Prestige pegasus is a multinational firm that specializes in the manufacturing of hardware for high-end technical products and sells its products mostly through business-to-business interactions. following a good year with soaring profit-margins, prestige pegasus is planning to conduct an internal assessment throughout the organization. in a meeting following the decision to conduct the internal assessment, douglas mccarthy (the chief operations officer) and tom castleback (the chief marketing officer) are the prime contributors on the methods that the organization should use to perform these assessments.
douglas: "we should encourage 360-degree feedback, mostly concentrating on subordinates, as they would be the right people to judge their superiors."
tom: "we should definitely use 360-degree feedback, mostly from external customers, as they are the ones who matter in the end."
which of the following, if true, would most strengthen tom's argument?

(a) the salespeople of the company travel extensively and are expected to work independently without supervision.
(b) the salespeople of the company do not have any flexibility in the selling price of the product.
(c) the company targets a niche market segment with a limited customer base.
(d) previous surveys have revealed that customers are more satisfied with the company's services than the actual products

Ticker services began operations in 2015 and maintains long-term investments in available-for-sale securities. the year-end cost and fair values for its portfolio of these investments follow.portfolio of available-for-sale securities cost fair valuedecember 31, 2015 $ 369,060 $ 357,988 december 31, 2016 420,728 445,972 december 31, 2017 572,190 676,901 december 31, 2018 864,007 768,966 prepare journal entries to record each year-end fair value adjustment for these securities.calculation adjustment required to fair value adjustment.12/31/15 existing balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) required balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) adjustment required to fair value adjustment-afs (lt) 12/31/16 existing balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) required balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) adjustment required to fair value adjustment-afs (lt) 12/31/17 existing balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) required balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) adjustment required to fair value adjustment-afs (lt) 12/31/18 existing balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) required balance in fair value adjustment-afs (lt) adjustment required to fair value adjustment-afs (lt) record the year-end adjusting entry for the securities portfolio as of december 31, 2015.date general journal debit creditdec 31, 2015 record the year-end adjusting entry for the securities portfolio as of december 31, 2016.date general journal debit creditdec 31, 2016 record the year-end adjusting entry for the securities portfolio as of december 31, 2017.date general journal debit creditdec 31, 2017 record the year-end adjusting entry for the securities portfolio as of december 31, 2018.date general journal debit creditdec 31, 2018