Month: September 2015

How well will this practice work?

Describe the potential advantages and disadvantages associated with rotating engineers through the racing teams. Explain how the experience on the racing teams could be used to develop GM employees who have other types of jobs.

and some details here about general motors:

its general motors case for  Managing and Behavior in Organizations

 

Other signs that the revitalization at General Motors is genuine involve changes to the company’s management practices. For example, consider the steps the company has taken to develop creativity and urgency of engineers who need to introduce fresh new vehicles into the marketplace at an improved pace. Traditionally, engineers worked long-term product development cycles involving high levels of structure, control, and routine.91Engineers are now rotated through GM’s racing teams for a season so that they can learn how to perform in a context where problem solving is quicker and more fluid. In racing, there’s less information and time available, and as a consequence, engineers learn to become more comfortable making decisions based on their gut feelings and experience, rather than on an exhaustive analysis of data and consideration of benefits and costs from every conceivable vantage point, so that the best compromise can be reached. General Motors is willing to accept that some decisions will be wrong, however; decisions will be made quicker, and perhaps more important, knowledge gained from bad decisions can be used to inform better future decisions. How well will this practice work? Although it is difficult to predict, the 20 new vehicles that General Motors introduced in 2012 compare favorably to the 19 that its chief rival Toyota introduced in 2011.92

Is Social Media a good forum for elected leaders? How should they best communicate with the public?

SLO# 1: Social Media and the Texas Executive.  70% of students will successfully develop a set of best practices for elected leaders’ use of , and, using these beset practices, evaluate the habits of the Texas governor and Lt. Governor. ( 2 to 3 pages )
Activity for Assessment:  Is Social Media a good forum for elected leaders?  How should they best communicate with the public?  You’ll evaluate the Governor and Lt. Governor of Texas on their use of Twitter and Facebook to implement their agendas.

1.      Read the Pew Charitable Trust article (http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2014/10/17/officials-urged-take-care-with-social-media   and develop a list of best practices for elected leaders’ use of .

2.      Spend a week (select a 7-day period) with our Governor and Lt. Governor as they utilize :
a.      Abbott’s personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx
b.      Abbott’s official Governor of Texas Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TexasGovernor?ref=br_tf
c.      Dan Patrick’s personal Twitter:  https://twitter.com/danpatrick
d.      Dan Patrick’s official Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/dan.patrick.texas

3. What message or agenda are each conveying to “followers?”  Discuss three (3) themes for each official.
4. Are they consistent with what’s on their “official” government pages?

a.      Abbott:  http://gov.texas.gov/initiatives
b.      Patrick:  https://www.ltgov.state.tx.us/ (see “Priorities”)

5. If you were the advisor to each man, what would suggest for each?  Based upon your “best practices,” are they doing it right?  What can each do to try to reach out beyond their base of supporters/followers?

[SLO1 fulfills Program Level Outcomes 1.1, 1.3, 2, 5, 6; Course Level Outcomes 3, 4, 5, 7, 8]

For all Assessments, the following general requirements hold:
(1)          Assignments should be 2-3 double-spaced pages, with reasonable (12 pt.) font and reasonable (1 inch) margins.
(2)          Citations to material are required; in-text citations are preferred (MLA style).

Outline the steps a forensic technician should take to process the scene.

CJ2570: Week 2 Physical Evidence and Processing The Scene Analysis 2.1/Processing the Scene 1 Review the case below and then complete the tasks that follow: Danielle Van Dam Case Study: On the evening of Friday, February 1, 2002, Brenda Van Dam had a girls’ night out with friends in the San Diego suburb of Sabre Springs. Brenda’s husband, Damon, remained at home to care for their 7-year old daughter, Danielle, and her two brothers. Damon sent the children to bed at approximately 10:00 PM and then fell asleep. Brenda returned home at around 2:00 AM with four of her friends. Damon woke up to socialize with Brenda and her friends. Around 3:00 AM, the friends left and the Van Dams went to sleep, believing that their daughter was sleeping safely in her room. The next morning, Danielle was missing. The Van Dams called the police at 9:39 AM. The police interviewed neighbors and forensic technicians collected evidence from the Van Dam home. Police soon discovered that a neighbor, David Alan Westerfield, was not at home the Saturday morning of Danielle’s disappearance. Westerfield was placed under 24-hour surveillance on February 4, after police became suspicious when he was observed cleaning his RV. Westerfield claimed he had been driving through the desert, beach, and mountains in his RV. During questioning, Westerfield appeared nervous, citing 13 different destinations for his weekend RV trip. Detectives also observed small cuts on Westerfield’s hands. Search warrants were obtained for his home and RV. In Westerfield’s home computer files, police discovered pornographic images of young girls. In his RV, police located blood, hair, and a fingerprint matching Danielle’s. (It was later discovered that days after Danielle disappeared, a haggard and barefoot Westerfield stopped at a dry cleaning store to drop off two comforters, two pillow covers and a jacket with stains that would later yield Danielle’s blood.) On February 22, police arrested Westerfield for Danielle’s kidnapping. On February 27, Danielle’s decomposed naked body was discovered under a cluster of oak trees near a busy road east of San Diego. Murder charges were subsequently filed. Westerfield was found guilty and sentenced to death.

You should also research this case in the ITT Tech Virtual library and Internet sources for additional information. Write an analysis of this case using the following prompts: On the basis of the facts provided, identify the crime scene(s) involved. Outline the steps a forensic technician should take to process the scene. Submission Requirements: Report your findings in a Word document of approximately five pages. (APA format and references.)

How can they be used most effectively in a combined approach?

Research at least three quantitative data collection instruments and sampling methods available to researchers using the text and additional resources from the University Library.

Identify two articles in the University Library: one in which the business problem is researched using a descriptive statistical method and another using an inferential method.

Summarize each of the data collection instruments, sampling methods, and the statistical methods.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you compare and contrast each of the approaches:

  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of each sampling approach?
  • What are the specific situations in which you would choose to use each of the instruments and designs?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of each statistical approach?
  • How can they be used most effectively in a combined approach?
  • Which methods are more appropriate for research in your own business and functional area?

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Analyze the effect of both full-cost and variable-cost transfer pricing methods on Phipps’ cash flows using a spreadsheet program such as Excel.

  • As a manager, you may be tasked with making recommendations as to how your organization should structure its transfer pricing. This is especially true in cases when both variable or full cost transfer pricing is acceptable, and the choice is not obvious.
  • For this Assignment, take a moment to review your course text. Reflect on the scenario presented and consider how transfer pricing decisions might apply to organizational decision making.
  • Phipps manufactures circuit boards in Division A, a country with a 30% income tax rate, and transfers them to Division B, a country with a 40% income tax. An import duty of 15% of the transfer price is paid on all imported products. The import duty is not deductible in computing taxable income. The circuit boards’ full cost is $1,000 and variable cost is $700; they are sold by Division B for $1,200. The tax authorities in both countries allow firms to use either variable cost or full cost as the transfer price.
  • The Assignment:
    • Part 1: Analyze the effect of both full-cost and variable-cost transfer pricing methods on Phipps’ cash flows using a spreadsheet program such as Excel.

Part 2: Make your recommendation as to how the organization should proceed, being sure to justify your recommendation with examples form this week’s resources, and/or additional research

Is the company a dot- com success, borderline business, or failure? What information provides the basis of your decision? Why?

Is the company a dot- com success, borderline business, or failure? What information provides the basis of your decision? Why? When answering these questions, pay special attention to the company’s three- year trends in revenues, costs of sales, gross margins, operating expenses, and net margins.

 

  • Prepare a PowerPoint overhead presentation (with a minimum of five slides), including appropriate spreadsheets or charts, and present your work to your professor and classmates. An example PowerPoint slide presentation is attached for your review in this learning module folder in Blackboard.

 

As needed: Students can find material on understanding financial statements on financial Web sites such as Ameritrade (www.ameritrade.com) or the Small Business Knowledge Base http://www.bizmove.com/finance/m3b2.htm.

 

Downloading the Data into a Spreadsheet

 

Use the Convert Text to Columns Wizard in your spreadsheet software to arrange the 10-K data you downloaded into spreadsheet columns and rows. From the Excel menu, select Data and then select the Text to Columns option. The software brings up a Wizard to convert the imported text into spreadsheet columns. Although you can decide to create line breaks, it may be easiest to accept the default settings (Fixed Width, General format) and then adjust column widths after the Wizard has arranged the data in spreadsheet columns.

 

Financial Statements

 

Financial statements are used to evaluate the performance of a business and diagnose its strengths and weaknesses. The two primary financial statements are income statements and balance sheets. The income statement, also called an operating statement or profit and loss statement, shows the income and expenses of a firm over a period of time, such as a year, a quarter, or a month. Gross profit is calculated by subtracting the cost of goods sold from revenues, or sales. The gross margin is calculated by dividing gross profit by revenues (or sales). Net profit (or loss) is calculated by subtracting all other expenses, including operating expenses and income taxes from gross profit. Operating expenses are all business costs (such as expenditures for sales and marketing, general and administrative expenditures, and depreciation) other than those included in the cost of goods sold.   Net margins are calculated by dividing net profit (or loss) by revenues (or sales).

 

A balance sheet provides a snapshot of a company’s financial assets and liabilities on a given date, usually the close of an accounting period.   It lists what material and intangible assets the business owns and what money the business owes either to its creditors (liabilities) or to its owners (shareholders’ equity, also known as net worth). At any given time a business’s assets equals the sum of its liabilities plus its net worth. Current assets include cash, securities, accounts receivable, or other investments that are likely to be converted into cash within one year. Liabilities are outstanding obligations of the firm. Current liabilities are debts that are due within one year. Long-term debt consists of liabilities that are not due until after a year or more. If too much debt has been used to finance the firm’s operations, problems may arise in meeting future interest payments and repaying outstanding loans. By examining a series of balance sheets, one can identify and analyze trends in the financial strength of a business.