue. in 2011 hertz had 320,000 cars in service and annual revenue of approximately $4.2 billion. the following data show the number of cars in service (1000s) and the annual revenue ($ millions) for six smaller car rental companies (auto rental news website, august 7, 2012). excel file: data14-09.xls if required, enter negative values as negative numbers. a. select a scatter diagram with the number of cars in service as the independent variable. b. what does the scatter diagram developed in part (a) indicate about the relationship between the two variables? c. use the least squares method to develop the estimated regression equation (to 3 decimals). ŷ = + x d. for every additional car placed in service, estimate how much annual revenue will change. by $ e. fox rent a car has 11,000 cars in service. use the estimated regression equation developed in part (c) to predict annual revenue for fox rent a car. round your answer to nearest whole value. $ million hide feedback partially correct

Why are the four primary service outputs of spatial convenience, lot size, waiting time, and product variety important to logistics management? provide examples of competing firms that differ in the level of each service output provided to customers?