What are some Macro and Micro Political Risks for Germany?

Answer the following question in 200 to 300 words.

• Discuss the value of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and determine if Caterpillar Inc.’s CSR meets those values.
• Analyze the role of ethics and social responsibility in developing Caterpillar Inc.’s strategic plan while considering stakeholder needs and agenda.

Select five operational manuals for five different products that used for the same purpose from five different suppliers. The suppliers should be from different continents. Review these manual and conduct a comparison between them. Based on your analysis of these manuals, prepare a report about your findings.

Explain sequencing activities. How important is this process? Explain the various types of dependencies that they need to be aware of in managing projects.

what is the operation plan in the section of business plan for Personal Shopper business

Examine the challenge of determining an ethical issue in business.

(The response should be 350 to 500 words long)

The Company is LYNC Logistics, LLC.

What is an organizational culture?

Organizational culture-he system of shared actions, values, and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members

Subcultures: are groups of individuals who exhibit unique partners of values and philosophies consistent with the dominant culture of the larger organization or system.

Counterculture: are groups in which patterns of values and philosophies outwardly reject those of the organization or social system.

Observable culture: is the way things are done in an organization.

Non-observable culture: Values and norms inform workers about what goals they should pursue and how they should behave to reach these goals- basic belief about condition that is important.

How do you understand an organizational culture?

Sagas- Heroic accounts of organizational accomplishments.

Rites- Standardized and recurring activities that are used at special times to influence organizational members.

Rituals- are systems of rites.

Myths- Unproven and often unstated beliefs that are accepted uncritically.

Enable managers to redefine impossible problems.

Facilitate creativity.

Allow managers to govern.

Shared values -Help turn routine activities into valuable and important actions.

-Tie the organization to the important values of society.

-May provide a very distinctive source of competitive advantage.

Required:

Company Name- LYNC Logistics, LLC

Company owner- Cynthia P. Lee

Company location: Chattanooga TN

You need to start with one short paragraph that briefly introduces the company and it is just a few sentences. Then your choice of any 3 key organizational culture factors discussed above. Compare those cultural factors. Discuss also how this fastest growing women owned lead company compares to more traditionally founded (female?) organizations. Please write 500 words.

Please write in your own words and write appropriate answers.

(Here are questions to prompt your thinking. Don’t answer them- Just let them help you get your juices flowing!

What kind of culture (as described I above) exists the company of LYNC Logistics, LLC ? Are there subcultures? Countercultures? How does the organizational culture function? Are there differences between the observable and unobservable organizational culture? How are decisions made? What organizational myths, sagas, rites, and rituals seem to exist there? How do the shared values compare to above discussion of shared values? What are the firm’s ethics? Does their organizational culture seem to support those stated ethics? What else did you know about organizational culture that seems pertinent to you when examining this firm? Did you find the company’s mission statement and goals or strategic plan? How is innovation treated in the company?)

A company assembles and sells skateboards. One popular model is the "ICE". The final assembly plan for April to September, which also represents 50% of a full year’s demand:

The company is using MRP. The forecast for Skateboard ICE for the next coming six weeks:

The company are buying all components from different suppliers. They are only making the wheel assembly and the assembly of the final skateboard, see also the diagram above.

The company has an ordering cost of $150/order and the inventory carrying cost is estimated to 10%.

3a. If we use moving average with n=5, what is the forecast for Skateboard ICE for October?

3b. If we use exponential smoothing with α=0.3, what is the forecast for Skateboard ICE for October?

3c. Suppose it's now week 35. In what week should production of wheel assemblies start?

3d. In relation to question 3c above, what quantity of wheel assemblies will be needed?

3e. The company have had some problems with the supplier of the truck parts and therefore want to review the setup. But first they want to check how many truck parts they should order each time by calculating the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ).

What quantity of truck parts should the company order?

3f. The supplier of the truck parts replies to the company that if they order in lots of 10 000 each time, they will get a 5 % discount.

What is the total cost for the truck parts if the company order 10 000 each time?

1.Standards for appropriate speech are regulated by societal norms and, in many cases, by local laws.

True/False

2.Some governments are requesting that service providers reveal the identity of people who post certain content. Twitter, after being sued, ultimately agreed to provide this type of information to authorities of which nation?

• France

• Great Britain

• China

• Israel

3.A parent company generally is not liable if is a subsidiary is sued.

True/false

Already LLC v. Nike Inc, U.S. Supreme Court. Trademark fight over top-selling Air Force 1 sneakers. Investigate this case including the facts of the case, the positions argued on both sides, the law(s) at issue, the ultimate outcome and conclude with your personal analysis of the court's ruling / outcome. Also, be sure to discuss the historical impact of case/scandal on society

(43) What are reverse auction tools used for? What benefits do they provide to buyers and to suppliers? Why would an employee for a buyer resist the use of reverse auction tools instead of the ways they typically interact with suppliers?

(44) What are “Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems? What benefits do they provide for a company that is part of a global supply chain? Why would a company be reluctant to use an ERP 5 system?

(45) Drones are among technologies that some companies are beginning to explore for possible use in the supply chain. Explain clearly its potential impacts on supply chains. What are some major obstacles for full scale use of drones?

(46) Do you think that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems are superior to Bar Codes? Clearly explain your answer. For which of the 5 components of the SCOR framework are RFID’s most useful? Please explain your answer.

In complete and descriptive responses, describe the organizational structure at your current or most recent place of employment using the organizational characteristics discussed in Chapter 14.

• Describe the organization's structure.
• Do you think the structure is appropriate to the operations and supportive of the organizational goals? Why or why not?
• What changes do you think might make the formal structure better?  
• Why do you feel that might be the case?  
• What costs might you incur as a result of your proposed changes?

Course: International Business

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Case Study-1

In 1990s Nestlé faced significant challenges in its market growth. Despite of the stagnant population in western countries the balance of power was increasing from large scale manufacturers like Nestlé, toward supermarkets and discounted chain stores. In result, Nestlé decided to lessen its focus on developed markets like North America and its home based market in Switzerland to emerging market like India and China. The driving force behind the decision of expanding its market share in emerging market is simple, as the population grows and government decisions favoring market economies brings attractive business opportunities for public living at intermediate income.

Although many of the counties are still living under poverty line, even living on $1 per day shows optimistic signs for the future markets. For example: as the current economic forecasts continues, there will be 9 billion people living on this planet as compare to today’s population of $7 billion today, and coincidently the increase in population is all in developing countries. Nestlé uses the strategy which correlates the ratio of increase in income to use of branded food products, which means as a person earns more and has less time for making food in his/her home, they will automatically substitute for branded products.

In general the company’s strategy has been to enter emerging markets early before its competitors and build a substantial customer base by selling products which suit the local population such as infant formula, milk, and noodles. Nestlé narrows down its market share to many small niche markets, as opposed to general or one for all strategies. Nestlé keeps the goal of commanding the niche markets by gaining at least 85% of market share in every food product it launches. For example, by pursuing such a strategy, Nestlé has taken as much as 85 percent of the market for instant coffee in Mexico, 66 percent of the market for powdered milk in the Philippines, and 70 percent of the market for soups in Chile. As the income level rises in each niche market, Nestlé introduces an upscale version of the same brand to increase its profit level. Although Nestlé has become a global brand, it uses local identity to gain exposure in local markets. The company owns 8500 brands but only 750 of them are known internationally.

Customization is the key to Nestlé’s global brand identity rather than universalism, which means Nestlé, uses global brand identity but, from the internal point of view, it uses local ingredients and other technologies that resonate with the local environment and brand name that is known globally. The customization of Nestlé’s products causes many hindrances in carrying out its distribution of products from local farmers to factories. For example, in Nigeria the infrastructure placed is crumbling, trucks are old and political conditions are not suitable to carry out the processes successfully, so Nestlé adopted a new strategy to deliver its products to local warehouses which are Loco convenient to local farmers for milk production. Although this might

seem as an expensive solution, the local farmers have tripled their milk production and the supply of milk, which Nestlé has calculated as beneficent for the long term growth.

The execution of the strategy matches the planning of the strategy which is to plan globally and implement locally. Nestlé gives autonomy to its local branches based in different countries to make pricing decisions, and distribution decisions. Nestlé has expanded its growth by diversifying its product base to tomato ketchup and wheat base products such as noodle and tofu. Nestlé has expanded into 5 countries and expects to supply all food products throughout the regions namely, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Nestlé is also buying local companies in China and adapting its own portfolio for the Chinese market. Since many Chinese find coffee too bitter for their liking, Nestlé is working on a new “formula” to offer Smoovlatte, a coffee drink that tastes like melted ice cream. The company wants to be seen as a company that makes healthy food. As Janet Voûte, Nestlé’s global head of public affairs, said “it is a core business strategy”.

Nestlé has used its brand name as strength to generate sales and to expand its market share, which includes it customization of products to fit its target market’s profile. Although Nestlé has not always started from scratch, the company has used acquisition as a penetration strategy to expand and penetrate new international markets, which eliminates any local barriers to its competition. A few weaknesses which are related to the company’s quality measure resulting in product recalls. The company has decentralized its strategy units into 7 subunits in charge for different product lines, for instance, one – for coffee and beverages; another one focuses on ice cream and milk products. Nestlé brings its management level employees all around the world for 2-3 week training in its headquarters in Switzerland to familiarize them with their global culture, strategy and given them access to the company’s top management.

Answer the below questions:

Question 1: Explain the modes of entry adopted by Nestle to enter the international market