Analyze a business plan denoting areas for improvement in Marketing Operations E-commerce and Digital Media

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For your Final Assignment, review the business plan found in Chapter 16 Appendix of your textbook Small Business Management in the 21st Century (https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_small-business-management-in-the-21st-century/s20-appendix-a-sample-business-pla.html).

You have been hired as a business consultant for Frank’s All-American BarBeQue. Create a PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of 15 slides with recommendations for Frank’s on how they can improve their business.

You must include a minimum of three specific recommendations: one related to Marketing, one related to Operations, and one related to e-commerce, digital media or social media.

You may add other recommendations if you would like. Your design should be aesthetically pleasing, easy to read and should not include too much text/data on the slides themselves. Be sure to include additional information the “Notes” section of the slides to support your recommendations and elaborate on your suggestions.

Your “Notes” should support your recommendations with references and citations from your textbooks and a minimum of five other library quality, academic sources. You may find other sources in your Lessons. Your final slides should be a Reference page with all sources listed in APA format. All sources referenced in your “Notes” should include an in-text citation.

Nike approaches in carrying out the design operation and improvement activities which are related to one of the following key business processes

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Description Choose a firms, not necessarily in the same industry, and analyzes and contrasts their approaches in carrying out the design, operation, and improvement activities which are related to one of the following key business processes:

Nike approaches in carrying out the design operation and improvement activities which are related to one of the following key business processes

• Product design and development processes in manufacturing firms

• Application of mass customization techniques in either manufacturing or services businesses

• Adoption and application of “Just-in-Time and Lean” principles and techniques in service businesses

• Adoption and application of total quality management and process improvement principles and techniques in service businesses

• Identification of appropriate supply networks and their design, consistent with the type of products being manufactured and distributed

• Design/conversion of operations systems to provide desired goods in a sustainable way through conservation and renewal of resources

• Make a selection of which of the six key business processes your team will be focusing on in your research and report.

• A list of primary resources that will be used during your research.

Describe the budget process for the department/organization

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Paper details

1. Describe the budget process for the department/organization.

-Identify the fiscal year cycle (for example, January 1 through December 31) Not all hospitals are on the same cycle. – Does the process start all at the same time or does the cycle start with capital budget, then operational budget then labor? If so, what is the time frame and sequence for each? – Remember there are usually at least three types of budget processes: capital, operational and labor. They can occur at the same time but usually not since each goes in a separate track and must be reviewed by different parties. – Do not forget to tell the reader who provides the final approval (Board of Trustees, upper corporation, Chief Executive Officer, etc) 2. Describe how it is developed, what is the process, and who is involved in the development? -Identify the role of the manager and the staff in the budget. Many times the manager needs to talk with the key physicians to see if they need something on the unit for their practice. This is particularly true with the surgical department. Many of the physician needs/requests for surgery involve capital expenditures. – To purchase capital items then, what is the process? It may involve having three quotes, completion of a capital form which includes construction needs and final approval by a board of trustees. – Operational budgets are usually completed at the departmental level and completed by the manager after a review of last year expenses and adding an inflationary rate. Ask the superior/director who sets the inflationary rate and for what items. – Labor budgets are usually completed by the manager with review of hours per patient day, staff needs, performance appraisal raises, overtime, etc. Consider mentioning items in this type of budget. There is no need to go into detail. 3. Describe nurse manager accountability for the department budget.

Describe the process. -Ask the director/superior what tools are available to the manager to help monitor the budget compliance. Do they need to submit a report of variances biweekly or monthly? Do they have to present at a meeting? Is there something different for the manager to do regarding labor issues and staffing accountability? 4. Describe the type of budgeting used and provide rationale (Flexible budgeting, incremental or zero-based). Describe the Case Mix Index for the unit and or organization. -Remember when explaining the type of budgeting, make sure to say how that works for that unit. For example, the emergency department is typically a flexible budget with the need to justify variances in “encounters”. These variances (up or down) will help to explain why medical surgical supplies, office supplies, dietary needs, etc are up or down. 5. Discuss and identify with the manager two key areas that need of improvement. -Be specific with these areas. Remember to explain more on these areas in #6 and #7. Have the manager go over specific frustrations with compliance to budget that the staff could help problem solve. 6. Discuss how these improvements can be accomplished. -The point of the paper is to take the information learned from in the interview with the director/superior and show a leadership approach to making a positive change in the financial picture of the unit. 7. Describe the role of the nursing staff to help meet those improvements. -This is the time to share easy concrete suggestions for staff to be more aware of the financial needs in the department and their impact on the budget. 8. The scholarly paper should be in narrative format of not more than four (4) pages excluding the title page, reference page, and appendices. 9. Include an introductory paragraph, purpose statement, and a conclusion. 10. Include level 1 and level 2 headings to organize the paper. 11. Write the paper in third person, not first person (meaning do not use ‘we’ or ‘I’) and in a scholarly manner. To clarify: I, we, you, me, our may not be used. In addition, describing yourself as the researcher or the author should not be used. 12. Include a minimum of two (2) professional peer-reviewed scholarly journal references to support the paper (review in Ulrich Periodical Directory) and be less than five (5) years old.

Product Costing

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Paper details

Product Costing Project

Develop the full cost of a simple item. 1. Choose a simple, everyday household item (i.e. loaf of bread, fabric placemat, broom) to investigate its full cost. 2. Describe the product and why it was chosen. 3. Identify all direct and indirect materials used in production.

4. Identify the different production stages and the labor requirements for each stage. 5. Calculate the overhead. 6. You will use the material, labor, and overhead amounts to calculate the production cost per unit. 7. Find the selling price for your product. 8. Assumptions: a. Production will be in your personal kitchen or workshop, therefore no rent expense will be incurred. b. Use the fixed amount of $100 per month for the additional utilities expense that will be incurred in the production of your product. c. No additional major machinery/equipment will need to be purchased. Small tools and equipment such as hammers or cookie sheets may be lumped together.

They will be considered to have a limited one year life with no salvage value. d. The federal minimum wage should be used as the labor cost per hour. e. Assume no indirect labor. 9. Requirements: a. Written portion of the project should be 5-6 pages, including the spreadsheets (but not including the cover page) b. Written portion to include

: i. Why product was chosen? ii. How cost was derived (where materials were obtained, etc.)? iii. How was price determined? iv. Why your classmates should purchase your product? (Sell it – this part should be fun!) BUSA 5061 Class or Cohort _____________________ Costing Project Grading Rubric Student(s) __________________________ TOPIC OR ISSUE Cover Page ( Possible Points: 5 ) Comments and Points 5: Complete, attractive title page 3-4: Brief, less attractive 1-2: Very brief, not attractive 0: Missing cover page

Evaluate whether tax avoidance is an ethical strategy for large companies considering both the benefits and risks to the business and its stakeholders.

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Title: essay

Purpose of the essay: to explore current business topics and to present an academic essay in line with HBS expectations Essay:

Write an essay of 1200 words (+10%) on the following topic. Increasingly the public may expect large companies to follow the requirements of corporate social responsibility in relation to ethics and profitability. Yet several high-profile global companies have been exposed as undertaking tax avoidance. Evaluate whether tax avoidance is an ethical strategy for large companies, considering both the benefits and risks to the business and its stakeholders. Guidance: -use at least three companies as examples to illustrate your points -apply academic theories where relevant to support your examples -cite at least eight sources in your reference list, following Harvard presentation in detail. It is important to evaluate the ideas raised and to present a clear conclusion on the topic.

*PS: You can use some of these Article – https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/docview/1563008953?https://search.proquest.com/ip&pq-origsite=summon – The Curious Case of Corporate Tax Avoidance: Is it Socially Irresponsible? -https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/docview/2100178217?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/ip -https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/docview/2100178217?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/ip -https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/docview/2177539823?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/ip -https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/docview/2177539823?pq-origsite=summon&http://search.proquest.com/ip

Financial Forecasting Exercise

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For this assignment, find and use Apple Inc’s financial information from their 10-K reports to create a financial forecast for Apple for the next 3, 5, and 10 years. Note that if you wanted to go farther back in the company’s history, you could find additional filings on the SEC webpage in EDGAR. There are simpler and more complex ways to accomplish a forecast such as this, as you know from your previous statistics class(es) and as you have seen in the readings for this course, including averaging, straight-line, and time-series forecasting. As Greener and Martinelli (2015) argue, simple forecasts can be as effective as complex ones, and using several different types together results in even better predictions than a single complex forecast. Please follow these steps (read through them all before beginning): Find Apple Inc.’s 10-K filings that will give you their financial data for the past 5 years. Note: You could find it on Apple, Inc.’s investor relations’ website, or in EDGAR. Create a spreadsheet where you will enter the 5-year data from the report (from page 24 of Apple’s 2015 10-K report).

In your spreadsheet, build a similar set-up with the column in the left showing all the lines, e.g. from Net Sales down to Total Shareholder’s Equity. Then create columns for the 5 years of historical data (2011) to (2015) – you will note that their fiscal year ends in September. Using this year-by-year historical data, calculate your 3, 5, and 10-year forecasts for each of the rows (i.e. Net Sales, etc., down to Total Shareholder’s Equity). You can choose which forecasting method you want to use, (remember your undergraduate statistics course) and there are refresher tutorials of various methods on the Internet. For example, here are some helpful videos and webpages on time-series analysis if you chose that method and need a refresher: Excel – Time Series Forecasting (18:05) Spreadsheet Skills – Trendy Forecasting in Excel After you have completed your forecast, in a Word document, state the type of forecasting method you chose and why. Then write a brief statement as to why Apple’s Board of Directors should be confident in these forecasts (for the 3, 5, and 10 years). Remember that hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. Only one page is necessary for this written statement. Submit both your written statement and the spreadsheet with your forecasts as attachments using the Session 4 Research Assignment link. Note that you and your fellow classmates may produce different forecasts depending upon the methods you use. This is the nature of the process, and is the reason that it is such an uncertain and risky process in business. Nevertheless, we use forecasting all the time as one research tool to support our future-looking decision-making.

Current State of the Business

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ECONOMIC CHALLENGE You are the General Manager of an organization of a legal entity (wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company). In addition, this organization is generating over $1 Billion dollars in operational revenue (5%) of the total revenue for the parent company and approximately 8% of the operational profit of the parent company. At your headquarters office, which is about 1,000 miles from the parent company headquarters, you have 500 employees working at this site. It has one elective officer of the company (yourself) 7 directors; about 40 managers who are all classified as exempt (at least have a Master Degree). It is Thursday morning and you receive a phone call from your direct supervisor who is an Executive V.P.He informs you that the company’s lobbyist (extremely high power attorney) in Washington D.C. has justcompleted a conference call with the Executive Operating Committee and has informed them that the Federal Government will be “shut down” within the next 48 hours. (Most of you were too young to remember and/or recall this event so you will have to research its occurrence plus the events just beforeand after. A hint: This was when our “infamous President of the United States” was committing “child abuse” with a young intern that was 1/3 of his age. Later he would lie to a Grand Jury about the event and subsequently be impeached by one House of Congress.” Also, speaks to the issues of ethics and integrity which is related to a portion of our materials of leadership. Your Executive V.P. is indicating that you must be in headquarters on Monday morning to present your strategy and immediate plans of operations as roughly 30% of your business comes from the Federal Government. One particular concern is the expectant cash flow that will not occur due to non-payment of invoices. Per the lobbyist briefing no one will be paid while the Federal Government is “shut down.” In addition, no procurement, installation of equipment, or delivery of equipment will take place during this closure. What is still in a “grey zone” is whether maintenance can and/or will be performed as it appears that certain operations and administrative activities within the government will be performed by staffers that are not “Civil Servants.” Although the lobbyist is very in tune with the “climate” within the Congress; he has stated that it is “anyone’s guess” as to how long this situation will continue but he is very sure that military operations will continue so that segment of the government will be “doing business as usual.” You and your staff have put in place a contingency plan for this event of government closure. However, this rough draft of such has been in place for a couple of years simply as a what if situation. It actually had come about as the result of a surprise “shut down” by the State of Ohio that caused major disruptions in the operations at that time as the organization was conducting a “major roll out” and installation when the State of Ohio had shut down for about 30 days. Civil lawsuit liabilities claims were still in the court system over that debauchment. However, “more meat on the bones” had been recently been added to this draft contingency plan due to feedback from the lobbyist over the past 30 days. Also, if the Federal Government should shut down it would have much more material impact on business than the two-year-old experience with the State of Ohio. Task and/or Project: Prepare a “Report” which in conclusion would provide an overall course of action as to how your entity will be operating during this “shut down.” This statement must include your course of action if this “shut down” so impacted your operations that it would become necessary for the partial discontinuance of operations of certain activities in your operation. Do not repeat any of the above Case situation statements or facts/circumstances within the minimum 6 pages of your statement. Deduction of points will result if these statements/facts/circumstances are repeated within the minimum or complete text of pages for this assignment. To emphasize a twice made statement: “Tell me something that I do not know.” Instructions: •Read and analyze the above case. •Provide the requested report which is like a narrative “current state of business.”. •Prepare response in APA format •6 pages of text content. Responses must be ample text to directly provide guidelines for your course of actions and operations activity during the shutdown. No PowerPoint or Bullet dots – must be sentence structure and within paragraphs

Organizational Diagnosis

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Interview an organizational leader to determine the challenges they currently encounter in their organization. From the interview, what do you think are the major factors of the identified challenges? Describe in detail the issues and leadership dynamics you see. In what environment, or world, does the leader view the organization as existing? Which of the organizational metaphors listed in Morgan best describes the organization? Explain its advantages and disadvantages. Provide alternative explanations and theories that might explain why the problem exists. Detail an action plan for the leader that includes how they can resolve the challenges you described. Length: This report should be “as long as necessary.” However, the best reports are concise and clear. 1500 words (±10%) is therefore a good rule of thumb.

Change Management Plans

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Description Any change management plan must take into account the culture of an organization. For instance, some organizations prize the inclusion of their employees in all aspects of operations, while other organizations have a top-down approach to management. Creating a plan without taking this cultural background into context can be problematic for the success of a change initiative. In a three-to-five page paper, search the virtual library to find scholarly articles relative to change initiatives which apply to an organization in KSA. Consider the impact on the individuals concerned and the impacts on the organization. Assess the cultural elements that you believe may impact the development of change strategies and implementation of change plans. Synthesize the information and discuss challenges and strategies that should be considered to address (or overcome) these cultural elements which could negatively affect the implementation of a change strategy. Your well-written paper should meet the following requirements: Be three-to-five pages in length, which does not include the title page and reference pages, which are never a part of the content minimum requirements. Use Saudi Electronic University academic writing standards and APA style guidelines. Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.

Interview with a Global Marketplace Leader

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Description

You are required to interview a leader about his/her experiences, insights, opinions, and observations managing a global workforce.

This could be an interview with someone you know, or would like to meet who is either in your own country or in a new country you would like to explore.This gives you the opportunity to have a conversation with someone in a different organizational community than the one we experience daily.

The interview is to include the following questions: What are your views about leading a workforce in the current global marketplace? How do you describe your approach to leading globally? Who are your leadership role models? What approaches to leadership have you found effective? Why?

What approaches to leadership have you found ineffective? Why? How do you determine which approach to leadership to use in a specific situation? What was the most rewarding experience you had as a leader on the international stage?

What was the most difficult situation you faced as a leader, and how did you manage it? In what ways has your approach to leading shifted over the years? What messages do you have for the next generation who will lead the workforce in a global context? You are welcome to ask additional questions, based on your personal interests in exploring leadership. As well, please remember one of the advantages of an interview is it provides an opportunity to ask for more information, for clarification, and for examples. Please feel free to ask follow-up questions and ask for examples so you have a full understanding of the messages communicated by the interviewee. In the event that you are unable to find a leader to interview, the intellectual lead or instructor for the course will connect you with someone from their professional network.

You are required to submit a 2,000 word paper that analyzes critically the conversation as it pertains to constructs, models, frameworks, and practices covered. Include your significant learning and how it shapes your thinking about managing a global workforce; views you agree and disagree with; and, questions that have been raised for you about leadership.