Author: chris

 

For this assignment, you will respond to the results of your team simulation round. What have you have identified as the key business issues that will impact your company? Respond to the results of your management area. What have you have identified as the key business issues that impacted your decisions in the simulation round? Prepare to discuss your decisions with the other members of your team.

As the Vice President of your product please address these questions for the decisions you made in R&D:

• How well did you establish the specification of the products to meet customer demand?
• What level of quality and reliability—mean time between failure (MTBF)—did you build into your products?
• How did you ensure that the perceived age of the product meets customer demand?
• What new products did you create to meet the changing marketplace?

As the Vice President of your product please address these questions for the decisions you made in Marketing:

 

• Explain your rationale for how you set the price of your products in the marketplace.
• What was your strategy around creating new products to meet the changing marketplace?
• How well did you build customer awareness through promotion?
• How effectively did you establish a sales force and distribution channels?
• What was your sales forecast strategy for your products?
• What was your rationale for your credit policies (accounts receivable and accounts payable)?

As the Vice President of your product please address these questions for the decisions you made in Production:

 

• Did you purchase machinery to automate your facilities? If so, what was your rationale?
• Did you buy or sell capacity of product lines?
• How did you establish you production schedule for each line?
• How well did you manage the majority of the company’s fixed assets?
• Did you establish your workforce complement?

In conjunction with the COO, the Vice President will address these questions for the decisions you made in Finance:

 

• Did you acquire capital to fund capital expansions?
• Did you issue stock, short-term debt, or long-term bonds? If so, why?
• Did you issue a dividend to your shareholders? Explain your rationale whether your answer was yes or no.
• How well did you balance your debt portfolio? What was your strategy regarding the management of the pro forma statements?

 

 

There was a lot to learn from week one for Dell and for Digby.  It was a rough week for team Digby.  But in week two we turned things around instead of being in the negative we actually were in the positive with our net income.  Our sales earning was $146,950 which was not bad for week two for Digby and we did not have to get an emergency loan.  For Daze and Dell we stocked out and for Dell this was the second week that we stocked out. This is never a good thing for a company.  It doesn’t show consistency to their customers I have to work on not stocking out.  Even though we were able to stay in the positive side of the finances for week two there are still loads of are that team Digby can work on to make it a successful company. So I will outline what I did in each department and how well it worked for team Dell we actually were able to rank #1 for the Low end production.

 

For Dell which is the low end production for Digby I made some changes in week 2.  In the R& D page I left this alone the reason for this was because this was the second most important aspect for our customers.  It ranked number two with a 24% of what our customer are looking for in a product.  The ideal age is 7.0 and if I would have made any changes in the R& D page I would have lowered the age of the product.  This actually worked well for me it brought my product age up to 4.04.  This means that next year it will be even higher.  As for Dell there were no new products created because that will not be feasible for my customers.

 

In the Marketing department I left he price alone at $20.50 which compare to my competitors it was low.  But that was ok with me for Dell product because the most important expectation for my customers is the Price.  The reason I left the pricing alone was to generate customers to come and buy the product.  The price range is from $14 to $24 it ranked number one with a 53% margin of what the customers want.  I actually lowered the budgeting for Promotion to $700 and the sales Budget to $500 even with lowering the promotional budget to $700 the customer awareness was 50%.  For customer awareness it wasn’t too bad it could have been better but 50% was not a bad at all.  For the sale force I think that I did ok for Dell for week two my forecast strategy was 2840 and I could have worked on this better for Dell.

 

For Dell Production I thought I did well for production but apparently I stocked out again.  For week 2 my contribution margin was 23% which was low.  I also did not utilize my second shift like I should have.  I purchased 500 capacity as well as 5.0 in automation rating.  I did not utilize my production for each line as well as not establishing a good workforce.  I thought by increasing the production as well as the capacity and the automation it would have been suffice.  But as I seen again in week two running out of production again showed me that I have to be able to utilize both shifts. I will make those changes for week three.

 

When it came to our finances Digby did a whole lot better than week one.  In week one team Digby was in the negative for the net income and this was because we had to take out an emergency loan.  For week two our focus was to make sure that we did not take out an emergency loan.  As well as making sure that the company was actually in the positive when it came to our net income we ended with $2,986.  We actually did issue long term debt because this was the reason for week one emergency loan.  So issuing long term debt actually helped Digby in not getting an emergency loan at all.  For Dell our sales were $35,455 and our net margin was $2,338.  There are still loads of areas for us to work on as a company.  Digby did better in week two than in week one.  We still have some areas that we need to work on for week three.  For Dell I have to work on making sure that there is no stock out.  As well as making sure that as a company that our overall finances are in order.  We need to learn from week one and week two in-order to make week three successful for team Digby.

Consider the given organisation and analyse how the principles of technology management can be applied for business development. Provide suggestions and recommendations. Bear in mind that the analysis and discussion are required to be specific to your chosen organisation with related literatures, theories and practices

Use the “NAB Company Portfolio”.

Write a three to six (3-6) page paper in which you provide the following information below.

Operations Plan (1 – 2 pages)

Note: Remember to assign a dollar amount to each operational cost you find, as you will need these figures for your income statement and cash flow in Week 8.

1. Create an operations plan for your NAB company using the template in the text as a guide (p. 214 | Operations Plan Preparation Form – Click here for help accessing a specific page number in your eBook). Extract appropriate information from the NAB Company portfolio, where applicable. Other required items in the template should be filled in using your personal preferences.
2. Provide a rationale for the competitive advantages section using appropriate functional-level and business-level strategies to explain the competitive advantages.
   • Note: Much of the research pertaining to the hints provided here can be found in the NAB company portfolio.
   • Hints: Consider whether you will rent or buy your facilities or outsource production to an existing company.
   • Hints: One of your biggest expenses as a startup non-alcoholic beverage company will be transitioning from a small batch prototype of your beverage to production on a large scale. Research the equipment you will need (vats, refrigerators, burners, ovens, bottling equipment, and so on), whether you will rent or buy, how you will maintain and clean it, and so forth. Consider how you will ensure quality control. What capacity do you intend to reach?
   • Hints: Deliberate your inventory control. Where do your supplies come from and what is your turnaround time to produce your beverage once you have received an order?
   • Hints: Consider your distribution method. Refer back to your notes for the SWOT analysis assignment in Week 2 of class.
   • Hints: How will you stay abreast of new developments in your industry? What new products do you have in development now, in addition to your flagship product?
3. Describe your research and development activities and explain how they will contribute to the company.

Technology Plan (1 – 2 pages)

4. Create a technology plan for your NAB company using the template in the text as a guide (p. 227 | Technology Plan Preparation Form ). Extract appropriate information from the NAB Company portfolio, where applicable. Other required items in the template should be filled in using your personal preferences.
5. Provide a rationale for the personnel needs section by incorporating appropriate functional-level strategies.
   • Hints: Consider the type of technology your company will use to conduct the following activities: manage personnel; take, fulfill, and track orders; manage inventory; communicate with customers and provide customer service; and produce your beverage.

Management & Organization (1 – 2 pages)

6. Create a management plan for your NAB company using the template in the text as a guide (p. 248 | Management Plan Preparation Form ). Extract appropriate information from the NAB Company portfolio, where applicable. Other required items in the template should be filled in using your personal preferences.
7. Using the flow charts on p. 242 as a guide, outline your company’s management hierarchy. Note: Charts or diagrams must be imported / included in the MS Word document.
8. Provide a rationale for the management structure and style section by incorporating appropriate functional-level strategies.
9. Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:
   1. Cite the resources you have used to complete this exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise.
   2. Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
   3. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Create a plan to implement a firm’s strategy and manage the change from current operations.
• Describe strategic planning techniques used to formulate alternative strategies designed to achieve stated business goals.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in strategic management.
• Write clearly and concisely about strategic management using proper writing mechanic

 

Assignment 3 Part 2: Business Plan – Draft

Due Week 8 and worth 30 points

This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a draft of your business plan and an income statement containing your business plan financials (i.e. Week 7 Discussion “The Financials”). Note: You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.

You must intend to raise money for your startup company. You can start with money from friends and family but at some point you will need funds from outside investors, either angels or venture capitalists, depending on how much money you project you will need to raise. Another possible angle is to develop money through crowdfunding, assuming your product meets the demand of such audiences.

Before you can raise money, you must develop a business plan that convinces an investor that your company will succeed.

Section 1: Business Plan (MS Word or equivalent)

Read Chapters 18 and 19 of the course text: Successful Business Plan. Use the Plan Preparation Forms at the end of each chapter of Successful Business Plan as a rough guide.

Write an approximately fifteen to twenty (15-20) page draft of your business plan in which you:

1. Revise the components of the following previously submitted sections based on the feedback you have received.
   1. 1. Company Description (Assignment 1)
      2. Industry Analysis and Trends (Assignment 1)
      3. Strategic Position & Risk Assessment (Assignment 1)
      4. Target Market (Assignment 2)
      5. Competition (Assignment 2)
      6. Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy (Assignment 2)

2. Create an Ethics & Social Responsibility Plan.

Note: The Ethics & Social Responsibility plan should account for approximately three to five (3-5) pages of the Business Plan Draft.

2. 1. Describe the ways in which your company is committed to being a good corporate citizen.
   • • Hints: Consider the following areas:
       • Creating jobs
       • Following the laws of every jurisdiction in which your company operates
       • Fair and honest treatment of employees
       • Non-discrimination of employees and increasing diversity of your work force
     • Hints: If your company is designed as a social venture—in which you have a primary purpose of achieving a social or environmental goal—describe what that goal is and what aspects of your company are designed to reach that goal. Provide a rationale for why you have or why you have not chosen this to be a social venture.

3. 2. Discuss how your company’s activities will affect the environment and identify the steps you will take to mitigate any negative impacts.
   • • Hints: As a beverage company, consider such issues as your choice of packaging, disposal of bottles / packages by consumers, and your use of resources, such as water in areas where water may be scarce.

4. 3. Determine any health issues / claims related to the product you are making, whether negative or positive. Suggest the strategy your company will use to mitigate any negative issues, and to ensure any positive claims are true.

5. 4. Many beverage products have negative health impacts on certain segments of a population (e.g., children, pregnant mothers, etc.). Suggest your company’s plan, through advertising, distribution, and / or other methods, to target and reach only appropriate market segments.

3. Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:
   1. Cite the resources you have used to complete the exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise.
   2. Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
   3. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

Section 2: Business Plan Financials (MS Excel worksheets template)

4. For year one, revise and submit the Income Statement, Cash Flow Projections, and Balance Sheet sections from the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Course Required Files in Week 1).

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Describe strategic planning techniques used to formulate alternative strategies designed to achieve stated business goals.
• Create a plan to implement a firm’s strategy and manage the change from current operations.
• Analyze strategies for exerting the internal leadership needed to drive the implementation of strategic initiatives and improve operating excellence.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in strategic management.
• Write clearly and concisely about strategic management using proper writing mechanics.

Strategic planning offers many benefits for organizations. Therefore, when creating an organization, it is important to not only consider its purpose and mission, but also the strategic plan for fulfilling that purpose. For this Discussion, you consider your vision for a non-profit or government organization and reflect on how strategic planning might benefit the organization.

Post a description of your vision for a non-profit or government organization. Include the organization’s mission statement. Then, explain how strategic planning might benefit this organization. Include how you might plan for the organization to have a positive impact on the future.

Cosmology Philosophy
Respond to the following questions for this:
•Does life have anything to do with the spiral shape of our galaxy?
•Can life develop within an elliptical galaxy?
•Can it form in a merger of galaxies?
Please complete the following in your post:
1.Refer to and integrate ideas presented in the text and supplemental readings.
2.Cite outside resources if necessary to make your point.
3.Follow APA style rules for citations and references.
You will be evaluated on how well you demonstrate your understanding of the ideas presented throughout the unit, including assigned readings, discussions, and independent investigations. You will also be evaluated on the quality of your work: its academic rigor, how well it shows your ability to think critically, and how completely it covers the questions asked

Stanley Milgram’s classic experiment of obedience focuses on social control and social conformity. Review Milgram’s experiment. If you were King or Queen of your kingdom, what behaviors would you classify as deviant? How would you make your populace obey and conform? Think about it and formulate a response.

Compare and contrast the historical development of Iran and Iraq from the end of WWII to the present. Consider internal and external factors to explain their divergent trajectories. You must provide both a narrative of their respective histories since 1945 and an analysis of the most significant factors shaping the present reality of each. I uploaded the full detailed instructions.

`write an essay that has five paragraphs arguing with (Supporting) death penalty. make sure to have an introduction, a thesis statement, body paragraphs to support the topic, and concluding paragraph. the essay should also include counterarguments and refutations. use facts, examples and descriptions throughout the essay please. use adverb clauses of concession and collocations with prepositions appropriately.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

[CAUTION:–This subject is NOT about people who claim to have been abducted by aliens or whether aliens have landed in Roswell, New Mexico and there has been a massive government cover-up. Science generally rejects such claims, and the weight of present scientific opinion is that there is as yet no convincing evidence for alien visits. Whether or not this should be so is a separate topic which will be offered, but which I have not yet organized. To find out what this subject is about, read on.]

There are really several levels of questions here:

1.) Is there extraterrestrial life of any kind, such as bacterial life? Part of the problem here is to define “life” itself, and there are various points of view on what qualifies for being “alive”. [What is life?] (See Reference #6 below for a possible discovery of alien bacteria.) A subtopic would be, is there life in our own solar system? This subject is discussed in reference #1 below (Kryss Tals’s article). However, he writes from 2004 but the Cassini probe to Saturn has changed the picture and now the most likely candidate for life in the solar system is Enceladus, another moon of Saturn. [Why? What is it about Enceladus that is so promising?]

2.) Is there intelligent life, or are we alone?” (Actually, what we really would like to know is if there is “communicating” life. In other words, are there life forms advanced enough to send signals to us or to receive our signals?)

BEFORE YOU START there are a couple of terms you need to understand well. You must answer the questions in this paragraph. First, you need to know how the large distances between stars are measured. [What is a light year, and how far is it in miles?] (Note that a light year is a distance and not a time.) Second, you need to know how the stars are arranged in galaxies. [What is a galaxy? In particular, you should understand the structure of our own galaxy, the “Milky Way”. How many stars in the Milky Way? What is the distance across it in light years? Where is our sun placed in the galaxy?] You can look these things up on line or in your text.

Here is the basic problem. There are so many stars in the universe, and presumably so many planets, that is almost inconceivable that we should be the only planet where life has arisen. Yet, despite decades of listening for radio signals from “out there”, [what is SETI?] there hasn’t been a peep [was the “WOW!” signal an exception?]. And no real convincing evidence of ET life in any other way either. To quote Carl Sagan in his book “The Demon-Haunted World”:

“I’m frequently asked, ‘Do you believe in extraterrestrial intelligence?’ I give the standard arguments—there are a lot of places out there, the molecules of life are everywhere, I use the word billions, and so on. Then I say it would be astonishing to me if there weren’t extraterrestrial intelligence, but of course there is as yet no compelling evidence for it.”

Or, as the well known physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked, “Where are they?”

(For example, if ET life was really common, one might think that Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. would be lined with embassies from the stars. One might think that our zoos would be full of alien tourists. One might expect to find the bar scene from Star Wars somewhere near Cape Canaveral. Yet there’s nobody here but us humans.)

For a more sober elaboration on the problem, see reference #3.) below, paragraph #4 (starting with “The rationale…”) and paragraph #5.

The following is a list (not necessarily in order of importance) of web articles you can google that will give you information on these questions. There are a couple of “must reads” listed below but otherwise the choice of exactly which articles you decide to look up and which topics you choose to discuss is up to you. Of course the more research you do on your own the better it will be. Just be sure to always cite your sources.

Note: If you report on any of the references below you must answer the questions in [square brackets]. But if you do not report on that subject you are not required to answer the questions unless you are specifically instructed to answer. (You can if you want.)

WEB REFERENCES:

1.) Kryss Tal: Extraterrestrial Life
This essay does a good job in presenting a reasonable estimate of the number of stars in the universe and the possible number of habitable planets. (However it is a 2005 essay. For a more up to date estimate on planets in our galaxy suited for life see reference #2 below.) The Tal essay is also good for the chemical basis of life and how these molecules are distributed out there. He gives his own definition of “life”. A must read.

2.) The Milky Way’s 500 Million Potentially Habitable Planets
This is a recent deduction from the findings of the Kepler telescope. They extrapolate to the number of habitable planets in our galaxy and also the universe as a whole.

3.) Fermi Paradox
This is a comprehensive Wikipedia article. [What is the Fermi Paradox? You should answer this question even if you don’t discuss this article in detail in your essay.] Much of the article deals with possible explanations (“solutions”) of the Fermi Paradox. Generally speaking, these are either ideas to suggest why intelligent life is rare, or ideas to explain why we haven’t detected it even if it is common. The sheer number of these ideas (although many of them are fascinating) may startle and even overwhelm you. But some of them may also appeal to you or even “turn you on”. You may champion any of these ideas that appeal to you (you can either explain why you think so, or simply say that the idea sounds right to you), or you may just throw up your hands and say that all of this is just useless speculation because we have no actual evidence. Or, you may have a different take of your own. Another must read.

4.) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
Another Wikipedia article. About the first two thirds of this article is just enormous detail about the search (a little boring!) . However, the part that starts with the “Fermi paradox” is quite to the point and includes suggestions not mentioned in Reference #3.).
Perhaps some of this will “turn you on”.

5.) The Fate of Noospheres
(the noosphere is the “sphere” of all human thought, which grows as human minds interact—don’t be discouraged by this strange word as much of the article is independent of it) This essay is John J. Reilly’s arguments against some of the solutions to the Fermi paradox, such as the idea that intelligent races will inevitably destroy themselves by “atomic suicide”, etc. Reilly frequently bases his arguments on actual human history, a refreshing change from all the Astronomer based viewpoints. If you read the Fermi Paradox (reference #2.) you will have noticed that many of the ideas were stated without a lot of discussion. So an in-depth criticism is useful. Reilly’s views may not be the last word (one can always argue against them) but the essay is quite intelligent. (And by the way, if you want to understand about the “omega” point, where humanity supposedly ultimately disappears from the universe, you might watch the science fiction classic movie “Forbidden Planet”.)

6.) Alien Bacteria Fossils Found in Meteorite by NASA scientist
Well…maybe. [What is a Meteorite?]

7.) Self-Replicating Spacecraft
This subject could be considered the most critical one in the discussion of extraterrestrial life. If extraterrestrial life is common and if it is true (as theory indicates) that the galaxy could be completely (and relatively cheaply!) explored by automated probes in as little as half a million years, then why is our solar system not just chock full of Von Neumann Probes? [What is a Von Neumann Probe?] After all, we ourselves are exploring Mars and the other planets by automated probes and not by astronauts (which would be much more difficult and expensive). Not only that, but the present weight of opinion at NASA (if not for us more romantic science fiction fans) is that by far the best and most economical way to carry out space exploration would be by automated probes. So wouldn’t other life forms come to the same conclusion? For an important counter argument, check Carl Sagan’s response, now known as “Sagan’s Response” (to the problem of the missing Von Neumann Probes).

8.) Rare Earth Hypothesis
About an important 2000 book by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee, which argues that life on Earth is a freak, unlikely to be reproduced elsewhere. This is the argument against extraterrestrial life. Basically, it departs from the Copernican Principle which most arguments automatically assume when asserting that life in the universe should be common. Many reasons to support this view, both astronomical and biological are given in the book. [What is the Copernican Principle, or the Principle of Mediocrity?]. The article summarizes the book, but also regularly mentions objections to assertions in the book, based on more recent research. While this criticism is generally welcome, one gets the impression that the author of the article does not agree with the Rare Earth Hypothesis, and therefore that the article may be slanted (biased against the book).

9.) Extraterrestrial Life
An overall Wikipedia article on the subject. Everything is covered, at least in outline form. In particular, it has a tremendous number of links to almost everything that bears on the subject of ET life. Not a bad place to start. And if you want to branch out on your own, lots of trailheads start here.

———————————————————————————————————–

If you wish to, you may come to your own conclusion about the existence of extraterrestrial life. Here are some of the opinions that others have come to:

a) Intelligent life in the universe should be common.

b) Intelligent life is common but it will be very difficult (for various reasons) or even forever impossible to communicate with them.

c) There is intelligent life out there, but it is rare.

d) We are the first. (We are alone.)

e) We are the only planet with life that we know about, and it is impossible to make statistical predictions about the prevalence of life in the universe based on a statistical sample of only one. (In other words, there is just not yet enough evidence available to settle the question one way or the other.)

BUT whatever point of view you come to, you must explain your attitude to the Fermi Paradox (discussed above).

IN CONCLUSION: This is a fascinating topic. If ET life is discovered it could well be the most important discovery ever made. I hope you enjoy reading about it. But it is also very seductive. One could go on reading about it forever. So go into it as deeply as you can, but be careful not to bury yourself in it! You undoubtedly have lots of other commitments in life, not to mention that I don’t want this to distract you from all of your other school work. Good luck.

3. Explain which of Keohane and Nye’s “globalizations” is the most significant.

Readings:
WEB – Readings from the “Conventional Perspectives” lecture links.
Video:
The End of Poverty? A documentary film from Cinema Libre Studios.