Your company sells health insurance policies. The company has a large sales force comprised of independent contractors. Some of its sales agents, usually after a significant period of service, are promoted to the position of "sales leader." Sales leaders sign an agreement, consenting to remain as independent contractors when they are promoted. Sales leaders do little selling of policies; instead, their main responsibilities are recruiting, training, and managing sales agents. The income of sales leaders is mainly derived from overwrite commissions on their subordinates' sales. The company retains control over the hiring, firing, assignment, and promotion of sales agents. The company determines sales leaders' territories and does not permit them to sell other insurance products or operate other businesses. Sales leaders set their own hours and conduct their day-to-day activities largely free from supervision. Attendance at company meetings and training sessions is generally considered optional for sales leaders. Sales leaders receive no benefits and the company does not withhold any of their pay for tax purposes. Several sales leaders are threatening to sue for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. a) Are the sales leaders employees or independent contractors? Describe the analysis you will conduct to determine their appropriate classification.

Offer an evidence-based justification for a corporate political strategy that is beneficial to society.

A citizen of India was hired through an international recruitment firm to work in the U.S. as a computer analyst at a salary of $42,000 per year. He received a H-1B visa, left his old job and family and came to the U.S. Upon his arrival, he was informed that the position had already been filled and that he would be employed as a gas station cashier and paid at less than the minimum wage. The employee worked for a period of time and then sued. a) What are the employee's legal claims? b) What are the employer's defenses? c) If the computer analyst position was already filled by the time the employee had arrived, what could the employer have done to avoid the situation?

What are 5 ways to promote make-up to males in a public setting? Please provide setting suggestions

What characterizes Big Data? There are 3 phases/types of data analytics. Briefly discuss each one.

Week 1 Write a 175- to 265-word response to the following questions:

• How is the landscape of health care changing today? As a manager, how can you address change?
• Choose one current issue and provide an example of how you might deal with it.

Under Armour

External Opportunities Environment

What are the natural, and societal environmental factors that can have a positive impact on the company (opportunities)?

What are the negative factors from any of these environmental areas that will have a negative impact on the company’s operations?

Briefly discuss each step involved in the business process of selling a product, beginning from negotiations with customers. Assume that you are just starting your ERP deployment.

Write in essay format

Using Michael Porter's Five Forces model as a framework, analyze Dell's competitive landscape.

According to Prahalad and Hamel, a core competence provides potential access to a wide variety of markets should make a significant contribution to the perceived customer benefits of the end product should be difficult for competitors to imitate Under this definition, what are Dell's core competencies? How can Dell exploit these competencies to gain or maintain a sustainable competitive advantage?

Mount Ashland Promotions Inc. is organizing one of its most popular events, the ZenNaturals Annual Trade Fest. At this trade show, producers, manufacturers, and distributors in the natural foods market display the latest trends in organic foods, herbal supplements, and natural body care products. The Trade Fest attracts a wide variety of participants, from large distributors who display a wide range of prod-ucts to small, independent companies. As in previous years, Nina Li and her team at Mount Ash-land are in charge of managing the event, which includes all advertising and publicity as well as arranging spots for exhibi-tors. The success of this event depends on Nina’s ability to attract large numbers of small independent retailers in the natural foods market who are looking to expand their product lines. She knows that these small retailers tend to be zealously committed to the principles of healthful lifestyle. Moreover, many are members of the Organic Trade Federation (OTF), an organization that advocates ethical consumerism. The OTF has been known to boycott trade shows that
include too many products with controversial ingredients such as ginkgo biloba, hemp, or kava kava. Nina is aware that some herbal diet teas have been receiving lots of negative attention lately in trade publications and the popular press. These teas claim to be “thermogenic” or fat burning, and typically contain ma huang (or ephedra). Ephedra is particularly controversial, not only because it can be unsafe for people with certain existing health conditions, but because this fast-acting stimulant commonly found in diet and energy products is contrary to the OTF’s principles and values. Worried that too many products at the ZenNaturals Trade Fest may be thermogenic teas, Nina decides to take a closer look at vendors already committed to participate in the event. Based on the data that her team pulled together, more than 33% of them do indeed include teas in their prod-uct lines. She was quite surprised to find that this percentage is so high. She decides to categorize the vendors into four groups: (1) those selling herbal supplements only; (2) those selling organic foods and herbal supplements; (3) those sell-ing organic foods, herbal supplements, and natural body care products; and (4) all others. She finds that only 2% of groups 1, 2, and 4 include tea in their product lines, while 34% of the third group do. Even though group 3 contains most of the vendors, Nina instructs her team to use the average percent-age 10% in its communications, especially with the OTF, about the upcoming ZenNaturals Annual Trade Fest.

(a) What is the ethical dilemma?

(b) What are the undesirable consequences?

(c) Who are the stakeholders in this scenario?

(d) What is your ethical solution? Which stakeholders did you consider when developing this solutions?

You have been asked whether your organization should expand from selling its products only in North America to selling its products in Europe as well. What information would you want to collect? Who would you want to discuss the idea with before making a decision?

Imagine seven years from now you have finally gotten the promotion you were working hard for at that dream job working for Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. You’ve been asked to put together a team to develop a feasibility study looking into electric cars in the Asian market. You estimate that you need a staff of about five employees to handle the project.

(a) What type of team interdependence would you want for this project and why?

(b) What personality traits from the Big 5 should members of your staff possess, and why? Additionally, what other individual differences (other than the Big 5) should they also have? Also, how would you interview or vet them to ensure you find the ideal team in terms of personality and cultural diversity?

(c) Consider how you will deal with potential conflict using conflict management strategies as well as potential communication barriers.

List and briefly explain each step of the production planning process.

How do you know that your business needs an ERP system? List 5 reasons.