Find an article in the University Library that contains a research study in the functional area of Youth Ministry or Catholic Religious Education as a Career.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word summary:
Describe the business research process followed in the study in the article.
•Identify the research problem and the research method used.
•Discuss how the research is solving the problem within the chosen functional area.
•Identify other potential applications using business research within this functional area or related areas.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Current Events in Business Research
The article ‘The practice of youth ministry in a changing context: Results from an Australian scoping study’ is a study whose main aim was to come up with innovative strategies to reach out to the youth, and bring them back to the church, since it has been registered as a global trend that the population of youths in the churches is drastically reducing. As such, the Australian churches, which are the center-stage of this study, sought to find a solution (Singleton, Webber, Joyce, & Dorissa, 2010). It is a common thing across all churches to define key strategies to allure back their youths into the church. The study posits that different programs may be employed to change the perception or approach to the issue of youths, a question regarding their efficacy should be asked. As such, it is important to determine which approach has the elements of best-practice in the advent of youth ministry. Basically, this study connects the denominational role of the church in the lives of the youth, and the use of the church as a career opportunity by the youth, as one of the main ways of achieving their retention in the church.
The business research process followed in this article involved a scoping research, which was conducted in Melbourne, Australia, especially among the denominations that have struggled to maintain the youth. The scoping exercise had two main aims: to identify the various ministry styles that are being applied; and identify among the mentioned ministry approaches and styles, which ones represent best-practice when in a mission to ensure youth retention, social justice activities, and involvement of adults in liturgy, to create an environment of understanding and development. The method used here primarily aimed at providing a descriptive foundation upon which useful discussions regarding theological and sociological perspectives could be held. In all churches across the globe, the youth ministry is recognized as the invigorated theology discipline, that requires a series of activities and practical work to survive. In order to explicitly provide a manifestation of these practical approaches, the study employed a descriptive empirical task to tend to address in an amicable manner, the question, “what is going on?’
The method applied in this study can be best understood as a descriptive-empirical task in the bracket of practical theology. In addition, it is a social-scientific study, whose aims are to create a relationship between various theological perspectives and the problem of youth retention in churches today. This study strongly builds on the empirical base on which it is strongly instituted, which is used to explore the changes that need to be effected in the youth ministry and other facets of the pastoral ministry. In order to create a sense of reliability and authenticity for the study, the researchers instituted four innovative ways of penetrating into the minds and interest of the youth. For instance, they were presented with an interpretive task that involve surpassing the normal descriptions to understand the dynamics involved in the mix; normative task that inculcates deep reflections on the actions of God; and lastly, the pragmatic task, which involves taking a decision on the action implemented. This methodology and approach involved knowing and understanding the target customers, as well as identifying other players in the issue of youth retention.
As identified above, the research problem that is being addressed in this article is the high rate of youth attrition from modern churches, with a specific focus on Melbourne, Australia. It must be understood that this area would be assumed to act as perfect representative of the global trend in this issue. The study addresses the problem by testing and coming up with amicable suggestions and solutions to ensure youth retention in churches. The research recognizes that the functional area of the youth is one that is very elusive and difficult to predict. As such, it requires innovative processes and activities in order to work well. The research set out different strategies to woo youths back into the church, including entertainment, career choices, youth forums, and many other innovative processes that make the youth feel involved and wanted. At this time, the research recognized that the incorporation of such activities as retreats, fun-days, contemporary music, and multimedia worshiping are among the key strategies to allure the youth back to the church. More importantly, the study had one focal point that active engagement of youths in the church through solid employment opportunities is a good way of ensuring their retention. Particularly, the research is very pragmatic when it comes to identifying the needs of the youth in relation to the church. Inasmuch as the youth might view the church as apace of worship, it is also a social place, where they meet various individuals, get to connect, and create fruitful relationships that can be the basis of prospective career developments. It is this particular need that the study presented here aptly establishes, in a bid to address the research problem, which is the reducing number of youths in churches.
There are various other applications that can use a similar business research with the same functional area as discussed here, that is, the youth ministry. As identified above, youths are a very difficult group to work with, owing to the diverse and unique nature of their desires, likes, and dislikes. However, owing to its critical nature in the future development and life of a person, it is imperative that several programs be put in place to ensure they survival, safety, and continued support. A program such as a campaign to reduce the habit of smoking among the youth is an example. This campaign would involve basically the same business research as above. Secondly, a camping to create awareness among the youths and school going children to enroll into specific career choices that are facing a crisis of manpower shortage, such as the healthcare sector. Another example of a an application that would involve the same business research is creating brand awareness of a new product targeting the youth, for instance, cola drinks such as soda. Lastly, promotion of the use of protection during acts of intimacy may be a potential application that can utilize this business research. Summarily, a business research requires absolute understanding the needs of the target population, and streamlining strategies to address the problem of deficit identified.
Reference
Singleton, A., Webber, R., Joyce, M. R., & Dorissa, A. (2010). The practice of youth ministry in a changing context: Results from an Australian scoping study. Journal Of Youth Ministry, 9(1), 35-54.
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2. Factors leading to breakdown of relationships between members of the wheat supply chain
5
3. Supply Chain Management Processes using SCOR model
9
3.1. Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model
9
3.2. Supply Chain Solutions that would have prevented the second contamination
12
4. Importance of Collaboration in the Australian Agri-food market supply chain
13
5. Justification of the robustness of the supply chain of Western Australian in grain suppliers
14
6. Recommendations
15
7. Conclusion
16
References
17
Executive summary
As global bulk grain markets continue to be dynamic and highly competitive, the respective supply chain management processes ought to make sure that the required quality standards threshold are always met prior to dispatching any vessel loaded with export whole grains or their finished products. This means that the supply chain management are among the concepts that presently dominate the debates with regards to companies, especially on the wake of operational effectiveness due to the previous shortcomings associated with supply chains among many organizations that have led to a myriad of challenges including those faced the Western Australian grain suppliers who supplies many destinations across the world probably Saudi Arabia and Japan. A magnitude problem resulted from neglecting essential supply chain management process since the Saudi Arabians required that their grains be added carmoisine a food additive as a preventative measure, whereas Japan forbidden carmoisine and classified it as an objectionable contaminant. This case study involves the study of how a company’s or port’s supply chain management processes can be appropriately handled, particularly using the SCOR model to ensure that all actors in the supply chain were satisfied. Hence, failure to adhere to this, Western Australia grain marketers and bulk handlers faced problems regarding to the unacceptable wheat grains delivered to Japan, an issue which was avoidable if proper quality standard measures within the supply chain were incorporated.
1. Introduction
As global bulk grain markets continue to be dynamic and highly competitive, the respective supply chain management processes ought to make sure that the required quality standards threshold are always met prior to dispatching any vessel loaded with export whole grains or their finished products (Rottig, Koufteros & Umphress, 2011). This is attributable to the fact that various countries have different quality standards and some elements that are obviously allowable in some markets are strict objectionable contaminants in other markets. Hence, for the purpose in ensuring that the needs of each market are effectively met without compromising the quality standards of the exported whole grains, the need for an appropriately operating supply chain management has become inevitable. In addition, the efficiency of the supply chain management is not only further stretched by the high threshold of quality standards in the global bulk grain market, but also due to the ever increasing demand for whole grains across the globe attributed to significant reductions in the whole grain production levels in some regions of the world probably due to climate change (Simchi-Levi, Kaminski & Simchi-Levi, 2008).
Therefore, it can be succinctly stated that climate change effects and consequences as well as the requirement for adoption of practices that significantly drive supply chain transformation. However, considering the robustness of the Western Australian supply chain robustness, it is essential to reflect on various factors for relationship breakdown in the supply chain using the actors in the supply chain. The factors could be operational, technological, cultural, food commodity as well as communication factors. Therefore, as a result of this case study and the repercussions that ensured in terms of tangible losses and intangible losses, the need for making that all actors within the Western Australian bulk grain supply chain collaboratively work together is obviously not in doubt if the export market for its whole grains, especially wheat has to be maintained. This is due to the fact that in this scenario, Western Australian whole grain (wheat) marketers had the responsibility of making sure that clients’ needs were satisfied without conflict with either by stringently adhering to the present export contract requirements.
Factors attributed to the breakdown of relationships between members of the wheat supply chain
In order to ensure that the relationship between all actors in any supply chain remain vibrant, there is need for trust, honesty and accountability among each of the actor. This is mainly attributed to the fact that, even though all other actors in the supply chain play their role effectively with exception of one, chances of conflicts to ensue are usually very high since a single mistake by anyone actor in a supply chain can result to unrecoverable losses (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012; Benton, 2013). For instance, it is evidently clear that in this case study not all actors in the supply chain contributed to the breakdown of relationships, but just a few mistakes of some actors and not all actors in the supply chain. Hence, this makes the need for collaboration between all actors in the supply chain highly essential for the avoidance of mistakes which could have permanently cost Western Australia a consistent customer as well as denting its reputation among wheat importers across the globe.
A critical consideration of this scenario, it is evidently clear that the factors that led to relationship breakdown in the supply chain from the perspective of the actors in the supply chain a varied since they include operational, technological, food commodity as well as communication factors. This can be attributed to the fact that, after the wheat cargo which had been shipped to Japan was eventually rejected after quality control tests confirmed the presence of carmoisine (a food colour additive) on the Western Australian’s noodle wheat a scuffle ensued between the supply chain actors, in particular the grain marker playing the role of selling wheat and the bulk handler at the port responsible for the cargo assemblage and loading. This incident was an eye opener among the supply chain actors for them to realise how important it was for them to work collaboratively for the protection of Japan customers who were definitely highly valued (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012; Benton, 2013).
From the perspective of these incidents, communication factors were significantly attributed to the relationships breakdown among the wheat supply chain members since a blame game ensued between the grain marketer and the bulk handler. In particular, the bulk handler blamed the grain marketer for not fully revealing the details of the contract of wheat export to Japan which strictly prohibited presence of carmoisine in its whole grains, while the grain marketer blamed bulk handler for carelessly handling and assembling wheat grain cargo resulting to presence of carmoisine traces in the wheat meant for Japan destination, which in the country is classified as an objectionable contaminant. Since carmoisine is not allowed in Japan and several other countries across the world mainly because various studies have attributed it to hypersensitivity in infants failure of effective communication between the grain marketer and bulk handler resulted to this problem considering the bulk handler was previously and the wheat cargo that eventually resulted to this scuffle. The bulk handler admitted that was not aware whether carmoisine in banned in Japan, while the grain marketer was privy of this information. This means that the bulk handler would have thoroughly cleaned the supply chain conveyors after handling and assembling Saudi Arabia cargo where carmoisine is allowable prior to handling the wheat cargo destined for Japan if the grain marketer has fully revealed the details of the contract.
This is attributable to the fact that there is addition of carmoisine to about 1% of whole grains exported to Saudi Arabia to alleviate black market grain market. Hence, in the case of Saudi Arabian wheat cargo in order to make sure that the grains are added the food additive which is red in colour is done by making sure that the supply chain conveyer belts are sprayed with the food additive in order to ensure that they are unique from those of the black market. However, the Saudi Arabian grain cargo was loaded the loading conveyer belts were not decontaminated or cleaned thoroughly and this led to the contamination of the wheat cargo destined for Japan by contacting the carmoisine on the conveyer belts, which is an objectionable contaminant in the country. The Japanese quality tests that are highly strict detected the presence of carmoisine eventually resulting to a huge scuffle with regards to Australia’s grain exports quality. Subsequently, the entire wheat grain cargo was rejected by Japan and led to significant demurrage costs as well as tangible and intangible losses on the side of Western Australia. The situation was even worsened more, when a second incident of similar nature occurred again within a short irrespective of the assurances offered to the side of Japan from Western Australia regarding quality of wheat grains, which worsened the trade relations between the two countries even though it was eventually resolved.
Operational factors were undoubtedly the other cause of the relationship breakdown in the supply chain from the perspective of the actors in the supply chain because the bulk handler was not supposed to assume the quality standards for various market destinations to avoid thorough cleansing and decontamination of the supply chain conveyor belts. It should always be a thumb rule for the supply chain conveyor belts to be thoroughly cleaned handling or assembling any cargo not its type or destination prior to handling any other cargo. Hence, there was an operational failure of the cargo handler to ensure that this procedure was adhered based on an assumption that the quality standards for the destinations of both cargoes of wheat were the same. This incident acted as an eye opener to them, to always prioritise the appropriate supply chain management processes which require thorough cleansing and decontamination of the supply chain conveyor belts after handling any batch of containing any additive that is not universally accepted among all the destination markets.
Furthermore, technological factors especially the absence of high edge and prompt techniques for the quality control and assurance was another factor definitely led to relationship breakdown in the supply chain from the perspective of the actors in the supply chain. This is attributable to the fact that, if the bulk handler had the top notch quality testing technologies, it would have been easier to detect the presence of carmoisine in the wheat cargo and avoid loading it to the vessel prior to confirming whether the additive was acceptable in Japan. This issue would have been amicably solved between the grain marketer, bulk handler and grain producers and avoid the eventual losses both tangible and intangible that ensued later (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012; Benton, 2013).
3. Supply Chain Management Processes using SCOR Model
Over several decades after the inception of the supply chain management, the appropriate alignment of the processes of the grain supply chain with respect to the SCOR model has been a crucial practice aimed at streamlining its operational functions. However, with respect to this project there is need to establish appropriate measures that would not only ensure that, the operations of the supply chain management are sustainable, but also effective especially from the perspective of an organization’s processes, services and products so that they can be aligned in ways that are responsible (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012; Benton, 2013; Hoejmose, Brammer & Millington, 2013). For instance, considering the supply chain between Western Australia and Japan, the supply chain demanded trust along with integrity amongst partners within the supply chain making the terms of business highly sensitive compared to the supply chains involving other partners (Amaeshi, Osuji &Nnodim, 2008).
3.1. SCOR model
Any supply chain consists of various participants who act distinctly, but are interrelated (Leppelt, Foerstl & Hartmann 2013). The activities that take place throughout the supply chain can be easily categorized using the SCOR model into planning, sourcing, creation or making, delivering as well as returning. This involves managerial operations’ aspects such as procurement, inventory, transportation, manufacturing, as well as orders. This means that the SCOR model offers a structure for the description of linked metrics and processes the supply chains operations and supervision towards more efficient activities through consistent evaluation (Amaeshi, Osuji &Nnodim, 2008).
Therefore, the SCOR model is considered to be the front runner in the world’s supply chain framework, which links performance metrics, business processes, as well as people skills and practices into a unified structure. This means that adoption of the SCOR model in this scenario could have significantly improved the supply chain operations by increasing the system implementations speed, improving inventory turns, as well as supporting organisational learning goals. However, the SCOR model processes includes: planning, sourcing, making, delivering, returning as well as enabling. Furthermore, the SCOR model metrics includes the perfection of order fulfilment, order cycle time fulfilment, flexibility of the upwards supply chain, adaptability of the upwards supply chain, adaptability of the downwards supply chain, as well as working capital and fixed assets of the supply chain returns (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012).
As a result, the SCOR model should have been embraced by the bulk loader and grain marketer for a more efficient operation of the supply chain which could have evaded the incident that eventually ensued. The figure shown below illustrates the SCOR processes framework in order to elaborate on essential supply chain management processes:
Figure 1: SCOR processes framework
Source: Supply Chain Council
The capacity to manage supply chain activities that are varied cost effectively has progressively continued to pose a challenge to many exporters in their attempt to remain competitive (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012). As a result, electronically-enabled supply chains (ESC) have been providing potential towards attaining the objectives of supply chain actors through improved operational efficiency (Majumdar & Nishant, 2008; Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012).
3.2. Supply chain solutions that would have prevented the second contamination
From the fact that, all actors of the supply chain were conversant with the Japanese regulations with regards to presence of carmoisine in grains from the first contamination incident, the subsequent contamination could have been effectively avoided (Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012). Therefore, in order to make sure that the second contamination was avoided several measures could have been adopted such as:
A different supply chain loading conveyer belts should have been utilised for loading wheat cargo destined for Saudi Arabia and Japan in order to significantly reduce carmoisine contamination chances.
Thorough decontamination and cleansing of conveyor belts measures should have been implemented after every Saudi Arabian grain shipment is handled.
Appropriate quality standards testing to ensure that no traces of carmoisine are available in any cargo destined for Japan, which classified it as an objectionable contaminant.
4.Importance of collaboration among members of the supply chain
Collaboration in supply chain within the exportation markets involves the element of working together in unison among the actors (Morali & Searcy, 2013). According to Morali & Searcy (2013) a stakeholder is defined as the entity or individual affected by or may affect the operations of a firm. For instance, in the case of a supply chain, stakeholders involve farmers or producers, suppliers, regulators and clients. To start with, the supply chain section in Western Australia would have requested for the presence of Japanese officials in their port to monitor their commitment to high quality standards delivery. This is mainly because the upstream supply chain is of great significance. However, integration of suppliers entails vital competencies’ consideration associated to crucial suppliers’ synchronization. The objective of making sure that all members in a supply chain work together collaboratively is to ensure there is sustainable generation and delivery of product to the market (Majumdar & Nishant, 2008; Rottig, Koufteros & Umphress, 2011; Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012). As a result of this, it is important to note that through collaboration information sharing should be an essential component of making sure that all actors within the supply chain are working (Rottig, Koufteros & Umphress, 2011; Wolf, 2011).
Justification of the robustness of the supply chain of Western Australian in grain suppliers
An argument can be raised that Western Australian grain exporters had robust and effective quality management measures throughout its supply chain. This can be attributed to the fact that no quality standard problem which ha been detected over a long period without even a single occurrence of carmoisine contamination. Secondly, considering the trade scuffle which had ensued after the occurrence of the first contamination, it can be observed that the second contamination of noodles could have been purely accidental. Furthermore, the regulation of all the sectors of the supply chain as statutory authorities of the government including the quarantine services, railways, ports, grain handlers and grain traders as statutory monopolies in order to complement each other needs ensured that the supply chain operated optimally among all the Western Australian ports such as Albany, Fremantle, Geraldton as well as Esperance, which also ensured that the destination ports were highly efficient.
6.Recommendations
Embracing supply chain management processes in the conventional business environment conditions is unavoidable for any supply chain actor. However, some firms have adopted ineffective supply chains management processes, while others are yet to meet this urgent requirement. Thus, it is usually recommended that these companies adopt the following measures:
Companies must align their production to effective practices such as using processes that are cost effective.
Every firm must ensure that its supply chain actors adhere to the set effective practices (Tripathi & Petro, 2011; Bolstorff & Rosenbaum, 2012; Benton, 2013).
While making sure appropriate supply chain management process are established, incorporation of the views of all stakeholders is of essence, which enables adoption of a strategy that do not conflict with other factors within the supply chain.
Technology adoption is of great essence to a company interested in the persistence of an effective supply chain management processes since technology ensures the assessment of issues such as efficiency and quality and quality (Rottig, Koufteros & Umphress, 2011).
7. Conclusion
In conclusion, Western Australian grain producers, grain marketers and bulk handlers faced numerous problems due to the ineffectiveness of their supply chain management processes. This mainly accrued from negligence since it not only happened once, but twice. As a result bulk grain handling and assembling as well as marketing companies are increasingly being required to adopt a effective supply chain management processes in order to keep up with the rapidly changing markets. Though some bulk grain exporting firms in the past deemed this to be an expensive endeavour presently all of them do not have any other choice, but to adhere with the norm in order to survive in business. This has over the recent past being making the stakeholders to increasingly put pressure on companies to ensure that effective processes of producing or delivering products are put in place. It is presently clear that many companies have adopted supply chain management processes that are effective in order to make sure that they continue to operate efficiently.
References
Amaeshi, K. M., Osuji, O. K., & Nnodim, P. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chains of Global Brands: A Boundaryless Responsibility? Clarifications, Exceptions and Implications, Journal of Business Ethics, 81(1), 223-234. doi: 10.1007/s10551-007-9490-5
Benton, W. (2013). Supply Chain Focused Manufacturing Planning and Control. Sainsbury, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Bolstorff, P., & Rosenbaum, R. G. (2012). Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR. London: CSR Press.
Handfield, R., & Nichols, E.L. (2012). Introduction to Supply Chain Management. New York, NY: Jr.Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-621616-1
Hoejmose, S., Brammer, S., & Millington, A. (2013). An empirical examination of the relationship between business strategy and socially responsible supply chain management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 33(5), 589. doi: 10.1108/01443571311322733
Jørgensen, H. (2003). Strengthening implementation of corporate social responsibility in global supply chains (1st ed.). Washington, D.C.: World Bank
Lambert, D. M. (2010). Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance. New York, NY: Prentice Hall.
Leppelt, T., Foerstl, K., & Hartmann, E. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Is it Beneficial for Top-Tier Suppliers to Market their Capability to Ensure a Responsible Supply Chain? Business Research, 6(2), 126-152.
Majumdar, S., & Nishant, R. (2008). Sustainable entrepreneurial support (in supply chain) as corporate social responsibility initiative of large organizations: a conceptual framework, The Icfai University Journal of Entrepreneurship Development, 5(3), 116-124.
Morali, O., & Searcy, C. (2013). A Review of Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices in Canada, Journal Of Business Ethics, 117(3), 635-658. doi: 10.1007/s10551-012-1539-4
Poluha, R. G. (2009). Application of the SCOR model in supply chain management. London: Cambria Press.
Rottig, D., Koufteros, X., & Umphress, E. (2011). Formal Infrastructure and Ethical Decision Making: An Empirical Investigation and Implications for Supply Management, Decision Sciences, 42(1), 163. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5915.2010.00305.x
Salam, M., (2009). Corporate Social Responsibility in Purchasing and Supply Chain, Journal of Business Ethics, 85(2), 355—370.
Simchi-Levi, D., Kaminski, P., & Simchi-Levi, E. (2008). Designing and Managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies and Case Studies. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International. ISBN 978-0-07-127097-7.
Shreekant, W. S, & Palekar, A. (2012). Supply Chain Analytics with SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse. New York, NY: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-1-25-900608-1.
Spence, L., & Bourlakis, M. (2011). 11. Social responsibility in the supply chain: CSR or corporate social watchdogs? Business Ethics and Corporate Sustainability.164
Tripathi, S., & Petro, G. (2011). Evolving Green Procurement and Sustainable Supply Chain Practices in the Organizations: A Framework to Align Functional Strategy Implementation to Organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Objectives, Management Convergence, 1(1), 24-32
Wolf, J. (2011). Sustainable Supply Chain Management Integration: A Qualitative Analysis of the German Manufacturing Industry, Journal of Business Ethics, 102(2), 221-235. doi: 10.1007/s10551-011-0806-0
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VCI/EIIison Equipment-Coordinated Global Sourcing Process across Continents
Order Instructions:
VCI/EIIison Equipment-Coordinated Global Sourcing
Process across Continents
VCI/EIIison, which represents the consolidation of the heavy transportation equipment units of
two previously separate and regional companies, is facing worldwide pricing pressures from customers
and competitors. The ability to meet financial targets has presented a major challenge for this new
global company. With limited ability to raise product prices, the alternatives facing VCI/EIIison have
become managing material costs better or absorbing price increases through lower profit margins and
profitability. Given that direct materials represent over 70% of the company’s total costs, it becomes
easy to appreciate the impact that improved global sourcing efforts should have on profitability.
From the time VCI, a European company, assumed ownership of U.S.-based Ellison both companies have sought to leverage the commonality between them on a global basis. The company concluded early on that procurement offered excellent opportunities for global synergy across the two continents. Ellison Equipment, working with VCI, has implemented a multi-step global sourcing process designed to leverage the volumes available through the newly combined units. This case offers insight
into how two geographically and culturally diverse companies, brought together through acquisition, are attempting to gain synergy and efficiency through integrated global sourcing. The challenges facing this global effort include not only geographic separation, but also cultural, language, technical, and business practice differences.
Global Sourcing Process Overview The global process at this company features two teams, one
at Ellison Equipment and one at VCI, working concurrently on the same global project. While Ellison had experience using cost reduction teams, VCI had never used teams within their procurement or engineering areas. As part of this process teams are aligned on both sides of the ocean working jointly on a commodity category or project. The teams eventually work face-to-face as they progress through the process steps.
Each global sourcing project has an expected duration of six months (although the transition to a
new supplier can take much longer). After working with an external consultant to segment its primary
products into six commodity groups, VCI and Ellison jointly identified 27 project opportunities. This
process is designed to support nine projects at a time (each having a six-month duration) with three
iterations or waves. Each team pursues three categories of commodities (which may have subcategories or sub-commodities) simultaneously, so three teams in a wave pursue a total of nine projects.
VCI/EIIison has also decided to apply its global process to contracts that the sourcing teams
determine are regional rather than global (a region is defined as North America or Europe only). A
global supplier is one that can competitively supply a product or service to all of VCI/EIIison’s worldwide
production and assembly locations. To date a majority of contracts have been classified as regional.
This is not surprising given the fact that the major competitors in the heavy equipment industry operate
regionally, which the supply community is structured to support.
VCI/EIIison’s Global Sourcing Process With the help of an external consultant VCI/EIIison has
created a rigorous and thorough nine-step global strategy development and implementation process.
Steps 1-4 of this process involve strategy development, while Steps 5-8 involve strategy implementation.
Global sourcing project teams are responsible for the first four steps. Step 0 involves the executive
steering committee selecting nine global sourcing projects at a time (called a wave) and identifying the
cost savings expected from each project.
Perhaps the most important task associated with Step 1, which is project launch, is the
formation of the global sourcing teams. Team members are selected based on their familiarity with the commodity or items under review. Since there is usually only one engineer and buyer for the
commodity, these individuals become team members almost by default.
The team leader works with the team to develop time schedules, a list of deliverables, and
expected milestones within the six-month project window. During this part of the process the teams
begin to quantify what they are studying by collecting and validating data. Across each category there
may be four or five segments or sub-categories that require separate analysis. While each team decides
on the segmentation of a category, both teams assigned to the project must agree on the segmentation.
Even thought each project technically has two teams assigned (one at each company working
simultaneously), they are really one team looking at the same project. Teams can proceed to the next
process step without the explicit approval of the executive steering committee. However, teams are
required to publish progress updates weekly. A major responsibility of the business analyst (discussed
later) is to compile and provide performance updates to the executive steering committee.
Some managers consider Step 2, sourcing strategy development, to be the most interesting and
critical part of the global process. During this step the project teams identify potential worldwide
suppliers. One of the realizations when beginning this process was that supplier switching, including
switching from long-established suppliers, was likely to occur. This realization was based partly on the external consultant’s global sourcing experience. Supplier switching can be time-consuming and difficult as new supply chain relationships are established.
From the list of potential suppliers, the teams send Requests for Information (RFis), which they
can modify to meet the specific needs of their category or segment. The RFI is a generic supplier
questionnaire that introduces the global process and requests data about sales, production capacity,
quality certification (such as ISO 9000), familiarity with the equipment industry, and major customers. It
is not unusual to send 400-500 RFis during a project, depending on the complexity of the category and
segments the team is working.
The RFI is a first filter in the supplier selection process. During this step it is critical that
suppliers return a high percentage of the RFis, which are separated and reported by region of the world.
Of the 400-500 RFis forwarded to suppliers, a team may receive and analyze several hundred completed
RFis. The teams also conduct a detailed supply market analysis to develop a thorough understanding of the economics and dynamics of a particular market.
Step 2 is usually the first time that the two teams working on a global sourcing project meet face
to face. The European and U.S. teams meet physically to conduct face to face analysis of the RFis
returned by suppliers. It is each team’s responsibility to establish the criteria for determining which
suppliers will receive Requests for Proposals (RFPs). A key decision during Step 2 is whether a
procurement opportunity appears to be regional versus global. A lack of globally capable suppliers can
make a project a regional opportunity.
Step 2 requires a major effort on the part of engineering. Engineers on both sides will examine
drawings in an effort to commonize part specifications between locations. While a project team may conclude that a global supply source does not exist, there may be opportunities to commonize or standardize specifications across the two locations.
Step 3, requests for proposals, features the development, sending, and analysis of formal
proposals to the most promising suppliers identified in Step 2. The average number of proposals
forwarded to suppliers per project is 20-30. Suppliers typically require six weeks to analyze and return
the RFPs. The teams strive for a high percentage of returned proposals, similar to the RFis. Team
leaders, representing the project teams, report RFP progress to the executive steering committee at a
weekly meeting.
Teams are responsible for analyzing the returned supplier proposals. Like the RFis, teams can
set their own evaluation criteria and weights, but members must reach consensus in their choices. The
proposal allows suppliers to provide design suggestions.
The teams usually meet via video or audio conferencing to review the proposals. Engineers
again take a lead role in evaluating technical merits. Complex purchase requirements may require teams to meet face-to-face for a second time. Using standardized spreadsheet tools that are available
to all teams, each team analyzes its proposals and decides, based on the analysis, which suppliers will be invited to negotiations.
A negotiation workshop takes place at VCI’s European learning center during this step. This
session has several objectives-team members receive training in negotiation, the project teams
develop their negotiating strategy, and the teams select a negotiation leader. If a team determined that
a sourcing opportunity was regional, negotiation will occur separately by region. Teams select regional
negotiation leaders if the project is a regional opportunity or a single negotiator if the project is global.
The decision of who should be the negotiating leader is based on discussion and consensus rather than
voting. Of the first 27 projects, fully one-third of the negotiating leaders were selected from outside the
project teams.
Step 4 involves recommending a strategy and negotiating with selected suppliers. Project teams
make a recommendation to an executive committee, specifically the vice presidents of purchasing and
engineering from VCI and Ellison. The executive committee may ask questions but to date has not
overturned any team recommendations. Team recommendations include the selected supplier(s) with expected savings and timings identified. The teams also identify whether the suppliers are regional or global but do not recommend contract length.
In this step the negotiating team probes and discusses in-depth the proposals submitted by
suppliers. Suppliers can be disqualified if engineering determines the supplier cannot satisfy technical
requirements, or the team is not satisfied with the commercial issues.
All negotiation in Step 4 is conducted face to face with suppliers at VCI/EIIison sites. Half the
negotiations so far have occurred in the U.S. and half in Europe. Before suppliers arrive they receive
feedback concerning the competitiveness of their proposal, which they are allowed to revise before
negotiations commence. Suppliers may be excused if they are informed that they are not competitive and choose not to revise their proposal. Once the lead negotiator takes over, the team leader’s role
begins to diminish (unless the team leader is also the lead negotiator). The team leader usually remains
as part of the negotiating team.
Step 5, called supplier certification, features purchasing and engineering groups receiving the
team’s recommendation and preliminary terms of the negotiated agreement. At this time functional
directors will begin to budget expected savings from the proposed contract into their financial projections. Supplier site visits can occur during this step by representatives of the functional groups.
For example, engineering, procurement, and quality assurance may want to validate a number of topics
during this step. The time frame for this step varies from one month to over a year.
Step 6, finalizing the contract, involves crafting the final contract based on the outcome of the
negotiations. The negotiation leader remains with the process until the contract is complete. While the
legal department is also involved, a buyer writes the contract using an agreement template. Contracts
are typically three years in duration. Both sides of the ocean are involved in formalizing the contract if
the agreement is global rather than regional.
Global agreements differ from traditional contracts. They include productivity improvement
requirements to offset material increases. The agreements also encourage technical advancements by the supplier to further reduce material costs or enhance product performance. This process also
includes a formal process to manage improvements, whereas the process for previous or non-global
agreements has been informal. And, in a somewhat significant departure from previous contracting
practices, incentives such as 50/50 improvement sharing are starting to appear.
Step 7, sample testing and approval, assesses the samples provided by the selected supplier.
Production facilities go through a production readiness stage, initial sample inspection reports are
developed, parts are checked off of production tooling, and the negotiation leader develops a
production rollout plan with help from his or her counterpart on the other side of the ocean.
Step 8, the concluding step of a global project, is the production readiness stage. The selected supplier may send a day or weeks worth of supply to be used in actual production. Logistics becomes part of the implementation team if there is a switch from one supplier to another.
Organizational Enablers VCI/EIIison has put in place certain enablers that support global sourcing. This includes the formation of an executive steering committee, the use of global teams, formally selected team leaders, and the creation of a business analyst’s position to support the operational and analytical needs of the teams. An executive steering committee at each unit reviews and prioritizes projects for study.
A sourcing director at VCI and a counterpart at Ellison drive the process at both organizations. Working jointly, these executives recommend projects for study, solicit input from functional areas in terms of cost savings and quality improvement opportunities, develop a plan to pursue the project (including assembling a cross-functional team), track the status of each project through weekly progress updates, and manage the global process to ensure its continued success. The executive steering committee members conduct a video conferencing meeting each week for two hours. This meeting also involves team leaders for projects that are in process.
Cross-functional teams are an integral part of this process. Two teams, one from VCI and one
from Ellison, work simultaneously on the same sourcing opportunity, each with a formal team leader, two functional members (usually from engineering and purchasing), and a business analyst that supports both teams. Each project consists of seven combined positions across two teams. The team leader and business analyst are full-time assignments while the buyer and engineer provide a part-time commitment.
Teams are responsible only for the first four steps of the global sourcing process. The two teams usually come together physically two or three times over a project’s duration. Both sides agree, however, that face to face interaction is time consuming. At the conclusion of each project the teams are required to write a “white book” documenting the lessons learned from their experience.
With any team-based approach the role of the team leader is critical to success. Project leaders
are responsible for planning team meetings, which are held once or twice a week depending on the
phase of the project, and reporting project status to the executive steering committee. Planning includes setting the meeting agenda, ensuring the global process steps are followed, and working with team members to meet time lines and achieve project goals. The leader also communicates with each
member’s management when necessary to ensure commitment. Agreement is widespread that the
team leader is a critical part of the process, particularly when the leader must work with members to balance their priorities while still challenging the team to achieve demanding performance improvement targets.
Each set of teams that works on three projects simultaneously has a business analyst assigned to
support the effort. The time required for managing requests for information {RFis) and requests for
proposals {RFPs) across two continents is extensive. Vel/Ellison created a full-time business analyst
position to manage the required tasks when pursuing global agreement. Exhibit 1 outlines the key features of this position.
Exhibit 1
Positive and Negative Features Related to the Business Analyst Position
Positive Features Negative Features
Experience from the position builds Managing three projects expertise about the global sourcing simultaneously creates an intense process work pace Full-time commitment to the process helps the business analyst avoid other job distractions
Process has some inefficiencies (faxing,
handling reams of paper, some software inefficiencies), creating additional and perhaps unnecessary work burden
Team leader and business analyst are Long and stressful days can affect key “point people” to management morale and promote turnover and suppliers
Given the work required to manage Too many RFI suppliers pass to RFP RFis, RFPs, and negotiations, the global stage, creating intensive work sourcing process would not succeed requirements for the analyst without the analyst position and a strong analyst Business analyst position prepares Obtaining drawings for RFPs from individuals for future sourcing careers engineers is a time consuming process
The analyst is central to the success of the RFI and RFP process. Analysts compile and send RFI
and RFP packages to suppliers, track and report response rates, input RFI and RFP response information into a sourcing software system and database, and follow-up with suppliers who are late with their submission. The business analyst also answers any questions that suppliers have or forwards their inquiries to the appropriate procurement or engineering representative. The analyst also provides feedback to suppliers concerning the competitiveness of their initial quotation or proposal. Finally, analysts have responsibility for forwarding the project database to their counterpart team across the ocean on a regular basis. Team members are relieved of extensive analytic and clerical duties, which allows members to commit time to value-adding activities.
While management views the business analyst position as an ideal way for high-potential
individuals to gain exposure to purchasing and sourcing, there are some issues with this part of the
process. Managing three projects simultaneously creates an intense work pace that affects morale and
promotes turnover. Furthermore, one analyst maintained that too many RFPs are forwarded to
suppliers, resulting in an intensive work requirement. Obtaining the necessary drawings from
engineering is also a time consuming activity. Finally, the process to coordinate team activities between the U.S. and Europe presents some difficulties. The analyst must fax documents daily, manage reams of paper, and use software that was not compatible between the U.S. and European systems.
Global Sourcing Outcomes A number of themes emerge when managers describe the value of
taking an integrated approach to worldwide sourcing. Perhaps most importantly, global sourcing was
the first major integrative effort undertaken between VCI and Ellison. This process demonstrated that
the two organizations could work jointly to capture the benefits offered by taking a global rather than
regional perspective, although the company is somewhat disappointed by the number of opportunities that were determined to be regional rather than global. Second, this process demonstrated that material savings are available from a disciplined approach to worldwide sourcing. Contracts resulting from this process average over 10% in material price savings, which is not as high as the savings that Santek is realizing. Part of this is due to the fact that many of VCI/EIIison’s agreements are regional rather than global.
Global sourcing has also narrowed the differences between Ellison’s and VCI’s sourcing
practices. Ellison has historically been more relationship focused with suppliers and viewed negotiation as a means to build upon those relationships. VCI has shown a greater willingness to switch suppliers more frequently and faster due to cost and quality considerations. The global process has enabled the two companies to converge on a consistent sourcing approach that combines the best features of both sourcing philosophies.
A repeated sentiment among managers is that this nine-step process introduced a discipline to
sourcing at VCI/EIIison. Each sourcing project moves lock-step over a six-month period with weekly
reporting to an executive steering committee. Global sourcing teams must meet deadlines and
milestones, make sure information gets to suppliers, and thoroughly research the supply base before
negotiating and awarding contracts. The process has made everything “official” with suppliers, who
have taken VCI/EIIison’s global efforts seriously.
The process is not without less positive outcomes or observations. One issue concerns a lack of
knowledge between VCI and Ellison personnel about each other’s supply base. As a result, each side
during a project has had a natural tendency to favor its own suppliers. When the two project teams
work together face-to-face, they have to spend time sorting out who the best suppliers from each side
are globally. This “home market bias” has hindered the process to some degree. Global sourcing teams
have been forced to learn more about each other’s suppliers, which requires greater effort and an open
mind.
As expected, all 27 global project teams to date have not been equally effective. One team
leader argues that any differences in performance are due to the quality and effort of the team
members and leaders rather than project complexity. This highlights the need for careful member
evaluation and selection. Unfortunately, team leaders do not receive special training before they
assume that critical position. And, team members are usually selected because they are most familiar
with the item or category under study rather than their ability to be effective team members.
While external consultants played a critical and highly visible role in developing and using
VCI/EIIison’s global process, managers point out that the use of consultants caused some concern. For
example, consultants assumed the role of team leader with several early teams, raising questions
concerning who should lead the teams and their qualifications. The consultants often dictated what the RFPs should contain, which created some disagreement within project teams. The consulting group also insisted on top management presence at weekly meetings. While this demonstration of executive commitment was valuable for the first few months, later meetings became too detailed to warrant executive attendance. Finally, too much time was spent educating consultants about the heavy
equipment industry. There was some surprise initially at the lack of experience of the consultants sent to work with VCI/EIIison on a day-to-day basis.
Concluding Observations An issue that all companies should address is whether the supply base
that supports their industry has global capabilities. Most competitors in the heavy equipment industry
operate regionally, which the supply community is structured to support. The issue of a regional versus
global industry raises a critical question-is the heavy equipment industry, with its regional perspective
and different customer tastes and requirements, a true global industry? How much time should
VCI/EIIison spend searching for common interests, including in procurement and design, when perhaps
limited opportunities are available?
As VCI/EIIison completes the first major iteration of its global process (three waves of nine
projects each that addressed the entire product structure), some managers are openly concerned about losing the discipline associated with this process. When first introduced the global sourcing process was something new that received special attention from executive leadership and suppliers. Some managers have expressed a concern that internal participants and suppliers already perceive the process is “winding down” and that most of the available savings have been captured. Maintaining momentum rather than succumbing to complacency will likely require a group that is committed to driving this process forward. In all likelihood that group must be the executive steering committee that is responsible for directing VCI/EIIison’s global efforts.
Discussion Questions
3. The assessment of worldwide suppliers creates an extensive workload. Discuss how VCI/EIIison
supports the analysis requirements faced by each global sourcing team.
SAMPLE ANSWER
VCI/EIIison Equipment-Coordinated Global Sourcing Process across Continents
VCI/Ellison agrees with all the requirements that are supposed to be met by every global sourcing organization. Global sourcing is very essential in the current society since all businesses are coming together in order to have a mutual working relationship. This cooperation ensures that a lot of value is given at a very low cost.
Development and changes in how businesses are conducted is a must. Competition is so stiff, there are so many emerging competitors, organizations are coming up with very new ways of doing business, leaders are developing new rules to govern how they run their business and customers are demanding for value for their money. Consequently, this has pushed almost every company to make use of the little resources that they have to produce more. With global sourcing, most of these challenges are solved. Global sourcing will enable this two organizations get the right skills at the right time and at a reasonable amount of money. Maintaining and training a workforce is so expensive hence, many companies are unable to manage this. Furthermore, global sourcing will generate more savings for the two organizations which can eventually be used to support very valuable projects in the organization. Therefore, with globalization, VCI/EIIison organizations are in support of this initiative since it lowers any challenge that can arise within the organization. As a result of this initiative, these two organizations are assured of very high efficiency rate and initiate projects of great value which are also very profitable. In addition, global sourcing will enable the two organizations to have an advantage over their competitors. Furthermore, they will also improve on the quality of goods and services offered to the clients both nationally and internationally (Gong, 100-150).
Work cited
Gong, Y. (2013). Global operations strategy: Fundamentals and practice. Berlin: Springer.
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Business Report – Students will review and select a topic from the business-related topics provided by the faculty. They will write an effective formal report inclusive of the following parts: title page, table of contents, executive summary, body with at least one page with graphic/s, and appropriate referencing (APA or MLA style). The total of the body is three to five pages not including the title page, table of contents, executive summary, and reference page. (15%)
You should pick a current (less than six month) business issue to research and write about for your paper. You may choose a topic that is related to your group presentation but it should not be exactly what your group presentation is focused on. For example, let’s say your group presentation is focused on the technology problems related to signing up for coverage under the Affordable Healthcare Act. Your paper could be on another, related topic such as the government accounting/tracking of the new law or the financial need to have younger people sign up for coverage.
Your paper should also relate to the main topic in this class, business communication. So, if your paper is on the Affordable Healthcare Act, you should include some discussion on a business communication related topic, such as an analysis of the communication with the public on issues/problems. Please approach this in a dispassionate, businesslike way – be balanced and leave your politics (and emotions) out of your paper, as much as possible (I realize everyone has strong opinions, but in business communication, we try to be balanced, objective, and analytical before finalizing any position).
Please remember that the paper will be graded based on: 10 points for directions, 20 points for writing mechanics, and 70 points for content.
I would like to have three pages for the body and the rest for table of contents, executive summary.
Overview of the Issue……………………………………………………………………………..4
Managing the Problem…………………………………………………………………………….5
Communication Plan………………………………………………………………………………6
Alternative Strategy……………………………………………………………………………….6
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..…7
References …………………………………………………………………………………………8
Executive Summary
The report focuses on the business aspects pertaining to the failures and technologies used to implement Obama care. User of technology expects provision of better healthcare. However, failures affect accessibility of services and disappoint many. People may as well lack trust and confidence in such technologies. The glitches occurred after many people had paid their premiums and many had to pay cash to access healthcare. The consequences of the failures affected many users as well as the economy.
Communication during such incidences is a strategy that organizations must employ to manage their reputation. Adopting poor strategies leads to failures and poor public image as in this case.
Different communication channels suits different stakeholders and organizations should select the most appropriate ones to convey their messages. Some of these channels include print media, television briefings, posters and other.
Increasing the confidence level of the citizens and perception about the credibility and capability of the technology is critical to get their support. The government through various avenues must assure citizens on appropriate measures taken to solve the problem to ensure it do not happen again.
Business Report
Introduction
Business is one of the most important pillars of the economy as products and services of all kinds are accessible through business transactions. Health care is one of the most important sectors affecting the lives of people. Hence, without good health care, the economy cannot thrive. The report deliberates on the recent glitches of Obama care Technology.
Overview of the Issue
Affordable Care Act is a major Obama administration initiative for citizens to access quality health care at an affordable cost. The initiative hopes to promote quality healthcare to all people in USA. The recent technology glitches have affected many people as thousands that had met the signing-in deadlines by purchasing the health insurance through this scheme had no cover because of the challenges experienced in enrolment system (The Wall Street Journal, 2014). This situation hurt many who could not understand the reason their detailed lacked in the system as insured. Others had to postpone their medication and others had to pay these bills by themselves hence compromising on their healthcare.
This incidence portrays the government and the stakeholders in bad limelight as people and other stakeholders would not have expected such incidence to happen (The Wall Street Journal, 2014). However, because of this, it becomes very important to understand the appropriate strategies to adopt to ensure that the situation does not go overboard.
Business communication is a vital strategy to reach to different stakeholders including, the customers/patients, the government, insurance providers and the medical practitioners among many others.
Technology failure had financial ramification to the economy. The fact that people could not access their healthcare services after signing in meant that they had to part away with money to access to health care services. It therefore affected their level of income, as they had to adjust on their consumption behaviors to cater for the medical costs. Furthermore, people that could not manage to cater for the private health care had to delay to get access to medical care and in the process; some succumbed to death because of poor medical attention (The Wall Street Journal, 2014).
Communication during the crisis
Conveyed to the stakeholders
Managing the Problem
Technology failure is a problem many institutions and organizations encounter. However, it is important that they develop appropriate disaster recovery plan to ensure that quick measures are in place to counter the same. The cost of a technological failure in terms of profitability is huge hence, the reason why such plans should be in place.
In this case, the problem persisted without tangible solutions as no amicable strategies were in place. Poor communication strategies contributed to the uproar and these disappointments. Had effective communication plan in place, customers would have prepared early and this problem could have managed well. Businesses must understand the important of effective communication as one of the pillars of success of the endeavors.
Communication in business is adapting to appropriate channels to promote understanding to achieve the objectives and goals set.
Management strategy
Communication Plan
The moment the government realized the problem it needed to communicate this to the members of the public. The government communication department should have called a press briefing to inform members of the public that had signed-in of the failures in the technology. Such briefings enable members of the public to be aware of the situation hence consider alternatives. The challenges and the dissolutions experienced by citizens that had signed-in and not yet insured could not surface.
In business communication, it is important to communicate through appropriate tools and to target specific audience (Meredith, 2012). The communication therefore, should be clear on the cases of the failures and the way forward. Information on the commencement of operations and the alternative course of action is as well essential. The strategy is appropriate in bringing the temperatures of the citizens already disappointed low. It also ensures that the public image and confident about the program is not indented.
Alternative Strategy
It is important for the leaders to come out clearly and talk about the problem. The individual in charge of technology should provide a clarification about technological hitches experienced. The individual has requisite skills and knowledge on systems operations hence, will increase the level of confidence and credibility among the citizens. Information from first hand sources have greater impact due to credibility believes. Such aggressive strategy will change the perception of the technology user (Ainsworth, 2013).
Users must gain confident that the system is effective and will not again let them down. Restoring this confidence requires use of persuasive messages using alternatives sources or channels of communication. For example, email, social media, print media and other mainstream media such as magazine, posters and radio and opinion leaders to reach a wider audience.
Conclusion
Business encounters various challenges that affect their income streams. Solving this challenge require problem analysis before adapting an appropriate strategy. Communication is a key ingredient in business and therefore, managers must communicate effectively in case of such glitches in their systems. Communication is essential in building the level of confidence of technology users. Using appropriate communication channels such as press briefing would be a good way to reach many affected users.
Ford Motor Group is a multinational public company that’s based in Michigan in the USA. Its shares are traded in NYSE under the initial F. It majors in automotive production and its current Executive chairman is William C. Ford, Jr. while the CEO is Mark Fields. The ford Family owns 2% of the company while the employees number about 181,000. It has a market capitalization of $54.65 Billion and its shares are currently trading at $14.09 dollars with a yield of 3.5%. (Luenberger, 1997) Ford has outstanding shares numbering 9 million while the market prices of its shares are currently costing 14.1 which amounts to a total of $126.9 million in outstanding stock valuation.
Part One
The directors of Ford Motor Group have impeccable academic backgrounds and experience that warrant their positions. The executive management of the Ford board as at the end of July 2014 were Richard A. Gephardt, Ellen Marram, Stephen Butler, Kimberly Casiano, Edsel Ford, Mark Fields (CEO & President, Homer Neal, Antony F. Earley, William Clay Ford Jr., the executive chairman, James P. Hackett, John L. Thornton, Gerald L. Shaheeen, James H. Hance, Jr., William W. Helman John C. Lechieter, James H. Hance and Jon M. Huntsman.
Mark Fields, the current CEO and President was initially appointed as the America’s President of operations in the year 2012. (Adams, 2008) The board is mostly concentrated in running the operations of the company from the head office. Almost 50% of its annual turnover is achieved in North America while the rest are from South America, Europe, Asia, pacific and Africa. The duties of each director are not included in the reports together with the salaries of other senior staff. The academic background for the senior positions office holders is not available on the 2013 annual report. The performance of Ford Motor Group has not been very impressive and it was expected that it would have more financial problems in the current financial period. However, Ford has endured hard times before and it’s expected that it will come out of financial woes on its own.
Part Two
The net assets turnover for Ford decreased by 2.5% in the year 2013 as compared to a 50% increase in the year 2012. GM registered a decrease of 13% in its net assets turnover in the year 2013 while in the year 2012 it experienced an increase of 6.5%. (Vance, 2003)
Dupont Analysis
The following is the Dopont model breakdown for Ford and GM. The profit margin for Ford amounted to 13% of sales for both 2013 and 2012. The return on Equity was 27% in 2013 while in2012 it was 36%. The profit margin on sales for GM amounted to 12% in 2013 while in 2012 it was 7%. The ROE for GM amounted to 13% and 17% respectively for the years 2013 and 2012 respectively. The return on assets amounted to 3 and 4% respectively. The earnings per share for Ford in 2013 and 2012 were 1.54 and 1.48 respectively while the dividends per share amounted to 0.4 and 0.2 respectively. Both companies are heavily leveraged and Ford is the one that has the highest concentration of debt compared to GM.
The interest expenses for Ford increased by 16.3% in 2013 while in 2012 it had decreased by 12.7%. The interest expense for Ford in the year 2013 and 2012 were 829 million and 713 million respectively. GM interest expenses decreased by 31.7% in 2013 while in 2012 the expenses decreased by 9.4%. The interest expenses for 2013 and 2012 were 334 Million and 489 Million respectively
The net assets turnover for Ford’s decreased by 2.5% in the year 2013 as compared to a 50% increase in the year 2012. GM registered a decrease of 13% in its net assets turnover in the year 2013 while in the year 2012 it experienced an increase of 6.5%. The dividend per share for Ford in 2013 and 2012 was 0.4 and 0.2 respectively. This represented a return of 22% to the shareholders in 2013 while in 2012 it was 23%.
Ford Motor Group
2013
2012
2011
Current Ratio
Total Current Assets/Total current liabilities
2.11
2.32
2.26
Quick Ratio
TT C/ Assets – inventories /TT/ C Liabilities
1.98
2.18
2.15
Receivable turnover
Annual credit sales/average receivables
Inventory Turnover
Cost of goods sold/Average inventory
17.00
17.51
19.87
Asset turnover
Sales/Average total assets
0.75
0.73
0.76
Dividend yield
Div per Share / Current Share price
Dividend cover
EPS/ Dividend per Share
Net assets turnover
Net assets / total sales
1.24
1.27
0.85
Times interest earned
EBIT/Annual Interest Expense
9.45
11.83
11.63
Debt to total Asset
Debt/Assets
0.57
1.03
0.56
Book value per share
Interest cover
EBIT/Annual Interest Expense
9.45
11.83
11.63
Profit margin on sale
GP/sales
0.13
0.13
0.14
R.R return on assets
EAT/Total Assets
0.04
0.03
0.11
R.R com stock equity
Profit after taxes/Shareholders equity
0.27
0.36
1.35
Earnings per share
Profit after taxes-pref div)/No. of comm O/S
1.54
1.48
Payout Ratio
cash dividends/income
0.22
0.13
0.00
ROE
Return On Equity (ROE)
0.27
0.36
1.35
ROA
Return on average Assets
0.04
0.03
0.11
Ford has low average but a relatively stable financial performance as compared to GM very high and very low performances that are unpredictable. Ford has a better growth trend thatis fairly predictable.
The dividend earnings growth trend has been calculated on average per year. There are financial periods where the dividend pay rate and amounts are similar has the growth trend is not reliable as the average would be very low. The general average however is 5%.
The growth rate number is logical as it reflects the general performance on the ground. The major problems with the calculation are the constant figures payable as dividends reflects a constant growth trend and the calculations reflect a zero growth trend. The company pays dividend as shown in the table above. It would be fair assume a constant growth trend for Ford Company.
Part four
Stock Options for Employee compensation for the year 2013
Fair value per stock option
2013
2012
2011
5.03
5.88
8.48
Assumptions made
Annualized Dividend yield
3%
2%
–
Expected volatility
52.20%
53.80%
53.20%
Risk free interest rate
1.50%
1.60%
3.20%
Expected stock option (yrs)
7.7
7.2
7.1
Company stock options as at December 31 2013 (millions)
Outstanding options
Exercisable options
Shares
weighted av life yrs
weighted av Exc price
Shares
weighted av life yrs
Range Prices available in $
1.96 -2.84
15.5
5.2
2.16
15.5
2.16
5.11 – 8.58
23.2
3.1
7.29
23.2
7.29
10.11 – 12.98
29.1
5.3
12.58
19.1
12.56
13.07 – 16.64
11.3
2.8
13.86
9.8
13.71
Total stock options
79.1
67.6
These options are company specific and they are payable on the range of prices available and the average years the employee has spent in the company. The share prices are weighted as shown on the table above. (Garrison, Noreen & Brewer, 2009)
The stock options would have to be provided for as their prices are usually provided for employees only and not for the general investors.
Part Five
The beta for Ford Motor Group according to yahoo business finance is 0.88. The current risk free market rate is 0.03%. The rate of risk premium is the amount that the expected asset’s rate of return is extra or exceeds the market risk free rate of interests. The risk premium for trading companies is the company stocks or their expected rate of return less the risk free rate of return.
Capm =
rf + β (rm -rf)
rf = risk free rate
3.00%
β = Beta
0.880
rm = return on the market
5.00%
Capm =
4.76
The average Capm rate is equal to 5% as calculated in the excel formula which is attached. The expected return for Ford Motor Group is 5%. (Reilly & Brown, 2011) Using the model, the rate of return is 4.76%.
The cost of equity using the capital asset pricing model = Risk Free Rate + Beta * Market Risk Premium = 3+0.88*3= 11.64 (French, 2003)
Ford has outstanding shares numbering 9 million while the market prices of its shares were costing 14.1 which amounts to a total of $126.9 million. (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972)
The Capital Asset Pricing theory suggests that the cost of capital depends largely on how the asset was initially. The cost of the debt capital, the cost of the equity capital and the weighted average of the two depending on the debt and equity financing represents the actual cost of capital.
Part six
Ford Calculations
2013
2012
2011
Dividend yield
Div per Share / Current Share price
0.11
Dividend cover
EPS/ Dividend per Share
0.11
Net assets turnover
Net assets / total sales
1.24
1.27
0.85
Times interest earned
EBIT/Annual Interest Expense
9.45
11.83
11.63
Debt to total Asset
Debt/Assets
0.57
1.03
0.56
Book value per share
Interest cover
EBIT/Annual Interest Expense
9.45
11.83
11.63
Profit margin on sale
GP/sales
0.13
0.13
0.14
R.R return on assets
EAT/Total Assets
0.04
0.03
0.11
R.R com stock equity
Profit after taxes/Shareholders equity
0.27
0.36
1.35
Earnings per share
Profit after taxes-pref div)/No. of comm O/S
1.54
1.48
Payout Ratio
cash dividends/income
0.22
0.13
0.00
ROE
Return On Equity (ROE)
0.27
0.36
1.35
ROA
Return on average Assets
0.04
0.03
0.11
Part Seven
Capital Structure
Interest payments that are payable by lenders are all deductible from the ones or a company’s taxable income while the payments to shareholders as dividends are not. Most tax systems encourage the companies to use debt financing instead of equity. (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972) The higher the rate of interest the higher the incentives. The interest expenses for Ford increased by 16.3% in 2013 while in 2012 it had decreased by 12.7%. The interest expense for Ford in the year 2013 and 2012 were 829 million and 713 million respectively. GM interest expenses decreased by 31.7% in 2013 while in 2012 the expenses decreased by 9.4%. The interest expenses for 2013 and 2012 were 334 Million and 489 Million respectively. (Bodie, Kane, Marcus, 2008)
The capital structure for Ford is mostly made up of borrowed money. In 2013, the long-term debts amounted to $114, 688 million while in 2012 and 2011 the debts amounted to 105, 058 and 99488 respectively. The total stockholder equity amounts to $26,383 Million and $15,947 million for the same period. Ford Company is highly levered and it needs to cut down on borrowing. General Motor’s long term debts amounted to $6573 Million and $3424 Million for the year 2013 and 2012 while the total stockholders equity amounted to $42,607, $36,244 and $38120 for the years 2013, 2012 and 2011. Gm is relatively levered. (Markowitz, 1959)
The credit ratings for Ford currently are CCC+ from S & P performance of CC in 2012. Ford managed to pay its 9.9 Billion debts in the year 2014 and it helped to boost its credit rankings. Ford credit rankings place it in front of GM and Chrysler and they are currently fitting hard to avoid bankruptcy petition. According to Modigliani and Miller (1958) the cost of equity capital is mostly determined by the asset’s cost of capital and not the other way round.
Ford has outstanding shares numbering 9 million while the market prices of its shares were costing 14.1 which amounts to a total of $126.9 million. The Capital Asset Pricing theory suggests that the cost of capital depends largely on how the asset was initially financed (Bierman & Smiddt, 1966). The cost of the debt capital, the cost of the equity capital and the weighted average of the two depending on the debt and equity financing represents the actual cost of capital. (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972)
Some theories of the Capital assets pricing model, have been applied in relation to heterogeneous beliefs (Merton, 1987) and risk free lending rate elimination (Black, 1972)
Ford Executive Summary
Ford Motor Group is a Gross Profit 7.9% in 2013 as opposed to 2012 when it decreased by 5% from the previous year. The GP for General Motors on the other hand increased by 70% in the year 2013 while in the year 2012 it decreased by 43%. The net profit for Ford for the same period increased 26% in 2013 while in 2012 it decreased by 72%. GM registered a 13.7 % reduction in 2013 while in 2012 it registered a further reduction of 32.7%. The total shareholder’s equity for Ford increased by 65.5% in 2013 while in 2012 it increased by 6%. General Motor’s shareholders equity increased by 17.6% in 2013 while in 2012 it decreased by 4.9%. In 2012 Ford Motor Group reduced its total liabilities by almost 70% while GM increased its total liabilities by 15.6% in 2013. The sales revenue for Ford increased by 10% in 2013 while GM sales for the same period increased by 2.1%. Ford total sales revenues increased from $133,559 million in 2012 to $146,917 million in 2013. GM sales for the same period were 152256 million and 155427 million from the same period respectively. The interest expenses for Ford increased by 16.3% in 2013 while in 2012 it had decreased by 12.7%, GM interest expense decreased by 31.7% in 2013 while in 2012 it decreased by 9.4%. (Bodie, Kane, Marcus, 2008)
The ratios for Ford also indicate that the liquidity ratios are above average for all the years for Ford Motor Group. The current ratios were 2.11, 2.32, 2.26 for the years 2013, 2012 and 2011. The quick ratios also indicated a positive trend. The Times interest earned for the year 2013 for ford were 9.45, 11.83 and 11.63 for the years 2013, 2012 and 2013. The interest cover for the same period indicated the same results like Times interest earned. (Drucker, 1999)
The ford Family owns 2% of the company while the employees number about 181,000. It has a market capitalization of $54.65 Billion and its shares are currently trading at $14.09 dollars with a yield of 3.5%. (Ross, Westerfield & Jaffe, 2013) The net assets turnover for Ford decreased by 2.5% in the year 2013 as compared to a 50% increase in the year 2012. GM registered a decrease of 13% in its net assets turnover in the year 2013 while in the year 2012 it experienced an increase of 6.5%. The dividend per share for Ford in 2013 and 2012 was 0.4 and 0.2 respectively. This represented a return of 22% to the shareholders in 2013 while in 2012 it was 23%.
Ford Motor Group has a great potential to return to great profitability and also be able to pay off all its outstanding debts. The Current ratios and the quick acid test ratios indicate that Ford Motor Group is has a stable liquidity and with the right leadership it would be able to make more profits like the earlier years. Given all these factors I would definitely invest my money in Ford Motor Group but I would be cautious besides I would also be requiring a plan on how the management of the company would be proposing to settle the huge loans that it owes several financiers. Ford may be earning some profits but it has a lot of debts that are four or five times its total equity.
References
Adams, S. (2008) Fundamentals of business economics. Financial Management (UK), 46–48. Retrieved from Business Source Premier Database.
Bierman, H. and Smidt. S. (1966).The Capital Budgeting Decision—Economic Analysis and Financing of Investment Projects. New York: Macmillan Company
Bodie, Z., Kane, A., Marcus, A. J. (2008). Investments (7th International Ed.) Boston: McGraw-Hill. p. 303.
Black, F., Jensen, M.C. and Scholes, M. (1972) “The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Empirical Tests,” in Studies in the Theory of Capital Markets. Michael C. Jensen, ed. New York: Praeger, pp. 79–121
Black, F. (1997) “Capital Market Equilibrium with Restricted Borrowing.” Journal of Business. July, 45:3, pp. 444–55.
Drucker, F. (1999) Management Challenges of the 21st Century. New York: Harper Business.
Fama, E. F, French, K. R (2004). “The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Theory and Evidence”. Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (3): 25–46.
financial problems and make effective business decisions. New York: McGraw-Hill.
French, C. W. (2003). “The Treynor Capital Asset Pricing Model” Journal of Investment Management 1 (2): 60–72.
Garrison, R., Noreen, W. & Brewer, P. (2009) Managerial Accounting, McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Higher Education.
Khan, M. (1993) Theory & Problems in Financial Management, Boston: McGraw Hill
Luenberger, D. (1997). Investment Science. Oxford University Press
Modigliani, F. and Miller, M. (1958) “The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance, and the Theory of Investment,” AmericanEconomic Review, June, 48:3, pp. 261–97.
Markowitz, H. (1959) Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversifications of Investments. Cowles Foundation Monograph No. 16. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Merton, R. (1997). “An Intertermporal Capital Asset Pricing Model.” Econometrica, September, 41, pp. 867–87.Merton, R.C. 1987.
Reilly, F. & Brown, K. (2011) Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, (10th Edition) South-Western College
Ross, S. A., Westerfield, R. W., & Jaffe, J. (2013) Corporate finance (10th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Vance, D. (2003) Financial analysis and decision making: tools and techniques to solve
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Real Estate Multiple Listing & State Patrol Ticket Processing System
Order Instructions:
Read chapters 7 and 8 of the text and the case studies at the end of these chapters.
Answer the questions about the following case studies at the end of chapter 7 and 8
• Real Estate Multiple Listing
• State Patrol Ticket Processing System
Suggestions and Guidelines:
• Use your own words and Thoughts. Plagiarism and/or cheating will result in a grade of Zero.
• Give short answers to each question (not more than 3-4 lines)
• Total page length (not more than 3 pages, 300 words per page)
• 1-inch margins, Double spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font
SAMPLE ANSWER
Refined domain model class diagram.
Information Changes
Price changes previous information
Corrections or indicating that the house is sold.
Listing Information
Address, year built, square feet, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, owner name, owner phone number, asking price, status code.
Additional information
House information, the Agent who listed the house information, the real estate office the agent represents
Use case diagram with a CRUD analysis
A CRUD matrix is referred to as a table that shows links between the various processes, data and resources of a given system. It involves the creation, reading, updating and deletion of an operation on the data or resource. The creation of the listing is done by the help of the real estate agents. The information collected is used in the making of a list book, which is then verified by the agents and the homeowners. Any mistakes that are found are then corrected and updated in the list book while irrelevant information is deleted.
Activity diagram
As mentioned above in the diagram, listing the houses is important in that it helps in supplying information about the houses on sale to prospective buyers. It also helps to ensure that houses are classified according to various categories and price ranges. Listing information verification is also important in that it ensures correct information is put in the listing book while information updating and correction ensures that the information is accurate and timely.
System sequence diagram
State Machine Diagram
State Patrol Ticket Processing System
RFP outline – State Patrol Ticket processing system
Project Description
To record driver violations, to keep records of the fines paid by drivers and to notify the court that a warrant for arrest should be issued when such fines are not paid in a timely manner.
Technical and Infrastructure Requirements.
The requirements that pertain to the design of the project include internal servers to store all the collected information, ticketing machines for the officers to use in issuing out the tickets.
Functional Requirements verification of financial responsibility and insurance, production of driving record reports from the tickets and accident records for insurance companies and also the issuing, suspension and renewal of driver’s licenses
Logical and physical design can be accomplished using either the traditional structured approach or the object-oriented approaches to systems development. However, because in using the object oriented approach, key objects and classes of objects are designed in the new or updated system. Because of this, it is important to record this in the RFP.
Matrices for evaluating RFP responses
Weight (High = 5 , Low = 1 )
Requirements
Availability of experienced staff
5
Developmental cost
5
Expected value of benefits
5
Length of time until deployment
2
Low impact on internal resources
5
Requirements for internal expertise
5
Minimal organizational impacts
3
Performance record of the provider
5
Level of technical support provided
5
Warranties and support services provided
5
Total
45
List of vendors to whom the RFP should be sent include the court, the insurance companies, the service providers, and the members of the esteemed police force.
References
John W. Satzinger, R. B. (2010). Systems and Analysis Design in a Changing World. New Mexico: Cengage Learning.
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Evaluate how “Employer and employee rights” impacts your role as an advanced practice nurse. What are the legal implications related to your practice. Analyze how understanding of the chosen topic will impact your future practice.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Corporate Liability
In any health facility, employee and employers have their rights. Violation of these rights may attract some consequences in terms of dismissal, fines and penalty among other disciplinary measure. These rights impacts on an advanced practice nurse in many ways.
Employee and employer rights provide a guideline on how advanced nurse practitioners should carry out themselves in healthcare setting. The rights enable APN to agitate and negotiate for fair treatment from their employers (Morrell, 2010). For instance, the rights grants APN an opportunity to demand for better working conditions, better selection and recruitment practices based on equality and fairness, good salary, allowances and a right to be heard before any disciplinary measures are provided such as dismissal (Rounds, Zych & Mallary, 2013). Furthermore, these rights allow the APN to demand for respect from their employers when providing his service to patients. Therefore, it is apparent that, these employee and employer rights are very critical in creating conducive relationship between the APN and their employers. The rights define the limitations and the issues that the two need to engage in hence enhancing delivery of quality healthcare to patients.
My practice as APN requires that I respect the legal system. Some of the legal implications that relates to my practice include issues concerning privacy, negligence and failing to meet the expectation professional qualification to render care (Lubbe & Roets, 2014). For instance, I will be held liable if I fail to take good care of the patient by failing to follow standard of care, failure to document, failure to communicate, failure to use equipment in a responsible way, failure to act as patient advocate and failure to assess and monitor patients intentionally (Badzek, Henaghan, Turner & Monsen, 2013). This may amount to negligence an offence punishable by law. Another example is to provide care to patients without any professional qualification and accreditation that permits me to do so. Other legal implications include engaging in fraud and related malpractices such as corruption.
In conclusion, as APN it is important to remain professional and adhere to ethical standards and law to avoid legal implications. Both parties to ensure positive working relationships in rendering quality care should respect employee and employer rights.
Information Management Assignment: Sky High Airlines Report
Order Instructions:
The Assignment is a term paper for Logistics, Procurement and Supply chain management for Sanford university.
I need to submit it on 9 Nov 2014 and I am not a native english speaker so i need a paper that does not look plagiarized.
The total word is 1750. However, i will manage 100 words. Please use UK English Harvard business style APA 6
SAMPLE ANSWER
Information Management Assignment: Sky High Airlines Report
Introduction
Technology has become one of the strategies for attaining competitive edge in many companies. It is however important that companies carry out in-depth evaluation and analysis of technologies before adopting to overcome challenges inherent. This report provides an analysis and recommendations concerning introduction of an integrated booking system based on that of Fresh Air (South African airline) into Sky-High Airlines. The report outlines ways in which the new IT strategy will benefit Sky High Airlines. It as well identifies key challenges of Sky High Airlines transitioning to this integrated system. A detailed recommendation for effective implementation of the strategy is as well discussed.
Overview of Sky-High Airlines
The airline market share has reduced due to increased conglomerates of airlines focusing on low costs strategy. This competition has threatened Sky-High Airlines that provides luxury travel at a premium price to rethink its corporate strategy. Various options have emerged to counter the competition. Acquisition of Fresh Air by Sky-High Airlines to expand the market to South Africa is motivated by its leading booking system based upon open source technologies. The chief information officer of the company as well as CEO believes this technology is a source of competitive advantage. Some quarters such as CEO believe that the Sky-High Airlines should not adopt IT since its unnecessary expense that will cost too much money hence it should focus on traditional efficiency techniques and redundancies.
Ways new IT strategy can benefit Sky High Airlines
Significant number of research studies has linked firms’ investments in IT with overall competitive advantage as they pursue superior performance. Adoption of technologies in the operations of the companies remains an area of opportunity that Sky High Airlines need to take advantage of.
Integrating the booking system will benefit Sky High Airlines in many ways. The company will incur fewer costs in implementing the technology, as it will build on the already established open source system of Fresh Air. The fact that Fresh Air has a system in place; it will not cost a lot for the company. Furthermore, the time it will take to implement the technology will be reduced allowing the company to accrue the benefit relating to the technology (Orlikowski, 1992).
The firms’ competitive ability to create and capture value through positioning in the industry is improved. SHA stands a chance of competing favorably in the market courtesy of the technology. SHA will improve efficiency in its bookings, as customers will not have to experience delays in their bookings. The increased customer base is going to boost the profitability of the company making it compete effectively in the current market (Feller, Finnegan, Fitzgerald, & Hayes, 2008).
This integration will allow SHA to complement its previous accumulated resources, as the company will unlock its value from the existing underlying investments. This will allow the airline an opportunity to remain competitive in the market as it will accrue profits from the reduced resource utilization (Drnevich & Croson, 2013).
According to the flexibility-based theories, the firm has the ability to quickly respond to changes in an effective manner which ensures that there is improvement in the efficiency (prices minus cost). By SHA adapting to this technology it will improve in its efficiency hence the firm will minimize its costs of engaging in business. Customers will be able to use this technological platform to book their tickets easily. Flexibility will as well increase effectiveness by enabling them to seize every opportunity that will help it accrue extra ordinary profits. Through this booking system, customers will be able to make enquiry easily and well as follow up, on their progress without necessarily having to appear at the airplane physical premises
Key challenges of Sky High Airlines transitioning to an integrated system
Even though the company will accrue some benefits as a result of transitioning to an integrated system, there are a number of challenges the airline will encounter.
One of the challenges is resistant to change. Various stakeholders hold varied opinions about adapting to this new technology. For instance, the CEO is not supporting this technology because of fear of increased cost. Such resistant will impact on the transitioning making the process long.
Another key challenge is selecting the most appropriate system that will better meet the expectations of the company. There are various software packages available in the market that the company can adopt (Feller, Finnegan, Fitzgerald, & Hayes, 2008). The two options to choose from is packaged and open sources software. Packaged software offers rich propositions in terms of broad and diffuse implications and in generation of energy. Such software are selected through a linear model of activities that includes identifying the user needs, evaluation of software on the basis of needs and then selecting the most suitable package. Open source software on the other hand are produced/created by a consortium of experts and are not sold these two options have their advantages as well as drawbacks and therefore, it would require the company to agree on the best modality something that may take quite some time delaying the process of transitioning (Samoladas, et al., 2012). The users at their own wish use free/open source software; they can copy and redistribute the software and can as well modify it to suit their own use.
Recommendations on effective implementation of the strategy
Implementing the strategy in the correct way will ensure that it succeeds. This however will require SHA to take adapt to appropriate strategy.
The company will have to create a conducive environment whereby all the stakeholders agree and support the integration process. A section of the stakeholders has indicated some resistance and this is likely to be an impediment. To avoid such, they should be made to understand the benefit of integrating to the new system through practical demonstrations on how the system works (Drnevich & Croson, 2013). They should as well be convinced through examples of the companies that have embraced the technology and how it is working for them. This will help to increase the level of resistance.
It is also recommended that the company carry out a SWOT analysis about packaged and free open source software to adapt to before making an appropriate decision. Even though open sources software is preferred, its strength, weaknesses, and threats and opportunities must be highlighted and assessed. This will ensure that the best decision is reached making the process of implementation easy and successful.
To implement the project well, it requires that the company come up with a defined process of strategic systems integration planning (SSIP) that will provide basis on the successful integration of the new technology. This is a cost-effective approach that allows better decisions making and improve the productivity of the system. Once SSIP process is in place, it is then easier for the company to implement and integrate new IT the deliverables as they are easily defined, resources and assigned (ArcView Associates, LLC, 2009).
The first step is managing the SSIP and organizational change. This is the initial step but continues in the other phases and if well deployed it continues throughout the life of an enterprise. At the start, the scope, work plans, tracking and reporting of the program are established to manage the introduction of the SSIP to gain executive-level support and commitment. It is also important to define the project team for the initial SSIP phase. The team will be required to carry out various functions such as to manage the project, manage the process change and organizational change and ensure commitment through organization communication and executive communications. In SHA, the combined team of IT from all the branches of the airline, business representatives and customers must have insight in the business process (ArcView Associates, LLC, 2009).
The second phase is assessment of the current IT and business environments. The teams will review the current IT environment and business environment. They must engage leaders to understand the business direction, competitive situation, industry trends, and customer segments. To have a clear understanding of what the future has in store for the technology.
Internal IT environment require assessment including the data center telecommunications infrastructure, physical system architecture and infrastructure, deployed systems, applications users, application interfaces, and development process, access security, QA and test processes, databases and IT organization and management function among many others (ArcView Associates, LLC, 2009).
The industry trends should as well be assessed with attention focus to those that could affect current environment. The company is also required to consider and assess the IT solutions for their competitors. This will ensure that it avoids technology that is not going to be productive to their company.
The third phase is identification of opportunities and issue. Appropriate methodology should be adopted to develop process models may include high-level views and detailed data flow diagrams among many others (Basahel & Irani, 2009). Functional areas, process, functions, and inert process relationships should be defined. The model will be used in identifying the areas with gaps and to assess the maturity level of the new technology.
The fourth phase is development of an IT strategic plan that will provide an IT strategic direction (ArcView Associates, LLC, 2009). The plan with include application architecture, information architecture. IT team organizational structure and resources as well as technology strategy. The strategic vision is defined then reviewed and strategic options assessed putting into consideration the IT objectives, resource requirements limitations and business priorities of SHA .
The last phase is development of an IT tactical plan that will help in supporting the implementation of this technology (ArcView Associates, LLC, 2009). Various issues that could be an obstacle from IT, perspective or business are deliberated and amicable solution provided. Capacity of the SHA to accommodate this changes in process and business in IT facility while it serves its customers and operated effectively are considers and deliberated on. Other issues that SHA would assess include, impact of external entities, whether deliverables and priorities will be redefined, financial trade off, improved business processes and competitive level among others.
The development plan should illustrate the overall costs, benefits risks and impacts. It should as well show the alternatives of deployment considered and provide schedule for the required developments projects and migrations. By adhering to these recommendations, integration process will be smooth and SHA will be able to achieve its plans.
Marketing opportunities
The airline has an opportunity to expand and accrue higher prices through marketing initiatives. To ensure that the company remains competitive in the market, it should adopt the following strategies. One is use the internet to market its services, second is to improve its services to attract more customers and lastly is for the company to increase its adverts on traditional media such as television, radio and print media. Internet has become widespread and many potential customers will be able to access to the company services through platforms such as social media, blogs and twitter among others. Improvement of services provided is yet another important market strategy that will help the company attract more customers who require value for their money. Using traditional media such as TV and radio will as well increase information supply in the public domain triggering increase in number of customers. These marketing ideas rhyme with the goals and future objectives of the organization of remaining competitive in the market. The company, through these marketing strategies will capture huge market base making it achieve economies of scale that will enable it gain a competitive edge. Increased number of customers’ presents an opportunity to the company to increase its branches and improve its services. It will be able to provide better services to the customers and carry out a growth strategy by expanding in other areas.
Assignment Brief Part B
Before handling this assignment, my knowledge on open source software was limited. I could not imagine that various software were available free of charge on the internet. As a business oriented individual, it is important to seek for more information pertaining to the requirements to start a business. This information is accessible through various platforms on the internet. Some of these sources are credible and provide in depth information on the best strategies, technologies, or networks to adopt in doing a business.
In any business, it is required that people innovate and use their skills and knowledge well to impact positively on their business. Regardless of the fact that open source software is available, it is not always that this software will work in an entity. It is therefore important to evaluate the organization needs and capability before adopting such software.
Through this assignment, I must attest to the fact that my level of knowledge about open source software has increased. I can now operate and even manage a company IT system smoothly to help it in attainment of their goals and objectives.
I have identified various issues that pertain to this assignment. One is that, it is possible to get grants and assistance to help already existing businesses to innovate and grow to achieve their success. This is an opportunity that many people lacks and if they can get such assistance, it is likely to improve the kind of software they adopt. It is also important for business to seek for advices and support to enable them engage in their businesses well. This support and advice widens the scope of thinking of the people in the business and as well may impact on technology.
References
ArcView Associates, LLC. (2009). Strategic systems integration planning.
Basahel, A., & Irani, Z. (2009). Evaluation of strategic information systems planning (SISP) techniques: Driver perspective, European and Mediterranean conference on information systems, Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Drnevich, P., & Croson, D. (2013). Information technology and business-level strategy: toward an integrated theoretical perspective. MIS Quarterly, 37(2): 483-509.
Feller, J., Finnegan, p., Fitzgerald, B., Hayes, J. (2008). From peer production to productization: A study of socially enabled business exchanges in open source service networks, Information systems research, 19(4): 475-493.
Orlikowski, W. (1992). The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations, Organization Science, 3(3): 398-427.
Samoladas, I et al., (2012). Exploring the quality of free/open source software: A case study on an ERP/CRM system. Department of Informatics, Aristotle University
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Mini-Case Study: Cash Flows at Warf Computers, Inc.
Order Instructions:
I have attached a documents containing information that will be use in completing this paper. It is critical that the writer pay attention to details for this paper and all calculations must be clearly shown where require. The writer must respond to the 3 questions asked in the mini case as indicated in the assignment requirement.
This case study, found on page 42 and 43 of the attachment , deals with a small computing firm that has developed a new, unique product and has decided to seek outside funding. You have been asked to help prepare the necessary financial statements. After reading the case study:
• Complete the financial statement of cash flows and the accounting statement of cash flows.
• Briefly answer the three additional questions referencing cash flows and expansion plans found on page 43 (2-3 sentences each).
Remember to include proper APA citations in all Mini-Case Study assignments.
Resources
• Articles
• Adams, S. (2008, February). Fundamentals of business economics. Financial Management (UK), 46–48. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
This article provides an analysis of the principal-agent problem and discusses some of the ways that many companies address the issue.
• Rappaport, A. (2006, September). Ten ways to create shareholder value. Harvard Business Review, 66–77. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
In this article, the author states his belief that there are certain principles that when followed will result in increased shareholder value for a company. He provides a review of the 10 steps he has found to be most important and provides a brief description of each.
• Shleifer, A., & Vishny, R. (1997). A survey of corporate governance. Journal of Finance, 52(2), 737–783. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
The authors use a survey instrument to study how financial suppliers use corporate governance to assure that they receive a return on their investment.
• Almazan, A., Banerji, S., & DeMotta, A. (2008). Attracting attention: Cheap managerial talk and costly market monitoring. Journal of Finance, 63(3), 1399–1436. Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.
This article presents a new theory as to the best way to increase shareholder value by seeking market attention while the firm is undervalued
Readings
•Ross, S. A., Westerfield, R. W., & Jaffe, J. (2013). Corporate finance (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
?Chapter 1, “Introduction to Corporate Finance”
This chapter introduces some of the basic ideas in corporate finance; namely, capital budgeting, capital structure, and cash flows. In addition, there is a discussion on maximizing the value of stock, one of the most important concepts in finance.
?Chapter 2, “Financial Statements and Cash Flow”
This chapter introduces and discusses basic corporate accounting procedures, as well as devices used to calculate a corporation’s cash flow from operations, changes in fixed assets, and changes in working capital.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Introduction
Cash flow statements final balance indicates the net cash flow in a business which reflects the balance of money which ultimately remains after deducting the total cash outflows flows from the cash inflows in a business for a particular financial period. (Vance, 2003) Payments and business expenses mostly form the cash outflows in a business while sales revenues, sale of assets and other incomes form the bulk of the cash inflows (Drucker, 1999). The company cash flows are as follows:
Table 1: Accounting Cash Flow
Table 2: Sources and Uses
Questions Answers
The Warf computer’s cash flow has a positive net cash flow. The cash flow from operations was the most active besides the cash flow from investing activities. (Garrison, Noreen & Brewer, 2009)
The cash flow of Warf computers indicate that the increase in fixed assets is much more that it was reported. These means that more assets were bought or alternatively the assets that had been reported as sold were still in the company’s record. (Ross, Westerfield & Jaffe, 2013)
The two methods of compiling the cash flow statement are direct and indirect methods. The indirect method is preferable as it reveals more information on the operations of the firm and it’s more commonly used. It starts with cash from operating activities which can be the net income of the company or the balance of the retained earnings in the balance sheet changes. (Khan, 1993)
Nicks expansion could be affected by the highly levered firm. The company has a lot of debts and its current assets and current liabilities are almost on the range of 1:1 when they should be 1:2 respectively as per the current assets and the current liabilities. (Vance, 2003)
The Cash flow coverage = Net cash flow/ interest Expense
The Cash Flow Coverage = 47/105
= 44.76 %
The interest coverage ratio is not sufficient. The net cash flow value is below the normal average of 50% and above. This ratio points out that the company is heavily indebted. (Adams, 2008)
However, the expansion strategy of Nick would receive a boost if the investment made would result in large profits for the company. The company has invested heavily on its fixed assets which increased by 30.5% from the year 2012 as per the balance sheet financial statements. The sale of stock to raise money for the expansion may work but the company needs to do more to generate and expand its revenue base. Advertisement and aggressive marketing strategies might do wonders for the Warf Computer Company.
References
Adams, S. (2008) Fundamentals of business economics. Financial Management (UK), 46–48. Retrieved from Business Source Premier Database.
Drucker, F. (1999) Management Challenges of the 21st Century. New York: Harper Business.
financial problems and make effective business decisions. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Garrison, R., Noreen, W. & Brewer, P. (2009) Managerial Accounting, McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Higher Education.
Khan, M. (1993) Theory & Problems in Financial Management, Boston: McGraw Hill
Ross, S. A., Westerfield, R. W., & Jaffe, J. (2013). Corporate finance (10th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Vance, D. (2003) Financial analysis and decision making: tools and techniques to solve
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Mid-term Exam
Answer each question below and reference course materials to explain your answers. No independent research is expected or necessary. This exam requires 4-5 double spaced typed pages plus a cover page with your name, the date and BLE 215 and Section. Required font: Times New Roman 12 with one inch margins. Staple your pages together. You should avoid excess spacing. Folders or covers are not required. Bolding of course materials used is very helpful and recommended. Number each question using Roman Numerals and a) b), etc. for any sub-parts. There is no need to restate the questions.
When you refer to course materials, simply include the author’s name, if applicable, in parenthesis. A reference page is not required. When using Trevino, also give a page no. after her name. For example, (Trevino, p. 25). Use an assortment of text, articles, cases, films and ethics concepts to explain your answers. There are many course materials on BB that you can use in addition to the text, class notes and anything presented in class such as films. Also, you should reference your CSR team project. The questions are not cumulative, i.e. answer each one independently of the other. You may repeat class materials in each answer but also strive for some variety. You have many course resources available for use to help you answer the questions.
Question 1 (25 points)
Joseph Johnson argues in his article, Natural Law and the Fiduciary Duties of Business Managers that “simply put, stakeholder theory sounds good in social theory but will not work in practice.”
Explain his reasoning in terms of fiduciary duty, profits and stakeholders.
Do you agree or disagree?
Would Milton Friedman agree or disagree and why or why not? Would Edward Freeman agree or disagree and why or why not?
Does stakeholder theory and corporate social responsibility conflict with the fiduciary duties of management and the board of directors to maximize shareholder wealth?
Question 2 (25 points)
Steve Kelman provides a critique of the cost-benefit analysis and whether it leads to a “flawed ethical result.”
Do you agree or disagree with his analysis?
Is cost-benefit analysis sustainable?
What other ethics concepts may yield more sustainable results?
Which is most appropriate for business?
Question 3 (25 Points)
In regard to the Ford Pinto Case, apply the Hosmer Model of Moral Analysis and
assess the economic outcomes, legal requirements and ethical duties. Express the moral problem so that everyone involved will believe that their particular interests have been recognized and included.
Question 4 (25 points)
You have been hired by Multi-LimbTech, International, Inc.,(MLTI) a cutting edge designer and seller of artificial limbs. You are excited about this job since it not only pays well but the company also provides a valuable service to humanity that results in amazing scientific advances that enhance peoples’ lives. However, after several months, you discover that one of the top selling leg prosthesis has a design defect. You are told not to be concerned since the product is not regulated by the government. Another inquiry is met with no response. You learn that the company has donated $100,000 to a local medical board that endorses this product. In one country where this product is distributed, gifts are very common to secure business transactions. Use course materials as you answer the following questions:
Can you identify conflicts and pressures?
What kinds of questions should you ask?
What are the various stakeholder interests?
Is what is legal here also ethical?
How can this company “do good and make a profit” (synergies of ethics and earnings)?
Do ethical norms vary across cultures?
Note: This case is fictional and intended for classroom instruction only.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Business Mid-term Exam
Question 1
I disagree with Johnson’s argument. Stakeholder theory argues that the principle aim of a business/organization is to create optimum value for stakeholders. In order for a business/organization to be sustainable and successful, executives should uphold the interests of consumers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and communities aligned with and moving towards the same direction. In relation this, innovations to make these interests aligned is more significant than the simple approach of trading off stakeholders’ interests against each other[1]. Therefore, by focusing on the management of stakeholders, executives will manage to create optimum value for shareholders and other financiers[2]. For instance, an IT business may conduct a campaign against cybercrimes such hacking the business’ systems. When such a campaign succeeds by reducing the levels of cyber crimes, such a business shall have satisfied the interest of stakeholders such as policemen who are in charge of handling criminal issues.
In relation to the aspect of profits, upholding the interest of consumers by offering services or goods that meet their expectations can lead to the generation more customers. As a result, the business can generate more revenues, which in turn can increase its profit margins.
Fiduciary duty refers to a legal obligation to act solely in a given party’s interest. Since the stakeholder theory aims at satisfying the interests of stakeholders, this theory is in line with the fiduciary duty, which advocates for acting according to the interest of other parties. Thus, both the social corporate responsibility and stakeholder theory do not contravene the management and board of directors’ fiduciary duties to optimize shareholder’s wealth.
Milton Friedman would agree with this concept. Friedman advocated for free market. The aspect of free market implies that all players within the industry are at liberty to act according to their interests. As such, according to Friedman’s view upholding the interests of other parties or stakeholders denies a business the opportunity to act according to its interest, which is against the concept of free market that advocates for lack of interference in business activities[3]. In this scenario, stakeholders act as a hindrance to the business in terms of meeting its interests.
Edward Freeman would disagree with Johnson’s argument. Freeman was the founder of the stakeholder theory and believed that this theory could operate in social theory. Freeman believed that this concept could offer optimum value for stakeholders as it was aimed at upholding their interest.
Question 2
I agree with Steve Kelman’s assessment. Cost-benefits analysis argues that individuals should only adopt those measures whose benefits exceed their expenses/harms. In relation to this, the cost-benefit theory tends to monetize everything including human life, thereby leading to the incommensurability problem. Taking into consideration aspects of commensurability and comparability, Kelman’s critique/analysis can be considered appropriate. Kelman challenges the cost-benefit evaluation’s action of assigning or giving monetary values to commodities that are not marketable/non-marketed goods. This argument is right as issues such human life cannot be granted monetary values. The technique that is employed in surfacing the values that are assigned to nonmarketable commodities may not grasp the value that goods hold for individuals in an adequate manner.
According to Kelman, cost-benefit operates by creating equivalencies that exist between the items in questions, and the result is determined by mathematics/arithmetic. As such, the outcome obtained from such an operation may be surprising in case such outcomes are close calls or some of them are long division. Such an occurrence only serves to create confusion. The primary component of cost-benefit evaluation can be considered a consequentialist evaluation. In relation to this, cost-benefit analysis leads to a situation in which a judgment is assessment based on the benefits and costs that are associated with its consequences[4]. At the primary level, such an evaluation can include diverse goods that take into consideration human costs such as duties, rights and environmental costs. In this way, the cost-benefit analysis happens to be incompatible with the ethical frameworks as it can lead to flawed outcomes.
Cost-benefit analysis can be considered sustainable. This concept can inform opportunity cost in offers a systematic procedure for monetizing, calculating and comparing economic benefits and costs that are associated with certain processes, regulations and actions. Some other concepts that can be used as complements to cost-benefit analysis are opportunity cost, cost of intangible assets and cost of externalities. For businesses, opportunity cost happens to be the best concept.
Question 3
The Ford Pinto’s case, which involved the explosion of Ford Pinto as a result of a defective fuel system, can be addressed using the Hosmer Model/Framework for of moral assessment. In order for a party achieve an effective completion of a moral issue, such a party should ensure determine the economic consequences, legal requirements and ethical duties that are associated with a given action[5]. Taking into consideration the aspect of economic consequences, the action of Ford’s management resulted into economic gains to the company. The firm’s management acted in accordance to the principle of cost-benefit analysis in that it focused on an action whose economic gains exceeded its costs. By moving ahead to manufacture Ford Pinto vehicles, the company generated more revenues. On the other hand, the company could have not realized these economic gains in it had heeded to the engineers’ advice. Heeding to such advice meant that the company was to spend more on improving the Ford Pinto’s gas tank[6]. Such an undertaking could have led to more costs than benefits, thereby disobeying the principle of cost-benefit analysis. Ford’s management failed to adhere to the legal requirement that all vehicles that were manufactured by then (1972) to meet the 20mph test, so that by 1973 all vehicles could meet 30mph[7]. Despite the Ford Pinto failing to meet this requirement, the company’s management went ahead to manufacture these vehicles, thereby contravening he law. Ethical duty is an obligation that is owed by a party to another party within the same society. In relation to this, the Ford Company owned members of the public a duty to ensure their safety when using the company’s vehicles. The company should have ensured that their vehicles are fitted with proper gas tanks that cannot expose individuals to risks such as fire or explosions. Despite the organization’s management being notified by the firm’s engineers about the default associated with Ford Pinto, the management went ahead to the production of those cars for next six years[8]. In this manner, the company’s management failed to act in accordance to their ethical obligation.
Question 4
In this case, there are several pressures and conflicts. The first conflict involves me and the Multi-Limb Tech. In case I decide to make the public aware of the defects associated with the company’s top selling product, I risk losing my job. Besides, my action can lead to the company losing its revenues. The second conflict involves the company and the local medicinal board that endorses its products. Multi-Limb Tech is pressured to cooperate with the board or risk being defamed[9]. As such, the company has to engage in corruptive measure such as issuing bribes, which are disguised as donation to the company. The third conflict involves Multi-Limb Tech and the public. It is the ethical duty of the company to protect its patients/clients. The last conflict is between the local medicinal board and public. It is the ethical duty of this board to ensure that manufacturers deliver safe products to the public.
I would ask myself the following questions: Have I identified the issue correctly? How would I have defined the problem if I were on the other side of the fence? What is my intention in making my decision? How does my intention compare with the possible results? Whom could my judgment injure?[10]
The legal issue in this case is not ethical. The endorsement of Multi-Limb Tech’s product by the local medicinal board has a superficial appearance of being legal. However, this action is illegal as the board is aware of the default in Multi-Limb Tech’s product.
The company can act rightly and continue to make earning by informing the public about the benefits and harms of its product. In this manner, the company shall have created awareness about this product’s default[11]. Being that this product attracts many buyers, consumers that will purchase it will have acted according to their interests. Therefore, the company will not be blamed for any harm associated with its product.
[1] Carroll, Archie. “Ethical Challenges for Business in the New Millennium: Corporate Social Responsibility and Models Management Morality.” Business Ethics Quarterly 10, no.1 (2000): 34-42.
[2] Freeman, Edward. “The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions.” Business Ethics Quarterly 4, no.4 (1994): 410-421.
[3] Carroll, Archie & Shabana, Kareem. “The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Concepts, Research and Practice.” International Journal of Management Review, (2010): 105
[4] Donaldson, Thomas, & Dunfee, Thomas. “When Ethics Travel: The Promise and Peril of Global Business Ethics.” California Management Review 41, no.4 (1999): 45-63
[5] Donaldson, Thomas. “Values in Tension: Ethics Away from Home.” Harvard Business Review, 4-12
[6] Danley, John. “Polishing Up the Pinto: Legal Liability, Moral Blame, and Risk.” Business Ethics Quarterly 15, no.2 (2005): 205-236.
[7] Becker, Paul & Bruce, Alan. “The Pinto Legacy: The Community as an Indirect Victim of Corporate Deviance.” Justice professional 12, no.3 (2000): 305
[8] Jones, Kristen & Geller, David. “Beyond the Business Case: An Ethical Perspective of Diversity Training.”Human Resource Management 52, no.1 (2013):55-74
[9] Porter, Michael & Kramer, Mark. “How to Reinvent Capitalism-and Unleash a Wave of Innovation and Grow.” Harvard Business Review, (2009): 63-79
[10] City of San Diego Office of Ethics and Integrity. “ Nash’s 12 Questions.”
