You have worked for Wood Manufacturing for 15 years. For the last year, you have been assigned to lead the Customer Intelligence Innovation team (10 people from various departments in your organization). Unfortunately, the team has yet to come up with a customer “product,” and you are under a significant amount of pressure to develop a profitable item immediately. You have decided to take a “step back” and assess your innovation leadership. You think that developing a list of FIVE skills that YOU personally need to enhance in order to create a more productive team.

Identify those five skills. (Hint: these should be five skills related to innovation that YOU personally need to work on. )

1. Name the skill (competence, trait, knowledge gap).

2. Define the skill.

3. Explain how the skill can be applied and how improving the skill will impact the team in a positive way to increase effectiveness.

4. State how you will learn (or enhance) this skill. . Use headings: Skil1 #1: Innovation Brainstorming. Etc. Please note: These skills MUST be related to innovation. They CANNOT be “general business” goals (NOT: I want to do accounting better.). Strongly encourage peer review of the midterm traits.

Answer each of the following questions on the promise and peril of economic integration.

Note: Originally, in 2001, this group of emerging economies was known as BRIC when it consisted of only four nations: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. In 2010 South Africa was inducted, changing the acronym to BRICS.

1. In recent years the EU has experienced both growth and turmoil, especially with the exit of Great Britain (expected to be completed before 2020). What pressures do you think the EU is facing and will be facing in the next few years?

2. What sort of competition will the EU face with other trading blocs like the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the Southem African Development Community (SADC)?

2.   Calculate Mean Absolute Error ( MAD) for the data in question 1 for the three     methods used. Round MAD to two decimal places. ( 4 marks)

What does MAD measures? which of these three forecasting methods provides better forecast of the revenue data ? ( 2 mark)

The December 31, 2012 balance sheet of Wolfe Co. included the following items:

7.5% convertible bonds payable due December 31, 2020 $2,000,000

Unamortized Premium on bonds payable 100,000

The bonds were issued on December 31, 2010 at 104, with interest payable every June 30 and December 31. Each $1,000 bond is convertible to 20 shares of $5 par value common stock. The stocks had a market price of $25 per share.

On January 1, 2013, after recording the December interest, Wolfe:

Retired half of the bonds at 98 and converted the other half of the bonds to common stocks.

Prepare journal entries for each transaction.

The accompanying data set provides the closing prices for four stocks and the stock exchange over 12 days:

Using Excel's Data Analysis Exponential Smoothing tool, forecast each of the stock prices using simple exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0.3.

For example, help me to understand how to complete the exponential smoothing forecast model for Stock A.

Date Forecast A

9/3/2010 ____

9/7/2010 ____

9/8/2010 ____

9/9/2010 ____

9/10/2010 ____

9/13/2010 ____

9/14/2010 ____

9/15/2010 ____

9/16/2010 ____

9/17/2010 ____

9/20/2010 ____

9/21/2010 ____

Is big data analytics used for service innovation at Amazon? If so, please write a brief description. Feel free to use any publicly available documents and internal information for the case organization background description in terms of the BDA infrastructures, data strategies, and current practices that were related to service innovation.

I understand the first half just not the both half.

Sportz, Inc., manufactures athletic shoes and athletic clothing for both amateur and professional athletes. The company has two product lines (clothing and shoes), which are produced in separate manufacturing facilities; however, both manufacturing facilities share the same support services for information technology and human resources. The following shows total costs for each manufacturing facility and for each support department.

The total costs of the support departments (IT and HR) are allocated to the production departments (clothing and shoes) using a single rate based on the following:

Information technology: Number of IT labor-hours worked by department
Human resources: Number of employees supported by department

Data on the bases, by department, are given as follows:

What are the total costs of the production departments (clothing and shoes) after the support department costs of information technology and human resources have been allocated using (a) the direct method, (b) the step-down method (allocate information technology first), (c) the step-down method (allocate human resources first), and (d) the reciprocal method?

Assume that all of the work of the IT department could be outsourced to an independent company for $97.50 per hour. If Sportz no longer operated its own IT department, 30% of the fixed costs of the IT department could be eliminated. Should Sportz outsource its IT services?

a. Make the necessary journal entries for the following transactions:

i. On 1 April 2020, Mr Syed has invested $20,000 cash to set up a restaurant business called Nasi Kandar Penang.

ii. On 2 April 2020 Nasi Kandar restaurant purchased cooking utensils costing $8,000 by signing a 2-month, 12%, $8,000 note payable.

iii. On 8 April the restaurant received $3,000 cash from a client as a down payment for an event that is expected to be held on 15 May 2020.

iv. On 9 April Mr Syed paid rental for the business premise for the month of April, $1,000.

v. On the same day, Mr Syed paid $1,200 for a one-year business insurance policy which will expire on 10 March 2021.

b. Post each of the above entry to the respective accounts in the general=al ledger.

c. Prepare a trial balance at 30 April 2020.

Blue Company began operations on January 1, 2019, adopting the conventional retail inventory system. None of the company’s merchandise was marked down in 2019 and, because there was no beginning inventory, its ending inventory for 2019 of $38,200 would have been the same under either the conventional retail system or the LIFO retail system.

On December 31, 2020, the store management considers adopting the LIFO retail system and desires to know how the December 31, 2020, inventory would appear under both systems. All pertinent data regarding purchases, sales, markups, and markdowns are shown below. There has been no change in the price level.

Determine the cost of the 2020 ending inventory under both (a) the conventional retail method and (b) the LIFO retail method.

Building a 21st century work force involves developing training that keeps pace with information technology
needs. One of the main reasons a new HR technology system fails is not providing ample time for training.
Whether it’s a necessary system upgrade, implementing a brand-new system, or simply transitioning from one
platform to another, members of staff will be faced with change and new ways of doing things.
In view of the above, you have been appointed as the training manager of a manufacturing firm that will open
a subsidiary or a branch in September 2020. Your General Manager has asked you to develop a training program
that aims to boost the information technology skills of the newly formed Executive Committee Members. Your
General Manager has suggested that you organize a 2-day workshop in a resort at a location of your choice,
starting from 9 am to 5 pm each day.
Your task is to design the training programme and suggest 3 training methods that suit the training theme
described by your General Manager.