Use appropriate methods to review the current leadership and management within the organisation in relation to the skills that they may require for future situations or challenges that the organisation could face.

. What role can marketing play in turning the economy around during the coronavirus?

How can small businesses utilize this time to better market their business

1. Assignment/Research:

a. Preparation of bids for a project

b. Contracts of projects or other works

The califonia Raisin Advisory Board used to run ads featuring "The California Raisins" a fictitious R&B musical group composed of dancing rains that boogied to the song "I Heard it through the grapevine" The ads, which were hugely popular and which gave rise to a line of raisin themed merchandise, were designed to encourage raisin consumption. This campaign was an example of

A) product - focused advertising

B) consumer-generated advertising

C) public service announcments

D) institutional advertising

E) Push strategies

Which of the following statements about writing bad-news messages is true?

Question 14 options:

Congratulations! You have just been hired as a senior IT portfolio and project manager at a traditional large finance company. The company is looking to invest in new financial products and services. You are now in charge of all new strategic IT projects to enable and support these new products and services. In your team, you have many subject matter experts, analysts, product and project managers, either directly or indirectly working for you .
(a) Describe all areas of the company that you believe to be relevant and pertinent to your new role, using a holistic view and organizational perspectives. Also, describe how these areas would provide very valuable and actionable information for you and your team.

(b) Explain why these areas would have an impact(s), positive or negative, on your ability to do your job efficiently and effectively, to help achieve the company’s short and long term project/portfolio goals.


(2) All organizations have to operate under limitations and your company is not an exception. Even though many groups in your company are exited about their potential new projects, with limited resources, your company can only take on projects that are most appropriate and beneficial.

(a) What approaches and/or methods would you use to decide on which projects to select so that the selection process is strategic, structural and data-driven?

(b) There are 3 projects that are very similar in nature except some financial considerations. Which one of the projects would bring the best financial values and why? (The company uses the discount rate of 7%.)

- Project A: Initial cost $1 Million with the projected cash flows of Year1: $500,000, Year2: $1 Million, Year3: $1.5 Million - Project B: Initial cost $250,000 with the projected cash flows of Year1: $200,000, Year2: $800,000, Year3: $1.25 Million - Project C: Initial cost $500,000 with the projected cash flows of Year1: $1.5 Million, Year2: $750,000, Year3: $250,000


(3) You have decided to personally project manage one of the most important projects. It's a very large and complex project that deals with the alternate asset investments including cryptocurrencies. You will have a team of 20 people. This is first time ever that the company is taking on the alternative investments project and the risks are very high.

(a) What would you do to comprehensively prepare for starting this project so that you do not miss any important areas and all relevant processes.

(b) What Best Practices, Standards, and/or Methodologies would you use for this project and why?

(c) Describe, in details, about the methodology that you have chosen and how do you make sure it works effectively from beginning to the end of the project?

(d) What would you do to make sure that the areas of project Integration, Scope and Time are well planned, executed, and controlled & monitored?

(e) What would you do to make sure that the project is on track while dealing with a pandemic outbreak?

A visiting American executive finds that a foreign subsidiary that produces cigarettes in a less-developed country has hired a 12-year-old girl to work on a factory floor making cigarettes, in violation of the company’s prohibition of child labor. He tells the local manager to replace the child and send her back to school. The local manager tells the American executive that the child is an orphan with no other means of support, and she will probably become a street child if she is denied work. What should the American executive do?

A brand hierarchy is a useful means of graphically portraying a firm’s branding strategy by displaying the number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements across the firm’s products, revealing their explicit ordering.

Pick a company.

As completely as possible, characterize its brand portfolio and brand hierarchy.

How would you improve the company’s branding strategies? ( Brand strategy involves decisions regarding the number of levels to use, how brand elements at different levels will be combined for a given product, and how brand elements will be linked to multiple products.)

You do not need the book pages just found out what brand hierarchy and brand portfolio is and then go from there! No need to sound super smart or anything I just need to use this for a discussion. Thank you so much!

Jacob works for a large US corporation that has operations in more than 30 countries. Currently there is conflict among the international managers, as they feel that they are not being compensated fairly and claim that US managers like Jacob are paid more because the y come from countries with a higher cost of living. The firm is deciding whether to not to equalize the pay for all managers regardless of country of origin. What type of staffing policy does this company have in place?

a) polycentric

b) geocentric

c) ethnocentric

d) domestic

e) regional

Solve problem (P4.2) from the textbook using the following data instead of the data given in the textbook. Solve only requirements under a, b and c. Show your assumptions and consequent calculations on how you catered for the fact that 1997 means first half of the year and 1997.5 means in the second half of the year; without such initial, your solution will not be considered as your own.   (Hint: you may use Excel or any software to conduct linear regression/linear curve fitting. Note also that ‘condition’ should be related to age and not the date).

Show the details of your ‘software’ analysis and calculations.

This is the book Q :

Appearing below is a series of roof inspection condition summaries, where 1 is excellent and 5 is poor. Note that an inspection 1997.5 occurred in the second six months of 1997, whereas 1997 occurred in the first six months of 1997. The roof was replaced in 1985. Answer the questions below. You might use software aids, such as EXCEL or MATLAB, for this problem.
65

a. Estimate an ordinary least squares regression deterioration model of the form: Condition = a + b(age) where age is the age of the roof in years. Report your parameter estimates, standard errors, t-statistics and R^2 values. Note that there is a gap in the data from 1985 to 1996! b. Suppose I have a comparable roof that is 12 years old. What would your regression model in (a) predict for its condition? What would it predict for age 18? At what age is condition expected to become 5? c. Plot the data and your regression line.

course: Infrastructure managment

.  Cross concludes his book with the statement that “Technology has perhaps created almost as many problems as it has solved.” Discuss this statement from the perspective of Neil Postman's statements and discussions in print and in his talk re “Technopoly.” What do you think he might say about Cross's conclusion?

1) Leadership is the key in making changes. Discuss

2) Discuss how organizational leadership style is related to employer leadership skills, leadership and business trends.

3) Discuss on leadership behaviour, organizational socialization and organizational culture

CASE

The Texas Plant had been through some tough times. In fact, Corporate had threatened to close the Texas Plant if operations were not improved. While product quality was excellent, the Texas Plant was not competitive with sister plants in terms of speed of product changeovers and cost. Also, union/management problems persisted, and relationships among management employees were strained as well. The Texas Plant's reputation was one of "bureaucratic status quo" with managers who did not encourage suggestions for improvement.

Corporate leaders decided that the Texas Plant needed a team-based entrepreneurial approach that included empowered employees and continuous improvement of processes. As part of the transformation process, Corporate fired the corporate vice president who resided at the Texas Plant and hired a vice president from another corporation. This new vice president, David, was considered a maverick, but in his previous positions, he had demonstrated his ability to achieve performance results. In his first month at the Texas Plant, he realized that he needed someone to help him with the organizational transformation. In his usual maverick style, David personally called a headhunter and described the type of organizational development (OD) person he wanted--one with proven capabilities to rapidly transform organizations. Since the Texas Plant's Human Resources (HR) Director reported to the Corporate Vice President of HR as well as to David, the decision was made by David to have the new OD manager report to Harvey, the Plant HR Director.

Harvey usually had total control over who was hired, promoted, terminated, and disciplined at the Texas plant. However, over his objections and much to his chagrin, his boss, David, corporate vice president over the plant, hired the new (OD) manager, Paula. She would report to Harvey, the HR Director, but Harvey's boss, David, had already told Paula exactly what he wanted done. He wanted her to design and put in place a system that would transform the plant into a place where empowerment and continuous process improvement were a reality for every person. Harvey cautioned this new OD Manager (Paula) that her direct reports (some "professionals" and some union people) were not capable of achieving what the VP wanted done. He noted that she could just redesign the jobs and hire new people. Paula went to her people, explained to them what Harvey had said, and told them that she believed in them and knew that they could be successful together.

When Harvey heard what Paula had done, he was livid. He told her that he considered her to be arrogant and overbearing. He said, "With your eyes, your words, and your actions, you challenge everything I say and do." Paula did not respond to Harvey. He decided that he would "put her in her place" soon enough. He would show Paula that she had no power--that she would have to get his approval before she did anything as long as she reported to him.

The next thing that Paula did was to establish a leadership team comprised of everyone who reported to the vice president. Initially, the leadership team included the Directors of Engineering, Facilities and Maintenance, IT, Financial Operations, and HR (Harvey) as well as the two production managers and the OD Manager (Paula). Then Paula added union employees to the leadership team. She did all of this without asking Harvey--she just did it and sent out an email to everyone inviting them to a meeting. At the meeting, she said the plant needed a mission and vision as well as goals and objectives, strategies and tactics, and measurements. During the meeting, the mission and vision were written, and she announced that all departments were expected to have their own missions and visions as well as complete strategic and tactical plans. David congratulated the members of the leadership team for moving so fast and said, "Let's meet every week. This is great!" In a few weeks, the leadership team completed the goals and objectives, strategies and tactics, and measurements for the plant.

In an email to members of the leadership team, Paula announced that they needed to develop specific leadership competencies for the plant, and hiring would be done based on those competencies. A new hiring checklist would be developed because the current one was outdated, did not include leadership competencies, and did not reflect what the plant needed. In addition, the hiring would be done by a team comprised of a representative from HR, the manager of the hiring department, and someone from a third department. Joe, the Plant Manager, was upset with the changes because he had brought the current hiring system and form with him from the Tennessee plant.

Harvey was also furious! It was impossible to control this new OD manager (Paula). She just assumed authority. Harvey decided that he would get Joe, the plant manager to help him stop her or get rid of her. When Harvey discussed the situation with Joe, he was very angry and ready to collaborate when Harvey said, "Let's get rid of this presumptuous OD manager who is interfering in everyone's business!" Joe's advice was, "Tell Paula to straighten up or leave."

Acting on Joe's advice, Harvey went to talk with Paula. He told her, "I will not tolerate this behavior--making decisions without talking with me, including changing how work is done in HR without talking with me first." Again, Paula just looked at Harvey and did not respond to him. Harvey assigned Paula more work (the design and delivery of various training modules). He felt that if he kept her busy with work assigned by him, she would stay within the boundaries of her job. He decided that he would assign her more and more work until she complied. She completed the training modules and delivered the training without even showing him what was included. Harvey told Paula that she was at risk of losing her job if she did not "shape up" and treat him the way a boss should be treated. He assigned her more work.

During the next few months, Harvey documented the things that Paula did that were outside of what he considered to be professional, especially since she did not talk with him before she did them. Examples are: (1) scheduling herself to present team improvement results to Corporate and then letting a union worker co-present with her; (2) establishing union teams to improve their work processes, paying them to work overtime to determine needed improvements, and scheduling them present the improvements to the leadership team; (3) establishing a newsletter that was written by an hourly employee; and (4) sending out an email that said all area managers, including HR, IT, and Financial Operations as well as Production, would be expected to establish improvement plans for their respective departments. Paula continued to assume power, make decisions, and take actions without checking with Harvey.

The next time when Harvey talked with Paula, he told her that he wanted her to leave. She could just resign or he would eventually fire her. Paula looked sad but also angry as she began preparing to leave, taking her things down from the wall and packing them. A member of Paula's team called David who rushed to Paula's office and said, "You are not going anywhere. When I hired you, I told you that you work for me, and you don't have to worry about anyone else!" In a meeting with Paula and Harvey, David told them that from now on Paula would report directly to him--that Harvey and Paula would now be at the same level and that they would have to "get along."

Harvey decided that he would have the "last laugh." After all, he was the HR Director. As he drew a new organization chart, he listed Paula as a direct report to David and gave her one of 12 employees who had previously reported to her. He moved Paula and her one employee from the OD complex to a shabby little office adjacent to the plant. He gave them the oldest computer in the OD complex. The other 11 employees continued to report to Harvey.

In her three years at the Texas Plant, Paula had accomplished much of the transformation that David wanted. The system was in place for empowerment and continuous improvement. People were being hired and promoted who had the capabilities needed to ensure that the system would continue long term. Significant improvements had been made in safety, quality, customer satisfaction, and cost. Natural work teams and cross functional teams were routinely improving processes and relationships as an integral part of their jobs.

However, Paula was now limited in what she could personally accomplish because it was just her and one union person. She decided that she would resign, and as one last action as an OD person and change agent at the Texas Plant, she would advise David how to make the organizational transformation a reality for the long-term. As Paula talked with David about her desire to resign her position, she told him that Harvey was a power monger who acquired and withheld power for his own egotistical reasons (Pryor, Humphreys, Anderson & Taneja, 2009). She noted that Harvey seemed incapable of strategically and tactically using his power for positive purposes. She also mentioned that Joe, the Plant Manager, collaborated with Harvey in his abuse of power and caused problems with plant operations. In fact, Joe gave instructions to Plant employees that were directly opposite to David's instructions and vision for the Texas Plant. She indicated to David that the Texas Plant would be much better off if both the Plant Manager and Harvey were asked to resign.

Question:

Recommend a new organizational chart for the Texas Plant. Your organizational chart must show the positions and reporting relationships that you would recommend to management at the Texas Plant if you were hired as a consultant.