Six months into the project, the client reviews the progress and issues a stop-work order. The main issues identified during their review: There were different expectations about the complexity of graphics in course development and course materials. There were different opinions about the level of marketing required (marketing a course versus the entire academy, no post-course promos, etc.). There were issues with instructors. There were instances where instructors had rescheduled on multiple occasions or cancelled. There were concerns about the subject matter experts (SMEs). SMEs had been hired outside of the budgeted amount. There were also concerns about the SMEs not providing the level of technical writing expertise required, which resulted in having to hire additional technical writers. DRA PS addressed some of these concerns by removing the videotaping requirement during the analysis phase and removing the repeat courses that were going to be offered during the final contract year. By eliminating videotaping and repeat courses, the remaining courses to be developed and presented were stretched over the rest of the contract (2 ½ years). This means that instead of developing and offering the 15 courses using two teams in a staggered fashion over two years, DRA PS must reduce staff. Currently there are three senior instructional designers, six graphic artists, three document specialists, six technical writers, three subject matter experts, and two editors assigned to the teams. Your subject matter experts are consultants under contract. You don’t want to lose your staff, but you may have no choice but to let some go. 12 © 2008 Society for Human Resource Management. Marcia R. Gibson, Ed.D. Some of the employees resign when they hear the news. Three instructional designers quit and the remaining three are searching for new jobs. All your technical writers have résumés out to potential employers. Your senior graphics lead, a person you count on, has a job offer with another organization. What will you do to maintain a staff to meet the contractual changes and ensure a quality product? What can you do to retain your employees and instill confidence that the program is stable?

Answer the following:

1. What are your primary retention issues? What challenges do the existing recruitment and retention policies and guidelines create?

2. What can be done to retain existing employees? How will you motivate the current team?

3. How will you go about replacing the ones who have left (positions that are still needed)?

4. Create a communication plan to alleviate any further issues regarding retention and recruitment. How will you implement your strategy?

Scenario: You have been hired as an IT consultant by an entrepreneur starting a small advertising company called MilleniAds. As a start-up, your client’s company is relatively small and has a limited budget. There are only 10 employees, including a few creative directors, graphic designers, sales staff, a financial accountant, and an office administrator, with the entrepreneur acting as CEO. The current IT budget cannot exceed $25,000 and ideally should come in as far under that number as possible. MilleniAds will produce customized sales flyers, brochures, and other branded items, such as letterhead and business cards, that apply a youthful, fresh perspective targeting millennial demographics. Therefore, the company needs the ability to store and manipulate digital images and to produce physical copies of their products for their clients. The CEO wants to keep track of inventory, sales, and expenses digitally, but she does not anticipate having very complex records for the first year. She projects having only a dozen or so accounts but hopes to scale up in the coming years. It would be ideal to have a simple and user-friendly system for sharing information and files between employees. Many of the employees are millennials themselves who have indicated that their current desktop PCs are limiting their capabilities and that they prefer using their phones and other mobile devices for their professional and personal responsibilities. Two of the 10 employees will operate primarily outside of the office, soliciting business from regional firms, and they will need to access company information while on the road, in their home offices, and at customer sites. Beyond the specific information given above, you have the ability to fill in the gaps with assumptions or additional details that will make your final project unique and meaningful to you. If you have any questions, reach out to your instructor for guidance.

II. Hardware Components A. Examine the business’s issues to determine specific hardware requirements. Based on these issues, what are the major categories and components of hardware that should be considered? Identify each of the applicable requirements (hard drive storage, video cards, etc.), being sure to cite specific examples wherever appropriate. B. Then, compare and contrast the various options for meeting the requirements. Be sure to cite specific evidence from the component specification fact sheets to support your evaluation. What are their functional strengths and weaknesses? How do they compare in terms of cost and maintainability? C. Compose a final list detailing all of your specific hardware recommendations for your client. Be sure to logically justify your proposal as the best possible choice for meeting the business requirements.

Part B Matching Pairs

Complete all of the following 20 matching pairs in the table below by placing the letter of the correct description in the answer space beside the matching term.

One mark for each correct answer. Twenty marks total.

For years Evo has supported athletic teams, but only recently did the Seattle-based e-commerce company launch a formal work team. Like many organizations, the online retailer of snowboard, ski, skate, and wake gear used team metaphors loosely to describe anything involving random groups of employees. But Evo got an education on real work teams when the company formed a team for its creative services employees.

The new group, which is comprised of a photographer, designer, and copy writer, is responsible for producing Evo’s magazine ads, promotions, and web site content. Although the individuals’ roles are not generally interchangeable, photographer Tre Dauenhauer might dabble in design, graphic designer Pubs One may write a few lines of copy, and copywriter Sunny Fenton might snap photos on occasion. Most team projects require a combination of eye-grabbing photos, clever words, and a compelling design, and the teammates are committed to a common purpose.

When the creative services team launched, group members moved into their own space, away from Evo’s chaotic, open-plan work areas. Being together every day enabled the team members to become better acquainted and move through the “forming” stage more quickly. But even with close quarters, Dauenhauer, One, and Fenton needed help navigating the conflict-ridden, storming stage of their team’s development. Before joining the team, they functioned individually and weren’t used to sharing power or making decisions as a group. To help the members learn to work together, Nathan Decker, director of e-commerce, became the team leader. As a skilled negotiator, Decker makes sure his talented trio steers clear of dysfunction and delivers the goods. Any time the team finishes a project, Decker brings members together for a post-mortem discussion—a method of reviewing what was learned, and how things could be executed differently. It’s here that the team members identify new routines and rituals to incorporate into their process for future improvement.

Due to Decker’s leadership and skillful negotiation of conflicts, members of the creative services team are learning how to communicate in ways never before possible. Having a skilled leader to facilitate work processes has helped build team cohesiveness and deliver a collective output that is greater than the sum of its parts.

1. What organizational dilemma was hurting Evo’s creative output, and how did management resolve the problem using teams?

2.   How might Nathan Decker lead effectively as the team starts “norming”?

3.   Can you relate the group performance factors of composition, size, norms, cohesiveness, and informal leadership to Evo?

Consolidation several years subsequent to date of acquisition—Equity method
Assume a parent company acquired a subsidiary on January 1, 2017. The purchase price was $820,000 in excess of the subsidiary’s book value of Stockholders’ Equity on the acquisition date, and that excess was assigned to the following [A] assets:

The [A] assets with definite useful lives have been depreciated or amortized as part of the parent’s preconsolidation equity method accounting. The Goodwill asset has been tested annually for impairment, and has not been found to be impaired. The financial statements of the parent and its subsidiary for the year ended December 31, 2019, are as follows:

a. Compute the Equity Investment balance as of January 1, 2019.

$Answer

b. Show the computation to yield the $120,000 equity income reported by the parent for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Do not use negative signs with your answers.

c. Show the computation to yield the $1,800,000 Equity Investment account balance reported by the parent at December 31, 2019.

Do not use negative signs with your answers.

d. Prepare the consolidation entries for the year ended December 31, 2019.

e. Prepare the consolidated spreadsheet for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Use negative signs with answers in the Consolidated column for Cost of goods sold, Operating expenses and Dividends.

*This was the problem as is given to me :(

An economist with a major bank wants to learn, quantitatively, how much spending on luxury goods and services can be explained based on consumers’ perception about the current state of the economy and what do they expect in the near future (6 months ahead).  Consumers, of all income and wealth classes, were surveyed.  Every year, 1500 consumers were interviewed.  The bank having all of the data from the 1500 consumers interviewed every year, computed the average level of consumer confidence (an index ranging from 0 to 100, 100 being absolutely optimistic) and computed the average dollar amount spent on luxuries annually.  Below is the data shown for the last 24 years.

Date                 X                     Y (in thousands of dollars)

1994                79.1                 55.6

1995                79                    54.8

1996                80.2                 55.4

1997                80.5                 55.9

1998                81.2                 56.4

1999                80.8                 57.3

2000                81.2                 57

2001                80.7                 57.5

2002                80.3                 56.9

2003                79.4                 55.8

2004                78.6                 56.1

2005                78.3                 55.7

2006                78.3                 55.7

2007                77.8                 55

2008                77.7                 54.4

2009                77.6                 54

2010                77.6                 56

2011                78.5                 56.7

2012                78.3                 56.3

2013                78.5                 57.2

2014                78.9                 57.8

2015                79.8                 58.7

2016                80.4                 59.3

2017                80.7                 59.9

Questions:

1. Measure the strength of the linear association between consumers’ moods and the dollar amounts spent on luxury items.
2. Construct the linear regression model for the dollar amount spent on luxury goods and services.
3. Explain how you would interpret the slope and the intercept of the regression model.
4. How well does our model fit the data? Explain what it means.
5. Do you think that measuring the level of optimism is a good predictor for trying to forecast future spending on luxury items?  Explain why or why not.
6. How would you be able to improve on the model?  You must provide a minimum of two specific ways to go about improving the model.
7. If the economist expects that, by year’s end, the average level of consumer confidence will hit 81.5 points, how much will be expected by consumers to spend on luxury items?

The more costly and time consuming it is to export and import, the more difficult it is for local companies to be competitive and to reach international markets. As part of an initial investigation exploring foreign markets entry, 10 countries were selected from each of four global regions. The cost associated with importing a standardized cargo of goods by sea transport in these countries (in US$ per container) is stored in ForeignMarket2.

a) At the 0.05 level of significance, is there evidence of a difference in the mean cost of importing accross the four global regions?

b) If appropriate, determine which global regions differ in mean cost of importing.

d) Which global region(s) should you consider for foreign market entry? Explain.

Is the number of tornadoes increasing? In the last homework, data on the number of tornadoes in the United States between 1953 and 2014 were analyzed to see if there was a linear trend over time. Some argue that it’s not the number of tornadoes increasing over time, but rather the probability of sighting them because there are more people living in the United States. Let’s investigate this by including the U.S. census count (in thousands) as an additional explanatory variable (data in EX11-24TWISTER.csv).

Perform a multiple regression using both year and census count as explanatory variables. Write down the fitted model. Are year and census count respectively significant in the MLR model?

Part II: A Case Study in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy - Chapter 13: What Debts Are Dischargeable? In re Ryan - Read the case study below concerning Chapter 13 bankruptcy and answer the three questions at the end of the case study. Be certain to clearly identify your answers to all three questions and be complete in your responses. 389 B.R. 710 9th Cir. BAP, (Idaho, 2008) On July 13, 1995, Ryan was convicted of possession of an unregistered firearm under 26 U.S.C. §5861(d) in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska. Ryan was sentenced to fifty-seven months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Ryan was ordered to pay a fine of $7,500…, costs of prosecution in the amount of $83,420, and a special assessment of $50.00. Ryan served his sentence. He also paid the $7,500 fine. The district court, following an appellate mandate, ultimately eliminated the restitution obligation. On April 25, 2003, Ryan filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under chapter 7 in the District of Idaho. He received his chapter 7 discharge on August 11, 2003. Shortly thereafter, Ryan filed a case under chapter 13, listing as his only obligation the amount of unpaid costs of prosecution owed to the United States (“Government”).… Ryan completed payments under the plan, and an “Order of Discharge” was entered on October 5, 2006. The chapter 13 trustee’s final report reflected that the Government received $2,774.89 from payments made by Ryan under his plan, but a balance of $77,088.34 on the Government’s costs of prosecution claim remained unpaid. Ryan then renewed his request for determination of dischargeability. The bankruptcy court held that the unpaid portion of the Government’s claim for costs of prosecution was excepted from discharge by § 1328(a)(3). Ryan appealed. The Court concluded that the exception to the discharge included in [Chapter 13] for “restitution, or a criminal fine, included in a sentence on the debtor’s conviction of a crime” does not cover costs of prosecution included in such a sentence, and REVERSED the bankruptcy court’s judgment.

Case Questions 3. Why did the court decide that Ryan’s obligation to pay “costs of prosecution” was not precluded by the limits on Chapter 13 bankruptcies imposed by Congress?