1. Identify a struggling company that could benefit from market penetration, market development, or product development. What might you advise this company’s executives to do differently?

2. Some universities have used vertical integration by creating their own publishing companies. The Harvard Business Press is perhaps the best-known example. Are there other ways that a university might vertically integrate? If so, what benefits might this create?

3. Studies have shown that executives’ pay increases when their firms gets larger. To what extent do you think executive pay plays in diversification decisions?

4. What might executives do to keep employees within dog units motivated and focused on their jobs?

The FDA tries to protect us as consumers. You may take for granted the changes they have enacted to protect us. For example, the surgeon general warning notices on the side of cigarettes... yup they came as a result of regulations to protect us.

Question: We have an extremely diverse class. Most of us are first generation immigrants, or have close ties to another country. Either way, think of a country which you love and have a close affiliation to (other than USA). Does your country have any laws and regulations that protect the consumer? If so, can you provide one as an example? If not, explain why your country does not have them.

Discuss: If you were a leader of a company going overseas, would you take advantage of weak protection laws or bring the stricter regulations into the country to guide your service or product in that country?

MBA-AC721 Project Part 2 Create the 2018 budget for Buy-Right Bike Store (BRBS). Add a worksheet to your Project Excel workbook for BRBC Budgeted Income Statement and create the 2018 budget using the following information.

Budgeted Sales of Bike C: Online 75,000 bikes; instore 5,000 bikes. Bike C is purchased from Built-Right Bike Company, a sister company in the Biltmore Bicycle Corporation (BMBC), for $52 and is sold for $104.

Inventory: Beginning inventory: $ 52,000

Purchases 4,108,000

Sales ?

Ending Inventory $ 52,000

Employees:

Managerial Staff: Manager: 1 FTE, $45,000 annual salary plus 20% benefits

Bookkeeper: 1 FTE, $40,000 annual salary plus 20% benefits

Purchasing & Receiving Supervisor: 1 FTE, $35,000 annual salary plus 20% benefits Other staff: Warehouse: 2.5 FTEs make $15 per hour plus 17% benefits Online sales staff: 2 FTEs, $15 per hour plus 17% benefits (no commission)

NOTE: 1 FTE = 2080 hours

Store Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

2 sales clerks work from 10-3 M-F

3 sales clerks work from 3-6 M-F

4 sales clerks work 10-6 on Saturdays

Sales clerks earn $15 per hour plus 17% benefits Instore sales staff share commission equal to 10% of instore sales.

Budgeted Utility cost: $13,200

Budgeted Marketing Cost: $175,000

Contributions & community service: 10% of instore revenue

Other costs (includes depreciation, insurance, etc): $1,300,000

Income tax 29% of Net Revenue

Instructions

In this activity, you will perform 2 quantitative static comparative analysis on a real life situation.

Static comparative analysis no. 1

It is the first quarter of 2014 and you work with a company involved in the production of electric batteries for vehicles. You lead a global project that will be profitable only if the international price of oil is higher than 60 USD per barrel. If the price of fossil fuels is high enough, electric vehicles will be compelling to consumers. If the price of fossil fuels is too low, consumers will prefer conventional vehicles and cheap gasoline instead of electric vehicles. The CEO of the company is concerned that the increase in the production of shale oil in the US may force the middle-east oil producers to increase their production in order to retain global market share, creating a disruption in the price of oil. She asks you to assess how large can be the international oil price variation in such scenario of larger oil supply. The current international oil market can be described by the following demand and supply equations for oil barrels:

Original equations to calculate the original equilibrium:    

Q^d = 205 - 0.05P      Q^s = -300 + 5P

Question 1.  Select and underline the demand and supply equations for the second market equilibrium. That is, the demand and supply equations after the hypothetical total increase in the supply of oil

1.      Q^d = 400 - 0.05P      Q^s = -300 + 5P
2.      Q^d = 205 - 0.05P      Q^s = -800 + 5P
3.      Q^d = 205 - 0.05P      Q^s = 104 + 5P

Question 2. Draw a market diagram showing the what will happen to the market equilibrium due to the hypothetical increase in oil supply.

(Draw or copy and paste your market diagram here. Only one market diagram)

Question 3. If the scenario sketched out by the CEO arises, ¿would your project be profitable? Why? Place your answer here

Static comparative analysis no. 2

You are going to remake the static comparative analysis no. 1, using a different original demand equation. Everything else will be the same.

Original equations to calculate the original equilibrium:    

Q^d = 2200 - 20P      Q^s = -300 + 5P

Question 4. Select and underline the demand and supply equations for the second market equilibrium. That is, the demand and supply equations after the hypothetical total increase in the supply of oil

1.      Qd=1800-20P      Qs=-300+5P
2.      Qd=2200-20P      Qs=104+5P
3.      Qd=2200-20P      Qs=-800+5P

Question 5. Draw a market diagram showing the what will happen to the market equilibrium due to the hypothetical increase in oil supply.

(Draw or copy and paste your market diagram here. Only one market diagram)

Strategic Management: A Taiwanese story about strategy and structure Before 2000 the Taiwan-based company Acer had competing strategies. For 15 years one part of the firm had been building computers for other PC sellers who would put their own labels on the machines, while another part sold very similar computers under the company’s own brand. The latter strategy was predicated on direct sales to consumers, which had brought the firm into direct competition with companies such as Dell. However, in 2000 the firm decided to adopt a new business strategy in order to increase its global market share. Acer’s manufacturing division was made an independent company (Wistron) and this enabled a smaller and more nimble sales firm to emerge. The strategy based on direct sales was discarded and replaced with a strategy focused on selling as many low-cost laptops and netbooks as possible to consumers but via a network of partners and retailers. A new logo was adopted to reflect this new strategic direction, which had proved very successful despite the industry downturn. By 2008, Acer had replaced Hewlett-Packard as the market leader in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, partly as a result of Acer’s success in the booming netbook market. This strategy enabled the firm to become the world’s second largest PC vendor. However, in 2011 tensions at board level over the firm’s strategic direction culminated in the resignation of Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci. The difference in opinion appears to be about whether the firm’s future lay in PC’s or mobile devices. Acting CEO J.T Wang announced that the PC would continue to be the firm’s core business. In 2009 the firm entered the smartphone market with the launch of four different smartphones and the promise of more in the pipeline. Unlike Apple, which was focused on developing one phone only, Acer’s strategy is based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment. In march MODULE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TOTAL MARKS 60 MARKS 2011, Acer announced that revenue projections for the first quarter in 2011 will fall short of expectations by about 10% due to weaker demand in the PC market in the US and Europe. (Source: New York Times, 2009, Bloomberg Business Week, The Financial Times, PC Pro)

Questions

Discuss the purpose of Strategic Human Resource Management for organisations today. In your discussion, identify which organisational strategies have been employed by ACER over the years, justify your answer using evidence provided in the case study and discuss how these organisational strategies affect the HR strategy.

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow.

Strategic Management: A Taiwanese story about strategy and structure Before 2000 the Taiwan-based company Acer had competing strategies. For 15 years one part of the firm had been building computers for other PC sellers who would put their own labels on the machines, while another part sold very similar computers under the company’s own brand. The latter strategy was predicated on direct sales to consumers, which had brought the firm into direct competition with companies such as Dell. However, in 2000 the firm decided to adopt a new business strategy in order to increase its global market share. Acer’s manufacturing division was made an independent company (Wistron) and this enabled a smaller and more nimble sales firm to emerge. The strategy based on direct sales was discarded and replaced with a strategy focused on selling as many low-cost laptops and netbooks as possible to consumers but via a network of partners and retailers. A new logo was adopted to reflect this new strategic direction, which had proved very successful despite the industry downturn. By 2008, Acer had replaced Hewlett-Packard as the market leader in Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa, partly as a result of Acer’s success in the booming netbook market. This strategy enabled the firm to become the world’s second largest PC vendor. However, in 2011 tensions at board level over the firm’s strategic direction culminated in the resignation of Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci. The difference in opinion appears to be about whether the firm’s future lay in PC’s or mobile devices. Acting CEO J.T Wang announced that the PC would continue to be the firm’s core business. In 2009 the firm entered the smartphone market with the launch of four different smartphones and the promise of more in the pipeline. Unlike Apple, which was focused on developing one phone only, Acer’s strategy is based on targeting each of its phones at a different market segment. In march 2011, Acer announced that revenue projections for the first quarter in 2011 will fall short of expectations by about 10% due to weaker demand in the PC market in the US and Europe. (Source: New York Times, 2009, Bloomberg Business Week, The Financial Times, PC Pro)

QUESTION 1 (60) Discuss the purpose of Strategic Human Resource Management for organisations today. In your discussion, identify which organisational strategies have been employed by ACER over the years, justify your answer using evidence provided in the case study and discuss how these organisational strategies affect the HR strategy.

Create a three-paragraph, double-spaced description of yourself that will prepare you to answer the interview question Tell me about yourself. Use the following guidelines to select information that is relevant and appropriate for a job interview. Include descriptions of: • Your education o Your major o Number of credits earned o Relevant courses, especially for the career field or position you want o GPA/honors (if applicable) • Your work and or volunteer experience o Emphasize the skills that are relevant to the career field or position you want • Your skills o Identify any skills that are relevant to the career field or position you want to pursue. o Your personal qualities that are relevant to the career field or position you want o Provide a short example o You can also put these qualities in the third person (My former boss describes me as ….) Leave out information about your age, birthday, marital status, family situation, ethnic background or country of origin. These are not appropriate items to discuss in a job interview. Do not include any negative statements about yourself. Use the following style guidelines: • lead with your strong points first. • Write in complete, grammatically correct sentences. • Use formal language. • Avoid slang. • Do not use text abbreviations (e.g., “u” for “you”).