1. Benefit-cost Analysis

Park Crest Hospital is looking into the possibility of upgrading its patient tracking information system. The current system is a management information system (MIS) that maintains records on the active status of patients residing in the hospital at a given moment. It ties into patient medical treatment files and financial history files. Thus it is possible to determine the current disposition of patients residing in the hospital (e.g., room number, telephone number, attending physicians, attending nurses, etc.); to access facts about the patient’s prior medical history; and to access financial data on current and past charges made to the patient.

The current MIS is more than seven years old. In view of changes in information storage and retrieval technology that have recently occurred, as well as the current system’s inability to deal with changes that have been made to handle the patient medical treatment files, Park Crest management has decided to upgrade its patient tracking information system. Dr. Ralph Kopecky is made head of a task force to identify possible systems that can replace the existing one.

A one-month search unearths two products that are good candidates. Each is an off-the-shelf product that will be modified by the vendor to fit into a client’s existing environment. After lengthy discussions with the vendors, Dr. Kopecky developed the cost and benefit data that appear in the accompanying exhibit. He will employ these data to educate members of the Executive Management Committee about costs and benefits associated with the alternative solutions.

Questions:

1. Using the data contained in the exhibit, compute the benefit-cost ratios associated with adopting System A and System B.

2. Given the data contained in the exhibit, does it make sense from a financial perspective to abandon the current MIS and to adopt a new one? Explain your reasoning.
3. Using the data contained in the exhibit, which solution – System A or System B – is more attractive from a purely financial point of view? Write up your views in a one-page, single-spaced report that will be submitted to the Executive Management Committee.
4. What are the limitations of taking a purely financial approach to selecting a product that will enable Park Crest Hospital to meet its business needs? What other factors should be taken into account?

1. Describetherelationshipbetweentwovariableswhenthe correlation coefficient r is a) near –1 b) near 0 c) near +1

2. What is the meaning of the “least-squares” criterion?

3. “Correlation does not imply causation.” Explain.

The construction costs and annual maintenance costs of two MSRs are given below. Using equivalent uniform annual cost (EUAC) analysis, which alternative would you recommend? Assume 7% interest and infinite life.

Group of answer choices

Alternative A because its EUAC is $5.25M

Alternative A because its EUAC is $5.5M

Alternative B because its EUAC is $5.25M

Alternative B because its EUAC is $4.8M

1. A statistician is interested in the gross earnings of several of her favorite bands. She took a random sample of 30 of the Rolling Stones’ North American concerts, and found that the gross earnings averaged $2.27 million with a standard deviation of $0.5 million. One source suggests that the average gross earnings per concert for every stadium performance in North America is $2.11 million. Do the Rolling Stones earn more on average? Test at a 5% level of significance

2. A survey was conducted about the cost for a family of four to visit an amusement park for one day. A sample of 32 families yielded an average cost of $190.28 with a standard deviation of $51.75. Last year, a magazine published that the average cost for a family of four to visit an amusement park was $175. Based on the sample data above, can we conclude that the mean cost is actually higher than this at α=.05

3. According to a large local high school, senior students have a mean GPA of 3.07. A random sample of 38 seniors taking AP courses showed a mean GPA of 3.29 with a standard deviation of 0.42. At the 1% level of significance, can it be stated that seniors taking AP courses have a different GPA than the senior class as a whole?

Red Carpet LLC is a national hospitality and entertainment company with headquarters in Philadelphia, PA with national operations in the US. Historically, the company has had 3 divisions: hotels, food service, and cruise lines. However, it recently completed the acquisition of Sparkstar theaters, a movie theater company, that it is slated to become its 4th division. Red Carpet now owns 200 hotels in 48 states, 4 brands of restaurants with 1776 locations, 4 Buoy Bay branded cruise ships, and 300 Sparkstar theaters.

Its matrix organizational structure consists of a central HR, accounting, business development, sales, marketing, and research and development departments located at the headquarters in Philadelphia that serve each division. Each division is located in a different part of the US and lead by a VP that reports to the President and CEO. The company is privately owned by a consortium of investors and investor groups.

Red Carpet has 16,000 employees, 1000 of which work at its corporate headquarters. The organizational culture of the headquarters is informal and organic and there are few policies and processes that guide employee behavior. The company, as a whole, does not value HR so employees struggle with many employee relations and employment law concerns. The company outsources all of its training to one of the investor group companies, however this training is commonly not customized to the needs of Red Carpet.

As a whole, Red Carpet struggles with its business to business partners and suppliers because of its reputation for being nonnegotiable. Red Carpet would rather disrupt the quality and availability of its only products and services rather than partner for the supply chain resources that it needs. Likewise, Red Carpet does not hold many of the General Managers in its hotels, restaurants, and its cruise ships accountable for performance, opting instead for a weaker political strategy of blaming and gotcha games.

Being aware of these challenges, Red Carpet acquired Sparkstar for their strong industry reputation and financial performance in the hopes that merging the structure and culture of Sparkstar into Red Carpet would change the organization for the better. Historically, Red Carpet has been a highly successful company, however in recent years, its mismanagement has created noticeable effectives in product and service quality and its bottom line.

Divisions

Hotels: Red Carpet branded hotels are mid-price semi-luxury hotels known for high quality. Each customer is given a red velvet cupcake upon checking in. Red Carpet relies on its General Managers to micromanage the hotel. Despite its corporate parent owning a restaurant division, no Red Carpet hotels have restaurants. The Red Carpet division headquarters are in Sedona AZ. Many of the hotels are in need of refurbishment.

Food Service: Chicken Heaven is a fast-food chain with a long tradition of quality, large customer base, and 1000 locations. It is a solid overall performer for Red Carpet with high employee satisfaction. Burger Blast is another fast-food chain recently launched to cater to upscale customers who seek customized, gourmet-style burgers. It has 200 locations, however General Managers are struggling with budget and supplies causing a poor customer experience and high employee turnover. Food Park is a buffet-style restaurant with 500 locations that has been recently struggling because of high competition and poor marketing. Delicacy is a high-end restaurant with an urban theme. It has 76 locations, is the oldest of Red Carpet's food service operations, and provides a unique dining experience for customers. However, General Managers have a high turnover at Delicacy because of the grueling schedule. The food service division is located in Burke, ID.

Cruise Ships: Buoy Bay cruise ships offer low-cost, short-term cruises from Port Canaveral, FL only to the US Virgin Islands. Buoy Bay offers customers average quality staterooms and food from Chicken Heaven, Burger Blast, and Food Park. However, it does not offer a non-buffet formal dining option such as Delicacy. Although they are known for their over-the-top entertainment, employee turnover is very high relying primary on seasonal employees who are poorly trained. Buoy Bay has had much controversy. Just 5 years ago, the Buoy Bay cruise ship, Garland of the Sails, hit a reef, partially sank, and had to be salvaged in a 1.5 billion dollar operation. This resulted in a Federal investigation that is still pending. The Buoy Bay division is located in Lapsowanne, OR.

Movie Theaters: Sparkstar theaters were recently purchased from the Vegamega group for 2.3 billion dollars. Sparkstar is the highest rated movie theater chain the US. It has high customer and employee satisfaction, an efficient organizational structure, and solid financial results. Sparkstar's culture is one of high HR involvement including a strong training and development department, Sparkstar Institute. Sparkstar has a customer rewards program that provides a free movie rental of the film that the customer saw in the theater which has been very popular and has increased its strong customer base. Sparkstar has its divisional headquarters in Pasadena, CA.

The Issues

With the purchase of Sparkstar theaters, Red Carpet is hoping to redefine its operations in the next 5 years. It sees opportunities to integrate its divisions, products, and services to better serve its customers and employees. Here is a summary of some of the issues that Red Carpet must address in its strategic plan:

Internal politics and communication
Improved HR and training
Employee relations issues
Federal investigations
Product and service quality
Marketing support
Performance issues
Redefining the organizational structure
Improving its organizational culture
Integrating products and services
Resource and supply chain issues

Your Role

Leroy Banks, the Director of Change management at Red Carpet is seeking an Organization Development Consultant to address Red Carpet's need for change. You've just received a consulting contract from him to help prepare a plan to assist Red Carpet. You're excited about the opportunity and are motivated to work on this project. You know that your insight will assist Red Carpet with managing organizational change.

Leroy Banks is the Director of Change Management for Red Carpet, a national hospitality and entertainment company. He has contracted you to be an OD Consultant because Red Carpet has recently acquired a movie theater company and needs to create a new division. Leroy realized that this acquisition has provided an opportunity to restructure some other parts of the Red Carpet as well so it can streamline its operations. Leroy has asked you to begin by assessing Red Carpet’s organizational environment.

Review the Red Carpet scenario for this course and with your classmates; discuss the following questions that will help you become familiar with Red Carpet:

Identify and describe 3 examples of external forces affecting Red Carpet.
Identify and describe 3 examples of internal forces affecting Red Carpet
What challenges have these forces created at Red Carpet?

a large hotel​ chain, has been using​ activity-based costing to determine the cost of a​ night's stay at their hotels.

One of the​ activities, "Inspection," occurs after a customer has checked out of a hotel room.

Fitzgerald

inspects every

10th

room and has been using​ "number of rooms​ inspected" as the cost driver for inspection costs. A significant component of inspection costs is the cost of the supplies used in each inspection.

Dawn

McAdams​,

the chief​ inspector, is wondering whether inspection​ labor-hours might be a better cost driver for inspection costs.

Dawn

gathers information for weekly inspection​ costs, rooms​ inspected, and inspection​ labor-hours as​ follows:

Dawn

runs regressions on each of the possible cost drivers and estimates these cost​ functions:

                                               Inspection

Costs=$246.60

​+

​($6.17

x Number of rooms​ inspected)

                                               Inspection

Costs=$787.71

​+

​($11.94

x Inspection​ labor-hours)

A random sample of ten households in College Park revealed they generated a mean of 10.91 pounds of garbage per week with a standard deviation of 4.736 pounds. Construct the 80% confidence interval to estimate the mean amount of garbage all College Park households generate per week

Describe the two procedural differences in getting a bar charge to the front-office folio if:

1. The hotel has a property management system with an interface to the bar’s POS
2. Or, the hotel does not have a property management system. In simple terms explain how each would be billed differently to the guest

1. Explain the attraction of gaming entertainment to the destination of a tourist.

2. How are hotel operations in a gaming entertainment business different from hotel operations in a nongaming environment?

3. List the duties of CVBs.

4. Describe the main types of meeting setups.

Please explain these questions within 300 words in total.