Why is it important to manage one's time and schedule within the business community?

How Bad Performance Management Killed Microsoft’s Edge

By DARCY JACOBSEN

What went wrong? Microsoft has been crippled by a management system known as “stack ranking.” Like the hated bell curve of your high school memory, this program forced each business area to rank a certain percentage of employees as top, good, average, or poor performers. That means that even if your department was full of stars, a certain quota would be getting bad reviews—no matter how hard they worked. Pretty demoralizing.

Here is a quote from the preview of the article that’s now available online:

“Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees,” Eichenwald writes. “If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,” says a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.”

This sort of cannibalistic performance management practice—with its rigid, stratified winner’s circle—completely disengaged many workers at the company, and led to a culture that did not encourage cooperation or teamwork. Innovation and excellence fell victim to the need to compete with co-workers for not only recognition but survival. Said one former employee: “It was always much less about how I could become a better engineer and much more about my need to improve my visibility among other managers.”

Microsoft, once the uncontested king of the tech industry, has faltered while companies like Facebook, Apple and Google have excelled. Where Microsoft had a head start on technologies like smart phones, social networking and e-reader tablets, in every case the company’s culture, which penalized risk-taking, caused them to fail.

Good talent management is not divisive; it is inclusive. It takes into account the viewpoints of peers; it doesn’t pit you against peers. It is flexible and immediate and responsive to the needs of management and the needs of workers. It works in tandem with the culture you want to encourage; it does not set up a new, toxic culture. The surest way to kill your company is to ignore these principles.

Read the case and answer the following questions. All questions carry equal marks.

Q1. Identify the performance measurement approach adopted in the Microsoft company and analyze its negative impact on employee morale, creativity and work-outcomes.

Q2. Identify and explain the key stages of performance management cycle in which Microsoft company made errors in designing an effective performance management system. Give examples.

Q3. In your opinion, is the performance management system at Microsoft ethical? Can it create legal issues for the company?

Q4. Plan and propose a new performance management system for Microsoft company capable of motivating the employees, taking into consideration all the stages of PMS development.

How Bad Performance Management Killed Microsoft’s Edge

By DARCY JACOBSEN

What went wrong? Microsoft has been crippled by a management system known as “stack ranking.” Like the hated bell curve of your high school memory, this program forced each business area to rank a certain percentage of employees as top, good, average, or poor performers. That means that even if your department was full of stars, a certain quota would be getting bad reviews—no matter how hard they worked. Pretty demoralizing.

Here is a quote from the preview of the article that’s now available online:

“Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees,” Eichenwald writes. “If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,” says a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.”

This sort of cannibalistic performance management practice—with its rigid, stratified winner’s circle—completely disengaged many workers at the company, and led to a culture that did not encourage cooperation or teamwork. Innovation and excellence fell victim to the need to compete with co-workers for not only recognition but survival. Said one former employee: “It was always much less about how I could become a better engineer and much more about my need to improve my visibility among other managers.”

Microsoft, once the uncontested king of the tech industry, has faltered while companies like Facebook, Apple and Google have excelled. Where Microsoft had a head start on technologies like smart phones, social networking and e-reader tablets, in every case the company’s culture, which penalized risk-taking, caused them to fail.

Good talent management is not divisive; it is inclusive. It takes into account the viewpoints of peers; it doesn’t pit you against peers. It is flexible and immediate and responsive to the needs of management and the needs of workers. It works in tandem with the culture you want to encourage; it does not set up a new, toxic culture. The surest way to kill your company is to ignore these principles.

Read the case and answer the following questions. All questions carry equal marks.

Q1. Identify the performance measurement approach adopted in the Microsoft company and analyze its negative impact on employee morale, creativity and work-outcomes.

Q2. Identify and explain the key stages of performance management cycle in which Microsoft company made errors in designing an effective performance management system. Give examples.

Q3. In your opinion, is the performance management system at Microsoft ethical? Can it create legal issues for the company?

Q4. Plan and propose a new performance management system for Microsoft company capable of motivating the employees, taking into consideration all the stages of PMS development.

Choose a Kuwaiti firm.

- Conduct a value chain analysis of the activities of the chosen firm. Select five activities.

- Explain how each of the five activities contributes to add value to the final product, and then creating value to customers.

2)​The Spurling Group is considering using magazine outlets to advertise their online Web site. The company has identified seven publishers. Each publisher breaks down its subscriber base into a number of groups based on demographics and location. These data are shown in the following table:

The company has set a budget of $25,000 for advertising and wants to maximize the number of subscribers exposed to their ads. However, publishers B and D are competitors and only one of these may be chosen. A similar situation exists with publishers C and G.

​Formulate and solve an integer optimization model to determine which publishers to select and how many groups to purchase for each publisher.

What are the criteria for good cutoff scores as viewed by the courts. You should be able to state clearly what the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) say about cutoff scores.

Q1. Using brand development and management strategies as well as communications and PR, create a brief marketing contingency plan for a business whose sales are being drastically negatively affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. What opportunities and threats (profit/not-for-profit activities) do you foresee? What are the direct/in-direct effects on their bottom line/brand image/public perception? Apply what you’ve learned.

Q2. A friend of yours wants to begin selling maple syrup that he makes on his forest property. He has asked you, as a marketing student, if he should sell his maple syrup product through retail or wholesale channels.

a) Explain the difference and pros/cons of each marketing channel for your friend and suggest a channel based on your knowledge. Also include promotion mix strategies for your friend’s new business.

b) What are the main (marketing) concerns you have about this business venture?

Q3. Create a profitable pricing strategy for the following product and situation. Select a price point for your product and support/explain your strategy using marketing concepts. Based on a quick PLC (product life cycle) and new product adoption, how do you ensure the optimal profit level is reached?

• You are an existing tech company in healthy financial position

• Releasing a radical new tech product, patent pending

• Oligopolistic competition

• Your cost: $187.39 per unit

• Competitor’s price for similar yet less innovative product: $249.99

• Approximate factory capacity: 20,000 units/week

Q4. You are a student staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. You discover a need in the market for a new product. Suppose you want to start a company to sell this new product and fill the market gap.

a) How will your company create and capture value in such uncertain times?

b) What do you foresee for the future of your company as the pandemic slows? How will you maintain market share?

BONUS: Using an example, explain why a business must identify and leverage its competitive advantages in order to gain and maintain market share in competitive industries.

In examining the FEMA business continuity resources and case studies, identify and discuss two "best practices" or strategies for businesses to include in their business continuity plan. Explain why you chose the two strategies and how they fit into the business continuity planning cycle.

1. Is Boeing working internationally to access new markets?
2. To gain low-cost input factors?
3. To develop new competencies?
4. Is its approach in all three areas appropriate?

Write a financial analysis (include financial highlights and ratio analysis) for XiaoMi Corporation which are based on it's Year 2019 Annual Report( You can google the Xiaomi annual report 2019)

(At least 500 words with your own words)

Case 2 – Business Relationship Scenario

Background:

One party’s work organization, based in Washington, D.C., has recently begun a project in Wichita, Kansas. The project will require fifteen to twenty employees to travel to Kansas and spend, on average,

three weeks in residence there. It is expected that the project will span a period of nine months to completion. This first party has located an apartment complex nearby the location where the project work will be done. The apartment complex has traditionally required minimum lease terms of one year but does have a few vacancies. The organization desires to have its people in this apartment complex rather than in hotels.

Case Questions:

Question 1: How would you identify and rank the interests and goals of each party?

Question 2: What common ground can you find between the parties?

Question 3: What strategy would you use as the organization’s representative? What strategy would you use as the apartment complex representative?

Explain the concept of ethical visuals. What guidelines should a market researcher consider when preparing ethical visuals? What are the consequences of not considering ethical visuals?

Case 3 – The Approach of Negotiation

Background:

American Dream Holdings, Ltd. (ADHL), is the 100 percent owner of eighty-eight subsidiary corporations, some of which operate in virtually every state of the United States and many of which operate in a limited number of states. One of the subsidiary corporations, EFC Corp., is the general partner of two thousand limited partnerships with operations scattered around the world. EFC Corp. is the flagship and largest of ADHL’s subsidiary companies.

ADHL also has 20 to 50 percent ownership interests in other business operations. ADHL is owned by two individuals: one, Mr. Major, with 80 percent, and the other, Mr. Minor, with 20 percent. The individual owners operate additional businesses not under the ADHL umbrella. Such additional businesses are considered affiliates. ADHL provides legal, financial, and administrative services including payroll and human resource management to all of its subsidiaries as well as to many affiliates. ADHL collects a

monthly fee for such services. The fee is based on estimated needs for the services and is due regardless of the number of hours actually spent on a particular company’s matters. ADHL does not assess or collect supplemental fees for work done in excess of the estimate.

The group of eighty-eight subsidiaries and ADHL employ two thousand individual employees. All employees participate in the year-end bonus plan that is based upon group net profit attainment. The organizational structure including departmental organization is dictated by ADHL executives. The chief operating officer of ADHL, Ms. Iwon, was initially selected and hired by the 80 percent owner to be EFC Corp.’s senior vice president. EFC Corp.’s chief operating officer, Mr. Toolate, was selected and hired by the 20 percent owner approximately two months after Ms. Iwon was hired.

Approximately one year after Mr. Toolate was hired, Ms. Iwon orchestrated a reorganization that included her being promoted to the parent holding company position. EFC Corp. is perpetually three months behind in paying fees to ADHL. EFC Corp. is recalcitrant in distributing financial reports to ADHL.

Case Questions:

Question 1: Using a systems approach, identify the system or systems and their subsystems as well as the various relationships and interdependencies you see. You may utilize a drawing such as a sociogram if you like.

Question 2: Using a systems approach, identify the various conflicts in the case including describing how each is a conflict. Be sure to note how each conflict you identify meets the definition of a conflict.

Question 3: Continue your diagnosis and assessment by analyzing the function served by or the effect of each conflict in the case; assessing whether the system structure is competitive, avoidant, or collaborative; and determining your strategy and/or strategies.

You work for XYZ as HR Manager. The company differentiates itself from its competitors by selling unique products and capturing segments of the environmental product-line market. XYZ needs your HR help to expand its substitute for plastic product lines by establishing a new division. The division will produce an exciting new line of products that are reusable and compostable (e.g. cellulose bags to replace plastic bags and hemp containers to replace clear plastic containers that berries and tomatoes etc. are sold in) and are accepted by municipalities for the compost stream (unlike most “compostable” bags and containers on the market today that are not accepted by municipalities as compostables as they take too long to compost and instead go into the waste stream).

XYZ has calculated that the new division will need to hire and determine compensation for 1000 new employees this year, 2,000 next year and 1,000 in year three. The hires will have a wide range of jobs since the company is decentralized and this division will operate independent of head office which is in the U.S. There are no other XYZ divisions in Canada. This means the division should be designed like its own company. The new division will be in Ottawa. The jobs in the division include but are not limited to: Production line workers, sales staff, marketing staff, HR, chemists and R&D, IT workers, finance staff, accounting staff, customer service and managers for all the departments: production, sales, marketing, R&D, customer service, finance, HR and accounting.

Question(s): a. Explain how (steps with explanation) you would recommend XYZ recruit and select employees for the next three years? The new hires will be 20 per cent managers and 80 per cent non-managers.

b. Explain in detail how (steps with explanation) you would determine compensation.

c. How does your compensation plan retain and motivate XYZ employees?

d. Should XYZ have a policy of pay secrecy or not? Explain.

Assume that the management team has hired you to advise them on their overall risk profile and has asked you to prepare a SWOT analysis for their review and as input to the upcoming strategic planning session. What would you put into your analysis? Additionally, how does your analysis affect the risk management strategies that Kilgore might choose to utilize? Please Provide an initial posting of at least 300 words