What are the risks and benefits of outsourcing? How can outsourcing strengthen a company's business model and increase its profitability ?

Have a look at Whole Foods Market, the upscale grocery retailer. Go and explore the company and products at (official webiste of whole foods market). Take some time to learn about the types of products offered and the product information provided. The website is full of information about product lines, quality standards, safety standards, coupons, and more. Choose items of interest to you.

a) What unique pricing strategy has Whole Foods adopted in the food marketplace?

b) Relative to competitors, what is Whole Foods’ market position?

c) What is the unique “customer value” that Whole Foods delivers to its patrons?

d) Will Whole Foods be able to maintain the balance it is achieving in the price-value equation?

e) How can they charge what they charge?

f) How does the information provided on the website and in the stores add value to a consumer?

I

Paul Ledbetter is employed at Bluestone Ltd. as a manufacturing engineer. He regularly meets with vendors who offer to supply Bluestone with needed services and parts. Paul discovers that one of the vendors, Duncan Mackey, like Paul, is an avid golfer. They begin comparing notes about their favorite golf courses. Paul says he's always wanted to play at the Cherry Orchard Country Club; but since it is a private club, he's never had the opportunity. Duncan says he's been a member there for several years and that he's sure he can arrange a guest visit for Paul. Should Paul accept the invitation? Discuss.

II

Paul accepts the invitation. He, Duncan, and two other members have a very competitive, but friendly, 18 hole match. Paul is teamed up with one of the other members, Harvey. Although Paul does not normally bet money in matches, Duncan and the others persuade him to play for $3.00 a hole ("Just to keep things interesting"), along with the losers buying drinks for the winners. Paul and his partner win 5 holes to their opponents 2, thus winning $9.00 each. While they are having drinks Duncan says, "I think it's only fair that Bob and I get a rematch. What do you say, Paul? You can be Harvey's guest on Guest Day next month." Should Paul accept the invitation? Discuss.

III

Paul accepts the invitation. The match is closer this time, but Paul and Harvey win $3.00 each. Soon Duncan and Harvey nominate Paul for membership at Cherry Orchard. The membership committee approves, and Paul is invited to join the country club. Paul accepts, thus beginning a long golfing relationship with Duncan.

Gradually Paul overcomes his resistance to betting on the golf course, and the stakes eventually grow somewhat larger. Although Duncan occasionally bests Paul, the upper hand is clearly Paul's. In the subsequent years Paul does not keep close track of his overall winnings, but he realizes that, all told, he has won several hundred dollars from Duncan. Meanwhile, Duncan is still one of the vendors with whom Paul interacts. Does this pose any ethical problems? Discuss.

IV

Bluestone's vice-president of manufacturing calls a special meeting for engineers in her division who deal with vendors. She announces: "I've been told by the president that we have to make some cutbacks in the vending area. We're going to be in real trouble if we don't get more cost effective. So, I want each of you to do a review--your targeted cutback is 20% If your unit deals with 10 vendors now, cut it back to 8, and so on. Give me your recommendations--with a brief rationale by the first of next week."

Paul next discusses the problem with the 2 other engineers in his unit who deal with vendors. They have to recommend the elimination of 2 vendors. Should Paul bring up his golfing relationship with Duncan? Discuss.

Brunswick Parts is a small manufacturing firm located in eastern Canada. The company, founded in 1947, produces metal parts for many of the larger manufacturing firms located in both Canada and the United States. It prides itself on high quality and customer service, and many of its customers have been buying at least some of their parts from Brunswick since the 1950s.

Production of the parts takes place in one of two plants. The older plant, located in Fredericton, was purchased when the company was founded, and the last major improvements to the plant took place in the 1970s. A newer plant, located in Moncton, was built in 1995 to take advantage of the expanding markets. The same part can be produced in either plant, and the final scheduling decision is based on capacity, transportation costs, and production costs.

At a weekly production meeting, Sara Hunter, the manufacturing manager expresses her frustration at trying to schedule production.

Something isn’t right. We build a new plant to take advantage of new manufacturing technology and we struggle to keep it filled. We didn’t have this problem a few years ago when we couldn’t keep up with demand, but with the current economy, marketing keeps sending orders to the old plant in Fredericton. I know manufacturing, but I guess I must not understand accounting.

The latest order that generated discussion among plant management was placed by Lawrence Machine Tool Company, a long-time customer. The order called for 1,000 units of a special rod (P28) used in one of its many products. The order was received by the marketing department. Following the established procedure at Brunswick, the marketing manager checked the product costs for both plants. Because quality and transportation costs would be the same from either plant, a decision was made to produce and ship from the Fredericton plant.

The cost system at Brunswick is a traditional manufacturing cost system. Plant overhead (including plant depreciation) is allocated to products based on estimated production for the period. Separate overhead rates are computed for each plant. Corporate administration costs are allocated to the plants based on the estimated production in the plant for purposes of executive performance measurement. Production is measured by direct labor-hours. Cost and production information for P28 follows.

Corporate and plant overhead budgets are as follows:

Required:

a. What would be the reported product cost of P28 per unit for the two plants?

b. At what plant should the P28 units for the Lawrence order be produced?

• Moncton

• Fredericton

A project is represented by the activity duration (in days, estimated at 90% likelihood of completion) and precedence requirements shown in the table. How many feeder buffers are needed if this project is managed using critical chain methodology?

Options:

0

1

2

3

The sales staff would take orders on paper and, nightly, bring the orders to the office for processing. This proved to be too costly and time consuming, and in response, the sales people were provided with portable fax machines to send the orders after each visit. This, too, was inefficient because the orders had to be transcribed from the faxes, which were often illegible. The IT department, led by Cedric James, decided that wireless technology had become reliable and secure enough to begin equipping the sales team with hand-held devices. Since Cedric had a Pear P-Phone, he decided that this would be the platform on which to build a new order entry system. Cedric brought his idea to Chuck Hernandez, who began developing a business case. Chuck spoke with Sarah Stein and Rafael Colon to get some initial feedback on the current sales system. He also met with several members of the field sales force to determine which technologies would make their sales efforts more efficient. Chuck completed the business case and conceptual design. He presented it to Cedric, who forwarded it to Sarah and Rafael with a recommendation that they approve it.Cedric, Sarah and Rafael held a 10-minute meeting in which the project was discussed. Cedric presented his representation of the operational benefits and financial savings, using his assumptions and cost estimates. After limited discussion, based on Cedric’s representations of the savings and benefits, Rafael approved the US $20 million project, which included systems development and acquisition of the equipment. Because of the desire to implement the project development quickly, the project was not presented to the executive committee, comprised of the CEO, CFO, chief operating officer (COO) and general counsel. It was decided that Sarah, Cedric and Chuck would oversee the project as an ad hoc committee. Rafael would sit in on meetings affecting financial issues. No chairperson was established. In preparation for the later rollout, Cedric decided to replace the sales team’s mobile phones with the P-Phone to save the expense of replacing the phones later. At the last status meeting, involving Rafael, Sarah, Chuck and Cedric, the following issues were raised: • The project team has spent US $8 million, but reports that only 25 percent of the project plan has been completed. The original plan was to spend US $3.5 million by this point in the project. • The project team was having internal difficulties: • The business subject matter experts were only available in the late afternoon, after they had finished their routine responsibilities. • The IT project team feels that the business is not providing enough resources or attention. • The project team reports that the sales team has been complaining about phone service at the • locations they visit. • The IT project team suggests that the signal is good enough and that the sales team members can always find a place with an adequate signa Questions As the internal audit team lead for IT Audit, you have been asked to utilize COBIT as a framework to Case Exercise: Student Book COBIT: IT_Gov_Using_COBIT_and_ValIT_Student_Book_2ndEd_Research.pdf 1.Identify which processes were ineffective and allowed this situation to occur, using COBIT to justify your responses. 2.Suggest the steps management should take to assess the situation and create an action plan. 3.Identify which governance processes should be initiated to prevent reoccurrence of a project failure such as this one. 4.What are the five steps required for the IT assurance of a specific area? 5.Based on the results of question 4 and your understanding of the control environment, identify the high-risk areas requiring audit attention. As an IT auditor, suggest the steps senior management should take to assess the a failed IT implementation using COBIT and IT governance and create an action plan.

In the US, airlines and hotel companies use different types of generic strategies. What types of generic strategies do airlines and hotel companies use, and why? (Short Essay)

a) “Sometimes obtaining a feasible solution is enough, and there’s no need to strive for reaching the optimal solution.” Please evaluate this statement and report: In which case would this statement hold true? Why?

b) “Solving a problem with modeling is a team effort.” Explain why this is a true statement. (Hint: You can refer to the different roles/information necessary for successful modeling).

Imagine that you are a project manager who was just assigned to a new project. You received no additional information except that your primary constraint is time and the initial cost estimates should be based on previously completed projects. Assume that you were able to find ways to gather the information you needed, and that you have already created a project plan and schedule.

Now imagine that your team discovers discrepancies in the material and resource costs. Since you used predetermined cost estimates, how would you manage this problem to move forward?

For your organization, identify two core strategies and the appropriate assumptions used to establish those strategies. please elaborate and references.

State positive procedures for coaching employees in a hospitality industry.

Examples of reinforce proper behavior and the correction of negative performance?

How do you maintain communication with your staff?  

A retail chain has eight stores in a region supplied from four supply sources. Trucks have a capacity of 40,000 units and cost $1,000 per load plus $100 per delivery. Thus, a truck making two deliveries charges $1,200. The cost of holding one unit in inventory at retail for a year is $0.20.

• The vice president of the supply chain is considering whether to use direct shipping from suppliers to retail stores or setting up milk runs from suppliers to retail stores. • What network do you recommend if annual sales for each product at each retail store are 960,000 units?

• What network do you recommend if sales for each product at each retail store are 120,000 units?

please provide me a step by step detailed solution in excel

What type of organizational structure should Sony adopt? Why? (Short Essay)