The 90 students in a statistics class are categorized by gender and by the year in school. The numbers are listed in the following table:

Test the null hypothesis that there is no association between the year in school and the gender using a 1% significance level. Be sure to specify the test statistic with degrees of freedom, the P-value or critical value, and your conclusion. Please no computer software answers! Thank you!

critique or respond to this persons disscussion on sex education------"the talk"

When it comes to sex education I think that both the school and the parents need to be involved. I think that it’s the schools job to make the teen aware of the consequences of sex such as STDs or pregnancy. And I think that they should be able to should what happens to most teens who have kids while still being in school. But that’s all I think the school should do, just make teens aware of the risks and the consequences that could happen. Now at home with the parent should be the same deal. By keeping the teen aware of the risk but, the parent or garden should go one step further and offer protection to the teen so that they can be prepare for when the time comes. I think by doing that and promoting that fact that we understand there going to have sex in school we can drop some of the pregnancy rates. That is 100% opinion though. STDs should again be handled with both the parents and with the school. The school can handle it by bringing speaker and showing videos of what actual happens when you have one of the STDs. And the parent again can continue that at home with strong visual aids and stories of people they know who had them. I think this will be a strong way of showing support to those individuals.

H&H Financial was founded in 1997 as a local insurance and investment consulting firm specializing in financial, estate, and retirement planning. The business started as a part-time consulting practice given Mr. Blake’s dissatisfaction with his full-time job working for a franchise office affiliated with a large insurance agency. Mr. Blake found that his agency’s focus on productivity and numbers precluded his ability to do what he really wanted to do for his clients: provide personalized service that they could trust. He wanted his clients to be faces, not names and numbers. He wanted to offer them the optimal products and services that would best fit their needs, not just the selling needs of a corporation hyping their latest product through their franchises.

Mr. Blake bid his time and learned “the ropes to skip and the ropes to know” about running an agency. He obtained several key financial and insurance licenses and professional certifications (CFP, CFA, CFT, CTEP, etc.) as well as financial product suppliers. When he had developed a sizable private client base, he opened H&H as an independent agency to replace his consulting practice.

The firm started with just Mr. Blake operating out of a cheap storefront, and he was quickly overwhelmed with the paperwork side of the business. Mr. Blake was great at selling and knew the product lines in and out, but he was not an expediter or comfortable with details.

Mr. Blake’s solution was to hire a part-time administrative assistant to handle phone calls, deal with foot traffic (what little there was), and do some light computer work. Times were not easy, and Mr. Blake squeaked by on a very limited income.

Early Success Leads to Growth

Mr. Blake’s formula for success (personalized service) quickly caught on, and he found that he needed full-time assistance in order to help handle phone calls, process policies, and assist with claims. His office expanded quickly, and he replaced his one part-timer with three full-time employees who buffered him from the mundane paperwork and day-to-day office duties. He remained the sole agent providing sales and expert advice and counseling while the staff provided his clients with all of the support needed (processing bills or claims, answering questions about policies, etc.). His office staff consisted of one office staff person from Mr. Blake’s old agency (Ms. Jane Sutton) and Ms. Johnson and Mr. Hayes (two “raw” college graduates: Jen Johnson and Kenneth Hayes). For the most part they all worked independent of Mr. Blake.

Although Mr. Blake never gave any of them titles, job descriptions, or formal authority, it was clear to everyone that Ms. Sutton was the informal leader of the office given her expertise and prior experience in an insurance office. All three employees became flexible generalists, part of a self-managed work team. Work was parceled out through volunteerism and cooperation. Mr. Blake was proud that his team operated so well without his input.

As the business grew, Mr. Blake realized that he would need to bring in new agents (consultants) to help him deal with the increasing flow of customers, and there was just no place to put them in his small back office. Mr. Blake and his team moved into a newly renovated office complex, which had more offices, a main office area that could hold more employees, and a separate waiting area for his clients.

Mr. Blake hired one financial planner and one insurance agent so as to provide more sales and technical expertise to his consulting team. The new associates worked out so well and his business grew so quickly that within three months, three new staff people (all recent college graduates) had to be hired to help Ms. Sutton, Ms. Johnson, and Mr. Hayes manage the additional workload. Debbie Matthews was one of the three new employees hired.

The Birth of Departments and Continued Growth

The addition of these three new employees altered the structure of the company. As the office manager, Ms. Sutton still managed her two “old rookies” but made each one a supervisor. Jen Johnson became in charge of supplier relations and managed one new employee while Kenneth Hayes ran client relations and managed Ms. Matthews and another new employee (see Figure 1).

Ms. Sutton felt this new structure was highly efficient since it allowed Ms. Johnson and Mr. Hayes the time to develop their own expertise and familiarity with their specific focal group. These new department managers would handle the day-to-day work routine of their own department with their new staff while Ms. Sutton served as coordinator and in-house expert—the answer person. This structure also made the assignment and training of new office personnel much easier since each employee was allocated to one of the two departments where their supervisor would then provide them with basic training within the department.

Mr. Blake was quite happy with Ms. Sutton’s work processes and procedures since it allowed him to concentrate on his clients and stay out of the office operations. He could now work with his other specialist consultants to help locate new clients as well as new products and services. This was often voiced by Mr. Blake as a critical operational strategy for continuing to grow the business.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF H&H FINANCIAL SERVICES, LLC

At the department level, Mr. Hayes and Ms. Johnson made the work environment fun, which Ms. Matthews greatly appreciated. Ms. Sutton, however, wanted the office to have a more professional demeanor since she felt that H&H was now an established firm with expert consultants on staff who also seemed to not appreciate the horseplay of the office workers. For Ms. Sutton, maintaining an expert image became everything, and therefore she went to great strides to minimize office antics (like wastebasket basketball) and excessive chatter. Mr. Hayes and Ms. Johnson were not happy with the new rules but went along with them since they spent most of their time in their own work areas and away from the back office where Ms. Sutton stayed and did most of her work. The change in rules did create tension between the newest employees (including Ms. Matthews) and Ms. Sutton. Ms. Matthews quickly learned that she could joke around with Mr. Hayes and Ms. Johnson when Ms. Sutton was out of sight but had to be on her best behavior when Ms. Sutton was around or when they went into the management territory area of the office.

The companywide informal monthly meetings with Mr. Blake, which happened early on in the firm’s history, became formal monthly meetings just with Ms. Sutton and all of her subordinates. The monthly meetings consisted of discussions of new products, services, clients, new procedures, and any outstanding problems that either department could not solve alone. These were open meetings, but rarely did anyone but Ms. Matthews raise questions, and these questions were always about work processes and procedures. Everyone else, including the supervisors, only spoke when Ms. Sutton spoke directly to them or asked very general questions about the growth plans of H&H.

With sustained success, the organization continued to grow, adding several more consultants and back office staff while keeping the same basic organizational structure and work flow. Mr. Blake once again needed new office space to contain his firm’s growing needs. Mr. Blake announced as part of his growth plan that he was conducting preliminary inquiries as to a possible “number two” who would handle the ever- growing functions of finance, accounting, and Human Resource Management—a job that Ms. Matthews quickly aspired to.

As H&H Grows, So Does Ms. Matthews’s Frustration

As a recent college graduate and single mother, Ms. Matthews was excited when she got the job working for H&H Financial as their Assistant Case Manager in the Client Relations Department. In her first month she quickly and eagerly learned all of her required duties and executed them to the best of her ability and therein received more and more demanding work.

In her second month when they moved to a much larger office, Ms. Matthews felt that she had real opportunities for advancement and promotion. She thought, “As the firm grows, so will I.” She felt that she had made an excellent choice in a very tough job market. She was aware of Mr. Blake’s preliminary search for an Assistant Manager and thought that after she finished her MBA she would be the perfect candidate once she had learned the ins and outs of the business.

Those dreams, however, quickly became a nightmare. Ms. Matthews found that after the first few months of working at H&H Financial, her learning curve came to a complete and sudden halt. Ms. Matthews realized that jobs were very compartmentalized, and the Office Manager Jane Sutton did not want the employees to learn anything more than the bare minimum of what their jobs in their own departments required of them.

Mr. Hayes, her immediate supervisor, was very helpful and supportive about the work in his department, but when Ms. Matthews asked questions about interdepartmental and organizational processes, he deflected most of her questions, saying, “I’m really not sure why we do things this way; check with Ms. Sutton.” Ms. Sutton’s response to Ms. Matthews’s questions was always the same: “I’ll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it . . . just do your job, do it well, and you’ll get along fine.” Ms. Matthews thought that perhaps with a few more months on the job Ms. Sutton would learn to trust her more; but she couldn’t have been more wrong.

During her third monthly office meeting, Ms. Matthews became increasingly irate because her questions were still being answered by Ms. Sutton with “You don’t need to know that” or “You will never deal with that situation” or, worse, “That’s not your concern.” Ms. Matthews found that these were the answers to even the simplest of questions dealing with the most essential parts of the business outside of her department. This approach made it difficult for Ms. Matthews to properly do her job because she did not see how her job related to the other jobs in the firm.

Ms. Matthews thought there was a clear lack of communication between the owner, Ms. Sutton, the two supervisors, and the lower-level employees and that this created slowdowns and gaps that bottlenecked the flow of the entire work process of the business. She also noticed that not only was her job compromised by this lack of knowledge, but also, in her opinion, was everybody else’s. All of her questions regarding this matter were not only disregarded by Ms. Sutton but discouraged as well. Ms. Matthews thought that for such a small but fast-growing company, the operations would run much smoother if all of the employees were aware and informed about each other’s jobs for they were all dependent and interrelated. Overall Ms. Matthews felt that Ms. Sutton was overly controlling and excessively formal.

After several attempts to learn more about her job, Ms. Matthews was starting to lose motivation. She felt like a robot that was programmed to do the same thing day in and day out, and it was starting to affect the quality of her work. She was surprised and disappointed to learn that she no longer cared about her performance, her job, and the firm.

In the meantime, the new large sitting area required the firm to hire a receptionist who then handled walk-ins and who would also orient the new clients to all of the services provided by H&H. The receptionist would also, on occasion, administer customer questionnaires that dealt with customer service satisfaction as well as desired additional services. Ms. Matthews was sorely tempted to take this job because the receptionist reported directly to Mr. Blake; Ms. Sutton would be out of her reporting loop. She quickly let go of the notion, though, since she would be devolving in terms of her career and personal development, not growing.

This is when she realized, after being with the firm for nearly a year, that by staying at H&H she was starting to compromise her work ethic—her values of always striving to achieve and working to the best of one’s ability. Ms. Matthews also found out that she was not the only one feeling less motivated and interested. Both Ms. Johnson and Mr. Hayes confided to her that they felt the same way but never said anything to Ms. Sutton or Mr. Blake.

With all this negativity surrounding her work life, the decision to leave was still a difficult one to make. The company had some great employees in her department that made it fun to come to work every day. Since everybody was about the same age, people got along well. Ms. Matthews also liked the relatively laid-back environment in the department and the flexibility of hours the job offered, especially considering that she was now in graduate school. However, Ms. Matthews was not sure if that was enough; after 11 months of working at H&H she wondered if it was worth it for her to continue working there. On the one hand, Ms. Matthews knew that she had no future at the company. She was pursuing her MBA, and she now knew that that would not make a difference for her future at H&H. Ms. Matthews wondered, “What is the point in spending money and time to get a graduate degree if it is never going to be appreciated or add value to my career at H&H? Should I stay at a place where there was no chance for growth and no value given my curiosity and desire to learn? At the same time, is it a bad decision to try to change jobs right now considering the downturned economic climate, my need for a flexible schedule for graduate school, and my financial responsibilities? Should I stay simply for the money and my flexible schedule?” Ms. Matthews realized that she had an important decision to make, and she had to make it soon before she became completely unmotivated.

Suggest how the firm could redesign Ms. Matthews’s job so it would increase her work motivation. Ms. Matthews may decide to stay at H&H if a more flexible work environment is created for her. Describe some alternative ways her job could be redesigned for greater flexibility.

The Cicero Italian Restaurant was founded by Anthony Tanaglia in 1947 in Cicero, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He built the business with his family from a small pizza and pasta restaurant to 10 locations in the Chicago area. Michael Tanaglia, Anthony’s grandson, moved to Arizona to escape the cold Chicago winters and opened a restaurant in the Chandler area. The Arizona restaurant gained momentum thanks to the Chicago-style pizza and quality Italian dishes. Anthony decided to expand operations in Arizona, adding a second location in Glendale. The Glendale location was managed by Michael’s son Tony.

After a year of operations, Michael had some concerns with the Glendale location. Michael does not want his family’s business to fail, and he wants his grandfather’s legacy to last. Michael also understands how important an operational evaluation can be to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a business. Michael confides his concerns to you and asks if you will do him a favor and use your quantitative analytic expertise to help him evaluate the Glendale location’s operations in three key areas: customer satisfaction, customer forecasting, and staff scheduling. As his friend, you agree – though his offer to treat you to the large pizza of your choice did not hurt.

First Evaluation

The first evaluation required an understanding of the factors that contribute to customer satisfaction and spending. Refer to the data Michael provided in the Excel spreadsheet “Benchmark Assignment - Data Analysis Case Study Data.” Identify which variables are significant to predicting overall satisfaction. Develop and interpret the prediction equation and the coefficient of determination. Based upon the data in this evaluation, what areas should Michael and Tony Tanaglia focus on to improve customer satisfaction?

Second Evaluation

The second evaluation requires a forecast of customers based upon demand. Michael reviewed data for the previous 11 months to better forecast restaurant customer volume.

Which method should, the business owner use to yield the lowest amount of error and what would be the forecast for December? Refer to the Excel spreadsheet “Benchmark Assignment - Data Analysis Case Study Template.”

Third Evaluation

The third evaluation concerns staff scheduling. Some of the customers have complained that service is slow. The restaurant is open from 11:00 a.m. to midnight every day of the week. Tony divided the workday into five shifts. The table below shows the minimum number of workers needed during the five shifts of time into which the workday is divided.

The owners must find the right number of staff to report at each start time to ensure that there is sufficient coverage. The organization is trying to keep costs low and balance the number of staff with the size of the restaurant, so the total number of workers is constrained to 15.

1-Based on these factors, recommend the staff for each shift to accommodate the minimum requirements for customer service.

2-Refer to the Excel spreadsheet “Benchmark Assignment - Data Analysis Case Study Linear Programming Template.”

3-Linear, integer, and mixed integer programming with constraints for times with slacks

4-Regression

5-Forecasting/ 4 period moving average/exponential smoothing/weighting moving average

1. ShopSmart’s International Growth Strategy

ShopSmart, founded by in 1919 by Nick Smart, is a British multinational grocery and merchandise retailer. It is the largest grocery retailer in the United Kingdom, with a 28% share of the local market and the second largest after Walmart measured in revenue. In 2017, ShopSmart had sales of more than £62 billion ($70 billion US dollars), more than 480,000 employees and 6,553 stores in 13 countries.

In its home market of the United Kingdom, the company’s strengths are reputed to come from strong competencies in marketing and store site selection, logistics and inventory management and its own label product offerings. By the early 1990s, these competencies had already given the company a leading position in the United Kingdom. ShopSmart was generating strong cash flows and senior managers had to decide how to use that cash. One strategy they settled n was international expansion.

As managers looked at international markets, they soon concluded that the best opportunities were not in established markets in North America and Western Europe where strong competitors already existed but in emerging markets of Eastern Europe and Asia, where there were strong underlying growth trends. ShopSmart’s first international foray was into Hungary in 1995 where it acquired Globals Stores, a state-owned grocery chain. By 2017, ShopSmart was the market leader in Hungary accounting for 1% of the whole economy of Hungary.

Next, ShopSmart acquired 31 stores in Poland from Stavia Limited. The following year, in 1996, ShopSmart added 13 stores that it purchased from Kmart in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The next year, ShopSmart moved to purchase stores in the Republic of Ireland.

ShopSmart’s Asian expansion begun in 1998 when it moved into Thailand. In 1999, the company entered South Korea when it partnered with Samsung to develop a chain of hypermarkets. This was followed by entry into Taiwan in 2000, Malaysia in 2002, Japan in 2003 and China in 2004.

The move into China came after three years of careful research and discussions with potential partners. Like many other western companies, ShopSmart was attracted to the Chinese market by its large size and rapid growth. In the end, ShopSmart settled on a 50-50 joint venture with Hymall, a hypermarket chain that is controlled by Ting Hsin, which has been operating in China for six years. In 2014, ShopSmaart combined its 131 stores in China in a joint venture with the state-run China Resources Enterprise and its nearly 3,000 stores. ShopSmart owned 20% of the joint venture. As a result of these moves, by 2017, ShopSmart generated sales of about $21 billion outside the United Kingdom. The addition of international stores has helped make ShopSmart the second largest company in the global grocery market behind only Walmart. By 2017, all its foreign ventures were making money.  

(Source: Adapted from Hill, C.W.L. & Hult, G.T.M., (2019), International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace, 12th Edition, McGraw Hill Education)

1. Examine two reasons why ShopSmart’s initial international expansion focused on emerging markets rather than competing with established companies in the more advanced markets of North America and Western Europe.

2. Discuss two disadvantages that ShopSmart encountered as a first mover into these emerging markets.

3. ShopSmart’s entry strategy into the Eastern European countries was through acquisition. Discuss three disadvantages that the company is likely to encounter as a result of this entry strategy

4. Identify ShopSmart’s strategic entry into the Asian market and discuss two benefits that the company sought to achieve with this strategy

Consultex, Inc., was founded in 2015 as a small financial consulting business. The company had done reasonably well in 2015–2017 but started noticing its cash dwindle early in 2018. In January 2018, Consultex had paid $15,000 to purchase land and repaid $3,000 principal on an existing promissory note. In March, the company paid $1,800 cash for dividends and $1,000 to repurchase and eliminate Consultex stock that had previously been issued for $1,000. To improve its cash position, Consultex borrowed $4,800 by signing a new promissory note in May and also issued stock to a new private investor for $11,800 cash. Year-end comparative balance sheets and income statements are presented below.

Prepare a properly formatted Statement of Cash Flows for Consultex, Inc., for the year ended October 31, 2018 (using the indirect method). (Amounts to be deducted should be indicated with a minus sign.)

Consultex, Inc. was founded in 2012 as a small financial consulting business. The company had done reasonably well in 2012–2014 but started noticing its cash dwindle early in 2015. In January 2015, Consultex had paid $20,500 to purchase land and repaid $2,000 principal on an existing promissory note. In March, the company paid $2,900 cash for dividends and $1,000 to repurchase and eliminate Consultex stock that had previously been issued for $1,000. To improve its cash position, Consultex borrowed $5,900 by signing a new promissory note in May and also issued stock to a new private investor for $12,900 cash. Year-end comparative balance sheets and income statements are presented below. CONSULTEX, INC. Balance Sheet October 31 2015 2014 Assets Cash $ 9,570 $ 15,800 Accounts Receivable 15,800 12,900 Prepaid Rent 2,450 3,900 Land 30,500 10,000 Total Assets $ 58,320 $ 42,600 Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity Salaries and Wages Payable $ 2,450 $ 3,900 Income Taxes Payable 1,000 1,000 Notes Payable (long-term) 16,800 12,900 Common Stock 21,800 9,900 Retained Earnings 16,270 14,900 Total Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity $ 58,320 $ 42,600 CONSULTEX, INC. Income Statement For the Year Ended October 31 2015 2014 Sales Revenue Salaries and Wages Expense $ 162,500 $ 165,500 Rent Expense 98,900 97,900 Prepaid Rent 36,900 30,900 Utilities Expenses 20,600 20,900 Income before Income Tax Expense $ 6,100 $ 15,800 Income Tax Expense 1,830 4,740 Net Income 4,270 11,060 Required: Prepare a properly formatted Statement of Cash Flows for Consultex, Inc. for the year ended October 31, 2015 (using the indirect method). (Amounts to be deducted should be indicated with a minus sign.)