Compare and contrast the four responses to interpersonal conflict other than

collaborating. Also, briefly identify the situation where each response would be most

appropriate.

What is Tiffany & Co.'s product assortment? In terms of breadth, length, depth for stock.

1. How do “buy one, get one free” deals sometimes deceive customers?

2. Why do retailers like Amazon show customers a product’s original list price along with the discounted price?

3. Discuss sales promotions in general. Compare/contrast this type of sales promotions to other promotional tools (e.g. commercials). Consider objectives, costs, and how it can be integrated into a comprehensive, unified promotion message. Use examples from businesses you've seen using this strategy. Think about how it fits into their overall marketing campaign.

What does Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs describe? what are Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory.

Motivation is of how many types? what are each one of them. What is the examples of motivation.

Value is the ratio of costs now and benefits in the future.

what would be the appropriate performance appraisal method to assess students' performance in class? What would be the key areas that you would focus on? What areas would you consider less important? How would you approach increasing performance?

HRM

Using THIS template, answer the three questions concluding the summary (minimum four sentences, per question).

Fast-Fashion and the Ethics of Low-Cost Labor

Who wants to wait six months for runway looks to hit the stores? In today’s fast-fashion world, six months is an eternity. Nearly extinct is the tradition of three luxurious fashion seasons per year (fall, spring, resort). Those seasons have been replaced by rock-bottom prices on 30 to 50 trend-driven cycles—per year. Consumers in the United States and Europe have embraced the entire fast-fashion approach—inexpensive apparel and high turnover of designs. In fact, their shopping behaviors have allowed companies like H&M and Zara to grow into international retailing behemoths.

The speed of fast-fashion goes beyond the production cycle. Europe’s fast-fashion chains have grown faster than the retail fashion industry as a whole, partly because the combination of low cost, fresh designs, and quick turnover is extremely successful in fueling consumer demand. Fast-fashion companies also boast higher margins that those reported by their traditional counterparts—an average 16% compared to an average of 7%. Undeniably, the application of planned obsolescence to fashion has been financially successful.

The fast-fashion approach is not without controversy, however, particularly when it comes to outsourcing production. Companies like Benetton, Walmart, and Disney place huge orders with offshore vendors who often cannot deliver the entire order without enlisting the help of additional subcontractors. Unauthorized subcontracting is the end result, and brands don’t always know who is producing their products or where. Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, affirms this, saying, “I’ve talked to Thai workers who are three or four levels down from the original orders. If the brands don’t know, they should know. A lot of them are turning a blind eye to outsourcing.”

One country that has grown from outsourcing in the garment industry is Bangladesh. With labor rates averaging $40 per month, Bangladeshi garment workers are the cheapest around. (Compare that to approximately $120 per month on average for garment workers in China.) Those low labor costs have caused explosive growth in the size and scope of the country’s garment industry. In 2005, the country exported $6.9 billion worth of clothing. By 2011, that figure had risen to $19.9 billion, making the Bangladesh the world’s third largest exporter of clothing, behind China and Italy.

Makeshift garment factories have popped up all over Bangladesh. It now has roughly 4,500 garment factories, and disasters have ensued from the rapid growth. In November 2012, the fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory resulted in 112 deaths. In the subsequent five months, over 40 other fire-related accidents occurred in Bangladesh, and in April 2013, Rana Plaza, a building housing numerous garment factories, collapsed killing over 1,000 people.

Bangladesh isn’t the only country where concerns about subcontracting are growing. Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia also regularly face issues with multilayer outsourcing, and each of them could be next in line to wear the lowest-labor-cost title.

Subcontracting to vendors to produce garments at lower costs can be beneficial to companies in the following ways:

• Having access to a network of subcontracts provides companies with the flexibility they need to produce last-minute orders. In the same vein, relying on subcontractors allows companies to adapt their production schedules depending on consumer demand and keep fixed costs lower than if they built their own production infrastructures.
• Regularly moving manufacturing work to low-cost labor centers keeps labor costs low and allows companies to compete more ardently against each other.
• Garment work is often the only industry that poorer nations can attract as they develop into more robust economies. Threatening to revoke trade agreements or exit countries risks putting workers desperate for income out of work. One government official said off the record, “If they are really trying to help garment workers in Bangladesh, this is not really the way. These are people who need the work…What use is compassion if it takes away the livelihood of thousands of workers?”
• Using a network of subcontractors insulates brands from direct contact with unsavory work environments with unsafe working conditions.
• Using low-cost labor has created value for the consumer who benefits from lower prices in the store. Fewer household resources need to be spent on the same basket of apparel goods as a decade ago.

Despite the benefits, subcontracting to low-cost providers with unsafe working conditions has generated much controversy, not only in fast-fashion, but in the broader apparel and footwear industry as well:

• The European Union is considering revoking a favored trading status it had awarded to Bangladesh as a result of the series of workplace disasters that happened in that country in 2012 and 2013. The EU is Bangladesh’s larges trading partner. Women’s Wear Daily reported that EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht told Belgian media, “The government of Bangladesh must change something. Otherwise, I am ready to launch an investigation, which may lead to the suspension of Bangladesh’s trade status with the EU.”
• According to an analysis by the Workers Rights Consortium, it would take roughly $3 billion and five years to upgrade Bangladesh’s garment factories to Western standards. However, because the relationships are based on short-term contracts, WRC director Scott Nova told The Atlantic, “Long-term commitments they don’t want to make.”
• Bangladeshi suppliers say Western companies put heavy pressure on prices, resulting in bad pay and unsafe conditions for workers. In fact, demands for ultralow prices and ultrafast turnaround times put extreme pressure on garment manufacturers throughout the developing world. Auret van Heerden, CEO of the Fair Labor Association, argues, “The manufacturing industry is running out of low-cost sourcing destinations, and it’s time to invest in making factories safer and better, rather than searching for cheaper labor.”
• Hopscotching throughout the developing world looking for the lowest labor costs ultimately threatens brands’ reputations. Even Helena Helmersson, head of sustainability for H&M, seems to agree. She told The Observer, “Remember that H&M does not own any factories itself. We are to some extent dependent on the suppliers—it is impossible to be in full control.”
• Sourcing practices have exposed sharp contrasts between fast-fashion and luxury designers and exposed hypocrisy among critics. Italian designer Miuccia Prada, who also holds a PhD in political science, told Women’s Wear Daily, “People who are intellectual leftists, they say I am expensive and horrible, ‘How can you sell clothes at that price?’ Simply, it’s the cost. If you pay people to do everything with the right system, things are expensive. And the same people who criticize the dangerous production environments, when it comes to cost, they like the inexpensive pieces because they think it’s more democratic.”

So, who is ethically responsible?

You Decide:

• Do you agree with the EU’s threat to use trade agreements as a weapon in the fight against low-cost subcontracting? If governments were to regulate the number of subcontractors that can be involved in the production of a product, do you believe businesses that outsource their work would be more prone to respond ethically to catastrophes and to working conditions in general?

• If a brand explicitly forbids a vendor from subcontracting, but the vendor subcontracts anyway, which company bears the responsibility for any tragedy that ensues? In other words, who is ethically responsible for events like Tazreen Fashion factory fire and the New Wave Style building collapse, both in Bangladesh?

• What level of ethical responsibility does the end consumer of fast-fashion apparel bear for those tragedies?

My business would be computer repair/custom computer building. Once you have chosen a product/service, write a business plan. Below you will find information needed to execute your business plan. The Business Plan Cheat Sheet is helpful! Use the Business Plan Cheat Sheet to help you understand what information is needed to complete your Business Plan. Order of Business Plan Cover Page (2.5) Executive Summary (5) Business Description Mission Statement (2.5) Type of Business (2.5) Product Description (2.5) Position (2.5) Pricing Strategy (2.5) Market and Industry Analysis Customer Profile (2.5) Market Segment (2.5) Target Market and Demographics (2.5) Competition (2.5) Sales and Marketing Method of sales (2.5) Advertising and Promotion (2.5) Slogan (1) Management Ownership (1) Financials Risk (2.5) Expenses and Capital requirements (2.5) Total= 42 Points

I need a very simple examples of Transactional, Transformational and Charismatic Leadership Styles

Assume a project information is given in the table below:

1. What is the minimum number of activities that have to be delayed for the project to get delayed?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. None of the above (What is your answer?)

1. What is the minimum number of non-critical activities that have to be delayed for the project to get delayed?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. None of the above (What is your answer?)

1. What is the maximum number of activities that can be delayed for the project not to get delayed?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. None of the above (What is your answer?)

1. What is the maximum number of activities that can be delayed for the project not to have additional critical activities?

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. None of the above (What is your answer?)

Contrast leadership and management, and what implications for managers offer theories of leadership?

You are in charge of ordering programs for the Toronto Maple Leaf games. Because they are specific to an opponent, any leftover programs you have are recycled. Demand for programs is uniformly distributed from 3500 to 6500. The programs cost you $1.5 to print and you sell them for $8.0. How many programs should you order each game to maximize expected profits over

Question 31 (2 points)

Consider your answer in Question 30. If you could get $0.50 for unused Programs from a memorabilia company, what would happen to your optimal order?

Question 31 options:

1. Please discuss an example of cultural appropriation you have heard about in the last few years.
   1. Why is this cultural appropriation?
   2. How could we prevent this from having negative aspects on our personal or professional working relationships?
   3. Do you think we have more cultural appropriation in society now or

It is a common practice of Kodak in markets outside of the United States to sell slide film only bundled with development, i.e., when the customer buys Kodak film, she gets Kodak development for "free." In the U.S., however, slide film and slide film development are sold separately. Why might this be? Let us investigate the market in Malaysia.

Kodak's marketing research department has identified four broad categories of consumers in Malaysia interested in slide photography: the Malays (type A), the Chinese (type B), the Tamils (type C), and American tourists (type D). Because of the tropical climate and the limited photo opportunities, all photographers demand only one 36-slide roll per month. The four types differ in their relative preference for Kodak film and Kodak development. Because of deep-seated cultural traditions, the Malays (type A) tend to value the film much more than the development; the Chinese value the development much more than the film; the Tamils value both about equally and low; American tourists, however, value both high.

Given below are four alternative reservation price/marketing composition/cost scenarios. In each scenario, the relevant demand data are given as triples of numbers. The first number in each triple is the reservation price for a 36-slides roll of Kodak film, the second number is the reservation price for Kodak developing this roll of film, and the third number is the segment's size as a fraction of the picture-taking population. For example, in (1) below, A's willingness- to-pay for film is $3, its willingness-to-pay for development is $1, and this segment constitutes 10% of the population. Note we assume consumers can buy film and development separately.

(Please highlight the optimal pricing strategy.)

(i) A ($3, $1, 0.10) B ($1, $3, 0.10) C ($1, $1, 0.70) D ($3, $3, 0.10) Unit cost of film: $0.50; Unit cost of development: $0.50

(ii) A ($3, $1, 0.25) B ($1, $3, 0.25) C ($1, $1, 0.25) D ($3, $3, 0.25) Unit cost of film: $0.50; Unit cost of development: $0.50

(iii) A ($3, $1, 0.25) B ($1, $3, 0.25) C ($1, $1, 0.25) D ($2.5, $2.5, 0.25) Unit cost of film: $0.50; Unit cost of development: $0.50

(iv) A ($3, $1, 0.25) B ($1, $3, 0.25) C ($1, $1, 0.25) D ($2.5, $2.5, 0.25) Unit cost of film: $1.50; Unit cost of development: $1.50

(1) Determine the profit-maximizing selling strategy in each scenario above.

(2) From this analysis, what can we say about why Kodak has different marketing policies in the U.S. and Malaysia?

Case Study:

James McBride, general manager of the new Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., faced the largest
challenge of his successful career. A proven veteran of the luxury hotel chain’s march across Asia, cBride’s most recent assignment was as the general manager of the 248-room Ritz-Carlton in Kuala Lumpur. For the first time, The Ritz-Carlton was opening a hotel that was part of a multi-use facility. Owned by Millennium Partners and located in the historic Foggy Bottom district of Washington, D.C., the $225 million “hospitality complex” covered two-anda-
half acres and included 162 luxury condominiums, a 100,000 square-foot Sports Club/LA, a Splash Spa, three restaurants, 40,000 square feet of street-level restaurants and retail shops featuring the latest designs from Italy and other countries, as well as the 300-room hotel. While The Ritz-Carlton had already signed contracts to manage five other hotels for Millennium Partners, the upscale property developers had also inked deals with the Ritz’s foremost competitor—the Four Seasons.
Brian Collins, manager of hotels for Millennium Partners, had his own ideas about what constituted luxury service and how the hotel’s general manager should approach the new-hotel opening. Under pressure from Collins, McBride was reexamining the “Seven Day Countdown,” a hallmark of The Ritz-Carlton’s well-defined hotel-opening process. Any changes McBride made could not only affect his company’s future relationship with Millennium Partners but also the carefully guarded Ritz- Carlton brand.

Filling hotel rooms was crucial, and The Ritz-Carlton’s general managers aggressively pursued their
two main customer groups: (1) independent travelers, and (2) meeting event planners.

Because they attracted many individual guests at once, meeting event planners were seen as “the
vital few” customers, representing a small number of organizations that held many large meetings in various locations around the world. These “vital few” accounted for 40% of annual sales income.
"Our event business pays the mortgage. The individual traveler helps us with our
profitability. The nature of our business is that a guest room and space is the most perishable
product we have. An apple left unsold today can be sold tomorrow, but a room night lost
today is lost forever."

One of the components of the SQIs involved guest-recognition procedures. As an owner, Collins
wanted to see that improved for the new Washington, D.C. hotel:
I pushed James [McBride] to hire more people than The Ritz-Carlton staffing plan would
lead them to hire in Guest Recognition. I think it’s the single most important thing we can do.
If a guest came in, got what they wanted, and were recognized, all of a sudden that creates a
sticky relationship. It’s all about organizing your thoughts and creating processes to recognize
the person coming in to the hotel.
So after a certain number of visits to one of our Ritz hotels, guests will get a monogrammed
pillowcase. It will be in their room so that when they check in, they’ll go to their room and say,
“Oh, my pillow’s here. Isn’t that great!” And no one expects it, so the first time, it’s like
“Wow!” We’re doing something different from The Ritz-Carlton standard—we’re clearly
exceeding the standard. But they don’t force every owner to abide by that higher standard, so sometimes there is friction about raising the standard outside of the Ritz program. I want to rethink it, rethink it all from start to finish. And it just drives them crazy.

Human Resources at The Ritz-Carlton
The way The Ritz-Carlton viewed its employees was a distinguishing hallmark of the
organization. According to Leonardo Inghilleri, the corporate vice president of human resources:
We respect our employees. The issue of respect is a philosophical issue that is driven by
our leadership. You have to have a passion for people. If you have an accounting approach to
human resources, then you’re bound to fail. If you look at an employee and say, “He’s a fulltime
equivalent, he’s an FTE; he is eight hours of labor,” I think that’s immoral. An employee
is a human being who doesn’t only fulfill a function but should also have a purpose. So a
successful business is one that is capable of enlisting an employee not only for his muscles and
his labor, but also for his brain, his heart, and his soul.
In hotels that were up and running for at least a year, The Ritz-Carlton’s annual turnover rate was
only 20%, compared with the hotel industry average of 100%, while new hotels experienced turnover rates between 20% and 25% during the first 60 days. Inghilleri believed that it was his company’s deep respect for its employees that led to their satisfaction with and commitment to the organization.
The Ritz-Carlton was so intent on treating their employees well that a “Day 21” event was held as a process check three weeks after any new hire’s start date. During that session, the company assessed the degree to which it had lived up to the promises it made to its employees during orientation and initial training.
One of those promises included opportunities for career advancement, which were abundant at
The Ritz-Carlton. Corporatewide, 25% of the organization’s managerial workforce began their
careers at The Ritz-Carlton as hourly employees, such as dishwasher, housekeeper, and restaurant server, or as hourly supervisors.

Through the extensive formal and informal training offered by The Ritz-Carlton,
employees were prepared to fulfill their current obligations and to accept positions of greater
responsibility and accountability in the future. Employees with advancement ambitions were
encouraged to cross-train and learn about as many different aspects of the organization as possible.
Our employees are taught from the very beginning that there is nothing more exciting than fixing a mistake or defect. They want to see the defects, they want to find out what they are, because once that’s known, they can be corrected. We’ve never had a problem with people hiding mistakes, because it’s just not the culture of the company.

Staffing the New Hotel
The property owners had the right to approve the individuals nominated by The Ritz-Carlton for
three executive positions: general manager, director of marketing, and controller. Once McBride was selected as the general manager, he was instrumental in choosing the additional members of the hotel’s executive committee, almost all of whom had experience at other Ritz-Carlton properties. These leaders were in place about two and a half months prior to the scheduled hotel opening. The executive committee then selected their functional managers, who were, in turn, primarily responsible for hiring line-staff members. For positions that required technical expertise or high-level service delivery, individuals with significant prior experience were hired. For more entry–level positions, novices to the hospitality industry were acceptable.

The Seven Day Countdown was a result of the evolution and refinement of the hotel-opening
process, which became more solidified in the late 1980s to early 1990s when the hotel chain was
opening many new properties. The first two days were devoted entirely to orienting employees to The Ritz-Carlton culture and values, while the remaining five days involved more specific skills training and trial runs of service delivery. According to Collins, ensuring that everything was perfect on opening day would be a challenge:
There’s all this construction activity going on around here, finishing floors, testing the firealarm
system. And they have 400 people they have to convert to Ritz-Carlton employees in the
next seven days. They have to be trained and dipped into the culture of The Ritz-Carlton so
that on day one when Ms. Jones checks in, she’s getting a true Ritz experience. Seven days.
I’ve told James I just don’t know if that’s enough time.

Day One: Staff Orientation
On the first day of the countdown, new employees joined other members of their divisions
outside the hotel for what can only be described as a pep rally. As they slowly wound their way downstairs toward the ballrooms where their first training sessions would occur, the employees heard the sound of enthusiastic applause. It was coming from the hotel’s managers, who lined both sides of the curved marble staircase. Many times over, each employee was sincerely welcomed as a new member of The Ritz-Carlton family.

Once everyone was present, McBride introduced the hotel’s leadership team, followed by The Ritz-Carlton trainers, who had come from 23 different countries around the world for the countdown. Addressing all the employees of the new hotel, Schulze explained his philosophy of being a high-quality service organization:
You are not servants. We are not servants. Our profession is service. We are Ladies and
Gentlemen, just as the guests are, who we respect as Ladies and Gentlemen. We are Ladies
and Gentlemen and should be respected as such.

Day Two: Departmental Vision Sessions
On the second day of the Seven Day Countdown, employees in each functional area met for an
introduction to their new departments. Group exercises were used to help the employees learn more about one another, their likes and dislikes, and how they could function together as an effective unit.
For the next five days, the hotel’s leadership team, trainers, and managers met each morning at
6:00 a.m. to review the day’s training activities and to resolve any difficulties that had arisen.

The last three days of the Seven Day Countdown was when departmental technical training
occurred. Employees learned the details involved in performing their jobs to the standards set by
The Ritz-Carlton, and everyone was expected to master their department’s key production processes. Employees arrived in two shifts, dressed in their full uniforms, and every employee practiced his or her job as if they were serving real customers.

Recognizing that their standards of service were extremely high and that their goal of opening as
a top-notch hotel right from the start was a tall order, The Ritz-Carlton tried to protect their
employees from feeling overwhelmed by controlling the occupancy rate. Inghilleri explained:
The first month of operations, we may open the hotel with 50% occupancy. Then we’ll
increase occupancy monthly, so it takes us somewhere between three and four months to reach
80%. But we hire, in the very beginning, as if we’re already operating at 80% occupancy.
This allows us to reduce the number of tables a waiter has to serve, or the number of rooms
a housekeeper has to clean. It is more important that we set the standards immediately. They
have to do their jobs perfectly, even if it takes them longer; productivity will increase as they
get more and more comfortable. Flawless execution is the goal, and then speed will come.
On the day between the end of the Seven Day Countdown and the grand opening, employees showed up in casual attire for The Ritz-Carlton two-hour pep rally, marking the transition between practice runs and real service delivery. The next day, on October 11, 2000, the Washington, D.C., Ritz-Carlton Hotel opened for business.

Dilemma
McBride sat in his new office in Washington, reflecting on the concerns that Collins had
expressed, with his usual blunt style and candor, about the Seven Day Countdown. Collins
questioned whether the seven-day time frame limited the hotel’s ability to open at a higher
occupancy rate and to reach 80% occupancy in a shorter amount of time.
It was difficult to train new hires to meet the high expectations of The Ritz-Carlton service
standards in only seven days, but that was how The Ritz-Carlton worked. Maybe the training should be longer, but what would that mean for The Ritz-Carlton? McBride would be responsible for opening the second Millennium Partners-owned Ritz-Carlton hotel, in Georgetown, at the end of 2001. Should he try changing the Seven Day Countdown process, which was a worldwide best practice for the company?

Questions:

In what may be a first for the hospitability industry, Brian Collins, hotel owner, has asked James McBride, Ritz-Carlton general manager, to lengthen the amount of time spent training hotel employees before hotel opening. For this assignment, you are taking the role of James McBride.

1) What is the context of the decision? What is dilemma faced by the Ritz-Carlton?

2) Analysis of the situation:

• Monetary factors: what would be the monetary consequences of opening directly at 80% occupancy as requested by rather than ramping up from 50% to 80% over a four-month period of time?
• Non-monetary factors: what are the key non-monetary factors/considerations that are going to drive your decision?