Describe how Sony can use the five product features that affect adoption in order to speed up the diffusion of its new TV model. What feature could be applied in a strategic plan to reach a new target market?

For decentralized decision making to be successful, it should be predicated on a belief that decision-making authority should be pushed down to the lowest organizational level capable of making timely, informed, competent decisions. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Cite an example that helps defend your position.

What is the main difference in approach between Business Process Reengineering and TQM/Lean?

Discuss how teen subcultures are diverse. Discuss the impact of teen subcultures on valuing diversity. In what ways do teen subcultures bond diverse people together (athletes of different races, for example) and help them to understand one another better? In what ways do teen subcultures separate people into “cliques” or foster stereotyping (“us” vs. “them”)?

Based on this exercise, what are the challenges for organizations that are seriously attempting to value diversity? What are the benefits to these organizations? How do organizations train people about cultural (and subcultural) differences without falling into stereotyping?

Sunflower Incorporated Case study

S unflower Incorporated is a large distribution company with over 5,000 employees and gross sales of over $700 million (1991). The company purchases and distributes salty snack foods and liquor to independent retail stores throughout the United States and Canada. Salty snack foods include corn chips, potato chips, cheese curls, tortilla chips, and peanuts. The United States and Canada are divided into 22 regions, each with its own cen-tral warehouse, salespeople, finance depart-ment, and purchasing department. The company distributes national as well as local brands and packages some items under private labels. The head office encourages each region to be autonomous because of local tastes and prac-tices. The northeast United States, for example, consumes a greater percentage of Canadian whisky and American bourbon, while the West consumes more light liquors, such as vodka, gin, and rum. Snack foods in the Southwest are often seasoned to reflect Mexican tastes. Early in 1989, Sunflower began using a financial reporting system that compared sales, costs, and profits across regions. Management was surprised to learn that prof-its varied widely. By 1990, the differences were so great that management decided some standardization was necessary. They believed that highly profitable regions were sometimes using lower-quality items, even seconds, to boost profit margins. This practice could hurt Sunflower’s image. Other regions were facing intense price competition in order to hold mar-ket share. National distributors were pushing hard to increase their market share. Frito-Lay, Bordens, Nabisco, Procter & Gamble (Pringles), and Standard Brands (Planter’s peanuts) were pushing hard to increase market share by cut-ting prices and launching new products. As these problems accumulated, Mr. Steelman, president of Sunflower, decided to create a new position to monitor pricing and purchasing practices. Agnes Albanese was *Adapted from R. Daft, Organization Theory and Design decision (St. Paul: West, 1983), pp. 334–36. hired from the finance department of a com-peting organization. Her new title was director of pricing and purchasing, and she reported to the vice president of finance, Mr. Mobley. Steelman and Mobley gave Albanese great lati-tude in organizing her job and encouraged her to establish whatever rules and procedures were necessary. She was also encouraged to gather information from each region. Each region was notified of her appointment by an official memo sent to the regional managers. A copy of the memo was posted on each warehouse bulletin board. The announcement was also made in the company newspaper. After three weeks on the job, Albanese decided that pricing and purchasing decisions should be standardized across regions. As a first step, she wanted the financial executive in each region to notify her of any change in local prices of more than 3 percent. She also decided that all new contracts for local purchases of more than $5,000 should be cleared through her office. (Approximately 60 percent of items distributed in the regions was purchased in large quantities and supplied from the home office. The other 40 percent was purchased and distributed within the region.) Albanese believed that the only way to standardize operations was for each region to notify the home office in advance of any change in prices or purchases. Albanese discussed the proposed policy with Mobley. He agreed, so they submitted a formal proposal to the presi-dent and board of directors, who approved the plan. Sunflower was moving into the peak holi-day season, so Albanese wanted to implement the new procedures right away. She decided to send an e-mail to the financial and purchasing executives in each region notifying them of the new procedures. The change would be inserted in all policy and procedure manuals throughout Sunflower within four months. Albanese showed a draft of the e-mail to Mobley and invited his comments. Mobley said the Internet was an excellent idea but wondered if it was sufficient. The regions handle hundreds of items and were used to decentralized deci-sion making. Mobley suggested that Albanes ought to visit the regions and discuss purchasing and pricing policies with the executives. Albanese refused, saying that the trips would be expensive and time-consuming. She had so many things to do at headquarters that a trip was impossible. Mobley also suggested waiting to implement the procedures until after the annual company meeting in three months. Albanese said this would take too long because the procedures would not take effect until after the peak sales season. She believed the procedures were needed now. The e-mail went out the next day. During the next few days, replies came in from most of the regions. The executives were in agree-ment with the e-mail and said they would be happy to cooperate.
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Eight weeks later, Albanese had not received notices from any regions about local price or pur-chase changes. Other executives who had visited regional warehouses indicated to her that the regions were busy as usual. Regional executives seemed to be following usual procedures for that time of year.

Questions

1) CORPORATE & BUSINESS STRATEGY                                                                                       

Identify known or perceived strategies (corporate-level, business-level, competitive, functional).

2)  

SWOT                             

Conduct a SWOT analysis. Identify internal strengths and weaknesses and external threats and opportunities.                                                                                         

                              Strengths                                    Weaknesses                                                  

                              Opportunities                              Threats        

3.)

STRUCTURE & CONTROL SYSTEMS                                                                                 

Analyze structure and control systems and determine the degree of fit between the company's strategy (strategies) and structure.

1. Evaluate the forecasting model using 3 month moving average, and 3 month moving weighted average, and exponential. The weights are .5 for the most recent demand, .25 for the other months. Alpha = .3. Use the weighted moving average for January Forecast.

2. Calculate MAD and MAPE for each and compare. Which method is a better forecast and why?

What is the difference between incremental innovation and radical innovation? Offer one example of a radical innovation. Explain why your specific example illustrates radical innovation.

Do you think that EAP and EWP programs are a good investment for a company? Why or why not?

The reservation office for Central Airlines has two agents answering incoming phone calls for flight reservations. A caller can be put on hold until one of the agents is available to take the call. If all three phone lines (both agent lines and the hold line) are busy, a potential customer gets a busy signal, in which case the call is lost. All calls occur randomly (i.e., according to a Poisson process) at a mean rate of 15 per hour. The length of a telephone conversation has an exponential distribution with a mean of 4 minutes.

(a)Construct the rate diagram for this queueing system.

(b) Find the steady-state probability that:

1. A caller will get to talk to an agent immediately.

2. The caller will be put on hold, and

3. The caller will get a busy signal.

As a store manager of an employee who has been accused of profiling a customer, what actions would you take for both the customer and the employee?

* need a new answer, this one is already answered on Chegg.

1.Generally, the main purpose of a company's public relations effort is to

Multiple Choice

• get positive coverage by the press.

• educate customers about their product.

• establish itself as a "thought leader" in the field.

• encourage word-of-mouth pass-along.

• solve customer problems

2. Which of the following statements is true about Facebook?

Multiple Choice

• It is especially effective among younger adults than older adults.

• It provides a free online photo and video sharing service geared to mobile phones.

• It is growing faster than all other social media platforms.

• It allows registered users to send out short messages called tweets.

• It uses an algorithm to decide what content is placed in the user's newsfeed.

3.Solar City wants to build awareness of its residential roof-top solar cells. It needs to explain to consumers how their product is installed, how it works, and how customers pay for it. Which of the following media types should it select to achieve these goals?

Multiple Choice

• educational web pages

• branded apps

• Instagram page

• e-mail newsletters

• reminder advertising

4. When a company is able to get its customers to quickly spread a message far and wide, it is referred to as

Multiple Choice

• viral promotion.

• search engine optimization.

• a high bounce rate

• a branded service.

• owned media.

Please find a recent news story on the Employee Free Choice Act. How might this affect union membership? Is this good or bad for workers and employers? Why?

Some companies have "open compensation" plans where everyone can find out what anyone else in the comapny is making. What are the advantages to this? Would you want to work for a company with an open compensation plan?

Why are some car sales companies like CarMax paying their sales associates a salary when most of the industry pays their sales associates a straight commission?

What might be some drawbacks of this plan?

Discuss the following paradox: American employees work longer hours than they did a generation ago and work longer hours than employees in most other advanced nations, yet they are among the least protected and often the worst paid. The wages earned by the working poor, in business and in government, in fact, do not lift them out of poverty.

Discuss the impact of diversity to the development and management of the proposed information system.Discuss the impact of diversity to the development and management of the proposed information system.