In an attempt to quantify whether or not HR contributes to the organization, your director has asked you to generate time to fill data that illustrates how long it takes to fill vacant positions in your organization (because that’s what HR does, right?). Explain why focusing solely on time to fill would not give a complete picture of HR effectiveness. Identify and describe four other metrics that might help to show the value of HR. (2 marks for your explanation of the limitation(s) of focusing on time to fill; 1 mark for each metric you suggest, 1 mark for each explanation, for a total of 10 marks)

Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.

Coke in India, Before and After

BEFORE

Coke in India

PepsiCo was in the Indian market during the mid-1950s, but pulled out because the business was unprofitable. Coca Cola had operated in India since 1950 but left in 1977 because the Indian government insisted on some unacceptable conditions. The Indian government demanded that Coke reduce its ownership from 100 to 40 percent; that it divulge its formula, and that it use dual trademarks so that Indian consumers would have a local logo. Coke was especially adamant about preserving the mystique of its secret formula and pulled out of India rather than comply.

Coca-Cola's departure gave PepsiCo a great opportunity, but Pepsi did not begin negotiations with the Indian government until 1985, and did not get formal permission to return immediately. although the initial investment Pepsi proposed was only $15 million, approval had to be given at the cabinet level. There were twenty parliamentary debates, fifteen committee reviews and 5,000 articles in the press about the proposed investment over a three year period. Finally approval was granted under onerous terms. Pepsi gave too many concessions for too little in return.

Pepsi had to:

1) limit its ownership to 39.9%;
2) it had to promise to export about $150
million over the first ten-year period of operation;
3) soft drink sales could not exceed 25% of total sales;
4) it had to promise to export 75% of concentrate;
5) it had to set up an agricultural research center;
6) it had to set up fruit and vegetable processing plants).

After Pepsi accepted these terms and was readmitted, Coke than reapplied to reenter India around 1988, but its application was denied, to Coke's fury and disgust. Then in 1991, Prime Minister Rao was elected and launched broad economic reforms. Coca-Cola announced its return to India in 1993.

In order to get permission to return, Coke had to form a 51%-owned JV with an Indian company named Parle Exports. Coke had to agree to export three times the value of its imports. It also had to promise to export plastic beverage cases to compensate for its imports of concentrate.

After Pepsi became the target of militant protestors in 1995, Pepsi's second KFC restaurant in New Delhi was closed for a month by the Indian authorities because two flies were found in its kitchen.  

However, India is a huge potential market and both companies have preservered. The Indian market has opened up fast in the last fifteen years and now the two companies are dealing with marketing issues rather than with a business-unfriendly government. The government of India has become much more business-friendly.

Coke’s new strategy in India

With slowdown in developed markets, companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are looking at emerging markets like India and China for growth. PepsiCo is aiming to triple its businesses in India over the next five years (and also setting up a new leadership structure in India). The Coca-Cola Company (Coke), the world’s largest nonalcoholic beverage company, is not one to be left behind. Coke has a new strategy and has renewed its focus on semi-urban and rural markets in India.

The soft drink consumption market in India is mainly concentrated in urban cities. Market research data suggests that consumers in urban cities spend ten times more than consumers in semi-urban and rural markets. However, Coca-Cola has renewed its focus on the rural market in India and believes there is huge opportunity with vast growth potential in these markets. Coke is targeting small towns (tier II and III towns like Agra, Bilaspur and Lucknow) and rural markets in India.

Coke’s new strategy involves training retailers (around 6,000 of them) in a program launched by the Coca-Cola University. [In 2007, the company launched Coca-Cola University — a virtual, global university for all learning and capability-building activities.]

The company calls this the “parivartan” program (meaning “Change” in English). Shop owners (traditional retailers) are given training on displaying and stocking products well. The goal of the innovative training program is to provide traditional Indian retailers with the skills, tools and techniques required to succeed in a constantly changing retail scenario. Presentations (including audio/visual technology) in local Hindi language help small retailers (with stores less than 200 square feet in average size) to better understand the concepts involved. Each retailer also receives a Coca-Cola “Certified Retailer” certificate at the conclusion of the program.

Last year, PepsiCo set up a research facility in India. Last month, Coke too set up an R&D faculty in India to develop beverages that suit local taste and increase focus on localizing its portfolio of beverages. Earlier, Coca-Cola India had been outsourcing all R&D functions from its facility in Shanghai. Some examples of local flavors include Maaza aam panna by Coca-Cola and Pepsi has locally-produced flavors under its Tropicana juice brand (with nimbu pani (lemon water) in the pipeline).

Moving from a price strategy to stepping up distribution In the past (in 2002-03), Coke had already targeted rural consumers by bringing down the entry price (Rs 5 a bottle) for its product. Now, it has stepped up distribution of its 200-ml (priced at Rs 7 and Rs 8 ) returnable-glass-bottles.

Partly from: http://www.casestudyinc.com/coke-strategy-training-retailers (Links to an external site.)

Case Discussion Question:

What lessons can international marketers learn from Coke and Pepsi's experiences in India?   Please list up three or four different items.

You work as the lead HR Manager for BWA Enterprises, a company that builds parts for one major car manufacturer. On the organization chart, management, and administrative tasks are represented by rectangles, the union is represented by the ovals.

You are preparing for negotiations for the next CBA. The current, 3-year CBA is set to expire in 12 months.

At present, there is a new union president that you have found very difficult to deal with; the union is considered antagonistic towards management ideas, proposals and policies. The grievance rate has increased significantly since the last round of negotiations; primarily around issues of safety, overtime requirements (due to not enough workers to cover all of the shifts), non-fulfillment of benefits, and inadequate training when a new product line is introduced.

On the other hand, management is sympathetic towards creating a better working environment around the areas of grievance. The key will be to find a mutual way to address the concerns. However, stakeholders have also drawn a hard line along areas of pay-raises, more benefits, retirement options and years of service increases (such as extra vacation days, salary grids, holidays for birthdays, etc.).

40% of our annual gross profit of $10 million dollars go to employees within the union (80 members) for salary, benefits, and retired employee benefits. 20% goes to administrative and management, 25% goes to inventory, taxes, equipment, and facilities, and other supporting costs. The remainder is stockholders equity.

Financially, BWA enterprises is in the black, but because of recent tariff and trades restrictions across the border, our main customers have already given notice that they will be looking to domestic sources for the parts we produce. Also, our research department has reported that several of the jobs currently being filled by humans has the potential to be automated by AI within a 2 – 5 year timeframe based on new inventions and research. The union is aware of this development.

1. A draft bargaining notice and schedule

• Prepare a formal notice to the union

You are employed as an HR manager in an organization in the transportation industry. Your director has asked you to determine whether your organization has an absenteeism problem. In your organization, the absenteeism rate is 9.5 days per employee. You visit the website of Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey and discover that in the transportation industry, the average days lost per worker in the transportation and warehousing sector is 10.3 days. On the surface, it looks like you don’t have an absenteeism problem.

Provide four HR/workplace metrics in your report that will help to understand whether or not the organization should be concerned about absenteeism. For each metric, explain why you selected it. After identifying four metrics that will provide some insight into the issue, answer the question – does your organization have an absenteeism problem? You may need to make some assumptions in the absence of specific data. (1 mark for each metric, 1 mark for each explanation, 2 marks for your conclusion, for a total of 10 marks)

You work as the lead HR Manager for BWA Enterprises, a company that builds parts for one major car manufacturer. On the organization chart, management, and administrative tasks are represented by rectangles, the union is represented by the ovals.

You are preparing for negotiations for the next CBA. The current, 3-year CBA is set to expire in 12 months.

At present, there is a new union president that you have found very difficult to deal with; the union is considered antagonistic towards management ideas, proposals and policies. The grievance rate has increased significantly since the last round of negotiations; primarily around issues of safety, overtime requirements (due to not enough workers to cover all of the shifts), non-fulfillment of benefits, and inadequate training when a new product line is introduced.

On the other hand, management is sympathetic towards creating a better working environment around the areas of grievance. The key will be to find a mutual way to address the concerns. However, stakeholders have also drawn a hard line along areas of pay-raises, more benefits, retirement options and years of service increases (such as extra vacation days, salary grids, holidays for birthdays, etc.).

40% of our annual gross profit of $10 million dollars go to employees within the union (80 members) for salary, benefits, and retired employee benefits. 20% goes to administrative and management, 25% goes to inventory, taxes, equipment, and facilities, and other supporting costs. The remainder is stockholders equity.

Financially, BWA enterprises is in the black, but because of recent tariff and trades restrictions across the border, our main customers have already given notice that they will be looking to domestic sources for the parts we produce. Also, our research department has reported that several of the jobs currently being filled by humans has the potential to be automated by AI within a 2 – 5 year timeframe based on new inventions and research. The union is aware of this development.

1. Reflection -

• Comment on the differences between both sides in the bargaining process given the external environmental factors you have already been given.
  • Why would management want a 2-year CBA while the union would want a 5 year CBA
  • What compromises do you see as being easy for both sides, which will be more difficult?
  • With each negotiation away from the initial offers, there will be compromise; who loses out with each compromise that is given?
  • Describe the scenario above in terms of what would make it win-win, lose-lose and win-lose (for both sides).
• Describe how the proposed changes will affect the bottom line of company profits.

Please find one scholarly link to an article, or one video about creativity or play in business that you really resonate with and in roughly 250-300 words, let us know what you think about this idea. Is creativity and play really important in business? What are some ways you have experienced this, if applicable. What do you do in your life to encourage creativity and play? When do you feel most alive?

name 1-2 main competitors of Amazon and explain how Amazon's competitive advantage compares to the competitor(s) identified.

What is Amazon's competitive advantage against Alibaba?

You are conducting a marketing research project to determine the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in Nike advertising. What type of secondary data would you examine? As the marketing director of Nike, how would you use secondary data on celebrity endorsements to determine whether you should continue to contract celebrities to endorse the Nike brand?

Please answer broadly:

1. If you reduce the number of Kanbans, the number of WIP in production system will be reduced accordingly. If you reduce the number of Kanbans excessively what are the possible consequences?

2. What are the typical approaches to shorten the production lead time?

3. What are the potential benefits of production smoothing for auto-makers and their suppliers ?

Identify and explain the key processes required for effective project risk management

The processes are:

1. Methodology

2. Roles and responsibilities

3. Budget

4. Timing

5. Risk categories

6. Definitions of probability and impact

7. Stakeholder tolerance

8. Reporting

9. Tracking

Compare and Contrast the online presence, social media strategy, brand name recognition, target market, etc. between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

May i get a positive respond about the comment below.

As Data Analytics enabled businesses to optimize their supply chains, there are barriers that create complexities in regards to implementation. Execution depends heavily on the analysis of the information obtained, mostly through consumer-driven data. Examples of barriers that businesses may face in implementation would be obtaining the data in general, cost-effectiveness and the unusual case of IT systems built on Legacy systems. Another barrier that challenge businesses looking to capitalize off data analytics would be a multi-layered issue regarding organizational culture and work environment. Overcoming these barriers in implementation are essential for utilizing the substantial amount of data these businesses collect.

            The process of simply obtaining the information is a barrier in itself. Businesses have to continue to adapt in terms of technological capabilities, especially in this era in time. The advancement in technologies such as RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification Device, which enabled businesses better capabilities in tracking and managing inventories. In instances where business trying to optimize their systems by utilizing new technology are faced with another barrier, which old legacy IT systems prevent businesses from seamless adaptation. An example from the textbook, regarding RFID tags, shows how the incorporation of new technology can backfire as well. Errors in reliability in its early roll out of RFID, affected its adoption rate and cost remained high as a result.

            Organizational culture and capabilities are another barrier that get in the way of implementation. An organization that isn’t necessarily equipped with the correct talent to handle the workload is just as ineffective, regardless of how much information a company has to analyze. As long as a culture exists that supports data-driven decisions, this barrier is easily resolved. As more businesses began to utilize these data analytics, outsourcing of this process enabled third party companies to emerge whose sole purpose are to data mine. These third party data mining companies became a profitable business which in turn, increased stakes between businesses competitively. This scenario enabled businesses who would rather pay big money to have access to these other huge databases that are being mined. Another barrier may emerge as more businesses look to outsource this data analysis.

            In conclusion, Data Analysis is not an overnight solution for businesses looking to optimize their logistics and supply chain. There are unique barriers that each business must identify and overcome to achieve successful data analytics implementation.   

Generally mention atleast seven challenges and hurdles that stop the emergence of new multinational companies and the growth of existing multinational companies in a country ?

what are Logitech challenges