Why are invention and innovation important in entrepreneurship?

How do they relate to the concepts of ‘competitive advantage’?

Use examples to support your response.

Warehouse should aim to provide value adding services as well as minimising operational costs. Taking this into consideration, your company has decided to build a new warehouse to cater for your customers in Johannesburg. the logistics manager has requested you to provide them with recommendations on the strategic issues that they need to consider when designing the warehouse.

Betty Vinson was the director of management reporting at WorldCom. She had worked there for five years when the fraud was uncovered and received two promotions during that time. Vinson’s salary increased from $50,000 when she started to $80,000 in 2002. Vinson reported to Buford Yates, director of general accounting, who reported to David Myers, senior vice president, and controller, who then reported to CFO Scott Sullivan. (See Figure 1 for an organizational chart.) A hard worker who often stayed late or brought work home, Vinson considered herself lucky to land the job at WorldCom, as it was located in her hometown of Clinton, Miss. Vinson graduated from Mississippi College in 1978 and married her college sweetheart, Tom Vinson, a printing-equipment salesman who earned $40,000 a year. The couple had one daughter and lived a typical suburban lifestyle. Prior to working at WorldCom, Vinson worked as an accountant for various banking enterprises in Louisiana and Kansas City from 1978 to 1996. She also earned the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credential during that time.

Problems began to emerge in the telecommunications industry in the late 1990s. The industry had over expanded, and every company was beginning to feel the effects, including WorldCom. By 2000, WorldCom’s expenses were increasing faster than revenues. In September 2000, WorldCom had to find $828 million to meet earnings targets expected by Wall Street. Vinson and her accounting colleagues found $50 million, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Senior management instructed her and her accounting coworkers to reduce reserve accounts for line costs to cover this shortfall. Reserves had been set aside based on estimates of potential losses, but they needed to have enough reason to reduce the reserve. Meeting earnings targets wasn’t a valid reason. Sullivan pressed Myers and Vinson’s boss, Yates, to make this adjustment. Yates told his accounting team that he had reservations, too, but that Sullivan promised this was a one-time adjustment. They all agreed to go along with the accounting adjustment. Vinson felt uncomfortable with this and considered resigning. The corporate accounting department’s discomfort with the entries prompted Sullivan to call the accountants into his office. He used an analogy that WorldCom was an aircraft carrier, and they needed to land the planes that were in the air. He urged them to wait until the planes had landed, and then they could leave the company if they still wanted to. Sullivan assured them that nothing they would do was illegal and that it wouldn’t be repeated. After talking to her husband, Vinson decided against resigning because of her family’s dependence on her salary and health insurance. In April 2001, the gap in meeting earnings targets was $771 million. The reserve pools weren’t large enough to cover this gap. Sullivan’s new strategy was to shift line costs, recorded as expenses, to capital expenditure accounts. Yates objected. Sullivan insisted it was the only way to cover this gap. Vinson and her coworker both felt cornered; this was clearly fraudulent accounting. The only choices now were to resign or make the entries. The three-person accounting team identified the capital accounts to use, and Vinson made the entries to transfer the $771 million. She backdated entries to February in the computer system and then indicated to colleagues at WorldCom that she was going to look for another job. These entries continued quarterly through April 2002. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) was informed of the problem in June 2002 as a result of the efforts of the WorldCom internal audit team. The SEC would ultimately charge CFO Scott Sullivan, Controller David Myers, and accountants Buford Yates, Troy Normand, and Betty Vinson. According to the SEC complaint: “At the direction of WorldCom senior management, Vinson and other WorldCom employees caused WorldCom to overstate materially its earnings in contravention of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for at least seven successive fiscal quarters, from as early as October 2000 through April 2002. Vinson knew or was reckless in not knowing, that these entries were made without supporting documentation, were not in conformity with GAAP, were not disclosed to the investing public, and were designed to allow WorldCom to appear to meet Wall Street analysts’ quarterly earnings estimates

Paraphrase one of Yates’ arguments?

This argument best describes the ____________________________________ “reason and rationalization” of GVV because?

In response to Mr. Yate’s argument, Betty and Troy could have countered?

CASE STUDY- Redfin: Redefine Real Estate by HONG LUO HUAFENG YU ARTICLE

1. Conduct external research and create a SWOT analysis for Redfin of the 2020 real-estate industry.

2. Zillow and Redfin are two very different 'disruptors.' How does each of these companies create value?

3. What are the most important limiting factors affecting Redfin's growth? Should Kelman do national advertising? Should Kelman consider the full-time agent model?

DEFINE/DESCRIBE in detail the FIVE (5) of the following:

Knowledge Management                                                   Learning Organization                                        Synergy

Blue Ocean Strategy                                                           Corporate Culture                                Ambidexterity

Matrix Structure                                                                    Corporate Governance                                       Absorptive Capacity

Institutional Voids

G2) In looking at theories and theory development, what we are trying to do is explain why institutions, organizations and individuals do certain things; to try to explain why individuals and organizations behave in certain ways. Let’s look at an example relevant to Corporate Governance. Why does an organization grant stock options to the members of its top management team? Why do you think a company would do this?

Globalisation represents the opportunity to deliver improved value to end customers by delivering world-class supply relationships in terms of cost, quality, delivery and performance. More and more buyers have to learn to develop a supply base in more than one country in order to remain competitive in the complex and dynamic global business environment.

1. Examine the various types of contracts available to your company ( a vehicle- manufacturing company) when dealing with international suppliers and advise them on which contracts would be most beneficial to achieve a competitive advantage.

Some believe that tough environmental regulations add costs, reduce firm competitiveness, and drive some firms to invest elsewhere. Others argue that tough environmental regulations force firms to be innovative and thus enhance competition and competitiveness. What do you think?

How do Managed Health Insurance plans define the scope of their Risk Management responsibilities differently from Indemnity and Service plans?

In Unit III, you sent a document in which you informed management at Gemstone Fabricators, Inc. that it would need to enhance its accountability specifications in its performance evaluations for managers. You also pointed out the need to make sure that employees who have been asked to be involved in the safety endeavors at Gemstone understand and are trained in the roles they are expected to play. Cindy is the plant manager from Gemstone, and she has asked you to perform a sound level survey and noise dosimetry in the fabrication shop, which can get pretty noisy when all three mechanical power presses and the 12-foot shear are running at the same time for several hours a day. She also asked that you identify noise level exposures in the adjacent welding department. Your results indicate that the noise levels in the area are just above the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure level for an average day in the fabrication department.

The welding department is adjacent to the fabrication department, and there is no separating wall. The welding operations are not quite as noisy, although the crackle of a well-adjusted MIG welder can be rather loud when welding mild steel. Noise monitoring and dosimetry of the welders indicated an exposure of just over OSHA's Action Level of 85 Dba. In addition, you remember taking the survey readings and watching the noise level jump in the welding shop every time the power presses or shear cycled in the fabrication area.

After consulting with fellow industrial hygienists, it was determined that setting up a 12' X 30' noise barrier wall between the fabrication area and the welding area and adding noise absorption panels to both sides of the barrier wall and to the white-painted concrete walls in the fabrication department would decrease the sound levels in the welding area to several decibels below OSHA’s Action Level.

Of course, these engineering controls will cost $33,000 dollars. This is compared to a continuing hearing conservation program to include annual audiograms, or hearing tests, annual training, and providing noise protection for the welding department which is estimated to cost $9,000 per year. This amount would be saved each year if the engineering controls are installed.

If the company takes out a loan for $33,000 at 5% interest, what will the payback period be for the loan? Please consult your unit lesson for the necessary formulas. What would be your recommendation to the employer with respect to the options available? Please show your work. Make sure you justify your reasoning and that you consider the hierarchy of controls in your discussion.

Your response must be at least 200 words in length in addition to your financial analysis

G1) If you could rewrite/change the “rules.” how would you improve corporate governance in the United States?

Globalization represents the opportunity to deliver improved value to end customers by developing world-class supply relationships in terms of cost, quality, delivery and performance. more and more buyers have to learn to develop a supply base in more than one country in order to remain competitive in the complex and dynamic global business environment.

1. Critically discuss the reasons why your company (a vehicle manufactiring company) should consider ethical conduct in its purchasing structure.

A study by Agus and Hajinoor into the adoption of lean management among 200 (non-food) manufacturing companies in the Malay Peninsula identified that reducing setup times, shortening lead times and focusing on pull factors (such as maintaining production at levels commensurate to consumption) helped reduce costs and improve profitability.

(4. What other strategies could be implemented along with lean production to improve quality and productivity?)

Further information can be found in A. Agus and S. H. Hajinoor, Lean production supply chain management as driver towards enhancing product quality and business performance, The International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 2012;29(1): 92–121.

The traditional view of leaders “as special people who set the direction, make the key decisions, and energize the troops” is deeply rooted in an individualistic and non-systemic world view. Especially in the West, leaders are great men and women who rise to the fore in times of crisis. So long as these myths prevail, they reinforce a focus on short-term events and charismatic heroes rather than on systemic forces and collective learning. Leadership should center on subtler and ultimately more important work. Leaders should be designers, teachers, and stewards. These roles require new skills: the ability to build shared vision, to bring to the surface and challenge prevailing mental models, and to foster more systemic patterns of thinking. In short, leaders are responsible for building organizations where people are continually expanding their capabilities to shape their future, that is, leaders are responsible for learning.” Do you agree or disagree with these statements by Peter Senge.

The leadership literature characterises leadership as an influence relationship among leaders and followers in a given situation. Based on your studies in this course, explain the determinants of leadership effectiveness.