Language is C# (i've got some code but it seems to not run correctly, would love a new take)
Create an Employee class with five fields: first name, last name, workID, yearStartedWked, and initSalary. It includes constructor(s) and properties to initialize values for all fields. Create an interface, SalaryCalculate, class that includes two functions: first,CalcYearWorked() function, it takes one parameter (currentyear) and calculates the number of year the worker has been working. The second function, CalcCurSalary() function that calculates the current year salary. Create a Worker classes that is derived from Employee and SalaryCalculate class. In Worker class, it includes two field, nYearWked and curSalary, and constructor(s). It defines the CalcYearWorked() function using (current year – yearStartedWked) and save it in the nYearWked variable. It also defines the CalcCurSalary() function that calculates the current year salary by using initial salary with 3% yearly increment. Create a Manager class that is derived from Worker class. In Manager class, it includes one field: yearPromo and constructor(s). Itincludes a CalcCurSalary function that calculate the current year salary by overriding the base class function using initial salary with 5% yearly increment plus 10% bonus. The manager’s salary calculates in two parts. It calculates as a worker before the year promoted and as a manager after the promotion. Write an application that reads the workers and managers information from files (“worker.txt” and “manager.txt”) and then creates the dynamic arrays of objects. Prompt the user for current year and display the workers’ and managers’ current information in separate groups: first and last name, ID, the year he/she has been working, and current salary.
Worker.txt
5 Hector Alcoser A001231 1999 24000 Anna Alaniz A001232 2001 34000 Lydia Bean A001233 2002 30000 Jorge Botello A001234 2005 40000 Pablo Gonzalez A001235 2007 35000
Manager.txt
3 Sam Reza M000411 1995 51000 2005 Jose Perez M000412 1998 55000 2002 Rachel Pena M000413 2000 48000 2010
What i Have:
/// Employee.cs ///
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace MyNamespace
{
public class Employee
{
private string firstName;
public string FirstName
{
get { return firstName; }
set { firstName = value; }
}
private string lastName;
public string LastName
{
get { return lastName; }
set { lastName = value; }
}
private int wordId;
public int WordId
{
get { return wordId; }
set { wordId = value; }
}
private int yearStartedWked;
public int YearStartedWked
{
get { return yearStartedWked; }
set { yearStartedWked = value; }
}
private double initSalary;
public double InitSalary
{
get { return initSalary; }
set { initSalary = value; }
}
public Employee()
{
firstName = "";
lastName = "";
wordId = 0;
yearStartedWked = 0;
initSalary = 0;
}
public Employee(string fN, string lN, int id, int yearStarted,
double salary)
{
firstName = fN;
lastName = lN;
wordId = id;
yearStartedWked = yearStarted;
initSalary = salary;
}
}
}
/// SalaryCalculate.cs ///
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace MyNamespace
{
public interface SalaryCalculate
{
void CalcYearWorked(int currentYear);
void CalcCurSalary(int currentYear);
}
}
/// Worker.cs ///
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace MyNamespace
{
public class Worker : Employee, SalaryCalculate
{
private int nYearWked;
public int NYearWked
{
get { return nYearWked; }
set { nYearWked = value; }
}
private double curSalary;
public double CurSalary
{
get { return curSalary; }
set { curSalary = value; }
}
public Worker(string fN, string lN, int id, int yearStarted,
double salary) : base(fN, lN, id, yearStarted, salary)
{
}
public void CalcYearWorked(int currentYear)
{
nYearWked = currentYear - YearStartedWked;
}
public void CalcCurSalary(int currentYear)
{
double salary = InitSalary;
for (int i = YearStartedWked; i <= currentYear; ++i)
{
salary *= 1.03;
}
CurSalary = salary;
}
}
}
/// Manager.cs ///
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace MyNamespace
{
public class Manager : Worker
{
private int yearPromo;
public int YearPromo
{
get { return yearPromo; }
set { yearPromo = value; }
}
public Manager(string fN, string lN, int id, int yearStarted,
double salary, int yearPromo)
: base(fN, lN, id, yearStarted, salary)
{
this.yearPromo = yearPromo;
}
public void CalcCurSalary(int currentYear)
{
double salary = InitSalary;
for (int i = YearStartedWked; i <= currentYear; ++i)
{
if (i < yearPromo)
salary *= 1.03;
else
salary *= 1.05;
}
CurSalary = salary * 1.2; // 20% bonus
}
}
}
/// Main.cs ///
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;
namespace MyNamespace
{
class EmployeeMain
{
public static void Main()
{
List<Worker> employees = new List<Worker>();
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(new
FileStream("worker.txt", FileMode.Open)))
{
string line;
while((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
string[] words = line.Split(' ');
employees.Add(new Worker(words[0], words[1],
Convert.ToInt32(words[2]), Convert.ToInt32(words[3]),
Convert.ToDouble(words[4])));
}
}
List<Manager> managers = new List<Manager>();
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(new
FileStream("manager.txt", FileMode.Open)))
{
string line;
while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
string[] words = line.Split(' ');
managers.Add(new Manager(words[0], words[1],
Convert.ToInt32(words[2]), Convert.ToInt32(words[3]),
Convert.ToDouble(words[4]), Convert.ToInt32(words[5])));
}
}
Console.Write("Enter current year: ");
int year = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());
for (int i = 0; i < employees.Count; ++i)
{
employees[i].CalcYearWorked(year);
employees[i].CalcCurSalary(year);
Console.WriteLine("Worker: " + employees[i].LastName + ", " +
employees[i].FirstName + "'s salary is: " + employees[i].CurSalary
+ " and worked a total of " + employees[i].NYearWked + "
years.");
}
for (int i = 0; i < managers.Count; ++i)
{
managers[i].CalcYearWorked(year);
managers[i].CalcCurSalary(year);
Console.WriteLine("Manager: " + managers[i].LastName + ", " +
managers[i].FirstName + "'s salary is: " + managers[i].CurSalary +
" and worked a total of " + managers[i].NYearWked + "
years.");
}
}
}
}
HELP:
The error that is constantly showing up is the index is out of bounds of the array with the source being LINE 21 in the EmployeeMain Class.
In: Computer Science
Case 3
In the 1980s and early 1990s, U.S. domestic automobile manufacturers, especially General Motors, were in turmoil. Dire headlines in business newspapers and magazines predicted a gloomy future: "Can GM Remodel Itself?" "May We Help You Kick the Tires," "Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors," "GM Is Spreading the Gospel According to Toyota," "War, Recession, Gas Hikes . . . GM's Turnaround Will Have to Wait," "General Motors: What Went Wrong?" and "Can GM Fix Itself?" The list is endless. According to John F. Smith, Jr., chief executive officer and president of General Motors, "All of the well-publicized difficulties we faced in the past few years were in a sense the overdue wake-up call. GM's success had made it easy to ignore the significance of change and the signs of potential future problems." To try to solve its problems and increase competitiveness, in 1984 GM created a new division that focused on larger luxury cars-the Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Cadillacs. The result was that by 1987 all the cars produced by this division began to look alike and buyers grew wary of GM's products. Cadillac buyers did not know why they were paying more for a car that looked just like GM's other less expensive models, like Buicks, and sales of Cadillacs plummeted. Realizing their mistake, GM's top management reorganized the company to give control of engineering and design back to the separate divisions. The Cadillac division benefited the most from this restructuring. To turn the division around, Cadillac was granted its own engineering team in 1988 and moved quickly to create a new identity for the line. Once again in control of its decision making, Cadillac managers lengthened the cars two inches, totally restyled them, increased advertising, and used direct mail to promote test drives. By 1990 Cadillac had gross profit margins of 40 to 50 percent, compared to 30 percent for the rest of GM's divisions. The Cadillac division had become very successful, launching redesigned models in 1991, 1992, and 1993. Their sales have been growing steadily, especially as the rising value of the yen has made Japanese luxury cars like the Lexus and Infiniti relatively expensive. In 1990 GM's Cadillac division won the prestigious 1990 Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. According to David A. Garvin and Robert and Jane Cizik, professors of business administration at the Harvard Business School, the award "has become the most important catalyst for transforming American business." In 1992 GM introduced the very successful Cadillac Seville STS and successfully marketed the model against Toyota's Lexus and Germany's Mercedes. Even after all the improvements, however, the plant that produced the Cadillac Seville STS still ran at only 50 percent capacity. But Cadillac continued its leadership of the luxury car market for the forty-fifth year with 1993 sales again exceeding 200,000 units. What follows is the summary of remarks made by John Grettenberger, vice president and general manager of GM's Cadillac Motor Division, to the shareholders who attended the annual meeting on May 20, 1994. Our Cadillac team has come a long way, and we are now stronger than ever. We have been spending the last six years transforming our product to prepare for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Our quality and reliability have been recognized by customers and industry analysts. Recently Cadillac was named number one in vehicle dependability by J. D. Power & Associates, the industry analysts. It is the first time that a domestic car has topped that list. In a five-year ownership rating, Cadillac holds the number-1 ranking among the luxury cars. Cadillac was the only company in the industry to redesign its entire product line. Eight all-new models hit the market in just three years. The 1992 Seville and the Eldorado were first of the new generation to reach dealers, and 1992 Seville STS won the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Motor Trend Car of the Year. In the following year, GM introduced the Northstar system to the Seville Touring Sedan and the Eldorado Touring Coupe, and the car won another fifteen editorial awards. The Northstar system has established Cadillac's tradition for innovation and technological leadership. Customers know the Northstar system by name and use it as a benchmark when comparison shopping. The year 1995 marked the eightieth anniversary of the first Cadillac V8, and eighty years later it is still setting the industry standards in power-train technology. Cadillac's world-class vehicle systems are the key to the sales success of the Seville and the Eldorado, and the model year sales have improved over 110 percent between 1991 and 1993. Continued improvement is expected for the 1994 model year. The Cadillac division has successfully attracted new buyers to Cadillac. The division made major inroads with young, affluent buyers who tend to prefer imports. The average age of buyers is decreasing. These young buyers, both male and female, are import-oriented and prefer sporty, contemporary cars with a feel-of-the-road handling. Two important new groups of Cadillac buyers are affluent women and African Americans. Cadillac is setting new standards for the capability, competency, and overall balance of the large luxury sedan with the introduction of the all-new 1994 Cadillac DeVille Concours. The DeVille Concours is a fully equipped, six-passenger sedan with Cadillac's exclusive Northstar system. The 270-horsepower Northstar V8 engine establishes the DeVille Concours as the most powerful front-wheel-drive, six-passenger sedan in the world. The DeVille Concours is newly designed, with comprehensive climate controls, precision instrumentation, ergonomically designed leather seating areas, and an all-new, eleven-speaker Delco Electronics Active Audio System. The base price? $37,990.
Questions:
In: Economics
General Requirements:
• You should create your programs with good programming style and
form using proper blank spaces, indentation and braces to make your
code easy to read and understand;
• You should create identifiers with sensible names;
• You should make comments to describe your code segments where they are necessary for readers to understand what your code intends to achieve.
• Logical structures and statements are properly used for specific purposes.
Objectives
This assignment requires you to write a program in Java that
calculates the day of week and the week of month for a given date,
as well as to print the calendar of the month where the given date
exists. Please note, you are not allowed to use any date based
classes predefined in Java JDK.
Background
For a given date, we can use the Gregorian calendar to find the
corresponding the day of the week, and the week of the month. For
example, May 25 2019 is a Saturday and locates in the fourth week
of May 2019. In general, we can use the following formula (Zeller’s
congruence) to calculate the day of a week for any given date after
October 15 1582.
where
• h is the day of the week (0 = Saturday, 1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday,
3=Tuesday, 4=Wednesday, 5=Thursday, 6 = Friday)
• q is the day of the month
• m is the month (3 = March, 4 = April, 5 = May, 6=June, 7=July, 8=August, 9=September, 10=October, 11=November, 12=December, 13=January, 14 = February)
• K is the year of the century (year mod 100).
• J is the zero-based century (year/100). For example, the
zero-based centuries for 1995 and 2000 are 19 and 20
respectively.
For example, For 1 January 2000, the date would be treated as the
13th month of 1999, so the values would be: q=1, m=13, K=99, J=19,
so the formula is
h = (1+[13*(13+1)/5]+99+[99/4]+[19/4]+5*19) mod 7 =
(1+[182/5]+99+[99/4]+[19/4]+95) mod 7 =
(1+[36.4]+99+[24.75]+[4.75]+95) mod 7 = (1+36+99+24+4+95) mod 7 = 0
= Saturday
However, for 1 March 2000, the date is treated as the 3rd month of
2000, so the values become q=1, m=3, K=00, J=20, so the formula
is
h = (1+[13*(3+1)/5]+00+[00/4]+[20/4]+5*20] mod 7 =
(1+[10.4]+0+0+5+100) mod 7 = (1+10+5+100) mod 7 = 4 =
Wednesday
Tasks You will create one program called MyCalendar.java. You
should first implement the MyCalendar and MyDate classes from the
following UML class diagrams. You can add extra attributes and
methods, but the attributes and methods shown in the UML diagrams
can’t be modified.
MyCalendar - myDate: MyDate - day: Day + Main(String[] args) +
MyCalendar(MyDate myDate) + dayOfWeek(): Day + weekOfMonth(): int +
printCalendar(): void
• Day is an enumeration data type which contains the days of the
week, i.e., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday. • MyCalendar(MyDate myDate)is the construction method
of the class MyCalendar. • dayOfWeek() method will return the day
of the week for myDate. • weekOfMonth() method will return the week
of the month for myDate. • printCalendar() method will print the
calendar of the month for myDate. • Main(String[] args) method will
read a given date from the command line, the format of the given
date is dd/mm/yyyy. You can assume the date input format is always
correct, but the input date may be invalid. For example, 31/02/2017
is not a valid date. If the input date is not a valid date, the
program will ask user to input another valid date through keyboard.
This process will be repeated until a valid date is input by the
user. The valid input date will be used to create the object
(myDate) of class MyDate, then the object (myCalendar) of class
MyCalendar. The dayOfWeek() method, weekOfMonth() method, and
printCalendar() method of myCalendar object will be called to
display the day of the week, the week of the month, and the
calendar of the month for the input date by the user.
MyDate
- day: int - month: int - year: int + MyDate(int day, int month,
int year) + getDay(): int + getMonth(): int + getYear(): int +
isDateValid(): boolean
• MyDate(int day, int month, int year) is the constructor of the
class MyDate. • getDay() method returns the day of myDate object. •
getMonth() method returns the month of myDate object. • getYear()
method returns the year of myDate object. • isDateValid() method
returns a Boolean value, i.e., a true when the myDate object is
valid, and a false otherwise (notes: January, March, May, July,
August, October, December has 31 days. April, June, September,
November has 30 days. February has 29 days in a leap year, and 28
days in a common year.).
Your program must have the exact same output as the following
example. Example of the program output:
java MyCalendar 29/02/2019 29/02/2019 in not a valid date, please
re-input a valid date: 25/05/2019 25/05/2019 is a Saturday and
located in the fourth week of May 2019 The calendar of May 2019
is:
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
(Note: Each column indicates a day and the column width are fixed
to 3 characters. The distance between two adjacent columns is fixed
to three characters as well.)
In: Computer Science
This is a javascript assignment/study guide for an exam. There are 25 steps that are outlined by // comments...
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
body {font-family:Comic Sans MS;}
</style>
<script language="javascript">
<!--
function fred()
{
//
// There are 25 questions related to the HTML objects shown on the
page
// They are all in the form named "twocities".
//
// Each part of the assignment below instructs you to manipulate or
examine
// the value of the HTML elements and place an answer in one
// of twenty-five span blocks that appear on this page.
//
// e.g., for span block named "ans1" you will say:
//
// ans1.innerHTML = "some string";
//
//
// the questions 1 through 15 below use the string value from the
textarea named "begins"
// stored in a variable named "beg" like this:
beg=document.twocities.begins.value;
len_beg=beg.length;
//
// *** First remove all the periods, commas and hyphens from the
"beg" string before you answer questions 1 through 15
//
//
// ***(1) how many words are the string named "beg"? (words not
characters)
// *** show the answer in the span block with id = "ans1"
//
//
// ***(2) store words in the string "beg" in an array.
// *** show the first and last elements of the array in the span
block with id="ans2"
//
//
// ***(3) show each word in the array produced in (2) above on one
line separated by commas
// *** in the span block with id="ans3"
//
//
// ***(4) create a new string using the value of "beg" where all
the characters are capitalized
// *** show the new string in the span block with id="ans4"
//
//
// ***(5) count the number of times the letters "a", "e", "i", "o",
"u" appear in the string "beg"
// *** show these 5 counts on one line separated by commas in the
span block with id="ans5"
//
//
// ***(6) show the location of each occurence of the character "e"
in the string "beg"
// *** on one line separated by commas in the span block with
id="ans6"
//
//
// ***(7) show the location where each word begins in the string
named "beg"
// *** show the answers on one line separated by commas in the span
block with id="ans7"
//
//
// ***(8) place the words in the string "beg" in a table with a one
pixel border,
// *** with a gray backgound. Use only ten cells per row. Empty
cells should contain
// *** the word "null". Show the table in the span block with
id="ans8"
//
//
// ***(9) replace each occurence of the blank character in "beg"
with the character "*"
// *** show the result in the span block with id="ans9"
//
//
// ***(10) sort the words in array created in (2) into alphabetical
order
// *** show the results in the span block with id="ans10" on a
single line
//
//
// ***(11) show the ASCII character number of each character in the
string "beg"
// *** separate each value with a comma and place the result on a
single line in the span block
// *** with id="ans11"
//
//
// ***(12) count the number of words in the string "beg" that have
2,3,4,5 or 6 characters
// *** show these five counts on a single line separated by commas
in the span block with id="ans12"
//
//
// ***(13) create a new string that contains the words in the
string "beg" in reverse order
// *** show this new string on a single line in the span block with
id="ans13"
//
//
// ***(14) create a new string that contains the characters in the
string "beg" in all capital letters
// *** show this new string on a single line in the span block with
id="ans14"
//
//
// ***(15) store the number of times the letter "a" appears in the
string "beg" in 1st location;
// *** store the number of times the letter "b" appears in the
string "beg" in 2nd location;
// *** store the number of times the letter "c" appears in the
string "beg" in 3rd location;
// *** store the number of times the letter "d" appears in the
string "beg" in 4th location;
// *** etc.
// *** show the 26 counts on one line separated by commas in the
span block with id="ans15"
//
//
// ***(16) Examine the radio buttons and produce a list of the
three "values" of the radios buttons separated by commas on a
single line
// in the span block with id="ans16"
//
// ***(17) Show the value of the radio button which is checked and
its elements number separated by a comma on a line by itself
// *** in the span block with id="ans17"
//
//
// *** (18) Show the elements number and value of the six
checkboxes in a six-row, two-column table with a 2 pixel
border
// *** in the span block with id="ans18"
//
//
// ***(19) Examine the checkboxes and produce a list of the
"values" of the checkboxes that are checked. Separated the values
by commas on a single line
//
//
// ***(20) Show the values of all the options in the select (drop
down menu) named "book3chapters" in an fifteen-column one row table
with a 2 pixel border border
// *** in the span block with id="ans20"
//
//
// ***(21) Show the value of the select (drop down menu) named
"book3chapters" which is selected and its selectedIndex value
separated by a comma on a line by itself
// *** in the span block with id="ans21"
//
//
// *** Retrieve the value of the textarea named "beg" again and
store it in a variable named "beg2", DO NOT REMOVE ANY
CHARACTERS
// *** You will use this string for questions 22 and 23
//
// *** (22) Show the text phrases that are separated by commas in
the string "beg2" . Each phrase should be on a line by
itself.
// *** Place the result in the span block with id="ans22"
//
//
// *** (23) Capitalize the first letter of each phrase from #22
bove (phrases are separated by commas) in the original string
"beg2".
// *** Place each phrase should be on a line by itself.
// *** Place the result in the span block with id="ans23"
//
//
// *** (24) Make the third radio button ("The Track of The Storm")
checked.
// *** Make ALL six of the checkboxes be checked.
// *** Make the select named "book3chapters" (the drop down menu)
show "Fifty-Two" as the selection
// *** Place the string "DONE!" in the span block with
id="ans24"
//
// *** (25) Place the famous last line of the book (without quotes)
in the span block with id="ans25"
//
}
-->
</script>
</head>
<body>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border="2" width="100%">
<TR><TD width="120" valign="middle" align="center"
bgColor="#bbbbbb"><center><IMG align="top" alt="capt
webb" border=2 src="captsm.gif"><BR><span
STYLE="font-size:8px">Capt. Horatio T.P.
Webb</span></center></TD>
<TD valign="middle" bgColor="#bbbbbb" colSpan="2"
align="center"><center><B>ASSIGNMENT #1
Javascript<br>MIS 3371 Transaction Processing
I<BR>Parks -- Spring 2016</B><BR><span
STYLE="font-size:10px">Version 1 -- Last Updated 9:00 AM
1/12/2016</span></center></TD></TR></table></center>
The text used in this assignment is from Charles Dicken's novel "A
Tale of Two Cities" written in 1859<br>Read it at the free
online book site:<br>Project Gutenberg: <a
href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/98/pg98.txt">http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/98/pg98.txt</a>
<form name="twocities">
<p>All the HTML elements below are in a form named
"twocities". View "Source" to see the 25 questions.
<p>
<table border="1" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr><td valign="top">1. The textarea below is named
<b>begins</b><br>It contains the opening text of
the book (form elements number 0)
<br><textarea style="margin:6px;" name="begins" rows="10"
cols="80">It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way --
in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being
received,
for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison
only.</textarea></td>
<td valign="top">2. The novel "A Tale of Two Cities" is
divided into 3 books named below.<br>
There are 3 radio buttons below are named:
<b>books</b><br>(form elements 1 →
3).
<br>Their values are: "1", "2" and "3"
<p><input type="radio" name="books" value="1" checked>
Recalled To Life
<br><input type="radio" name="books" value="2"> The
Golden Thread
<br><input type="radio" name="books" value="3"> The
Track of The Storm
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td valign="top">3. The titles of the six chapters
of the first book are shown below.
<br>The 6 checkboxes below are named: <b>c1</b>
→ <b>c6</b> (form elements 4 → 9).
<br>
Their values are the same as the text that appear to the right of
each checkbox.
<br> <input type="checkbox" name="c1" value="The
Period">The Period
<br> <input type="checkbox" name="c2" value="The
Mail" checked>The Mail
<br> <input type="checkbox" name="c3" value="The
Night Shadows">The Night Shadows
<br> <input type="checkbox" name="c4" value="The
Prepartion" checked>The Preparation
<br> <input type="checkbox" name="c5" value="The
Wine Shop">The Wine-shop
<br> <input type="checkbox" name="c6" value="The
Shoemaker" checked>The Shoemaker</b>
</td><td valign="top">4. The select (drop down menu)
below is named <b>book3chapters</b>
<br>(form elements number 10).
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Die Out For Ever
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In: Computer Science
In: Accounting
On September 28, 1994, Disney officials announced the end of the Disney’s America project in Prince William County, Virginia. Two representatives from Disney’s America flew to Richmond to brief Virginia’s Governor George Allen on the decision. The same day, Prince William County officials were notified as well. Peter S. Rummell, president of Disney Design and Development Company, issued a public statement, saying in part: We remain convinced that a park that celebrates America and an exploration of our heritage is a great idea, and we will continue to work to make it a reality. However, we recognize that there are those who have been concerned about the possible impact of our park on historic sites in this unique area, and we have always tried to be sensitive to the issue. While we do not agree with all their concerns, we are seeking a new location so that we can move the process forward. . . . Despite our confidence that we would eventually win the necessary approvals, it has become clear that we could not say when the park would be able to open—or even when we could break ground. The controversy over building in Prince William County has diverted attention and resources from the creative development of the park. Implicit in our vision for the park is the hope that it will be a source of pride and unity for all Americans. We certainly cannot let a particular site undermine that goal by becoming a source of divisiveness.1 Rummell stated that Disney would try to build an American history theme park elsewhere in Virginia, but that a site had not yet been selected. Many Virginia politicians were disappointed, but some tried to remain optimistic. Governor George Allen’s office issued a statement: “I’m committed to a Disney theme park in Virginia and the jobs that will be created thereby. I’m pleased that the Walt Disney Company shares that commitment.”2 Robert S. Skunda, Allen’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade, commented to reporters, “I think they see the likelihood of long-term damage to their image. No company likes to be publicly bashed when they feel as though they are doing something that is worthwhile. . . . The thing that a company values most is its reputation. It has to. Without a reputation a company cannot continue to exist. I think those things drove Disney away from the Haymarket site.”3 Prince William County executive James Mullen said the county would be forced to go through a time of self-examination following Disney’s exit. He stated, “Mainly I’m disappointed for the people in the community who supported the project and for our staff, who put so much time in on this. Disney certainly hasn’t helped our marketing effort. They’ve made it very difficult for us to overcome the perception that this is a place (where) you can’t do a big project without a hassle.”4 Other local politicians were not as generous in their remarks about Disney. State Senator Joseph Benedetti of Richmond stated, “Promises were made that they’d stay, come hell or high water. Whatever they do is going to have to be written in blood next time.”5 State Senator Charles Colgan of Prince William County stated, “I think they broke faith with us.”6 James McPherson, the Princeton history professor and one of Disney’s most vocal opponents, stated, “I’m very happy. It’s good news.”7 McPherson said that he would be happy to help Disney find another location in Virginia that would be less significant historically. He stated, “Some of us would be quite happy to advise them. This has never been an attempt to bash Disney.”8 Over the next few weeks, scores of municipalities wrote newspaper articles and petitioned Disney directly, stating that they would welcome a Disney park in their areas. Since the decision to halt plans for Disney’s America in Virginia, observers have tried to make sense in retrospect of the park’s failure. In 1998, Eisner issued a memoir, Work in Progress. In a chapter devoted to the Disney’s America project,9 Eisner freely and openly admits that Disney made many missteps, while still arguing for the vision he had for the theme park. Among the missteps Eisner identified were • Naming the project “Disney’s America,” which implied the company’s ownership of U.S. history. He said, “That was unfortunate because we were never interested in a park that merely reflected a Disneyesque view of American history.” • Failing to “recognized how deeply people often feel about maintaining their communities just as they are. . . . There may have been no collection of people [the Piedmont Environmental Council] in America better equipped to lobby a cause, whether with Congress or government agencies or through the media.” • Being “blindsided” by the issue of proximity to the Manassas Battlefield Park. Jody Powell’s advice had been that the distance of three miles would be great enough to avoid controversy. • Believing Disney “could announce the project on [its] own timetable. Our focus on secrecy in land acquisition had prevented us from even briefing, much less lobbying, the leading politicians in the state about our plans as they evolved. The consequence was that we lost the opportunity to develop crucial allies and nurture goodwill.” • Revealing to the public “a plan that looked relatively complete [which] opened ourselves up to every critic with different ideas about what a park based on American history should and should not include.” • Making emotional statements that critics latched on to, including being shocked about not being taken around on people’s shoulders and complaining that history in school was boring. Eisner reflects: “My comments made me sound not just smug and arrogant but like something of a Philistine. . . . Looking back, I realize how much my brief moment of intemperance undermined our cause.” To balance his story, Eisner also recollects his well-meaning intentions for the theme park, describing his motives as the patriotic and socially responsible vision of a son of immigrants. He wanted visiting Disney’s America to be as multimedia intensive and deeply moving an experience as the U.S. Holocaust Museum. In retrospect, Eisner explained “We saw ourselves as storytellers first and foremost,” who needed advice from historical experts to portray American history “knowledgeably and responsibly.” Working with the advisory group of “openminded” historians who critiqued comparable exhibits in Orlando was particularly eye-opening: “In our original plan, for example, we’d envisioned recreating a classic twentieth-century steel. mill and then putting a roller-coaster through it. To do that, we began to understand, could trivialize and even demean the attempt to portray the steel mill realistically.” Of his critics, Eisner complains, “By any reasonable measure, this attack on Disney’s America was dramatically overstated. . . . Much like negative advertising in a political campaign, [their] incendiary claims were effective in influencing public opinion and putting us further on the defensive. I was suddenly the captain of Exxon’s Valdez. . . . By the summer of 1994, opposing Disney’s America had become a fashionable cause célèbre in the media centers of New York City and Washington, D.C. . . . Fairness seemed to have given way to polemics.” In the end, Eisner explains that financial projections made in late August 1994 “showed that rather than the profit we’d previously projected for Disney’s America, we were now facing the prospect of substantial losses.” On the cost side, Eisner attributed the losses to the current and future expense of dealing with opponents’ legal challenges, to the carrying costs caused by a projected two-year delay before breaking ground, and to the modifications to the original plans that increased costs by almost 40 percent. On the revenue side, the Disney’s America team now projected a lower price point for tickets and a shorter season at eight months down from nine. According to Eisner, “Now that a dozen members of our team had spent a year living in the towns adjacent to our site, they had a different view. An eight-month season for the park seemed more realistic.” The revised figures, coupled with the psychic impact of Wells’ death, Eisner’s by-pass surgery, and Katzenburg’s departure led to the decision to abandon plans for Disney’s America. As Eisner concludes, I still believed that it was possible to get Disney’s America built, but the question now was at what cost. . . . [A]fter two weeks of soul-searching, we finally agreed that it wasn’t fair to subject the company to more trauma. The issue was no longer who was right or wrong. We had lost the perception game. Largely through our own missteps, the Walt Disney Company had been effectively portrayed as an enemy of American history and a plunderer of sacred ground. The revised economic projections took the last bit of wind out of our sails. The cost of moving forward on Disney’s America, we reluctantly concluded, finally outweighed the potential gain. Others interpreted the situation as one in which Eisner himself needed better handling. In The Keys to the Kingdom, former Washington Post reporter Kim Masters says Eisner’s dealings with the media had suffered since late 1992 when he lost his chief of corporate communications, Erwin Okun, to cancer. “Okun had a shrewd yet avuncular style that worked well with the press,” wrote Masters. Journalist Peter Boyer said of Okun “‘He somehow pushed that button in all of us that said Disney is an honest, good company that meant well. . . . He packaged [Eisner] well without seeming to do so.’” “Eisner said he relied on Okun ‘to counsel, review, berate, encourage, and protect me,’” Masters writes. Okun’s successor, John Dreyer, however, “came from the theme parks. He lacked Okun’s cordiality and treated the press with suspicion bordering on hostility. At the Washington Post, he quickly alienated the very reporters whose coverage of Disney’s America would prove most influential.”10 Pat Scanlon, formerly an Imagineer, speculated that Wells might have salvaged the Disney’s America project. “There wasn’t anybody at a high enough level to keep Michael in his box, [Scanlon] says. “Michael was making public remarks that weren’t helpful. Michael sounded a bit like an abrasive Hollywood producer coming to town. Frank would have shaped public relations because he would have made Michael more aware. Frank was the consummate diplomat.”11 Whatever the cause, Nick Kotz, a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council and author of the editorial in the Los Angeles Times, observed this about the effects of the Disney’s America theme park controversy: “Undoubtedly Disney had internal reasons for the decision to strike its tent on the Piedmont battlefield. But it had also faced the danger of a Pyrrhic victory. In all probability, it could have prevailed and built its theme park, but it would have suffered serious and perhaps permanent value to its reputation.”12 Despite claims by Eisner and Disney officials to the contrary, as of the writing of this case, no further plans have been announced for a Disney’s America theme park.
Discuss and Anlysis the Case Study.
In: Operations Management
L.B. and her husband, come to the clinic, saying they want to become pregnant. L.B. is 29 years old and a self-employed photographer. J.B. is 31 years old and a dispatcher with a local oil and gas company. They have been married for 4 years and have been trying to become pregnant for just over 2 years. L.B. has not been pregnant previously; J.B. says he has never gotten a girl pregnant “that he knows of.” 1. Is this couple infertile? Defend your response. 2. What type of infertility does the couple have, primary or secondary? 3. What are the common causes of male infertility? 4. What are the common causes of female infertility? 5. Describe the reproductive and sexual history you need to obtain from the couple. 6. In addition to performing a general physical examination, what lab tests do you expect the provider to order? Chart View General Assessment L.B. J.B. 29 years old 31 years old BMI 26.1 BMI 27.4 Reproductive structures normal Slightly irregular menses with a cycle of 28-35 days No problems with erection or ejaculation Nonsmoker; nondrinker Nonsmoker; drinks 1-2 alcoholic beverages weekly Both report their spouse has been their only sexual partner for the past 6 years. They engage in intercourse an average of 2 to 3 times per week and deny any sexual problems. L.B. had been using oral contraceptive pills for about 4 years prior to their attempting to conceive. She says her menses were regular before using the oral contraceptives, but once she stopped using them, regular menses did not resume. Both deny any history of the urinary tract and sexually transmitted infections. Their general physical assessments are remarkable except for their BMIs. Neither engages in any regular physical exercise. The provider orders an ultrasound for L.B. and lab testing for both. L.B. is to begin performing basal body temperature (BBT) charting in conjunction with using an ovulation kit. 7. J.B. needs a semen analysis. What instructions will give you him about specimen collection? Select all that apply. a. Keep the container in an insulated bag with ice. b. Bring the specimen to the office within 8 hours. c. Place the specimen in a clean container for transport. d. He can collect the specimen in a sterile, nonlubricated condom. e. He should not have sex or ejaculate for 2 to 5 days before the procedure. 8. What information is obtained from a semen analysis? 9. The provider orders follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol, and progesterone levels for L.B.; a luteinizing hormone (LH) level for J.B.; and TSH levels for both. When will you schedule these tests? 10. What is the purpose of BBT charting? 11. What teaching will you provide L.B. on how to perform BBT charting? 12. Outline the teaching you will provide L.B. on how to use an ovulation kit. 13. Because lifestyle and sexual practices can affect fertility, what do you encourage the couple to do to enhance their ability to conceive? Select all that apply. a. Relax in a hot tub daily before going to bed. b. Avoid the use of artificial lubricants during sex. c. Have them drink alcohol before sex to help relax. d. Eat a healthy diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. e. Use strategies that are usually helpful in reducing stress. f. Engage in moderate exercise for 30 minutes, 3 to 4 times per week. 14. As you are finishing the appointment, L.B. begins to cry out and says, “I can’t believe this is happening to us when all of my friends are just popping out babies.” How do you respond? Chart View (Fill in the empty boxes with the appropriate information) Laboratory Results L.B. Normal Results J.B. Normal Results Color of Vacutainer Used to Obtain Sample Progesterone low Testosterone normal Estradiol normal LH normal FSH normal TSH normal Seminal parameters normal Pelvic ultrasound normal J.B.’s semen analysis reveals no apparent problem. L.B. appears to be ovulating normally. BBT charting captures a change in temperature, and ovulation testing reveals an LH surge. The provider suspects L.B. may have a luteal phase defect because her progesterone levels are low after ovulation. The provider decides to order a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) for L.B. 15. How will you describe an HSG to the couple? 16. You tell L.B. that it is important for her to call the office when her menstrual cycle starts so the HSG can be scheduled between days 7 and 20 of her cycle. It is important they abstain from sex between the first day of her cycle until after the test. L.B. asks why. What do you tell her? The HSG was normal, with no blockage to the fallopian tubes. The provider speaks with the couple about starting L.B. on clomiphene (Clomid) and progesterone vaginal suppositories, starting 2 days after ovulation. 17. What is the expected outcome associated with each of these medications? 18. You determine that L.B. understands your teaching about clomiphene therapy when she says: (Select all that apply.) a. “I do not need to use the LH testing kits anymore.” b. “There is a higher risk of my having twins, or more.” c. “I will take this medicine orally for 5 days each month.” d. “I may experience some flushing and breast tenderness.” e. “My husband will need to learn to give me daily injections.” On the fourth round of clomiphene, L.B. and J.B. were successful in becoming pregnant. She delivered an 8 pound, 7-ounce (3827 grams) baby boy vaginally at 38 weeks after having induced labor because of mild preeclampsia.
In: Nursing
Nike: The Sweatshop Debate
Nike is in many ways the quintessential global corporation. Established in 1972 by former University of Oregon track star Phil Knight, Nike is now one of the leading marketers of athletic shoes and apparel on the planet. In 2006 the company had $15 billion in annual revenues and sold its products in some 140 countries. Nike does not do any manufacturing. Rather, it designs and markets its products, while contracting for their manufacture from a global network of 600 factories scattered around the globe that employ some 650,000 people.' This huge corporation has made founder Phil Knight into one of the richest people in America. Nike's marketing phrase, "Just Do It!" has become as recognizable in popular culture as its "swoosh" logo or the faces of its celebrity sponsors, such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
For all of its successes, the company was dogged for more than a decade by repeated and persistent accusations that its products were made in "sweatshops" where workers, many of them children, slaved away in hazardous conditions for below-subsistence wages. Nike's wealth, its detractors claimed, was built upon the backs of the world's poor. For many, Nike had become a symbol of the evils of globalization-a rich Western corporation exploiting the world's poor to provide expensive shoes and apparel to the pampered consumers of the developed world. Nike's "Niketown" stores became standard targets for antiglobalization protestors. Several nongovernmental organizations, such as San Francisco-based Global Exchange, a human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political, and social justice around the world, targeted Nike for repeated criticism and protests.2 News organizations such as CBS's 48 Hours hosted by Dan Rather ran exposes on working conditions in foreign factories that supply Nike. Students on the campuses of several major U.S. universities with which Nike has lucrative sponsorship deals protested against the ties, citing Nike's use of sweatshop labor.
For its part, Nike has taken many steps to try to counter the protests. Yes, it admits, there have been problems in some overseas factories. But the company has signaled a commitment to improving working conditions. It requires that foreign subcontractors meet minimum thresholds for working conditions and pay. It has arranged for factories to he examined by independent auditors. It has terminated contracts with factories that do not comply with its standards. But for all this effort, the company continues to be a target of protests and a symbol of dissent.
THE CASE AGAINST NIKE
Typical of the exposes against Nike was a CBS 48 Hours news report that aired on October 17, 1996.3 Reporter Roberta Basin visited a Nike factory in Vietnam. With a shot of the factory, her commentary begin by saying that
The signs are everywhere of an American invasion in search of cheap labor. Millions of people who are literate, disciplined, and desperate for jobs. This is Nike Town near what use to be called Saigon, one of four factories Nike doesn't own but subcontracts to make a million shoes a month. It takes 25,000 workers, mostly young women, to "Just Do It."
But the workers here don't share in Nike's huge profits. They work six days a week for only $40 a month, just 20 cents an hour.
Baskin interviews one of the workers in the factory, a young woman named Lap. Baskin tells the listener:
Her basic wage, even as sewing team leader, still doesn't amount to the minimum wage.... She's down to 8 5 pounds. Like most of the young women who make shoes, she has little choice but to accept the low wages and long hours. Nike says that it requires all subcontractors to obey local laws; but Lap has already put in much more overtime than the annual legal limit: 200 hours.
1
Baskin then asks Lap what would happen if she wanted to leave. If she were sick or had something she needed to take care of such as a sick relative, could she leave the factory? Through a translator, Lap replies:
It is not possible if you haven't made enough shoes. You have to meet the quota before you can go home.
The clear implication of the story was that Nike was at fault here for allowing such working conditions to persist in the Vietnam factory, which, incidentally, was owned by a Korean company.
Another example of an attack on Nike's subcontracting practices came in June 1996 from Made in the USA, a foundation largely financed by labor unions and domestic apparel manufacturers that oppose free trade with low-wage countries. According to Joel Joseph, chairman of the foundation, a popular line of high-priced Nike sneakers, the "Air Jordans," were put together made by 11-year-olds in Indonesia making 14 cents per hour. A Nike spokeswoman, Donna Gibbs, countered that this statement was in fact false. According to Gibbs, the average worker made 240,000 rupiah ($103) a month working a maximum 54-hour week, or about 45 cents per hour. Moreover, Gibbs noted that Nike had staff members in each factory monitoring conditions to make sure that they obeyed local minimum wage and child labor laws.'
Another example of the criticism against Nike is the following extract from a newsletter published by Global Exchange:5
During the 1970s, most Nike shoes were made in South Korea and Taiwan. When workers there gained new freedom to organize and wages began to rise, Nike looked for "greener pastures." It found them in Indonesia and China, where Nike started producing in the 1980s, and most recently in Vietnam. The majority of Nike shoes are made in Indonesia and China, countries with governments that prohibit independent unions and set the minimum wage at rock bottom. The Indonesian government admits that the minimum wage there does not provide enough to supply the basic needs of one person, let alone a family. In early 1997 the entry-level wage was a miserable $2.46 a day. Labor groups estimate that a livable wage in Indonesia is about $4.00 a day.
In Vietnam the pay is even less-20 cents an hour, or a mere $1.60 a day. But in urban Vietnam, three simple meals cost about $2.10 a day, and then of course there is rent, transportation, clothing, health care, and much more. According to Thuyen Nguyen of Vietnam Labor Watch, a living wage in Vietnam is at least $3 a day.
In another attack on Nike's practices, in September 1997 Global Exchange published a report on working conditions in four Nike and Reebok subcontractors in Southern China.6 Global Exchange, in conjunction with two Hong Kong human rights groups, had interviewed workers at the factories in 1995 and again in 1997. According to Global Exchange, in one factory, owned by a Korean subcontractor for Nike, workers as young as 13 earning as little as 10 cents an hour toiled up to 17 hours daily in enforced silence. Talking during work was not allowed, with violators fined $1.20 to $3.60 according to the report. The practices were in violation of Chinese labor law, which states that no child under 16 may work in a factory, and the Chinese minimum wage requirement of $1.90 for an eight-hour day. Nike condemned the study as "erroneous," stating that it incorrectly stated the wages of workers and made irresponsible accusations.
Global Exchange, however, continued to be a major thorn in Nike's side. In November 1997, the organization obtained and then leaked a confidential report by Ernst & Young of an audit that Nike had commissioned of a factory in Vietnam owned by a Nike subcontractor.' The factory had 9,200 workers and made 400,000 pairs of shoes a month. The Ernst & Young report painted a dismal picture of thousands of young women, most under age 25, laboring 10'12 hours a day, six days a week, in excessive heat and noise and in foul air, for slightly more than $10 a week. The report also found that workers with skin or breathing problems had not been transferred to departments free of chemicals and that more than half the workers who dealt with dangerous chemicals did not wear protective masks or gloves. It claimed workers were exposed to carcinogens that exceeded local legal standards by 177 times in parts of the plant and that 77 percent of the employees suffered from respiratory problems.
2
Put on the defensive yet again, Nike called a news conference and pointed out that it had commissioned the report, and had acted on it.8 The company stated that it had formulated an action plan to deal with the problems cited in the report, and had slashed overtime, improved safety and ventilation, and reduced the use of toxic chemicals. The company also asserted that the report showed that its internal monitoring system had performed exactly as it should have. According to one spokesman, "This shows our system of monitoring works. . . . We have uncovered these issues clearly before anyone else, and we have moved fairly expeditiously to correct them."
NIKE'S RESPONSES
Unaccustomed to playing defense, over the years Nike formulated a number of strategies and tactics to deal with the problems of subcontractors' working conditions and pay. In 1996, Nike hired one-time U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Atlanta Mayor and Congressional representative Andrew Young to assess working conditions in subcontractors' plants around the world. After completing a two-week tour that involved inspecting 15 factories in three countries, Young released a mildly critical report of Nike in mid-1997. He informed Nike it was doing a good job in treating workers, though it should do better. According to Young, he did not see
sweatshops, or hostile conditions ... I saw crowded dorms ... but the workers were eating at least two meals a day on the job and making what I was told were subsistence wages in those cultures.9
Young was widely criticized by human rights and labor groups for not taking his own translators and for doing slipshod inspections, an assertion he repeatedly denied.
In 1996, Nike joined a presidential task force designed to find a way of banishing sweatshops in the shoe and clothing industries. The task force included industry leaders such as Nike, representatives from human rights groups, and labor leaders. In April 1997, the task force announced a workers' rights agreement that U.S. companies could accept when manufacturing abroad. The accord limited the workweek to 60 hours and called for paying at least the local minimum wage in foreign factories. The task force also agreed to establish an independent monitoring association-later named the Fair Labor Association (FLA)-to assess whether companies are abiding by the code.10
The FLA now includes among its members the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the National Council of Churches, the International Labor Rights Fund, some 135 universities (universities have extensive licensing agreements with sports apparel companies such as Nike), and companies such as Nike, Reebok, and Levi Strauss.
In early 1997, Nike also began to commission independent organizations such as Ernst & Young to audit its subcontractors' factories. In September 1997, Nike tried to show its critics that it was involved in more than just a public relations exercise when it terminated its relationship with four Indonesian subcontractors, stating that these subcontractors had refused to comply with the company's standard for wage levels and working conditions. Nike identified one of the subcontractors, Seyon, which manufactured specialty sports gloves for Nike. Nike said that Seyon refused to meet a 10.7 percent increase in the monthly wage, to $70.30, declared by the Indonesian government in April 1997.11
On May 12, 1998, in a speech given at the National Press Club, Phil Knight spelled out in detail a series of initiatives designed to improve working conditions for the 500,000 people that make products for Nike as subcontractors. Among the initiatives Knight highlighted were the following:
We have effectively changed our minimum age limits from the ILO (International Labor Organization) standards of 15 in most countries and 14 in developing countries to 18 in all footwear manufacturing and 16 in all other types of manufacturing (apparel, accessories and equipment). Existing workers legally employed under the former limits were grand-fathered into the new requirements.
During the past 13 months we have moved to a 100 percent factory audit scheme, where every Nike contract factory will receive an annual check by PricewaterhouseCoopers teams who are specially trained on our Code of Conduct Owner's Manual and audit/monitoring procedures. To date they have performed about 300 such monitoring visits. In a few instances in apparel factories they have found workers under our age
3
standards. Those factories have been required to raise their standards to 17 years of age, to require three documents certifying age, and to redouble their efforts to ensure workers meet those standards through interviews and records checks.
• Our goal was to ensure workers around the globe are protected by requiring factories to have no workers exposed to levels above those mandated by the permissible exposure limits (PELs) for chemicals prescribed in the OSHA indoor air quality standards.
The business press applauded these moves, but Nike's long-term adversaries in the debate over the use of foreign labor greeted them skeptically. While conceding that's Nike's policies were an improvement, one critic writing in The New York Times noted that
Mr. Knight's child labor initiative is ... a smokescreen. Child labor has not been a big problem with Nike, and Philip Knight knows that better than anyone. But public relations is public relations. So he announces that he's not going to let the factories hire kids, and suddenly that's the headline.
Mr. Knight is like a three-card monte player. You have to keep a close eye on him at all times.
The biggest problem with Nike is that its overseas workers make wretched, below-subsistence wages. It's not the minimum age that needs raising, it's the minimum wage. Most of the workers in Nike factories in China and Vietnam make less than $2 a day, well below the subsistence levels in those countries. In Indonesia the pay is less than $1 a day.
The company's current strategy is to reshape its public image while doing as little as possible for the workers. Does anyone think it was an accident that Nike set up shop in human rights sinkholes, where labor organizing was viewed as a criminal activity and deeply impoverished workers were willing, even eager, to take their places on assembly lines and work for next to nothing?'
Other critics question the value of Nike's auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Dara O'Rourke, an assistant professor at MIT, followed the PwC auditors around several factories in China, Korea, and Vietnam. He concluded that although the auditors found minor violations of labor laws and codes of conduct, they missed major labor practice issues including hazardous working conditions, violations of overtime laws, and violation of wage laws. The problem, according to O'Rourke, was that the auditors had limited training, and relied on factory managers for data and to set up interviews with workers, all of which were performed in the factories. The auditors, in other words, were getting an incomplete and somewhat sanitized view of conditions in the factory."
THE CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
Fueled perhaps by the unforgiving criticisms of Nike that continued after Phil Knight's May 1998 speech, a wave of protests against Nike occurred on many university campuses beginning in 1998 and continuing into 2001. The moving force behind the protests was the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). The USAS argued that the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which grew out of the Presidential task force on sweatshops, was an industry tool, and not a truly independent auditor of foreign factories. The USAS set up an alternative independent auditing organization, the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), which they charged with auditing factories that produce products under collegiate licensing programs (Nike is a high-profile supplier of products under these programs). The WRC is backed, and partly funded, by labor unions and refuses to cooperate with companies, arguing that doing so would jeopardize its independence.
By mid-2000, the WRC had persuaded some 48 universities to join the WRC, including all nine campuses of the University of California systems, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oregon, Phil Knight's alma mater. When Knight heard that the University of Oregon would join the WRC, as opposed to the FLA, he withdrew a planned $30 million donation to the University. Despite Knight's opposition, in November 2000 another major university in the northwest, the University of
Etch-A-Sketch Ethics
4
The Ohio Art Company is perhaps best known as the producer of one of the top-selling toys of all time, the venerable Etch-A-Sketch. More than 100 million of the Washington, announced that it too would join the WRC, although it would also retain its membership in the FLA.
Nike continued to push forward with its own initiatives, updating progress on its Web site. In April 2000, in response to accusations that it was still hiding conditions, it announced that it would release the complete reports of all independent audits of its subcontractors' plants. Global Exchange continued to criticize the company, arguing in mid-2001 that the company was not living up to Phil Knight's 1998 promises and that it was intimidating workers from speaking out about abuses."
Case Discussion Questions
1.Should Nike be held responsible for working conditions in foreign factories that it does not own, but where subcontractors make products for Nike?
2.What labor standards regarding safety, working conditions, overtime, and the like, should Nike hold foreign factories to: those prevailing in that country or those prevailing in the United States?
3.In Indonesia, an income of $2.28 a day, the base pay of Nike factory workers, is double the daily in- come of about half the working population. Half of all adults in Indonesia are farmers, who receive less than $1 a day. Given these national standards, is it appropriate to criticize Nike for the low pay rates of its subcontractors in Indonesia?
4.Do you think Nike needs to make any changes to its current policy? If so what? Should Nike make changes even if they hinder the ability of the company to compete in the marketplace?
In: Economics
Please read through the article below and answer the question at the end of the article.
Strategy as a Wicked Problem
Over the past 15 years, I’ve been studying how companies create strategy—the most important responsibility of senior executives. Many corporations, I find, have replaced the annual top-down planning ritual, based on macroeconomic forecasts, with more sophisticated processes. They crunch vast amounts of consumer data, hold planning sessions frequently, and use techniques such as competency modeling and real-options analysis to develop strategy. This type of approach is an improvement because it is customer- and capability-focused and enables companies to modify their strategies quickly, but it still misses the mark a lot of the time.
Companies tend to ignore one complication along the way: They can’t develop models of the increasingly complex environment in which they operate. As a result, contemporary strategic-planning processes don’t help enterprises cope with the big problems they face. Several CEOs admit that they are confronted with issues that cannot be resolved merely by gathering additional data, defining issues more clearly, or breaking them down into small problems. Their planning techniques don’t generate fresh ideas, and implementing the solutions those processes come up with is fraught with political peril. That’s because, I believe, many strategy issues aren’t just tough or persistent—they’re “wicked.”
Wickedness isn’t a degree of difficulty. Wicked issues are different because traditional processes can’t resolve them, according to Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber, professors of design and urban planning at the University of California at Berkeley, who described them in a 1973 article in Policy Sciences magazine. A wicked problem has innumerable causes, is tough to describe, and doesn’t have a right answer, as we will see in the next section. Environmental degradation, terrorism, and poverty—these are classic examples of wicked problems. They’re the opposite of hard but ordinary problems, which people can solve in a finite time period by applying standard techniques. Not only do conventional processes fail to tackle wicked problems, but they may exacerbate situations by generating undesirable consequences.
In the areas of public policy, software development, and project design, experts such as Peter DeGrace, Leslie Hulet Stahl, and Jeff Conklin have developed ways of spotting wicked problems and coping with them. DeGrace and Stahl wrote Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catalogue of Modern Software Engineering Paradigms (1990); Conklin authored Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems(2006). Policy makers, in particular, have put this powerful concept to good use, but it has been largely missing from strategy discussions. Although many of the problems companies face are intractable, they have been slow to acknowledge the wickedness of strategy issues.
Between 1995 and 2005, I completed three research projects that provided insights into wicked strategy problems. First, as part of benchmarking projects that the APQC (formerly known as the American Productivity & Quality Center) and the Hong Kong Productivity Council conducted, I analyzed 22 North American, European, and Asian enterprises that use innovative strategic-planning techniques. They include ABB, Alcoa, Honeywell, John Deere, PPG Industries, Royal Dutch Shell, Siemens, Sprint, Whirlpool, and Xerox (China and USA). Second, I studied strategy implementation in depth at seven of these enterprises. Third, a colleague, Gaurab Bhardwaj, and I tracked DuPont’s pharmaceuticals business to learn how companies draw up strategies when returns will accrue only in the long run and are highly uncertain. Based on these studies, I’ll explore in the following pages how companies can tame—since they can’t solve—such problems. I’ll conclude by describing a planning process that helps PPG Industries tackle wicked issues.
What Is a Wicked Problem?
There are several ways to define a wicked problem, but according to Rittel and Webber, it has some or all of 10 characteristics. (See the sidebar “The 10 Properties of Wicked Problems.”) Caveat: The criteria are not a set of tests that mechanically determine wickedness; rather, they provide insights that help you judge whether a problem is wicked.
Wicked problems often crop up when organizations have to face constant change or unprecedented challenges. They occur in a social context; the greater the disagreement among stakeholders, the more wicked the problem. In fact, it’s the social complexity of wicked problems as much as their technical difficulties that make them tough to manage. Not all problems are wicked; confusion, discord, and lack of progress are telltale signs that an issue might be wicked.
In my consulting work, I’ve found that when five characteristics are present in a strategy-related issue, executives agree they have a wicked problem on their hands. I’ll list the key criteria below and use them to show how the challenge of growth that Wal-Mart faces today may well be wicked.
The problem involves many stakeholders with different values and priorities.
As Wal-Mart tries to grow faster, numerous stakeholders are watching nervously: employees and trade unions; shareholders, investors, and creditors; suppliers and joint venture partners; the governments of the U.S. and other nations where the retailer operates; and customers. That’s not all; many nongovernmental organizations, particularly in countries where the retailer buys products, are closely monitoring it. Wal-Mart’s stakeholders have different interests, and not all of them share the company’s goals. Each group possesses the capacity, in varying degrees, to influence the company’s choices and results. That wasn’t the case in 1962, when Sam Walton set up his first store in Rogers, Arkansas.
The issue’s roots are complex and tangled.
Wal-Mart’s slowing growth in the U.S. is a consequence of, among other things, a saturated market, its customers’ limited disposable incomes, and intense competition from rivals such as Target and Costco. Wal-Mart also faces resistance to imports, criticism about the wages and benefits it offers employees, and charges that illegal aliens work in its stores. All this has generated unfavorable publicity and strengthened people’s opposition to Wal-Mart’s opening stores in urban areas. Compounding the challenge, some of the company’s advantages have turned into disadvantages. For instance, Wal-Mart’s large market share in some product categories makes it tough to grow same-store sales rapidly. Its low-cost sourcing practices have rendered it vulnerable to the health and safety concerns that surround products made in China. Its supply chain expertise doesn’t help in the case of fashion and organic products, and its low-price image hurts its ability to sell upscale products. Moreover, Wal-Mart’s deep roots in rural America are of little use in overseas markets.
The problem is difficult to come to grips with and changes with every attempt to address it.
Wal-Mart has several options. It can try to boost revenues and profits by increasing sales from existing stores or raising prices, by expanding into urban markets in the U.S., by entering emerging economies, by diversifying into upscale product lines and creating new store brands, by forecasting better, or by cutting suppliers’ margins. These strategies demand different capabilities, are risky, and sometimes conflict with one another.
Consider two of the least complex options before Wal-Mart. It could boost profits by hiking prices, but until now, everyday low prices have helped the company fend off rivals. If consumers resist higher prices, the retailer’s sales will fall and profits will drop. To prevent that, Wal-Mart must first modify its value proposition, stock some upscale products, and develop a brand persona that warrants higher prices—challenges that have little to do with boosting profits immediately. Alternatively, Wal-Mart could enter a fast-growing emerging market, as it has done in India. It has found the going tough there, however. In India, local laws don’t allow foreign companies to operate multibrand retail outlets, so Wal-Mart has had to develop a special business model: cash-and-carry wholesale stores for local retailers. Besides being unfamiliar, the strategy contains the nucleus of another problem. When India’s laws change and allow Wal-Mart to sell to consumers, it will have to compete with the retailers it supplies.
The challenge has no precedent.
The two strategies we just discussed pose completely new challenges for the company. For instance, Wal-Mart would have to alter its brand image—for the first time in its 46-year history—to justify higher prices. Its recent foray into higher-priced garments is an experiment and doesn’t appear to have worked. Similarly, Wal-Mart’s India strategy differs from the M&A strategy it has used to enter other developing countries. Wal-Mart is a novice at managing partnerships, but it has had to team up with an Indian conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises. The group, whose primary business is telecommunications, wants to tap Wal-Mart’s expertise to set up a supply chain to get Indian produce onto Western tables! Wal-Mart will have to work with India’s bureaucracy to build the infrastructure that will support its operations, but in the past, dealing with governments hasn’t been the company’s strong suit.
There’s nothing to indicate the right answer to the problem.
In Wal-Mart’s case, going upmarket could boost profits, but it isn’t easy for a discount chain to develop a relationship with higher-income shoppers. Moreover, the retailer cannot ignore its existing consumers, who shop at Wal-Mart for inexpensive products. How much of a focus on higher-margin products and higher-income customers is appropriate? The company has no way of knowing that in the beginning. In like vein, Wal-Mart’s India strategy may be an effective way to enter a number of rapidly developing economies. However, the company will lose some of its competitive advantage when it shares expertise with local partners. What’s the optimal level of knowledge transfer? That’s impossible to estimate; Wal-Mart will find out only after it has shared best practices—and possibly created new rivals.
Growth is a hard problem for many companies, but it may not always be wicked. In Wal-Mart’s case, as we have just seen, the challenge bears all the signs of wickedness.
Managing the Wickedness of Strategy
It’s impossible to find solutions to wicked strategy problems, but companies can learn to cope with them. In accordance with Occam’s razor, the simplest techniques are often the best.
Involve stakeholders, document opinions, and communicate.
Companies can manage strategy’s wickedness not by being more systematic but by using social-planning processes. They should organize brainstorming sessions to identify the various aspects of a wicked problem; hold retreats to encourage executives and stakeholders to share their perspectives; run focus groups to better understand stakeholders’ viewpoints; involve stakeholders in developing future scenarios; and organize design charrettes to develop and gain acceptance for possible strategies. The aim should be to create a shared understanding of the problem and foster a joint commitment to possible ways of resolving it. Not everyone will agree on what the problem is, but stakeholders should be able to understand one another’s positions well enough to discuss different interpretations of the problem and work together to tackle it.
Companies must go beyond obtaining facts and opinions from stakeholders; they should involve them in finding ways to manage the problem. Getting a variety of opinions helps companies develop novel perspectives. It also strengthens collective intelligence, which counteracts groupthink and cognitive bias and enables groups to tackle problems more effectively than individuals, as Tom Atlee, the founder and codirector of the Co-Intelligence Institute, and Howard Bloom, a visiting scholar at New York University, have pointed out. Involving more stakeholders makes the planning process more complex, but it also expands the potential for creativity. Buy-in is an important result; companies should look not only for countermeasures but also for stakeholders to get on board with some of them.
Companies believe that shareholders and customers are important stakeholders, but employees are even more crucial. Their tacit knowledge and commitment often help enterprises develop innovative strategies. Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation, for example, places a great deal of emphasis on semistructured social processes, frequently organizing social events and encouraging employees to interact with one another. Everyone lunches in the company cafeteria, which allows employees to mix with senior executives routinely. A company intranet supports virtual social interactions such as blog-based discussions.
It may seem trivial, but documenting stakeholders’ assumptions, ideas, and concerns on an ongoing basis is important. It helps enterprises understand stakeholders’ hidden assumptions and gauge the effectiveness of the actions they have taken. Documents also help executives communicate ideas, which is essential if plans are to become reality.
All planning processes are, at their core, vehicles for communication with employees at all levels and between business units. This is particularly true of processes that tackle wicked issues. Smart companies emphasize such communication. At John Deere, corporate planners say that the quality of senior executives’ communications with divisions is the most important indicator of the effectiveness of strategy planning. Whirlpool believes that even the “janitor on the third shift” should be familiar with the company’s strategic goals. So assembly lines at Whirlpool shut down on a regular basis to enable managers and workers to discuss the progress of plans. At Shell a global electronic network, organized into forums with moderators, allows hundreds of managers and planners to discuss planning issues. At Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation, the corporate planners’ three most important rules for effective planning are simple: “One, communicate! Two, communicate! And three, communicate!”
QUESTION:
What is a "Wicked Problem" you have faced in your life. Could be work, home, school ... anything. What particular aspects made it a "Wicked Problem" and what did you / could you do/have done to address it? Provide the answers in a 2 ~ 4 paragraph essay.
In: Operations Management
The subject is STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY
BUYER BEHAVIOUR AND RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH COMPANY TRIES TO SHOW THAT YOU CAN ONLY UNDERSTAND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR BY LIVING WITH THEIR BEHAVIOUR
How can any marketer get inside your mind to understand how you actually make purchase decisions? Structured questionnaire surveys may have a role for collecting large scale factual data, but they have major weaknesses when it comes to understanding individuals' attitudes. Qualitative approaches, such as focus groups can get closer to the truth, but participants often still find themselves inhibited from telling the full story. Many marketing managers, especially those without large research budgets, inevitably end up relying on their own personal experiences to understand how consumers behave. This may be easy for target markets which are in the 20-40 age range (the age of typical marketers), but how do you get inside the mind of teenagers, or elderly people?
Ethnographic approaches are becoming increasingly popular among marketers as a means of getting closer to the truth about consumer behaviour. Ethnographic research is nothing new, having been used by anthropologists in their study of the rituals of tribal people. Marketers have been relatively recent converts to the techniques of ethnography. The advertising agency BMP DDB has taken on board the techniques of ethnography in its "Project Keyhole" in a manner which is reminiscent of anthropologists' practice of living with tribes in order to understand them. Its consumer researchers live with a family for several days in order to record their every move. The project is designed to meet the needs of client companies who are looking for more than the data gathered using traditional quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
Participants record their views and actions on a digital video camera, in the presence of a researcher who stays with them from 8am until 10pm for a few days. A normal project would last four or five days and the client may be invited along for part of the time. Participants are paid £100 for their troubles. What did they do with the direct mail when it came through the letter box? Did they use the coupon offer which it contained? Who drinks the fresh orange juice in the house? How long do they spend cooking dinner? How do they actually cook the ready-prepared meals they bought earlier? Does the family eat together? These are examples of the vital information that sponsoring companies hope to get hold of in order to position their products more effectively.
According to the company, the advantage of this method over conventional research is that it picks up inconsistencies between what people say they do and what they actually do. Following them throughout the day allows the researcher to see why a person's habits might change according to random factors such as their mood, the time of day or the weather. Crucially it reveals the quirks in our behaviour that marketers are desperate to gain an insight into. For example, a person's store-card data might tell you that they buy bread and margarine, but it doesn't tell whether they eat the bread fresh, or toast it first before putting margarine on it.
In 1998, the magazine Marketing put this novel research method to the test with a guinea pig family called the Jones’s. It then compared the results of this approach with more traditional methods of profiling customers. In short, established systems such as CACI, Claritas and Experian might say one thing about the buying behaviour of a family, using lifestyle and electoral roll data, but did they bear any relation to reality?
The information that the researcher gathered in a short space of time told a lot about the Jones family. By contrast, the database information about the Joneses, although detailed and often accurate, could not capture the quirks and details that make up the personality of the family. For example, it transpired that the Joneses had a keener than average eye on value for money. Although information on them from the four database companies correctly suggested that they enjoy luxuries like good food and foreign holidays, it didn't say anything about the real life factors that influence their purchasing decisions. The most noticeable of these was that although they like good food, Mrs Jones mixed her shopping between the supermarket and a local discount store which sells cut-price brands. This means that she only bought at Tesco or Sainsbury's what she could not get cheaper elsewhere. She showed the researcher a can of branded plum tomatoes which she got for 10p at the discount store as an example, explaining that it would have cost 26p in the supermarket. Mrs Jones prided herself on being able to hunt down bargains like this and occasionally rewarded herself by buying "something luxurious", such as smoked salmon from Marks & Spencer. The freezer had an important role to play as it allowed Mrs Jones to buy things she sees on special offer even if she doesn't need them immediately.
Mrs Jones's eye for an offer made her a keen scrutiniser of direct mail. She checked mailings for 'catches' in the small print and for any special offers. She collected mailers worth chasing up on a clip on the fridge door, along with vouchers collected from magazines. Mrs Jones’s financial nous means that she managed the family's money.
Not surprisingly, these details did not come out in database information. Of the commercial databases, CACI's People UK and Lifecycle UK databases seemed to be most at variance with the reality of the Jones' life. They got their ages wrong, incorrectly surmised that they took business flights and incorrectly attributed Mr Jones with being computer literate. Nobody in the household read the FT or the Independent as predicted - they read the Daily Mail instead. Some of the other points made by CACI were right, but were felt to be very generalized and could apply to anybody.
Claritas seemed to be much closer to reality. The Jones' predicted jobs were about right and the database was correct in stating that they had credit and store cards. They managed to say that the Joneses liked antiques, perhaps learnt as a result of them occasionally buying Homes and Antiques magazine. They similarly were correct in stating that they like gardening, DIY, foreign travel and eating out. The database had predicted that the family would be most likely to own a Ford or Renault car. In fact, Mrs Jones owned a Ford, while Mr Jones had a company Renault.
Based on "Keeping up with the Jones's”, Marketing, 19th November 1998, pp 28-29.
CASE STUDY REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Why is it important to study the composition of the decision making unit? To what extent do you think this research approach will give a complete understanding of how family units make purchases?
2. What new possibilities, if any, for market segmentation are opened up by this approach to the study of buyer behaviour?
3. Critically assess the scope for expanding this type of research as a means of learning more about buyer behaviour.
In: Economics