1 Explain gene flow?  Does gene flow lead to adaptive evolution?

2 Explain genetic drift / how does gene pool affect in small populations and preservation of rare species ?  

3 In what way can founder effect lead to genetic drift in a population?

4 Explain founder effect how gene pool change ?

5 Explain directional, disruptive and stabilizing of natural selection

6 What is a balanced polymorphism? and explain the heterozygote advantage in terms of sickle cell anemia.

WRITTEN CASE ANALYSIS SECTIONS At a minimum, the following sections are to be included in each written case analysis. Full discussions, explanations, reasoning, and support are to be included as to demonstrate to the reader the student’s complete understanding, knowledge, and competencies of all areas of business.

Complete SWOT Analysis

Competitors –direct and indirect

CHRISTOPOHER A. BARTLETT

Microsoft: Competing on Talent (A)

In the summer of 1999, a front-page Wall Street Journal article was attracting attention on the

Redmond campus. Under the headline “As Microsoft Matures, Some Top Talent Chooses to Go Off

Line,” the article reported: “Tired of grueling deadlines, frustrated by the bureaucracy that has

accompanied Microsoft’s explosive growth, or lured away by the boom in high-tech start-ups, dozens

of the company’s most capable leaders, all around 40, have opted out—at least temporarily . . .”i (See

Exhibit 1 for the article’s list of senior level departures.)

Steve Ballmer, the company’s recently appointed president and COO, was quoted as saying that

some of the departures were voluntary and some were not, opening opportunities for fresher,

smarter replacements. “We have a bench that is very deep,” he said. “We have people who are fired

up—driven—to lead the next generation.”ii Yet despite the positive outlook, Ballmer clearly

recognized that Microsoft had to change or adapt some of the human resource practices that had

allowed it to assemble and retain what CEO Bill Gates proudly called “the best team of software

professionals the world has ever seen.” Just six weeks before the WSJ article was published, Ballmer

had announced a package of changes that sweetened salaries, allowed more frequent promotions,

and softened some of the pressures that had long been part of the” hard-core” Microsoft culture.

Still, there were some who wondered if the rumblings in the senior management ranks reported

by the WSJ were not the signs of larger looming problems for Microsoft. It was a question taken very

seriously by Gates and Ballmer who understood very well that the company’s enormous success was

largely due to its ability to recruit, motivate, and retain extraordinary talent.

the company’s growth led to changes in the way such policies were managed in the 1990s—and

sometimes to changes in the policies themselves. (See Exhibit 2 for Microsoft’s growth profile.)

Recruiting: Attracting the Best and Brightest

Gates had long recognized that it took exceptional people to write outstanding software. His

preference for hiring extremely intelligent, not necessarily experienced, new college graduates dated

from Microsoft’s start-up days, when he and co-founder Paul Allen recruited the brightest people

they knew from school—their “smart friends.” In subsequent years, the importance of recruiting well was constantly reinforced by Gates, who considered helping his managers hire the best of all possible

candidates as his greatest accomplishment. “We’re in the intellectual property business,” he told

them. “It’s the effectiveness of our developers that determines our success.” Underlining the

importance of hiring and retaining superior talent, in 1992 Gates acknowledged: “Take our 20 best

people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft will become an unimportant company.”iii

For Gates, acquired knowledge was less important than “smarts”—the ability to think creatively;

and experience was less important than ambition—the drive to get things done. Above all, however,

he wanted to use recruiting to continually raise the bar. “I’d have to say my best business decisions

have had to do with picking people,” he said. “Deciding to go into business with Paul Allen is

probably at the top of the list, and subsequently, hiring a friend—Steve Ballmer—who has been my

primary business partner ever since.” As Fortune magazine once observed, “Microsoft has been led

by a man widely recognized as a genius in his own right, who has had the foresight to recognize the

genius in others.”iv Almost from the day he was hired as assistant to the president in 1980, one of Steve Ballmer’s

primary responsibilities was to act as recruiting coordinator. It was an assignment he particularly

relished. According to one senior manager, “Steve’s mantra was, ‘We want people who are smart,

who work hard, and who get things done.’ That simple mantra is something that people still talk

about today.” And once the smartest, most driven were identified, Ballmer and his team were

relentless in getting them on board. “There’s a standing policy here,” said Ballmer, “whenever you

meet a kick-ass guy, get him. . . . There are some people you meet only once in a lifetime. So why

screw around?” In Fortune’s assessment, “The deliberate way in which [Gates] has fashioned an

organization that prizes smart people is the single most important, and the most consistently

overlooked aspect of Microsoft’s success.”v

Although the need for experienced managers led the company to recruit some key people from

other companies, in the early days Microsoft’s favorite recruiting grounds were elite educational

institutions, particularly Harvard, Yale, MIT, Carnegie-Melon, Stanford, and a few highly targeted

others. As growth increased recruiting needs, the net spread wider, eventually targeting 15

universities in the United States, four in Canada, and six in Japan. Microsoft recruiters made visits to

each of these schools in search of the most brilliant, driven students—“once-in-a-lifetime” people—

paying little attention to prior experience. Indeed the company preferred people who didn’t have to

unlearn different company values, work habits, or technological approaches.

Before being hired, however, every candidate had to survive an intense interview process that

many found quite harrowing. Each candidate was interviewed by at least 3, and sometimes up to 10,

Microsoft employees. During the interview, the candidates were tested more on their thought

processes, problem-solving abilities, and work habits than on specific knowledge or experience. And

because developers played such an important role in Microsoft—writing the lines of code that were

Microsoft products—their recruiting process was particularly rigorous.

Technical interviews typically focused on programming problems that candidates were expected

to answer by writing code. Some managers posed scenarios with key information missing to see if

the candidate would ask for data or just move straight to a solution. Then they might throw in an

oddball question like, “How many times does the average person use the word ‘the’ in a day?” meant

to test the candidate’s deductive reasoning, creative problem solving, and composure. If a candidate

gave such questions 30 seconds of thought and said they didn’t know, the interview was effectively

over. If they were incapable of creative problem solving, they were not an appropriate candidate.

Next, an unfamiliar but practical problem—for example, describe the perfect TV remote control—

might be thrown in to see how the candidates broke down the problem, how simple or complex they

made the solution, and if that solution solved customer needs.

As soon as the interview was over, each interviewer would send e-mail to all other interviewers,

starting with the words “Hire” or “No Hire,” followed by specific feedback and suggestions for

follow-up. There was no “gray area”—a good candidate who just cleared the bar was a “No Hire.”

Based on earlier e-mails, people interviewing later in the afternoon would refine their questions to

drill down in areas where the earlier interviewers thought the candidate was weak. The purpose of

the interviews was to push the candidates until they failed, to get a full understanding of both their

strengths and their limitations. (See Exhibit 3 for an interview feedback email.)

After all the input was in, the hiring decision had to pass two screens. If the reviews were

favorable overall, a final, end-of-the-day interview with the candidate’s prospective manager was

scheduled. Based on his or her own impressions and the comments from other people in the group,

the prospective manager then made the hire/no hire recommendation. But to assure that only top

candidates were hired, a so-called “as appropriate” interviewer was also involved in the interviewing

process. A senior manager explained:

Very often, the “as appropriate” interviewer is a person who is outside the hiring group, a

person really solidly grounded in Microsoft culture and committed to making sure that we hire

only those who are going to be good Microsoft people, not just good people for specific jobs.

That person has veto power, which puts a system of checks and balances in, because the hiring

manager may feel a lot of pressure to fill a job, while the “as appropriate” interviewer doesn’t.

Microsoft’s tight control on headcount further reinforced the pressure to resist settling for the

merely satisfactory candidate. Even in the early days, when the company was growing extremely

rapidly, Gates and Ballmer insisted on hiring fewer employees than were actually required to carry

out the work. The internal code for this philosophy was “n minus 1,” where n was the number of

people really needed. Said one senior HR manager:

[Beyond hiring smart, driven people] the second principle Steve Ballmer was preaching was

that the default decision on a candidate is “no-hire.” In other words, unless you can identify a

clear reason why we should hire this person, we should not hire him or her. . . . That principle

has been really important in keeping the bar high and our selection ratio very low.

The company’s credo was that an adequate but not outstanding new employee was worse than a

disastrous appointment. “If you have somebody who’s mediocre, who just sort of gets by on the

job,” Gates explained to Microsoft managers, “then we’re in big trouble.” The “big trouble” Gates

saw was that, while poor performers were quickly weeded out, a mediocre employee might continue

to occupy a place that could be filled by someone brilliant.

1. Cash point Ltd prepares quarterly budget as part of the budgetary control system. During the last quarter ending 31^st March 2020 the following information is accumulated concerning operations for the next quarter ending 30^th June 2020.

1. Sales which are all on credit will amount to Kshs 400,000 in April 2020 the same level as in February and March 2020, increasing at 10% per month for the next six months and thereafter at 5%
2. Sales credit terms are strictly 30 days after-sales. Past experience shows that this policy is effective in 75% of cases. Of the remainder, 20% will pay in subsequent month and 5% never pay up until after 180 days.
3. Inventories are maintained at equivalent of 15 days sales. On 31^st March 2020 the inventory level is estimated at Kshs125,000.
4. Goods are bought and paid for within 30 days. During March 2020, merchandise purchases amounted to Kshs 250,000
5. The unit selling price is Kshs 100 with a profit margin of 40% on sales.
6. The cash balance on 31^st March 2020 is Kshs 87,800.
7. Projected payment for expenses and other items are as follows

8. Other payments are to be made as follows:

• Half yearly rent at the rate of Kshs 8,000 per month will be paid in April and the next instalment in October 2020.
• Income tax amounting to Kshs 20,000 will be paid in June 2020 being installment tax for 2020.
• Some computer equipment will be acquired in April 2020 but paid for in May 2020 at a price of Ksh 90,000

Required

A cash budget for the three months April, May, and June 2020

Make your original posting of ten interview questions with a brief introductory statement that you would make to your client (for example, “Hello Mrs. ____, let’s start out our analysis……etc).

You have complete leeway as to the questions themselves but make sure they’re relevant to a new project of allowing customers to opt-in on their website with their email address, and that they would get you started on your analysis.

Assume you plan to have a child 10 years from now. You expect that your child will enroll in a university at age 18 and graduate in 5 years. You want to have enough money once your child starts university to pay tuition of $75,000 from the account at the beginning of each year. You expect your child to receive a scholarship of $25,000 (paid in one lump sum) when they start university to put toward tuition. While your child is in university, the APR will be 8% compounded annually. If you can earn an APR of 12% compounded quarterly between now and when your child starts university how much total money would need to set aside today?

• On October 1, 2020, Philly Company purchased inventory from a German supplier for 80,000 Euros due on January 31, 2021.
• Simultaneously, Philly entered into a forward contract for 80,000 Euros for delivery on January 31, 2020.
• Payment was made to the foreign supplier on 1/31/2021.
• Spot rates on October 1, December 31, and January 31, were $1.62, $1.51, and $1.45, respectively.
• Forward rates on October 1 and December 31 were $1.33 and $1.39 respectively.

Required: Prepare all journal entries related to the above transactions on October 1, 2020, December 31, 2020, and January 31, 2021.

For the scenarios discussed below, use supply and demand curves and a graph to analyze what will happen to both price and quantity in equilibrium given the information available below. Graphs MUST be half a page each. When it is impossible to pin down the direction of the effect, discuss what is more likely in your opinion and why. Make sure to differentiate between movements of curves and movements on curves. For example, you could say something like this: “the supply curve moves to the right. As a result, price decreases, and quantity supplied (and demanded) in equilibrium increases”

1. You are the CEO of American Airlines. Your market research people inform you that Southwest is about to enter the Northeastern US market, where it does not currently operate. Analyze the market for flights in the Northeast.
2. You are the CEO of Philip Morris. The FDA announces that cigarettes are unhealthy. Analyze the market for cigarettes. What could you do to increase profitability given the news?
3. You are the CEO of Toyota. Your engineers have just developed a new robot that reduced the costs involved with manufacturing a new car by 10%. The robot is not available to your competitors. Analyze the car sales market. Remember to differentiate between your supply and supply by other firms and show how each is affected as well as what happened to total quantity, price, and your market share. Hint – remember that market supply is the sum of your supply and your competitors’ supply.
4. You are the CEO of Coca-cola. The FDA introduces a $2 per meal tax on fast-food (but not on drinks). Analyze the market for your products. It is the fast food sellers who are obliged to pay the tax to the state.
5. You are the CEO of Coca-cola. The price of sugar increases. Analyze the results in both the regular Coke and Diet-Coke markets.

the human resources department in BCC university want to hire for Fall 2020, 10 new instructors. You are requested to create job analysis for 2 positions, 1 for Business Instructor and 1 for Engineering Instructor. You need to include the following:

1- Job description for each position. (40 pts)

A job description is a written statement of what a jobholder does, how it is done, and why

2- Job specification for each. (40 pts)

The job specification states the minimum qualification that an incumbent must possess to perform a given job successfully.

3- Job Evaluation for each (20 pts)

specifies a minimum value (compensation) of each job in the organization

E6-17 (LO 5)  Siren Company builds custom fishing lures for sporting goods stores. In its first year of operations, 2020, the company incurred the following costs.

Siren Company sells the fishing lures for $25. During 2020, the company sold 80,000 lures and produced 90,000 lures.

Instructions:

a.   Assuming the company uses variable costing, calculate Siren's manufacturing cost per unit for 2020.

b. Prepare a variable costing income statement for 2020.

c. Assuming the company uses absorption costing, calculate Siren's manufacturing cost per unit for 2020.

d. Prepare an absorption costing income statement for 2020.