1. The processes that allowed European immigrants to move up in the occupational structure failed to be effective for racial minority groups (particularly African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans) as they began to enter the urban working class and confronted all but ONE of the following:

   	a.	Geographic isolation
   	b.	Urban poverty
   	c.	Continuing barriers of racial prejudice and institutional discrimination
   	d.	Bankrupt cities

1 points   

QUESTION 24

1. Unlike the United States after Jim Crow, group relations in South Africa after 1948 became more rigid and the structures of control more oppressive. The difference is due to all but ONE of the following:

   	a.	There was little opposition to the creation of apartheid among South African whites
   	b.	Blacks were the great majority of the population in South Africa and this created a strong sense of threat among whites
   	c.	South African blacks were more powerless than blacks in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s.
   	d.	Blacks in South Africa immigrated to other countries in large numbers.

1 points   

QUESTION 25

1. As part of a major commitment to increase opportunities available to the poor-who are disproportionately black or brown- and with the goal to eliminate extreme poverty in the country by 2014, Brazil launched “____________________” in the year 2011. The central government has also instituted a variety of affirmative action programs intended to increase the enrollment of black students in the nation’s universities.

   	a.	Brazil Without Misery
   	b.	Brazil Without Pardos
   	c.	Brazil Without War
   	d.	Brazil Without Poverty

ACME Pharmaceutical Inc. has heard all the allegations about the trauma suffered by people as a result of receiving needles for vaccinations. They have decided to develop a new method for giving vaccines orally rather than by needle. ACME has invested years and millions of dollars into developing this new method for the administering of vaccines. ACME believes this development can be expanded to be used to replace the need for needles and help avoid the enormous environmental impact medical waste has.

ACME wishes to protect this new method of giving vaccines. As Manager of New Products at ACME, you are asked to take on the process of protecting this new process.

Not only are you asked to protect this discovery but your boss also insists that you identify a legal method which would allow you to offer the use of ACME’s new process to other pharmaceutical companies in Canada and the United States as a way to increase the revenues of ACME.

1. Given that ACME wishes to protect its newly invented process, what is the name of the type of intellectual property protection that is most appropriate in this instance? Define, or explain, this particular type of intellectual property protection.
2. Identify, and briefly describe, the three key factors which must be present before one can obtain this specific type of intellectual property protection.
3. In what countries should you file for this intellectual property protection in order to satisfy the instructions insisted upon by your boss?
4. Briefly describe how ACME can increase its revenues by allowing other companies to use its new process. What is the legal name of this type of money-making transaction?

Inventory Turnover and days’ sales in inventory

Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., and Whole Foods Markets, Inc. are three grocery chains in the United States. Inventory management is an important aspect of the grocery retail business. Recent balance sheets for these three companies indicated the following merchandise inventory (in millions) information:

a. & b. Determine the inventory turnover and the number of days’ sales in inventory (use 365 days and round to one decimal place) for the three companies. Round all interim calculations to one decimal place. For days' sales in inventory, round final answers to the nearest day, and for inventory turnover, round to two decimal places.

c. The inventory turnover ratios and days’ sales in inventory are similar  for Kroger and Sprouts. Whole Foods has a higher  inventory turnover and a lower days’ sales in inventory than Kroger and Sprouts. These results suggest that Kroger and Sprouts are less  efficient than Whole Foods in managing inventory.

d. If Kroger had Whole Foods’ days’ sales in inventory, how much additional cash flow would have been generated from the smaller inventory relative to its actual average inventory position? Round interim calculations to one decimal place and your final answer to the nearest million.
$ million

You work for Mike, a global company that specializes in manufacturing and selling athletic shoes for both competition athletes and casual users. You are called into your supervisor’s office where he tells you that you have been assigned to be the leader of a virtual team. The team has been tasked with assessing the feasibility of the company manufacturing and marketing an inexpensive athletic shoe to be sold in Brazil. You will be responsible for getting the team up and running, maintaining open and clear lines of communications, and ultimately launching the product if it is found to be feasible.

Your supervisor hands you a list of the team members—twelve of them. Three work in the United States (two in Beaverton, Oregon, and one in New York City). Two work in England, two in China, two in India, and three in Brazil. All are Mike employees, and all were born in the country in which they work. All speak English, though some speak it better than others.

Write

Since you are the team’s leader, your supervisor has asked you to meet with the members. Answer the questions below pertaining to the team:

1. What challenges do you expect the team will face because of its multicultural makeup?
2. How can you help the team overcome these challenges?
3. What are the opportunities presented by the multicultural makeup of the team?
4. As a manager, would you have to consider different methods of motivating your multicultural team?
5. What challenges with the creation of a marketing plan do you expect?
6. Are there any legal and accounting challenges you predict in this global project?

Case Study 2: SAP Eliminates Annual Performance Reviews

he annual performance review is a main feature of HR programs in most companies. Yet, a handful of companies such as Accenture, Adobe, Medtronic, Gap and Microsoft are moving away from the traditional annual performance review and pursuing other methods. SAP is a very successful global company headquartered in Germany. The company provides support for cloud-based management software that enables thousands of clients to deliver performance feedback to millions of employees. While SAP will continue to provide support for performance feedback for other companies, it has decided to eliminate annual performance reviews for its own workers in the United States. SAP’s chief HR officer for Germany, Wolfgang Fassnacht, told Reuters that. “Grading workers did not work. People are open to feedback, also to harsh criticism, until the moment you start giving scores. Then the shutters go down.” This change does not mean that SAP is abandoning all performance feedback, just the annual reviews are slated to go away. The plan is to replace them with regular check-in discussions to provide feedback in real time and foster dialogue that can lead to better performance.

Questions

1. Why do companies conduct annual performance reviews?
2. What are the challenges with conducting annual reviews?
3. What changes do you think would improve the annual review process?
4. What do you think of SAP’s plans? Will they be successful? Why or why not?

Stewart invented “Max” a board game similar to “Tic Tac Toe.” In May 2017, Stewart began negotiating with Big Board, Inc., to license “Max” for distribution outside the United States. On June 11, 2017, the parties met and orally discussed terms. As compensation, Big Board promised to pay Stewart the amount due from another board game he had developed for Big Board two years ago. On June 26, 2017, Lisa, a Big Board employee, sent Stewart an email titled “Max Deal” that repeated all terms previously discussed and added that they “have been agreed to by Big Board subject to a written contract” and was signed with an electronic signature “Best Regards Lisa”.On July 01, 2017, Stewart emailed Big Board a more formal draft of the terms prepared by his lawyer, which Stewart signed, stating the contract needed to be signed and returned within 10 days but Big Board did not sign or return the contract. Big Board subsequently displayed Max at its pre-Toy Fair in August 2017. After the fair, Big Board sent Stewart an unsigned email saying that it no longer wished to license his game.

Analyze the facts, discuss the applicable law, and reach a logical conclusion as to whether or not there is a legal contract/agreement. Make reasonable assumptions when necessary to complete your analysis. Answer must be no less than 250 words.

BUSINESS LAW

GENERAL BUSINESS COURSE QUESTION:

Joe and Jill were talking about the role played by the Federal Reserve System in the United States. Joe seemed to be quite well informed about the functions and activities of our central bank. "You see, Jill, the Fed is the main guardian of our nation's economic stability," Joe declared. "In America, we don't want inflation and we don't want recession. To stretch the situation just a bit, we are frightened, absolutely terrified, by thoughts of hyperinflation and depression. So, the Fed maintains the right to alter the situation and protect us from these two monsters. And you ask, how they do that? The answer is the discount rate. That is the device that the Federal Reserve System uses to keep us safe."

Jill was enjoying listening to her friend explain it all. Joe continued, "Now the discount rate is the interest rate that the twelve Federal Reserve Banks around the country charge their member banks on a loan. So, when the discount rate goes up, all interest rates tend to go up. And, happy to say, when interest rates go up all over America, this tends to slow down any inflationary tendencies." Jill asked, "Does the Fed have other tools for stopping inflation?" "No," said Joe.

7) Has the economy recovered from the last recession? What factors led you to your answer? You should be able to back up your opinion. Don't use blog opinions. Make sure your source(s) is/are based upon facts.

Assignment Details

For this assignment, suppose that you work for a consulting firm, and that you have been asked to research a company and make a presentation to your client.  

For the presentation:

1. Choose a major U.S. company,
2. Research the company and the market(s) in which it competes, and
3. Prepare a presentation of 10-12 PowerPoint slides (with detailed speaker notes).

Using information from the business press, AIU's Library, IBIS World, and the Internet, address the following in your slides:

• Describe the firm, include such information as its:
  • products or services
  • annual sales, and
  • market share (this information is readily available in the IBIS World database.)
• Describe the market(s) in which it operates.  
  • For instance, does it operate within an oligopoly or monopolistically competitive market, a perfectly competitive market, or is it a monopoly? (Choose the closest fit.)
  • Explain.
• Does it operate in only one region of the United States? Does it operate nationally or internationally? Explain.  
• Who are its competitors?  
  • Give a brief overview of the other businesses in the market that it competes against.
• Identify and explain at least 2 economic concepts that this firm seems to use to its advantage.   
  • Examples might include product differentiation; attainment of economies of scale; advertising; whether the firm is regional, national, or international; and so on.  
• Please include an explanation of how any significant recent events or changes in this market have affected this firm. Examples are mergers and acquisitions, technological change, legal issues, whether market demand is expanding, and so on.
• Provide your evaluation of how this firm might better respond to the challenges it faces.

Present your information, with appropriate pictures and graphics.

Accounting profit includes “profits as shown on a company’s financial statements,” and it takes into consideration explicit costs, while economic profit is a broader measure of profit that includes the recognition of both explicit and implicit costs (like the cost of equity capital) (Froeb et al., 2018). A specific value to review to determine a firm's accounting profit is net income, which is referred to as “the bottom line” by accountants. A net income value can be found on a firm’s income statement. (Note that income statements for publicly traded firms within the United States can be found for free through an internet search.) A positive net income value would indicate that the firm is indeed generating accounting profit, while a negative net income value would indicate that the firm is not generating accounting profit. Economic profit is harder to measure since it also includes implicit costs, some of which can be difficult to measure since they are not necessarily easy to quantify. _____________________ 1. Select a U.S. publicly traded company. What level of net income did the firm achieve during the last year or period that you found (the value should be from the last 18 months)? Did the firm earn an accounting profit? Explain. 2. Assume the firm was unable to earn an economic profit? What does this mean for the firm you selected? 3. Explain why it is important for any firm to earn both an accounting profit and economic profit, and why any firm that only earns an accounting profit will likely not stay in business very long.

How Hauwei Might Handle the Latest US Sanctions

Author Name: Klint Finley

Publishing Date: June 21,2019

Publishing Platform: Wired

An article that I found extremely interesting was of a recent issue faced by a business in the United States named Huawei . Its a Chinese telecom hardware company. Huawei is China’s biggest phone maker and has recently been embroiled with the U.S. government concerning security threats. Huawei did business with many American corporations in the USA and provided cellular network gear to many companies in the USA. Yet, there was a security concern that China is using Huawei’s network for surveillance purposes.

That issue was quickly resolved after the U.S. government applied law and Constitution and banned all U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei keeping in mind the issue of national security. Using the provisions of the U.S. constitution, the government added Huawei to a list of companies that are considered a threat to U.S. national security. So Huawei is unable freely acquire U.S. technology and will have to seek U.S. government’s permission to do the same. The provisions of the Constitution with regards to national security have been used to put export restrictions on Huawei as well.

The US has been very concerned about some of these Chinese companies simply being trojan horses for China.

Another interesting area is mergers re international law, thanks for this post. Mergers are not as controversial as they used to be. My guess is that because so many companies compete globally now, we are not as concerned when they grow large!

Is that a good or bad development?