Week 3 Discussion Forum

Class begins on Monday and ends on Sunday at 11:55PM of each week.

Your first/ initial entry into the discussion MUST be made by Thursday in order to receive credit for the week. This way you can read, learn, and comment on each other’s posts before the assignment is due.

If you have any questions or need further clarification please feel free to contact me via e-mail at: 

In the event that you email me and I don’t reply within 24 hours, it is most likely because I didn’t get your email. Please check the address and email me again. If for some reason you have to email me any documents, please be kind and write me a note too and don’t just send your document making the assumption that I will read it. Don’t forget the old axiom, people do business with people they like, with that in mind, make yourself likable and you might be surprised by what people will do for you. 

Answer the following questions

1. Why is strategic planning important to a small company?
2. What is a competitive advantage? Why is it important for a small company to establish one?
3. What are the steps in the strategic management process? 
4. One Business writer says, The text of a mission statement is what you do with it after you put it in place. What does she mean? Do you agree? Explain.
5.  Our customers dont just like our ice cream, write Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben and Jerrys Homemade Inc. They like what our company stands for. They like how doing business with us makes them feel. What do they mean?
6. What are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?  Give an example of each.
7. Explain the characteristics of effective objectives. Why is setting objectives important?
8. What are business strategies? Describe the three basic strategies available to small companies. Under what conditions are each successful?
9. Its better to be a company with a great strategy in a crummy business than to be a company with a crummy strategy in a great business, says one business expert. Do you agree? Explain.
10. Explain how a company can gain a competitive advantage using each of the three strategies described in this chapter: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Give an example of a company that is using each strategy.
11. How is the controlling process related to the planning process?

Answer the following questions based upon the Kloppenborg text and Exhibits presented in the chapter. The length of the paper should be enough pages to properly and fully answer all the exercise questions. As this is an exercise no other sources (except the source describing the project) need to be utilized. The assignment is due by Sunday evening at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

Find a story in your local newspaper or other media/web outlet about a project that is about to start. For that project, answer each of the following questions and justify your answers:

1. Briefly provide an overview of the project (answer the basics who, what, where, when and why). Also, provide the source for the information discovered.

2. Using the ideas in Exhibit 13.2, speculate on what activities, supplies, or services could be contracted out.

3. Create a request for information (RFI) for one portion of the project work that could be contracted out.

4. Using ideas from Exhibits 13.4 and 13.5, determine criteria you would use to select sellers for the portion of contract work under consideration.

Choose one public corporation in an industry with which you are familiar. Research the company on its own website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission , the University’s , the , and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.

REQUIREMENTS

Write a four page paper in which you do the following:

• Assess how globalization and technology changes have impacted the corporation you researched.
• Apply the industrial organization model and the resource-based model to determine how your corporation could earn above-average returns.
• Assess how the vision statement and mission statement of the corporation influence its overall success.  
• Evaluate how each category of stakeholder impacts the overall success of this corporation.

Choose an editorial article (An editorial is an article that presents the writer’s opinion on an issue supported with facts) Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. Choose an editorial that addresses a business issue that interests you.

Instructions:

Write an essay describing the following:

1. Citation of the article and a brief summary of its contents
2. What are the premise(s) in the article?
3. What evidence is presented? Is it credible?
4. Can you independently verify the evidence presented?
5. How are counterarguments addressed?
6. Does the writer represent a particular interest? 
7. How is language used to develop the argument?
8. Do you detect any errors in knowledge, evidence, or thinking?
9. Does the writer use any types of appeals or commit any fallacies?
10. Overall, how compelling is this article?

Have at least 3 credible sources

4 6 pages in length

APA format

This question will be three assignments in one, please review carefully before accepting this assignment:

1. First Assignment: Case Study Analysis one:

Read: Cash and Corporate Control (Faleye, 2004).

The purpose of this article review is for you to learn to seek out information and to write an evaluative and critical review of a journal article.  Your review must be submitted as a Word document. Use your name in the filename, along with the assignment name. For example: Smith,Fred.ArticleReview1.

Your written review will be approximately 3-4 double-spaced narrative pages, plus a title page (with Running head), page numbers, and in keeping with APA guidelines.  An abstract is NOT required for the article review.

It is important for you to learn how to write about another author’s work, which is different from regurgitating what the author wrote. Your review should not read as though you are the author of the article or material as opposed to reading form a critical perspective. The reader should clearly understand the difference between the author’s contribution and your interpretation and evaluation of that contribution. Your review should show that you can recognize arguments and engage in critical thinking about the course content.  Keep questions like these in mind as you read, make notes, and then write the review or critique.  Critical thinking and application of course content is necessary for this assignment.

2. Second assignment… Case Study Analysis two:

Read: Knowing versus Telling Private Information about a Rival (Bagnoli & Watts, 2013)

The purpose of this article review is for you to learn to seek out information and to write an evaluative and critical review of a journal article.  Your review must be submitted as a Word document. Use your name in the filename, along with the assignment name. For example: Smith,Fred.ArticleReview1.

Your written review will be approximately 3-4 double-spaced narrative pages, plus a title page (with Running head), page numbers, and in keeping with APA guidelines.  An abstract is NOT required for the article review.

It is important for you to learn how to write about another author’s work, which is different from regurgitating what the author wrote. Your review should not read as though you are the author of the article or material as opposed to reading form a critical perspective. The reader should clearly understand the difference between the author’s contribution and your interpretation and evaluation of that contribution. Your review should show that you can recognize arguments and engage in critical thinking about the course content.  Keep questions like these in mind as you read, make notes, and then write the review or critique.  Critical thinking and application of course content is necessary for this assignment.

3. 3rd Assignment: Scholarly Paper:

 You are to write a scholarly paper of 5-7 pages (plus cover page, abstract, and reference list) in length on some aspect of the research and/or theories of strategic or financial management that relate to the material in this course. You are free to critique a theorist or model, but you need to use scholarly sources. Your paper should be based on the literature and use appropriate citations using APA style. The topic of your scholarly paper must be specifically related to this course.  

Required Textbook:

Harvard Business Review Press (ED.) Guide to Finance Basics of Managers. (2011). Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (2008).  Reframing Organizations:  Artistry, Choice, and Leadership (6th ed.).  New York:  John Wiley & Sons.  ISBN 9780787987992.

Required Articles

Cash and Corporate Control. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6261.2004.00691. FALEYE, O. (2004). Journal Of Finance, 59(5), 2041-2060.  Available in Peirce Library.

Journal of Accounting Research, American Accounting Association Vol. 25 DOI: 10.2308/jmar-50487, 2013, pp. 3557. Knowing versus Telling Private Information about a Rival. Mark Bagnoli,Susan G. Watts Purdue University.   Available in Peirce Library.

Kaplan, S. & Beinhocker, E.D. (2003). The Real Value of Strategic Planning.MIT Sloan Management Review. Cambridge, MA. Vol. 44, No. 2.  Located in “Files” section of course.

Please use as much as of the course material as possible and reach out with any questions, comment or concerns you may have. 

Case Study Analysis One  

Case Study Analysis One

Case Study Analysis One

FULL DISSERTATION REQUIRED

9000 – 10000 words

– ABSTRACT

– INTRODUCTION (WHAT IS YOUR TOPIC/OBJECT OF INQUIRY, WHY IS IT IMPORTANT AND A SUMMARY OF YOUR RESEARCH)

– LITERATURE REVIEW (I.E. WHAT HAS BEEN SAID BY ACADEMICS ON YOUR RESEARCH TOPIC)

– METHOD (WHAT DATA HAVE YOU COLLECTED AND HOW HAVE YOU ANALYSED THEM)

– FINDINGS (WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND)

– DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Scenario/Summary

The goal of this assignment is to examine food available at fast food establishments and examine dietary practices of the everyday consumer while reviewing key nutritional components.

Fast Food Menu Creation Overview

For this assignment, you have been asked to explore the nutritional value of menu items at a local fast food restaurant. Using the available menu items, plan two meals: the healthiest meal possible and the unhealthiest meal possible. Both meals should include an entre, a side, a beverage, and dessert.

Deliverables

1. Describe the healthy meal that you have created from the fast food restaurant using the nutritional value of menu items.
   
   1. Name the restaurant and then write a nutritional analysis of the meal you have created. (Explain all of the nutrients found in the meal, like carbs, protein, fat, and some essential vitamins and minerals.)
   2. Discuss your reaction to the analysis. Make sure to explain why you feel the way you do about this meal. For example, if your meal is composed primarily of fat, discuss that point; if your meal supplies a lot of sugar per serving, discuss that as well. Please also remember to link excess or limited amounts of nutrients with diseases or the potential for disease. (Too much fat may put you at risk for heart disease, not enough calcium may not support bone health, etc.) Please make sure this section is as detailed as possible.
   3. How will this information affect your future food choices? Make sure to explain why you will or will not eat this meal again, and support your answer with the information found in the above sections.
   4. In a Word document, please answer and discuss the following questions.
2. Describe the unhealthy meal that you have created from the fast food restaurant using the nutritional value of menu items.
   
   1. Name the restaurant, and then write a nutritional analysis of the meal you have created. (Explain all of the nutrients found in the meal, like carbs, protein, fat, and some essential vitamins and minerals.)
   2. Discuss your reaction to the analysis. Make sure to explain why you feel the way you do about this meal. For example, if your meal is composed primarily of fat, discuss that point; if your meal supplies a lot of sugar per serving, discuss that as well. Please also remember to link excess or limited amounts of nutrients with diseases or the potential for disease. (Too much fat may put you at risk for heart disease, not enough calcium may not support bone health, etc.) Please make sure this section is as detailed as possible.
   3. How will this information affect your future food choices? Make sure to explain why you will or will not eat this meal again, and support your answer with the information found in the above sections.

2 Pages

 Critically evaluate your learning teams work of Part 1, outlining the strengths and weaknesses/limitations of the frameworks and ideas used in the group part. Please assess the people management strategy through your reflections. You may either use other literature to strengthen your case or apply the ideas to your own/other organizations not discussed in Part 1. The length of Part 2 is approximately 1000 words, including the (academic) referencing and other appendices.

Every entrepreneur should have an action plan for the disposition of their business in the event of an unforeseen tragedy. Your business may grow in market value long before it shows a positive cash flow. There are many types of possible estate planning mechanisms which can be used by the startup 

entrepreneur to allow for the disposition of their estate, including their business assets, in the event of their untimely death. Estate plans can be changed as the situation changes or as the business becomes more profitable and beneficiary designations need to be adjusted. 

For this assignment, you first make a checklist of all of the marketable assets of your business. This is the list that you would use to decide the disposition of assets if you were making an estate plan or will. Do not include your intended beneficiaries for each of the assets in your assignment. Rather, after each asset, include your best estimate of its market value and the method you used to determine that market value (recall our lesson of business asset valuation). 

Next, review your states intestacy statutes which will decide the disposition of these assets should you die without a will or estate plan (intestate). Include the designated beneficiary in your checklist (i.e. parents, spouse, children, etc. – do not give specific names of the beneficiary) that would receive each asset listed if you were to die intestate. 

Finally, list the state statute that specifically controls the disposition of each asset. Please note that statutes often contain subparagraphs which you must include in your citation. For example, State X statute 200(A)(1)(a) may control the disposition of personal property while 200(A)(2)(a) controls the distribution of financial assets. The specific state statute should be included that controls the distribution of each asset in your checklist.

Finally, analyze the benefits of having a written estate plan even for startup entrepreneurs with only minimal assets. 

Minimum 4 pages

Minimum 2 scholarly sources

Identifying or predicting positive and negative outcomes at Network Solutions, Inc. may be aided by the information on page 22 of the text where the author identifies the characteristics of an ideal performance management system (PMS). For this discussion, read “Case Study 1-2: Performance Management at Network Solutions, Inc.” in your textbook. What do you think will be some of the advantages or positive outcomes resulting from the implementation of the system? What do you anticipate will be some of the disadvantages or negative outcomes? Why?

Be sure to support your statements with logic and argument, citing any sources referenced. Post your initial response early, and check back often to continue the discussion. Be sure to respond to your peers posts as well.