Author: chris

The list below includes provocative discussions related to the events in the unit’s reading. You will choose one and write a 500 word minimum essay in which you will take a first-person perspective of the situation, describe the debate in your own words, and provide a justified and academically defended argument for one side or the other. The essay will need to reflect your understanding of the time to avoid being anachronistic, and to demonstrate that your argument is appropriate for that time.  As a woman in the 1950s, how would you feel about the stereotype of the wife and mother on popular television shows?  Having been a multi-season Brooklyn Dodgers ticket holder in 1947, would you actively cheer for Jackie Robinson? As a parent to male teenagers, what is your perspective of the Korean conflict?  As a World War II veteran, what are your thoughts about either the Truman Doctrine or Containment?  As a high level politician in the know, do you feel the American public deserves to be told about NSC 68? As this is a point of view essay, a modern perspective will not accurately address what the question is asking for. It is strongly suggested that at least one selection from the provided source book is used as research of the event and views of the time. All sources and their use must be appropriately identified per 6th edition APA format.

Utilizing the information you compiled for your literature review paper, and the feedback you received from your instructor about the literature review, prepare a 10-15 minute Power Point presentation on your topic, summarizing the key points and conclusions. Be sure to direct this presentation to an audience in the community. For example, if your paper pertained to a topic in developmental psychology, direct your presentation toward parents, or a parenting center. If your topic pertained to substance abuse, direct it toward a community service agency which may use this information for educating teens or parents about preventing drug use, or current clients about treatments and facilities available. Please state in your presentation the specific audience toward whom your presentation is aimed. Include a reference page in APA format, as well as speaker notes and an audio file with your presentation.

Your slides should provide answers to the following questions:

• What was your topic?
• What question did you hope to answer by completing this literature review paper? Explain the practical implications of the conclusions of the literature review and the audience to which they are directed.
• Given the results of your literature review, what is/are the prevailing argument(s)? In other words, which of those is supported by the existing evidence? Be sure to include full coverage of the arguments, including strengths and weaknesses of each of them, supported by your findings from reviewing the relevant articles.
• Did the researchers consider multicultural factors in their studies? If not, what factors may be involved? What multicultural factors should future studies include?
• What ethical issues are related to your topic and/or discussed in the studies you reviewed?
• How do the conclusions of your literature review relate to the various specialization areas in psychology? Tie them to as many as apply from the following areas: biological, cognitive, developmental, social, personality theory, psychopathology, and applied psychology.
• How can the conclusions of your literature review inform the population towards whom your presentation is directed? How can they apply this information to their daily lives? What advice or ‘take home message’ can you provide to your audience based on the research you reviewed?
• What research question could you ask in order to further develop this area of study?
• Why is your research question important and relevant to the current work being done on your topic?

Your presentation should also follow these guidelines:

• It should be approximately 10-15 minutes in length.
• It should be clear, concise, and professional.  Writing should be free of spelling and grammatical errors; it should conform to current APA style (including any in-text citations).
• It should include graphs, tables, figures, or images illustrating your ideas.
• There should be a final slide listing references in current APA style.
• The bulk of the text should be placed in the Notes pages of each slide. Keep the amount of text on the slide, itself, to a minimum.
• You should record an audio file of your oral presentation. You should also type the text of the speech you would give while showing these slides to an audience should be typed into the Notes area.  If you are unable to use the audio feature, the Notes text will suffice.
• You can refer to the Power Point tips document provided in the Doc Sharing section of the course.

Remember that this chapter 8 is in the same pdf that you looked at last class to read chapter 2.

1. Recall that Rowan Williams told us that many people start believing in God because other people show them that God is trustworthy. With that in mind, write a paragraph that explains the importance of Victorinus and Ponticianus for Augustine’s eventual conversion. Try to explain what it is specifically about each of those men that is so important for Augustine.

2. Look through the chapter for the times that Augustine mentions his friend Alypius. Write a brief paragraph here about Alypius’ role in the chapter.

3. What finally pushes Augustine to fully convert to Christianity? How does Antony factor in to that final decision?

Assume you are the IT manager for a small business with 50 employees.  The company is growing rapidly and needs to implement a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution to help it more effectively and efficiently manage customer facing operations. The company needs help primarily with sales, marketing, and customer service functions, but would like the CRM system to have additional functionality they may use in the future.  The CEO wants you to select an affordable, scalable, and customizable CRM solution that can grow as more employees are hired, sales grow, and customer numbers increase.  The company needs to support the three key phases (acquire, enhance, and retain) of its relationship with its customers.  You have been tasked to research, analyzed, and recommend, via a professional and visually rich PowerPoint Presentation, the appropriate CRM software solution the company should select to help it deal with its current and future growth.

Please review various CRM vendors currently available on the market.  Then select three (3) CRM solutions that come the closest in meeting the specific needs of the company.  Include at least one (1) Hosted CRM and one (1) On-Premise CRM solution.  Then review the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three (3) CRM solutions and compare and contrast them.  Finally identify which is the best CRM option for your company and explain why it was selected.  Present your findings to the CEO via a professional, substantive, and visually rich PowerPoint Presentation that meets all of the presentation guidelines listed below.

Presentation Guidelines:  Prepare a minimum 15-slide (excluding the Title and References slides) PowerPoint Presentation that is professional, substantive, well structured and organized, and visually rich.  Each slide should have sufficient content to clearly communicate the information covered.  At least 12 of the slides must include visually supportive graphics or images that enhance and complement the content on each slide.  Slide background theme alone does not count as a visual element.  Make sure the content is readable and professional (free of spelling and grammar mistakes).  Use the Notes area of each slide to provide background and support for the content of each slide.  Provide a Title slide and a final slide for your References.  Do not count these two slides in the 15 required for the PowerPoint content.

a. Business functions and processes

b. BIA scenarios and components

c. Financial and service impact of components not being available

d. Recovery time frameworks

a. Component dependencies

b. Resources required to recover component in the event of failure

c. Human assets needed to recover components

Strategic Warehouse Management, Inc. (SWM) is a U.S. based warehousing organization in the construction and management of warehouse operations. The CEO’s market development team has determined that there is an opportunity to open a warehouse in Australia that could serve multiple businesses. The CEO plans to open a “non-resident company” (Land and Tax News, 2012). The CEO has also decided that the warehouse can be opened in any city in Australia. Some clients in Australia have also asked SWM to manage the flow of goods from Australia to U.S. locations. The CEO wants to get a preliminary plan developed as soon as possible before going further.

The CEO asked you to design a supply chain that includes warehouse operations in any city in Australia. In addition, the CEO has a number of items he’d like to see you cover in the report. He has asked you to:

•Develop requirements for the warehouse design and to provide an organization structure to manage the warehouse in Australia.

•Present considerations for Workforce Management

•Investigate key regulations and other key issues (e.g. labor climate) related to managing a warehouse in Australia as a foreign entity.

•Develop export procedures and import procedures in the U.S.

•Discuss supply chain risks and possible mitigations.

•Analyze which operations SWM would outsource and which operations SWM would directly manage and explain why.

•Outline the budget line items that would need to be considered (it is not necessary to develop a budget with dollar figures).

•Determine the metrics you would use to measure success of the warehouse and the total supply chain.

Your report should be an eight to ten page APA style paper (not including the title and reference pages) and submitted to the CEO (your instructor) by the last day of the class. You are required to include at least 6 scholarly sources.

Writing the Final Paper

The Final Paper:   1.Must be eight to ten double-spaced pages in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

2.Must include a title page with the following: ◾Title of paper

◾Student’s name

◾Course name and number

◾Instructor’s name

◾Date submitted

3.Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.

4.Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.

5.Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.

6.Must use at least six scholarly sources, including a minimum of three from the Ashford Online Library.

7.Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

8.Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing C

This assignment consists of two (2) sections: an infrastructure document and a revised Gantt chart or project plan. You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment. Label each file name according to the section of the assignment it is written for. Additionally, you may create and / or assume all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

The infrastructure which encompasses the network solution and security considerations is a major consideration for your company. Considering that the company will be expanding from one (1) floor to three (3) floors in the very near future you, as the CIO, are responsible for the design of the infrastructure and security protocols. You have been tasked with designing a network that is stable, redundant, and scalable. In addition, speed and reliability are important considerations. Assumptions should be drawn regarding network usage in relationship to network services and resources. All the established criteria that were set at the onset should be adhered to within your plan. The network solution that is chosen should support the conceived information system and allow for scalability. The network infrastructure will support organizational operations; therefore, a pictorial view of workstations, servers, routers, bridges, gateways, and access points should be used. In addition, access paths for Internet access should be depicted. Additionally, the security of the network should be in the forefront of your design because protecting your data is a primary consideration.

Section 1: Infrastructure Document

1. Write a four to six (4-6) page infrastructure document in which you:
   • Justify and support the relationship between infrastructure and security as it relates to this data-collection and analysis company.
   • Present the rationale for the logical and physical topographical layout of the planned network.
   • Design a logical and physical topographical layout of the current and planned network through the use of graphical tools in Microsoft Word or Visio, or an open source alternative such as Dia. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
   • Illustrate the possible placement of servers including access paths to the Internet, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and firewalls. Note: Facility limitations, workstations, databases, printers, routers, switches, bridges, and access points should be considered in the illustration.
   • Create and describe a comprehensive security policy for this data-collection and analysis company that will:

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• 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 assignment page length.
• Include charts or diagrams created in MS Visio or Dia as an appendix of the infrastructure document. All references to these diagrams must be included in the body of the infrastructure document.

Section 2: Revised Project Plan

Use Microsoft Project to:

2. Update the project plan from Project Deliverable 4: Analytics, Interfaces, and Cloud Technology, with three to five (3-5) new project tasks each consisting of five to ten (5-10) sub-tasks.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Develop information systems-related activities to maximize the business value within and outside the organization.
• Demonstrate an understanding of existing and emerging information technologies, the functions of IS, and its impact on the organizational operations.
• Evaluate the issues and challenges associated with information systems integration.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in information systems.
• Write clearly and concisely about strategic issues and practices in the information systems domain using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions.

Assignment 2: LASA 1—The Strategic Components of State Healthcare Management Company

The State Healthcare Management Company (a fictitious company) has been established to provide coordinated healthcare to state workers.  You are a new manager in this company.  Your supervisor has asked you to review your company’s mission, vision, goals and strategies.  She/he posed the following questions and has asked you to provide a report (5 – 8 pages) answering each question.  Your report should follow APA guidelines and include at least four outside resources.

Given:

The mission of the State Healthcare Management Company is to improve access to cost-effective, quality health care services for state workers.

Our vision for the next three years includes:

• The public and government agencies are confident that our customers are being treated fairly in the determination of eligibility and benefits.
• Healthcare providers see us as proactive partners to provide preventative care to our customers.
• Turnover of key personnel is minimal, with sufficient staff education to insure compliance with new regulations.

Our values are:

•  Provide prevention and early intervention information to help customers make good health care choices.
• Negotiate with suppliers, including service providers, to achieve value for customers
• Assess, evaluate and continuously improve the quality of our work.

Our strategic goals for this year are:

• Increase the number of state workers covered to 70% of the population of state workers
• Improve Health Outcomes by linking provider payments to decreasing occurrences of the customer’s disease outbreaks
• Contain Health Care Costs by asking for specific evidence from physicians when they request payment for customer care
• Improve the long-term care service delivery system by identifying a baseline for nursing homes.

Questions:

1. Do you believe our company’s mission, vision and values statements align well?   Why or why not?
2. I noticed that the vision statement does not address diversity.  How would you change it to include diversity in hiring?
3. Understanding that the employees must actively work towards the strategic goals established, describe an activity that each of the members of the following teams should work on that are supportive of one of the strategic goals.
   1. Finance
   2. Marketing
   3. Human Resources
4. Do our company strategic goals relate directly to our vision and values?  Why or why not?
5. What should be added to the values to address the ethics of the business?

Your supervisor also asked you to use the internet and/or the Argosy online library to research a recent (within the last year) article that describes the current difficulties faced by healthcare companies regarding new or impending government regulations.

6. Summarize the article you found in 1-2 paragraphs and explain how the concepts presented in the article could affect our company.
7. Explain how the management of our company, using the mission, vision and/or values to provide guidance, should react to this issue.
8. Why is it important for healthcare companies to keep current with the competition’s strategies and new regulations?
9. Should a healthcare company rely solely on competitive research in developing their strategies? Why or why not?  Provide sufficient detail.

This capstone provides an opportunity to get some hands-on experience applying corporate finance theory and models to real firms. In the process, participants will get a chance to prepare an in-depth analysis of a company by:

Evaluating the risk profile of a firm and examining the sources of risk and risk management policies.
Analyzing its capital structure and deciding whether the firm is under- or over-leveraged.
Valuing the firm.
Restructuring the firm and revaluing it.
How is the project structured?

This is an individual project. You should each turn in a report 10-20 pages in length (including tables), adhering to APA formatting standards. All tables should be moved to the Appendix. The appropriate tables should be referenced in the paper.
Each week you will submit a section of the project. Your weekly capstone milestones are only a small part of your capstone grade. This provides you with the opportunity to have me review and comment on your weekly submissions, then using my feedback you can modify your milestones before re-submitting as your final capstone assignment in M6. Most of your points for the capstone are earned with the M6 submission.
What company should I pick?

The company may be large or small, domestic or international, manufacturing or service. A public company with stock trading on an exchange is preferable.
Choose one for which plenty of information is publicly available.
Examples: Ford; Sprint; Viacom; Microsoft; Berkshire Hathaway; EDS; Volkswagen; Unilever; Sony.
Perhaps an interesting “story” can be your guide. You’ll find stories daily at The Motley Fool, among other places.
How will the project be graded?

Please click here for the grading rubric.
Module-by-Module Deliverables

Module 1 – Corporate Governance

Describe the primary business of the company, including its products, customers, and competitors.
Give the company revenue, net income, and total assets for its last fiscal year.
Provide the name and background of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
How does this firm view its social obligations and manage its image in society?
Module 2 – Ratio Analysis

Undertake an in-depth ratio analysis of your company.
Module 3 – Performance and Growth

What has been the performance of the company stock compared with a key competitor and with the S&P 500?
How much of the performance can be attributed to management and how much is due to market conditions?
Module 4 – Risk & Capital Structure

Describe the risk profile of the business.
Determine the company beta and explain its meaning.
Compare the debt ratio of the company against the competitor.
Describe the risks and advantages of the company’s debt level and indicate whether you believe it could/should be higher or lower.
Module 5 – Cost of Capital
Estimate the approximate yield to maturity of company debt and the after-tax cost of debt.
Determine the approximate cost (required rate of return) of equity using the Capital Asset Pricing Model.
Determine the market values of the company debt, equity, and assets.
Calculate the weighted average cost of capital.
Explain the significance of the company’s WACC to its management.
Module 6 – Restructuring

Include with your final capstone submission – NOT a separate assignment
Is the firm a possible target for a takeover or shareholder activism? Is it facing some financial stress?
Is a change in the business mix warranted? What acquisitions or divestitures do you recommend? How?
Can needed changes be made without a change in management or control? How would these be affected?
Final Report

Your final report should conform to APA formatting standards. Review the guidelines for creating business reports that you learned in BAC 300 and the Cleary Style Manual document. Your final report should contain the following:

Title page with company name, your name, instructor’s name, course number and name (FIN 400: Financial Management), and date.

Executive Summary (one page, single-spaced synopsis).

Include the following sections:

I. Corporate Governance Analysis
II. Ratio Analysis
III. Performance and Growth
IV. Risk and Capital Structure
V. Cost of Capital
VI. Restructuring
VII. Conclusion
If you were hired to enhance value at this firm, what path would you choose?
VIII. References
IX. Appendix
Please include all tables, charts, and calculations in the Appendix. Reference the tables, charts, and calculations in your text in appropriate places.

Interview a practitioner in the organization

Use the following questions:

1. What do you like the most about your line of work?

2. What is the most stressful aspect of your work?

3. What made you pick this type of work.

4. What important changes in your field of work do you see coming during the next 5 years?