Author: chris

Introduction

The assignments have been designed to help you integrate and apply the concepts you have learned up to this point. These concepts provide a foundation on which other course concepts are built. Assessing your comprehension will help ensure that you are on track to successfully complete the course. Refer to the Course Guide for general guidelines on preparing and submitting assignments. Also, be sure to read your instructor’s introductory postings pertinent to the assignments in the Discussions area of the course.

The activities in this module have introduced key features of the strategic model. This assignment will test your understanding of these features and what you have learned in Module 2. All of the activities done for this module are the foundation for this assignment; a review the readings and the activities should reveal the appropriate answers to the questions posed.

This assignment consists of two parts: Part A requires an analysis of Qualcomm Inc. (as of September 2012), and Part B requires that you submit evidence of your work on the module activities. The assignment is worth 15 per cent of your final grade in the course. Click here to see the Form 10K.

Part A: 80% of the assignment grade

Perform an analysis of Qualcomm Inc. Your analysis will draw on the Form 10K (as of September 30, 2012). Your analysis can include information prior to September 2012 but should not draw on any information that you might come across that is post-September 2012. Bear in mind that as a strategic manager you do not have the benefit of foresight and hence your analysis must be confined to the period defined in the Form 10K as of September 2012 for this assignment.

Address the following in your analysis:

1. Read the Qualcomm material carefully and note the industry forces that have shaped the firm’s direction and strategies. Support your assessment with relevant evidence drawn from the case material and strategic management theory.

2. Identify and explain the strategic levels that the firm is expressing and assess whether the company has the competencies, resources, and capabilities to achieve its goals? In addition, identify the threats and opportunities confronting the firm and explain fully how the firm is addressing these.

3. Prepare a value chain analysis for Qualcomm and identify and explain where it is creating or destroying value.

4. Identify and explain whether Qualcomm has competitive advantage and determine where and how this competitive advantage is being created.

5. Based on your awareness of the firm as revealed in questions 1–4, provide an assessment on the firm’s strategic options and alternatives.

Part A should not exceed 10 pages in length, double spaced, Times Roman 12 pt. Page setup: 1 inch margin on the left and right.

Part B: 20% of the assignment grade

Write a brief report that demonstrates your active participation in the discussions and contributions to your personal journal. It should include examples of your postings on the activities, your thoughts and personal musings on the problems and issues introduced in the activities, and a summary of what you learned in this module. In addition, you can refer to questions that arose from your work on the activities. If you replied to questions posed by other class participants, indicate what your replies were and whether the interaction with other participants increased your understanding of course concepts, such as strategy formation and the strategic planning process. DO NOT copy and paste from your personal journal or discussion postings. Part B is an executive summary of the relevant issues/theory raised in the module activities.

Part B should not exceed 4 pages in length, double spaced, Times Roman 12 pt. Page setup: 1 inch margin on the left and right.

CS:

In this case assignment consider some key strategies recently implemented by Comcast in its effort to succeed and compete in its current competitive environment. Discuss the strategic direction of the company and whether you believe the organization to be on the right track. Make recommendations that you believe would help Comcast to gain market share (that is, hypothetically formulate what you think would be useful strategies for Comcast to consider). Also comment regarding whether you believe Comcast operates in a socially responsible manner and whether their CSR record helps or hinders their success

SLP:

For this SLP submission you will be asked to submit your third blog entry about another important aspect of the strategic management process and to provide examples based on current events pulled from recent articles from reputable sources (such as a major national news source like the NY Times, Business Week, etc.).

Recall that the main article(s) for each of your blog entries must be no older than 4 months old. If you use an older article as your primary focal article, you will be asked to redo the assignment. You may, of course, use older sources to support your discussion but the article serving as the main focus of your paper must be recent.

For your third SLP discuss the importance of the strategy formulation and planning phase. Identify one recent article that identifies a recent major strategic effort on the part of an organization. What would you have recommended if you were sitting at the strategy planning table? Examples of such an effort might include mergers, buy-outs, sell-offs, introduction of innovative products, strategic marketing campaigns …and the like.

Discuss to what extent you believe this effort will succeed given the organization’s external environment. What is the take-away for your reading audience? That is, what strategic planning lessons can be learned from the situation you highlighted in your blog entry?

Write a three to six (3-6) page paper in which you provide the following information below.

Operations Plan (1 – 2 pages)

Note: Remember to assign a dollar amount to each operational cost you find, as you will need these figures for your income statement and cash flow in Week 8.

Create an operations plan for your NAB company using the template in the text as a guide (p. 214 | Operations Plan Preparation Form ). Extract appropriate information from the NAB Company portfolio, where applicable. Other required items in the template should be filled in using your personal preferences.
Provide a rationale for the competitive advantages section using appropriate functional-level and business-level strategies to explain the competitive advantages.
Note: Much of the research pertaining to the hints provided here can be found in the NAB company portfolio.
Hints: Consider whether you will rent or buy your facilities or outsource production to an existing company.
Hints: One of your biggest expenses as a startup non-alcoholic beverage company will be transitioning from a small batch prototype of your beverage to production on a large scale. Research the equipment you will need (vats, refrigerators, burners, ovens, bottling equipment, and so on), whether you will rent or buy, how you will maintain and clean it, and so forth. Consider how you will ensure quality control. What capacity do you intend to reach?
Hints: Deliberate your inventory control. Where do your supplies come from and what is your turnaround time to produce your beverage once you have received an order?
Hints: Consider your distribution method. Refer back to your notes for the SWOT analysis assignment in Week 2 of class.
Hints: How will you stay abreast of new developments in your industry? What new products do you have in development now, in addition to your flagship product?
Describe your research and development activities and explain how they will contribute to the company.

Imagine that you have just started your own freelancing business. You have been hired to create a Web page for a company of your choice that announces the item of the week, month, or year. (e.g., Car of the Year, Pet of the Month, Sandwich of the Week, etc.)

Create a Cascading Style Sheet (.css) that applies a minimum of background color and font.
Create one (1) Web page and a heading tag that overrides the Cascading Style Sheet (.css) font settings and makes the font of the heading different from the rest of the page.
The page must also include:
An image depicting the item of the week, month, or year.
At least three (3) hyperlinks to Websites of associated interest to the item and a brief description of what they are about.
Example: Click here to visit Strayer University
This link will take you to the University’s main page where you can find further information.
At the bottom of the page, create a link that would allow the user to email you with questions using the mailto: tag and your email address.
Note: When the email opens the subject line should automatically say, “More Information Please”.
Create a footer displaying the Copyright symbol (using the character entity reference), the year, and your name.
Example: © 2012 Mary Smith
Include a piece of JavaScript in the page.

Research DSL and cable modem services available closest to your community. You may use neighboring communities or regions if your community does not have access to DSL or cable modem services. Researched material must be focused on the technical aspects of DSL and cable modem services. Marketed documents, white papers, or other advertisements may not be used for the completion of this assignment.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

Identify the DSL and cable modem services referenced in this assignment and the region(s) in which they operate.

Create a diagram of the DSL and Cable Modem connections to your ISP, cable organization, and telecom to your home router using Visio or its open source alternative software. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.

Compare and evaluate the speeds of DSL and cable modem that you researched.
Compare and evaluate the cost of DSL and cable modem that you researched.
Compare and evaluate the reliability of DSL and cable modem that you researched.
Recommend DSL or cable modem based on the previous comparison and evaluation of services available closest to your region. Explain your recommendation.
Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Assignment 1: LASA 2: Inappropriate Behavior

Marwan has worked at Studio Five Theme Park as a character actor portraying a swash-buckling pirate. He does not have an employment contract. He loves his job because of his seniority with the company and all the attention he receives from the guests in the park. Unknown to anyone, his prosthetic leg has no noticeable impact on Marwan’s success in this position.

Marwan has become an accomplished flirt with all this attention, and now goes to the extent of placing his hands on the female guests’ behinds when posing for pictures. The women he has encountered so far have not complained, didn’t seem to mind, or they were taken by such surprise they were not sure how to respond.

One day, Marwan grabbed the breast of one of his fellow female actors who had been recently hired. When she threatened to report him, Marwan told her that he could get her fired if she did not go on a date with him. The fellow employee reported the incident anyway and Marwan was terminated immediately. Marwan contends that he was terminated as a result of physical disability.

Directions:

Research employment law related to hiring/firing and discrimination, using your textbook, the Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet. Based on the facts of the case and research, write an analytical paper. In the paper, respond to the following questions:

What civil rights laws may prohibit Marwan’s conduct with his fellow co-worker? Do those laws apply to his conduct toward the park guest? Explain both answers.
Did Marwan commit sexual harassment? If so, what type? Explain your answers and the terms you use.
What is the legal nature of Marwan’s employment? Explain your answers and the terms you use.
What actions and steps should Studio Five take against Marwan? Explain what actions you considered and why you either recommend them or reject them.
Discuss Marwan’s allegation that he is being discriminated against based on his disability and what response Studio Five may have to that allegation. What would each of them have to prove in court?
If the female employee sues Studio Five Theme Park, what defenses can Studio Five use? Are they liable for Marwan’s conduct even if they were unaware of and did not approve of Marwan’s actions? Explain your answers and the terms you use.
If Marwan was a member of a union that had a collective bargaining agreement with Studio Five, would that change any of your previous answers? If so, why?
What types of company policies, procedures, and actions should businesses employ to avoid harassment of their employees?

Per the textbook, trying to understand factors that impact the outcomes of business process is an important aspect of improving business operations. Conventional wisdom plans experiment one-factor-at-a-time (OFAAT). Compare and contrast the main advantages and disadvantages of OFAAT and DOE and select the approach (e.g., OFAAT or DOE) that you would use in order to obtain effective business process. Provide a rationale for your response.

Select a health care organization for which to create a QI plan.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you do the following:

· Select two to three areas of potential improvement for the organization you chose. Describe the data needed to monitor improvement. Identify and describe at least three data collection tools you can use to collect performance information.

o What types of information does each tool collect?

o What are the strengths and weaknesses of each tool for each area?

o How are the data collection tools similar? How are they different?

· Research at least two tools that measure and display the QI data that can be gathered with the data collection tools.

o What types of information does each tool measure and display?

o What are each tool’s strengths and weaknesses?

o How are the tools similar? How are they different? How are these tools helpful for health care organizations?

People have very different worldviews. This difference is a central topic in Chapter 13. In this essay, think back to whether you have ever had a clash of worldviews. What was it and how was it resolved? Based on the strategies covered in the chapter, how would you deal with the clash differently? The purpose of this essay is to apply correctly the key concepts, principles, and suggestions from Chapter 13 to conflicts in your life

In 250-500 words, write a brief essay in which you apply key concepts and suggestions from Chapter 13 to your own life situation, past, present, or future. The Objectives and Key Terms at the top of Chapter 13 identify the key concepts in the chapter. Address the following questions in your essay:

• Define and explain two key concepts from the reading that stood out to you; please include page numbers, cite from the textbook, and end the essay with a reference to the textbook (citations/ references should be in APA style).

• Include suggestions the authors make that would help you better manage conflicts (again include page numbers and references to the textbook)

• Then explain how you could use the concepts that you identified to better manage a conflict in the past, present, or future.

Over the last year your boss has noticed that it would be useful for your firm to understand how consumers behave when variables in the market change and how these changes affect the total revenue for your product. You have been asked to do an analysis for your product, Good A, by addressing the following questions and reporting the results to your boss in a formal paper.

Questions:

Define the price elasticity of demand? What information does it provide? How is it calculated?

Define the income elasticity of demand? What information does it provide? How is it calculated?

Define the cross-price elasticity of demand? What information does it provide? How is it calculated?

What is total revenue? How is it calculated?

Define elastic, inelastic, and unitary elasticity means. How are these related to total revenue? Explain your answers.

With respect to the price elasticity of demand, construct a graph using the data in Figure1. Illustrate the ranges on the demand curve that indicate elastic, inelastic, and unitary elasticity. Explain your answers. Enter non-numerical responses in the same worksheet using textboxes.

Calculate the total revenue for each level of demand and post into the table, Figure 1. (Copy and paste this table into the Microsoft Word document that will form part of your submission.)

Using the midpoints formula presented in the textbook, calculate the price elasticity coefficient for each price level, starting with the coefficient for the $4 to $6 level. For each coefficient, indicate each type of elasticity: elastic demand, inelastic demand, or unitary demand. Post your answers into the table, Figure 1.

Assume that the income of consumers changes by 10%, and as a result the quantity demanded for Good A changes by 8%. What is the income elasticity of demand for Good A? What does this mean for your company?