MOST POPULAR : Business Analyst Interview Question:

1.What is process modeling?

2.How do you capture functional requirements?

3.What is a use case Framework?

4.Explain Use Cases?

9.3. Jean Clark is the manager of the Midtown Saveway Grocery Store. She now needs to replenish her supply of strawberries. Her regular supplier can provide as many cases as she wants. However, because these strawberries already are very ripe, she will need to sell them tomorrow and then discard any that remain unsold. Jean estimates that she will be able to sell 10, 11, 12, or 13 cases tomorrow. She can purchase the strawberries for $3 per case and sell them for $8 per case. Jean now needs to decide how many cases to purchase.

Jean has checked the store’s records on daily sales of strawberries. On this basis, she estimates that the prior probabilities are 0.2, 0.4, 0.3, and 0.1 for being able to sell 10, 11, 12, and 13 cases of strawberries tomorrow.

WHAT ARE SOME BARRIERS TO ENTERING THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET? PROVIDE EXAMPLES.

Case Study Instructions: Read this case study and answer the questions that follow: Virgin was founded in 1970 by Richard Branson and is classified as a holding company for multiple ventures under the Virgin Group. When it comes to innovation Virgin is one of the top companies in the world. What began as a mail order record company has evolved into one of the most diverse companies in existence. Virgin invests in and builds companies that revolve around delivering fantastic customer experience and change the scope of industries. They do everything from space tourism to air travel, make comic books and video games. The company now holds over 200 companies and operates in 29 countries. They’ve found that the most successful ideas they get are the ones that are marketing, sales, and customer focused, sit under the Virgin brand, have a well-defined and differentiated customer offer and oftentimes are delivered in partnership with experts in their field.
Virgin takes the ideas it gets and boils them down into several categories. Anything that doesn’t quite fit into an existing company gets sent to corporate development for review. They take the time to read and respond to every proposal. They do not disclose how rewards are awarded but there are substantial ones for good ideas that are implemented. Internally Virgin also sources business plans and ideas from employees. Once a flight attendant had an idea. It got presented to the CEO and before long she had a considerable role in starting up Virgin Brides (which beyond being a fantastic idea didn’t quite work out in the market place). It’s incredible that a flight attendant can have an idea that makes it that far in a company. Notice that Virgin has over 200 companies under it. If you stop for a second you’ll realize just how massive that number is. That is a lot of innovation for a company only 40 years old. Financially they do quite well so obviously something has been working out for them. Not a lot of firms innovate this much or support this much innovation but that’s kind of the key – they don’t just source great ideas, they act on them. Sourcing this many fantastic ideas isn’t easy – it’s a lot of hard work for the company and they have to devote time and resources to going through all of them never mind actually taking the time to respond. But it shows that they care and that they’re serious about this. All great innovations come from an idea. Some go so far as to say it’s the most important part of the process (Seth Godin would likely disagree and say that shipping is the most important). Some companies looking at Virgin’s requirements might find them surprisingly strict, others surprisingly loose. No matter how you view it the only thing that remains true at the end of the day is that Virgin’s strategy works – and it works well.

Required:
Business excellence is about strategy. From the case study which strategies has Virgin used to achieve continuous creativity and innovation.

Turkey is the country I want

Select a foreign country that interests you. Perhaps someone you work with in your organization is from another country. Perhaps you have family from another country or perhaps you would like to travel to this country.

Identify the country and why you selected this country.

Provide a description about life in this country. You are not limited to the following information, but you should include:

A brief description of the overall culture of this country.

Three differences between the culture of this country and that of the USA.

Three similarities between this country and the USA.

Assume you are an HR Manager for a firm. You need to provide training for assimilating someone from this country into your firm. You must not only train the new person from this country but also your employees who are here in the USA.

How would you go about developing this training?

What information would you include?

IDENTIFY THE COMMONALITIES AS WELL AS THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MARKETING DOMESTICALLY AND MARKETING INTERNATIONALLY.

IDENTIFY THREE MAIN LEGAL SYSTEMS OF IMPORTANCE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS. COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE THREE MAIN LEGAL SYSTEMS IN DETAIL.

IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN FULLY ANY 3 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE AND THEIR IMPORTANCE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS.

1. EXPLAIN THE STEPS TO THE GLOBAL STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS WITH EXAMPLES.

What should Apple and Google do differently to develop their capabilities in a “flat world”?

IMA Ltd.

Material Master Data Solutions

Overview:

In 2019 IMA celebrated 30 years in business. This is a big milestone for the company and clearly demonstrates our credibility and longevity in the market. In 1989 when the company started we were the trailblazers and focused on indirect material data (data related to the spare parts that keep manufacturing equipment running) before there were large ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. At that time our service allowed customers to find their spare parts quicker which allowed them to repair failed production equipment faster; thereby reducing expensive production downtime. Our sales team is responsible for revenue generation pertaining to the sale of our Material Master Data Management services. These services allow asset intensive organizations the ability to leverage normalized data within their ERP to achieve benefits related to reduced production downtime, better MRO part procurement, and the elimination of excess spare part inventory. For the most part our customers consist of manufacturing companies with multiple sites. The sites can range from a few within a province to hundreds worldwide. Customers such as Pepsi, Honda, and McCain Foods have been long time customers and rely on IMA to ensure their data remains best-in-industry.

The price model for our main revenue stream of project data cleanse has remained the same for the last decade; charges vary based on the work performed to each line of customer data. There are three service levels consisting of a cosmetic cleanse, standardization, and item enhancement with pricing by line item of $1.50, $2.50, and $3.50 respectively. Every project is subject to a $5,000 IT fee for data preparation. The average dataset is 60,000 line items but projects range from 2,000 line items to 750,000 line items. The sales team sells $25 million annually worth of project based dataset cleanse services worldwide. Recurring revenue is currently generated from a data governance solution that allows the customer to maintain the integrity of their newly cleansed data condition using a web based portal for item addition and item modification. Users pay $150 per person per month to access this service. Currently the recurring revenue represents $7.5 million or 15% of the company’s overall sales. The sales team is lean and consists of a team of 6 Territory Managers defined globally by geographic region. They report to a VP of Sales. Customer acquisition cost is high (approximately $5,000) due to the technical demand of this type of project. The sales process typically includes initial introductory web conference, customized data evaluation, sales proposal, ROI calculator, in-person proposal review and negotiations, and final proposal acceptance. Social media and the company website generate most of the leads. Competition is limited globally as we compete in a niche market. We project the total market globally for data set cleanse projects to be $500 million.

In 2017 the owners recognized a change in the market. Customers now have Data Governance teams of their own and attempt to perform the IMA services in-house. The IMA executive team allocated $3 million to generate a SAAS model solution that would provide customers the tools they need to clean and maintain their own data. If nothing was done to adapt to the market changes IMA could risk losing the project based revenue steam. Instead, the SAAS would generate a solution for the changed market while creating a new revenue stream for IMA.

The SAAS solution is branded as uManage Pro and consists of the following:

uManage SEARCH – allows users to effectively search their item master data. Currently the typical ERP is weak at best with its search capability.

uManage DATA LIBRARY – users can access a data repository of over 3 million items to assist with item addition. This is the largest single data repository of its kind in the global marketplace. IMA is the first to allow external users to access the data. It has been created over 30 years and would be costly and timely for a competitor to re-create.

uManage DATA GOVERNANCE – this tool allows customers to maintain their data using an embedded data schema. Doing so ensures consistency amongst the data in their item master while preventing duplicate entries. Data Governance includes both the SEARCH and DATA LIBRARY services.

uManage PRO – includes search, data library, data governance, as well as a full cleansing tool that allows the user to clean their own data. This advanced technology replicates the tools IMA has used for the last decade. AI (neural network) is a significant contributor to the SAAS and is the first of its kind.

Market Pricing

Service                                     Monthly cost per user

SEARCH                                   $     49.00

DATA LIBRARY                         $     99.00

DATA GOVERNANCE               $     99.00

uManage Pro                          $5,000.00 (monthly fee, unlimited users)

The challenge:

The executives at IMA recognized the change in the market in 2017 and made a bold decision to prepare for the changes before it was too late. They should be commended for their foresight and their commitment to change the company to meet the market demands. However, hiring a software development team and creating the technology is only a portion of what it takes to maintain their position as markets leaders. IMA has realized that their current marketing team is unfamiliar with the strategies involved in marketing an innovative SAAS. The VP of sales has admitted that his current team is extremely successful at selling the typical IMA project based services however software, specifically SAAS, is an area that they are not currently skilled to sell. The technology is now completed and IMA is unprepared to take their market leading solution to market.

Options to consider:

1.

Do we train the current marketing and sales team to better understand how to perform

their area of responsibility with regards to SAAS?

2.

Do we hire a new marketing/sales team that specializes in SAAS Social Selling?

Marketing?

3.

Can a third party marketing company be leveraged in the short term to augment the

existing marketing team?

4.

Should there be a test period for any of these ideas?

Question. what will be the sale strategy of the company?

b) who will be targeted market and customers?

c) action plan and financial forecast for one year to reach mention target?

What are the concerns about sustaining competitive advantage with Apple and Google?

Many organizations are engaging in mass layoffs (or reductions in force) due to the effects of physical distancing measures.

What are the effects such a decision can have on employees and employers?

What are the alternative options that organizations might consider?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of layoffs versus any alternative options that might be available?