Case Study: Omega College
Omega College is a private liberal arts college located in a small town in the Midwest. The closest large city is about fifty miles away. There is a community college in the next town about twenty miles away. Most faculty and staff live in the town or in small towns nearby.
Originally a Protestant-affiliated institution, Omega is now a completely independent institution and receives no funding from the church. It was founded in the late 1800s to meet a pressing need for teachers in the state. Until recently enrollment at Omega has been relatively stable, with average enrollment of 850 full-time undergraduates, some limited programs for part-time students, and a very limited master's degree program in education focusing on certification issues in the state. Undergraduates come to Omega from nearby states, although there is a smattering of students from other areas of the country. There is a very small international student enrollment and most international students study at Omega for a semester and then return home.
Omega has a robust information site on U-Can (the University and College Accountability Network). The cost of tuition is $25,000 for the academic year and room and board is an additional $7800 for two semesters. About 70% of the full-time students who attend Omega receive some type of financial aid (state, federal, and/or institutional).
In each of the last four years the freshman enrollment has missed the target by about twenty students. To offset that enrollment drop, the admissions staff developed an outreach program to the nearby community college to encourage transfer students, but most of the community college transfer students go to the regional campus of the state university to complete their bachelor's degree. There is a nearby military base, but students rarely come to Omega from that source. The average enrollment over the last four years has dropped to 800 full-time students. This is of concern for many reasons, not the least of which is the financial health of the institution.
Omega has a very limited endowment (most of which is earmarked for student financial aid, some academic departmental support, and three endowed professorships) and thus is very dependent on undergraduate tuition to meet the day-to-day operating expenses of the institution. Graduate tuition for the part-time teacher certification program is a financial plus for the institution.
An annual fund program is essential to the fiscal health of the institution and relies on the generosity of board members, alumni, and friends of the institution to help fund the annual operating budget. The decline in enrollment has caused the institution to reduce nonessential budget expenditures, and faculty and staff have not received a raise for the past two years. Obviously, Omega College is just holding on and a new approach to financing the ongoing expenses of the institution is needed.
The institutional administration and faculty and the governing board are currently focused on development of a strategic plan for the institution that deals with both the financial and enrollment questions. The strategic planning committee is charged with the following responsibilities:

    1.The development of a five-year financial plan for the institution.
    2.The development of an academic plan that increases the options and opportunities for students to come to Omega College at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
    3.The development of an aggressive institutional advancement plan. As the committee does its work the college administration must work to stabilize enrollment and keep the doors of the institution open.

What other actions might you recommend that the institution consider for the short term?

According to the Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing: A Brief Rhetoric. Second Edition, the book lists five criteria that are necessary when drafting a research question, what are they?

n this chapter, we have noted how businesses are dynamic and constantly looking to exploit new opportunities that involve changing the way they operate production. What might not have been a success for some firms does not mean to say that there are no other firms that will be able to benefit. This article shows how problems faced by one firm in making sufficient profits are not necessarily shared by other firms as the use of factor inputs is changed.    

Best Buy Fails to Break UK Market.

US electrical retailer, Best Buy, made an attempt to enter the UK electrical retail market in 2010. The retailer is known across the united states for its high-quality sales staff and discount prices and attempted to bring its business model to the crowded UK market which features the likes of Currys, Argos, Dixons, and Comet.

The plans to enter the UK market arose when Best Buy Inc. brought half of the Carphone Warehouse's retail interests. Plans were made to open up to 200 so-called 'Big-Box' stores throughout the UK within the first one opening in Thurrock, Essex in April 2010. However, facing strong competition a lack of brand recognition by UK consumers, and the rapid growth of online retailing from firms like Amazon, Best Buy found things difficult and by January 2012 a decision was made to close down its 11bricks and mortar retail operations following losses of around 62 million pounds.

The decision to close down was made after consideration was given to commit more capital to its operations in an attempt to secure the advantages of large-scale production - economies of scale. In the end, the cost of such an investment in relation to the expected benefits in a market which was challenging (given the economic situation in the UK, the income elasticity of demand for electrical goods in general, and the increasing use of online as the medium of choice for shoppers), meant that option was discounted.

The decision to close down operations will have been takin in the light of the expected costs of trying to maintain its presence on the high street and the future of the industry as a whole. it would not have been taken lightly as reports suggested closing down would cost Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse around 100 million pounds.

One option being considered was selling its stores to the UK's fourth-largest supermarket group by share, Morrisons. Morrisons was reported to have expressed interest in acquiring the stores, mostly in large out-of-town retail sites, for its Kiddicare brand of baby, infant, and small children's products such as toys, pushchairs, costs, and so on.

The reports caused interest in the markets and some surprise given the challenges that exist in that market for some of the reasons that Best Buy found life difficult. An increasing trend to purchase goods online and the economic climate had already seen retailers like Mothercare and its Early Learning Centre stores facing declining sales and profits. Kiddicare had been an almost exclusively online operation and so the decision by Morrisons to move into the bricks and mortar sector was seen as a high-risk move.

Questions:

1. For Morrisons, what is the difference between the short run and the long run in this case?

The answer I get are either general short run and long run or the answer would be for Best Buy as mentioned bellow. Please provide me the answer for the Morrison not Best Buy. Tell me For the Morrison the short run and long run difference considering the case study itself.

this answer that I got is not according to Morrison it is according to Best Buy:

The difference between short and long run according to Morrisons is

in short run, the Best Buy was confident to take over its business as it assumed that eah businesses have their own uniqueness in reaching its customers and brought half of the Carphone Warehouse's retail interests. but it didn't work well due to lack of brand recognition by UK consumers and not only that the other retailers were also growing tremendously like, Amazon(online store) and it faced loss.

In the long run, it decided to shut down its business but that might cause huge lose(100 Million pounds) so it decided to sell its stores to the UK's fourth-largest supermarket group by share, Morrisons and it decided to acquire the store.

Finally, it observed that the mortar sector was seen as a high-risk move as the whole world i undergoing the technological revolution.

Public health class:

Do you agree with the IOM's report (2002) that recommends adopting a population health approach that considers the multiple determinants of health within an ecological framework? Why/why not. (200 words)

The Company:

Telemarketing Incorporated (TI) is a service company with their primary business base in the Rocky Mountain region. TI is a service organization in the business of collecting and selling information for contracted clients.

Production Information:

TI made 5,221,782 calls in 2004 to households all over the Rocky Mountain region from their main telemarketing facility in Colorado Springs. There were a total of 330 working days in 2004, which TI conducted telemarketing calls. In 2004 TI completed, on average, over 15,800 calls a day.

TI’s main facility was designed to achieve a capacity level of between 17000-18000 calls a day (from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight). However, company analysis has shown that the best operation level (BOL) for TI is 17,600 calls a day. At the BOL level TI is able to achieve its lowest unit cost per call given several variables associated with the information collected and calling costs as contracted with clients.

TI has a company policy, which states, “Any one-month period where total calls exceed 500,000 the excess is considered service cushion or capacity cushion.” (Look at capacity cushion in this line of work along the line of a product-focused company that produces bottles, cars, computers or some other tangible product in excess of demand.) The company is compensated for these “cushion” periods at a rate of $10 per call over 500,000, with a cap of 11,500 over the 500,000.

The following is a monthly breakdown of TI’s service call rates for all of 2004. This information was obtained in its raw form and some normalizing of the data is required.

Table Information:

You’ll need to normalize Table 1 below before completing the fourteen (14) questions that follow.

Table 1 – TI’s 2004 Monthly/Daily Production Data (Requiring Normalization)

Month               Production Numbers   Number of Working Days During Month

January       15000 units/day       27 working days

February       15900 units/day       26 working days

March       419720 units/month            28 working days

April           16790 units/day       27 working days

May           504900 units/month   27 working days

June           17600 units/day       28 working days

July           391972 units/month   28 working days

August       12897units/day       29 working days

September       11569 units/day       27 working days

October       463681 units/month   29 working days

November       17689 units/day       27 working days

December       19000 units/day       27 working days

Total                                    330

Notes:

• When completing this problem a symmetrical curve for both economies and diseconomies of scale is assumed.

• Calculate capacity utilization rates as compared to the ideal BOL level.

Answer the Following Questions Based on the

Information Provided

Normalize data

Possible Points – There is a total of 20 possible.

1. Based on 2004 information what is TI’s annual design capacity production range (quantity)

2. What was its annual capacity utilization rate for 2004 as compared to the company’s BOL?

3. What would the company’s annual calls completed output be if it produced at its BOL for all of 2004 year?

4. Which are the second, third and fifth most underutilized months with regard to capacity utilization?

5. What is the capacity underutilization percentage for these three months (reference: Question 4)?

6. What three months did TI complete calls at the lowest per unit cost?

7. What three months did TI complete calls at the highest per unit cost?

8.     a) Was/were there any month/s were service or capacity    cushion applied?

       b) If so, what was/were the month/s?

       c) What was the cushion in calls (quantity) and capacity cushion percentage for the month or months in question?

9. Based on the completion of Question 8 and other information provided what was TI’s total “cushion” compensation for 2004 ( please show in total dollars)?

10. What month/s fall under the term - economies of scale, excluding    the BOL month/s should there be any?   

11.    a) Comparing the underutilized capacity of February with    September, which of these two months better utilized the capacity excluding the  

b) Which of these two months most likely had a higher per call rate cost for the company?

12.    a) Were there any months where the company achieved a BOL?   

b) What month/s?

       c) Respond to this statement “The BOL is not sustainable    because……………”

13. What was the cost of January’s underutilization performance (think along the lines of the BOL) if each unit not produced cost the company $15? (Think along the lines of what was produced and what could have been produced.)

14. If you were the operations manager and the growth profile forecast for 2005 reflected a 10% growth in the number of calls made over 2004, an 8% growth in 2006 over 2005 and a 7% growth in 2007 over 2006 what business strategies would you be considering for the company? Note: Do not exceed 1.5-pages in your discussion of this question. Single or 1½ spacing is fine. Do not double space your work on this final question.)

In its present state, IDEA 2004 has undergone several revisions since introduced as PL 92-142. As a group, discuss these revisions and their current impact on the educational system servicing SPED students now.