Business Ethics And The Great Recession

Business Ethics and the Great Recession

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Business Ethics and the Great Recession

Ethical Behavior in Business

Ethical behavior in business refers to acting consistently in the ways which the community or society think that good values. Ethical behavior in business inclines to be fine and good for company or business and includes representing respect for the core and major moral principles or philosophies which involves fairness, honesty, dignity, equality, individual rights, and diversity.

Ethical behavior in business and its use helps business or organization in the long run. Beyond that, ethical behavior in leadership means to have passion for meanings. Human relationship, safety, and quality are the core and key things which should be provided by the business leaders o every single person or individual of the society or community where the business operates. Ethical behavior in business both simply and logically means the same. This means that it is the real obligation of the business or organization to develop and/or establish a moral world and keep it always on the peek (Noe, Rebello, 1994).

Great Recession

The great recession is the word or term which represent the huge and sharp decline in the economic activity during the late of the 2000s. This decline is considered as the most huge and significant decrease since the Great Recession. This economic fall occurs when the housing market of the United States gone to bust from the boom and huge amounts of MBS (Mortgage Backed Securities) and other derivatives lost their significant values.

At the time when the housing market of the United States was at the boom, all of the financial bodies in the market have started marketing mortgage-backed securities and other sophisticated derivatives commodities and products at the much-unparalleled level. So at the time, when the real estate market got down then all of these securities lost their significant values very badly. (Grusky, Western, & Wimer, 2011)

While the global economy was also in sense the huge grip of the credit crisis which had been unfolding since the end of 2007-08. A year later, the things came to the head of bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which was the number four largest bank investment bank in the region in September 2008. At the result, the United States of America cut more than 7.50 jobs in the country which further leads to double the unemployment rate of the United States.

Based on the findings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in the report of 2011, it has been stated that the Great Recession could be handled and even avoidable. The major causes of the Great Recession include some key factors because of them such a huge decline occurred. The first identified factor was the failure and inability of the Federal and government to handle and regulate the overall financial industry (Grusky, Western, & Wimer, 2011). Beyond this, another crucial cause of the Great Recession was the huge and continuous as well as excessive borrowing of corporations, consumers and all of the lawmakers which were unable to understand the collapse financial system completely and efficiently.

Contribution of Ethical Behavior in Business to Great Recession

There are plenty of researches and reports which states that ethical behavior in business and its practices have a huge contribution to the Great Recession. The contribution has been found highly positive and efficient in many terms. But in some ways, the contribution of ethical behavior in business to the Great Recession can be found in verse.

Based on the Survey of National Business Ethics in the year of 2011, the report stated that the reprisal against the employees who have reported and accounted the real misconduct has brought a slight increase since a same survey conduct couple of years ago, most of the measure of ethical behavior enhanced and improved.

Based on the information of the report;

Very few numbers of professionals and employees witnessed and argued that they had misconduct in their roles and jobs. This quantity or rate has gone down from 64 percent in 2008 to 49 percent at the end of 2010.

More than 63 percent of the workers and employees who have perceived this misconduct states that they had properly reported the misconduct. Which gone up from 50 plus percent couple of year later (Merrill, 2012).

Another positive point is that the strength and power of ethical philosophy and culture in the workplace has increased from 52 percent in 2008 progressively to 63 at the end of 2010.

All of the employees or workers who professed the tense and pressure to obligate the ethics of violation which has declined slightly to 8 percent in 2010 from 10 percent in 20018-09.

Over the two years (from 20018 to 2010), the seeming reprisal as a result of the report of the actual misconduct to 15 percent in 2010 from 12 percent in 2008.

Anyhow, the report of ERC was even a warning from some aspect. The great lesson for the companies or organizations was that “prosperous and good time comes back when we get settled more and better as well as the misconduct is likely to sneak skyward again” when the ethical behaviors in the business and operations remain fine.

Beyond above, ethical behavior in business played a vital role in the Great Recession in many other ways. The patterns of ethical behavior in business are perceived to improve the business activities and operation in a difficult time and this has been reported by the ERC as well. Based on the most recent survey, the ethical behavior in business has contributed to the Great Recession in the way that businesses should not start excessive and huge borrowing if they see some potential but had not studied the economic condition and collapse of financial condition (Merrill, 2012). It is important for the business to adopt ethical behavior of business which means that the businesses and companies should not only focus on their earnings while they must be concerned towards empowering the economy and society or community and industry where they perform their business operations.

In addition, the contribution of ethical behavior in business was, it helped the companies and business to know that they are required to play their role in the economic stability and development. As well as they should prioritize it as one of the core practice of their business operations. Another contribution is businesses should be clear that when the economic or economic development get back or down then (based ethical concerns in business) businesses are required to put every possible effort to stop misconduct from the rise and strengthen the economy and economic development (Merrill, 2012).

Contribution Ethical Behavior in Business in Economic Troubles

Ethical behavior in business is an important thing to be considered when doing any business because it contributes a lot to the success of any business or company as well as helps the business or company in difficult times and huge troubles. Business ethics or ethical behavior in business enables the business and organization to come up when they get engaged in trouble(s) and help in several ways when businesses have a hard time to face (Strutton, Lewin, 2012).

So same is the case with the economic troubles. Ethical behavior in the business helps a lot or contributes a lot while an economy survives with economic troubles. In short, ethical behaviors in business contributes to economic troubles in many ways. Some of those are listed and explained in details below.

The main and huge contribution which could be made by the ethical behavior in business in the economic troubles is the attraction of investments and potential investors. Investment in the economy or economic development is the most crucial way which could help to overcome the economic troubles and come out of it. Ethical behavior in business is the concept which is taken into consideration when investors make any investment(s) in a particular stock or business. So when your economy and business entertains a good and social fine ethical behavior then investors would prefer to make investments either in hard times or trouble (Noe, Rebello, 1994). Additionally, investors consider other things like public image and customers’ point of view, etc., rather than simply looking at profits before finalizing the investments.

So, if the ethical behavior in business brings investments into the business, it indirectly contributes to the economy in both good time and trouble.

Acting ethically has always found good for businesses and economies. There is a strong argument which states that “ethics and ethical behavior is good for both, business and economy” and “ethics should not be kept away from business or economic development”. Another argument is that unethical or lack of ethical behavior in business leads to different legal troubles for the business or economy very promptly (Noe, Rebello, 1994). At the other hand, ethical behavior in business like fairness, honesty, dignity, equality, individual rights strengthen the business and improve its earnings level which further leads to a higher contribution to the GDP and economic development.

So the contribution of ethical behavior to the business growth means it contributes to the economy in both normal situations as well as in troubles like the Great recession.

References

Grusky, D. B., Western, B., & Wimer, C. (2011). The great recession. Russell Sage Foundation.

Merrill, D. C. (2012). The Great Financial Crisis: an Ethical Rejoinder. Hegel Bulletin, 33(1), 19-32.

Noe, T. H., & Rebello, M. J. (1994). The dynamics of business ethics and economic activity. The American Economic Review, 531-547.

Strutton, D., & Lewin, J. (2012). Investigating consumers' responses to the Great Recession. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(5), 378-388.

Business Finance

Finance Assignment

Name of Student

Name of Institution

Answer 1

The CAPM shows the relationship between the systematic risk and the expected returns of a security. The components of the equation are the risk-free rate, market rate and beta. The investor is interested in the rate of expected return that is higher than the risk-free rate of return. The reason for this is that the risk-free rate does not have any risk in it. Thus, the investor will have an expected return higher than the risk-free rate of return. The difference between the risk-free return and the market return is called the risk premium.

Answer 2

The efficient market hypothesis states that the decision made by the investors are based on availability of the complete information. The efficiency can have allocative, operational and information aspects. The inefficient markets do not allow the investors to respond to the information in a timely manner. The financial markets may react too much to some of the events and then gradually calm down towards normality. There is no best time to purchase an asset in the efficient market where the information is complete and on time.

Answer 3

The dividend discount model is the method to predict the value of the stock based on the fact that the present value of the stock is the accumulated present value of all the dividend payments made over the life of the stock. The model does not consider the market conditions that prevail in the market. The dividend payout factors are the most important in this regard. If the value obtained by the dividend discount model is more than the market price, the stock is undervalued and should be bought.

Answer 4

The capital budgeting is the method to decide on the various projects available to the company. Net present value is one of the methods to evaluate the projects available. The method calculates the difference between the present values of the cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows. A positive net present value shows that present value of the inflows is more than the present value of outflows.

Answer to numerical question 2

Proportion of debt: 10/30 = 1/3

Proportion of equity: 15/30= 1/2

Proportion of Preferred stock: 5/30=1/6

The after tax cost is calculated for the debt only, this will be:

0.06(1-0.30)

=0.42

WACC = E/V * Re+D/V*Rd(1-t)

=15/30*0.35/2.34+0.02+10/30*.06

=0.1695+0.014

=0.1835 or 18.35%

The investment should be taken on because the rate of return that the company will be offering is higher than the required rate of return, i.e. 10%.

Numerical 3

FV

PVF

FV/PVF

19000000

1.18

16101695

19000000

1.3924

13645504

19000000

1.643032

11563987

19000000

1.938778

9799989

19000000

2.287758

8305075

19000000

2.699554

7038199

19000000

3.185474

5964576

19000000

3.758859

5054725

19000000

4.435454

4283665

81757415

The above table shows the calculations for the net present value of the first project. The calculations show that the present value of the inflows accumulate to 81million. This means that the net present value will be positive in this case.

FV

PVF

FV/PVF

12000000

1.18

10169492

12000000

1.3924

8618213

12000000

1.643032

7303570

12000000

1.938778

6189467

12000000

2.287758

5245311

12000000

2.699554

4445178

12000000

3.185474

3767100

12000000

3.758859

3192458

12000000

4.435454

2705473

51636262

The above table shows that the present value of the inflows is less than the initial cash flow required. This will result in the negative net present value for this project.

In the light of above discussions, the company should go for the first project if we consider the net present value concepts.

Numerical Answer 1

The expected return for the CAPM will be calculated as follows:

=3%+1.1(8%-3%)

= 8.5%

The company is offering a rate that is less than the rate expected by the investor so the investor should not invest in the company.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Berkovitch, E., 2004. Why the NPV criterion does not maximize NPV?. The Review of Financial Studies, 17(1), pp. 239-255.

jory, S. r., 2016. Net Present Value and the Wealth Creation Process: A case Illustration. The accounting educator's journal, Volume 26, pp. 85-99.

Business Finance Assignment Part B

Running Head: FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Financial Analysis

[Enter your name here]

[Enter name of institution here]

Financial Analysis

Answer 1

Standard deviation of returns

The above formula will be used to calculate standard deviation of returns for the company. Average return is 7.5% and annual returns are given. The value of n will be 4 as there are 4 values given in the analysis.

552450212725= √ (-4-7.5) ^2+ (7-7.5) ^2+ (14-7.5) ^2+ (24-7.5) ^2

3

= √447/3

= √149

=12.20

This figure shows that the given company is much riskier than the average market and it will have to provide higher returns to attract investors. It I not a good idea to invest in this company.

The CAPM calculates the return for any given security from the following formula:

R = Rf +β (Rm – Rf)

Risk free rate is 3%, market average rate is 7.5% and beta is 1.1, putting these values in the above formula, we get a value of 8.5% which is higher than the average market return. Using CAPM is a powerful tool to be used in financial investment analysis, because it is based on the concept of diversification. The idea of diversification is considered important by financial markets. If people hold efficient portfolios, they will all add up to an efficient market portfolio CITATION Tom13 \l 1033 (Smith & Walsh, 2013). Diversification is achieved by selecting less risky and more risky assets in a portfolio so that it is balanced. There is no guidance in the CAPM on how to price assets to be included in efficient portfolios. The empirical implication of CAPM can be judged by comparing to the market portfolio which is the only efficient portfolio available. The factors like size or market to book will communicate the same thing over and over again in case of CAPM. Geographical indices such as standard and poor will not suffice the need for a proxy and a global more representative index may have to be developed.

Answer 2

WACC

Cost of equity* percentage of equity + Cost of Debt * percentage of debt (1- tax rate) + Cost of preferred stock * percentage of preferred stock

Cost of Equity = D1/P0 + g

= 0.1957/1.88 + 0.03

= 0.1340

Cost of Preferred stock = D/ P

= 1.2/11.45

= 0.105

Cost of debt 0.05, putting values

= 66.67% * 0.1340+0.05*26.67%*0.7 + 0.1045*6.67%

= 0.0893+0.00933+0.00697

= 10.56%

Since weighted average cost of capital is less than the required rate of return by the investors, they will not be willing to invest in this company. Dividends are the cash payments made to shareholders both preferred as well as common stockholders. Dividend discount models help to ascertain the cost of preferred stock as well as common stock. The discount model factor is used to calculate the costs of both preferred and common stocks. The dividend discount model is very sensitive to the relationship between growth rate of dividends and required rate of return. There is an increase in valuation error when there is less gap between cost of stock and growth rate of dividends. The managers should know that there is no exact price for the stock rather the model gives a range within which share price may fall CITATION Tho99 \l 1033 (Payne & Finch, 1999).

Answer 3

For project 1 NPV = ∑ CF/ (1+i) ^n

Putting values, we get

13000000/1.12+13000000/1.12^2 +13000000/1.12^ 3+ 13000000/1.12^ 4+13000000/1.12^ 5+ 13000000/1.12^6 + 13000000/1.12^7

Solving the expressions, we get the net present value as

$ 59328835-55000000

= $ 4328835

For second option, the NPV will be:

∑ CF/ (1+i) ^n

In this case cash flow is $ 11000000 and number of years are 11 which brings us to the following table.

11000000

1.12

9821429

11000000

1.2544

8769133

11000000

1.404928

7829583

11000000

1.573519

6990699

11000000

1.762342

6241695

11000000

1.973823

5572942

11000000

2.210681

4975841

11000000

2.475963

4442716

11000000

2.773079

3966710

11000000

3.105848

3541706

11000000

3.47855

3162237

65314690

Initial

NPV

60000000

5314690

In the above table, 11 million is the cash flow expected and $ 60000000 is the initial cash outflow. The NPV is the difference between sum of discounted cash flows and initial cash outflow. The net present values for both these projects are positive but there is more value in the second project so company should choose it as first choice. If these projects are not mutually exclusive, company can take up both of them.

The first principle of the NPV discussion is that a risky dollar tomorrow is less valuable as compared to a certain dollar today so future cash flows are discounted each year. Discount rate is the opportunity of capital employed in a certain project which is directly proportional to the estimated riskiness of project. Riskier projects are supposed to provide higher returns which make them more risk adjusted as against other approaches. Discount rate is settled by calculating the original cost of capital as calculated by the weighted average cost of capital including both equity and debt. All the future net cash flows are considered while studying the net present value approach whereas methods like pay-back period only consider initial investment. This approach associates a cash value with opportunity rather than with any arbitrary rate or time period. Risk is also considered while setting up the discount rate for any project and riskier projects have higher discount rates. The limitation of this approach is that discount rate calculation is not done in an appropriate way. The managers are not able to evaluate the exact cash flows for certain projects which does not enable them to calculate NPV correctly CITATION Ond14 \l 1033 (Zizlavsky, 2014).

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Payne, T. H. & Finch, J., 1999. Effective teaching and use of the constant growth dividend discount model. Financial Services Review, 8(4), pp. 283-291.

Smith, T. & Walsh, K., 2013. Why the CAPM is Half-Right and Everything Else is Wrong. ABACUS, Volume 49, pp. 73-78.

Zizlavsky, O., 2014. Net Present Value Approach: Method for Economic Assessment of Innovation Projects. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 156, pp. 23-25.

Business Function

Business Function

Student’s Name

Institution

Plan for managing business functions

Business management is critical aspect for the success of any business. For success of a company business functions must be effectively managed. In the case of TechSci, the management of business functions includes proper management of business goals. TechSci should have detailed management, marketing and operational plan. These plans are essential for effective delivery of services. Therefore, it would be essential for the company to have a well elaborate metrics to measure goals and objective achievement. According to Paul ( 2015), understanding these aspects is essential in streamlining the business management. The management will deploy the use of other people to get things done.

The management of daily operation of the company would be done by the CEO and decision regarding the operation to be made by the board of directors. The decisions are then convey to the rest of the employees by the CEO of the company. Therefore, the management of the business would involve planning, operational, organizing, directing and controlling to ensure that the company achieved its main goals. The staff would be in charge of provision of support and management of departments of the organization. Each department will have a competent manager reporting to the director at the head office of the company. Though it practices vertical leadership in its operations, it adopts the functional strategies to make sure that each department and regional offices of the company is operating independently. The functional management ensures there is effective result in orders of accountability to offer good result in the market and other area of operation.

Organizational Hierarchy

TechSci has a hierarchy. Its organizational structure is mainly focusing on functional of different departments within the organization. The purpose of utilization functional structure is because the organization is large and therefore, there are multiple departments or layers within the company. The structure of TechSci is will also depends on the functions as opposed to location. According to Grimsley (2015), hierarchical structure of an organization contributes to efficient management of business. It determines the flow of information and therefore, most business decisions made depend on the structure of an organization CITATION Jac15 \l 1033 (Morgan, 2015). TechSci employees hundreds of people from around the world, and it would be very impossible to have one people has keep strict supervisor on all of them. This is the reason hierarchy structure would be the best organizational management structure for the company. With hierarchical structure departments, regional offices provide efficient management for the successful operation of the company. It is therefore, important to point that the company utilizes different level of authority and vertical link between the subordinate and superiors. In TechSci the information flows vertically and it practices democratic type of leadership which gives every employee an opportunity to contribute to the development of the company. The top most or senior employee at TechSci is the Chief Executive officer (CEO), The CEO is responsible for the daily management or operation of the company.

In this venture different stakeholders would be involved to ensure that the goals and objectives set are achieved. The key stakeholders would be the customers, board of directors, staffs, government and partners. The company intends to partner with firms providing ICT services and customers center worldwide to make it easy for the company to provide efficient services to customers. Therefore, the key stakeholders would be involved in every aspect of the implementation of the venture. The drafting and implementation of the venture would be done by the project manager. A project manager is senior employee in charge of implementation of an organization plans. Therefore, the duties to ensure that the project (venture) is efficiently implemented until the company becomes operational would be done by the project manager.

Advisory Board

TechSci advisor board plays a critical role in the management of the company. The advisory board of the company is composed of several experts from different fields to provide management advice to the company CITATION Bar03 \l 1033 (Reiter, 2003). The advisory board also provides management advice to the company related to how to sell the brand and products of the company, marketing and management. In the case of TechSci, the advisory board is responsible for streamlining the operation of the company. It draft the management plan and market strategies which to be implemented to ensure that it gains competitive advantage in the market. The advisory board are non staff and do not sit on the board of directors and therefore, their responsibility is clear cut out for efficient delivery of services.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

The Chief Executive Officer is the senior most staff and a stakeholder of TechSci. The CEO is in charge of daily running or operation of the company. He or she is the accounting officer and run the activities for the efficient management of the organization.

Board of directors

The board of directors is the key decision maker in a company. In the case of TechSci, the board of directors would be in charge of decision making of the company. The make major decisions regarding the investment, share and hiring of senior key personnel.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Grimsley, S. (2015). Organizational Chart and Hierarchy: Definition & Examples. Journal of business management , 2-14.

Morgan, J. (2015). The 5 Types Of Organizational Structures: Part 1, The Hierarchy. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2015/07/06/the-5-types-of-organizational-structures-part-1-the-hierarchy/#50aae13d5252 , 2-15.

Paul, R. (2015). Principles of Management and accounting. Journal of business management and accounting , 2-14.

Reiter, B. (2003). THE ROLE AND VALUE OF AN EFFECTIVE ADVISORY BOARD. https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-role-and-value-of-an-effective-advisory-board/ , 2-15.

BUSINESS IN ASIA(KOREA)

Table of Contents

TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc9458543 \h 1

Chaebol Challenges PAGEREF _Toc9458544 \h 1

Following are the solutions for the challenges PAGEREF _Toc9458545 \h 2

GEOPOLITICAL CHALLENGES PAGEREF _Toc9458546 \h 2

Solutions for the challenges PAGEREF _Toc9458547 \h 2

References PAGEREF _Toc9458548 \h 3

Introduction

SK group operate in technology and innovation specializing in global frontline defense, and para-military solutions, marine infrastructures and property development. The company was founded in 1946 in South Korea. As the SK group is one of the largest conglomerate Chaebol with over eighty subsidiaries operating all over the world, has a major influence over the economy and the lives of the Koreans. Hence, it’s facing Several Chaebol Challenges, CITATION Gla18 \l 1033 (Glassman, 2018).

The group is facing following issues in Asia. A chaebol is a Korean term used for the “Family Business” or “Monopoly”. The Chaebol structure of business encompasses one large Company or a group of several companies which is owned or controlled by the single-family and SK Group is one of the largest conglomerate chaebols.

Chaebol Challenges

The SK Group is controlled and Managed by the Chey family and it is being criticized over the control of a single family on a full chaebol, although claiming board is not adhere to the international standards.

Another challenge is that SK Group is being criticized that they are using monopolistic clout to squeeze small and medium-sized enterprises by copying their technologies and or buying these SMEs.

One another Major point is that SK Group is causing major wage gap in the economy as SMEs wage rate is just 63 percent of the SK Group which causes income inequality in Korea.

Further, it is also claimed that as SK Group has good political ties resulting in corruption and which reduces competitive edge by the decisions of the Lawmakers.

Following are the solutions for the challenges

SK Group is following SK Management Style, Which is although being beneficial and widely applauded to be a good management style for the conglomerates but it is not as transparent as it should be. For this SK Group should follow the Corporate Governance Framework which is a more transparent and healthy way of running a board.

SK Group should heavily invest in research and development especially the companies which are innovating and introduce joint venture schemes for the companies which are involved in research and development rather buying the whole company or the project.

Sk Group should not just think about its own company they should invest on the society as well, SK Group should take steps to work for the betterment of the society and which will reduce the stress on the economy of the income inequality.

Sk Group should run a trail against the board member which is being suspected for the corruption and suspend if it is guilty. It also improves the confidence of the public and improves the reputation of the SK Group.

 GEOPOLITICAL CHALLENGES

SK group has an allegation that they bring to the political person for the business favor, in the same case in which the president Park Geun-Hye. This statement has a serious impact on the business performance of the company, Kim Chang-Geun the group chairman has questioned to resume the investigation into a country biggest conglomerate, CITATION Kri17 \l 1033 (Krieckhaus, 2017).

SK group has also accused the donation of $9.2 million to two nonprofit foundation controlling by Ms. Park’s shadowy to win the presidential.

Solutions for the challenges

The board must come in front of the public and defend the allegation, the unbiased committee should be formed to identify the issues. If SK group face any court proceeding they must follow the court. The external auditor must identify the issue if there are a $9.2 million donations. Because this is material and it can change the decision of the company.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Glassman, J. (2018). Geopolitical economies of development and democratization in East Asia: Themes, concepts, and geographies.

Krieckhaus, J. (2017). Geopolitics and South Korea's economic success. Asian Perspective. 41(1), 43-69.

Business Interview

Student name

Business Math/BUS 1353 490 31514 201330

DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" 27 April 2019

Business interview

Name: Daniel A Baker

Title: Owner, CEO

Name of business: NVE Corporation

Type of business: IT company

Question 1: Considering your experience of business do you suggest that students must be taught about math in classrooms? Will they be able to use math such as problems in work or business? (Chapter 1)

Yes, I think working with problems in math class is important for preparing a person for working in real business. This is because they encounter different problems and develop skills for solving them. Familiarity with math is crucial for performing operations in the business environment more appropriately. Math allows students to develop problem-solving skills that they utilize in the work environment.

Question 2: How math is used by employees in everyday opertaions? (Chapter 2)

Math is utilized in everyday operations in the business such as in calculating the risks and benefits. Everyone who is working in a company use math for findings solutions. Similarly, math is also used for understanding statics and numbers. Math is involved in every aspect including small to large operations.

Question 3: How do you use the banking system for your business operation? Do you use a checking account to pay some of the business expenses? (Chapter 4)

The banking system is used for paying the employees salaries, collection of a fee from clients, for payments to the suppliers and third-party contractors. Yes, checking account is also used for paying some expenses. Without a banking system, the company cannot operate in a systematic manner.

Question 4: How often the accountant do reconciliation of accounts? (Chapter 4)

Yes, the accountant performs reconciliation by the end of the week. This allows the company to maintain a balance in accounting records. This is used for assessing how much cash on hand company has. This helps in managing costs and operations.

Question 5: Is there any use of complex math problems like percentages? (Chapter 3)

Yes, percentages are always used for discussing the prospects of the business and future growth. We discuss future growth in percentage such as a 20% increase in decline. Percentages are also used for explaining the progress of the projects.

Question: 6 Does your business rely on electronic payment system?

No, the company still use the traditional methods of paying checks. This is because we maintain records in the printed form.

Question 7: Do you use an electronic payment system for paying to employees (chapter 9)

No. The employees are only paid a salary through checks. The company has not switched to this advanced method of payment. It will take some time for incorporating such changes.

Question 8: Can employees deposit paychecks directly into account through EFT method? (Chapter 4)

No. We don’t offer employees to deposit their paychecks directly into account through EFT. We still rely on the old backing methods for paying employees.

Question 9: Do you offer discounts to the customers on any services? (Chapter 7)

Yes, we offer discounts to our valued customers who are relying on us for the last five years. We do a little math for estimating how it might affect our future relationship with such clients. This is an effective strategy used for retaining clients and maximizing their satisfaction. Competing in the IT market also requires that we provide some additional benefits to the customers.

Question 10: Have you installed any equipment purchased on loan? (Chapter 14)

Yes, we have installed our equipment that is purchased on loans. This includes our systems, processors, devices and technology.

BUSINESS ISSUE

Business Issue

[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Author Note

[Include any grant/funding information and a complete correspondence address.]

Business Issue

Title:

Name:

Addressed to: (Client)

Date of completion:

Contents

TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u

Introduction PAGEREF _Toc23600042 \h 1

Problem statement PAGEREF _Toc23600043 \h 2

Analysis of the management issue PAGEREF _Toc23600044 \h 2

Function of the management PAGEREF _Toc23600045 \h 2

Aspects of managerial functions influencing the issue PAGEREF _Toc23600046 \h 3

Various perspectives in the literature PAGEREF _Toc23600047 \h 4

Alternate strategies PAGEREF _Toc23600048 \h 5

Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc23600049 \h 5

Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc23600050 \h 6

References PAGEREF _Toc23600051 \h 7

Introduction

Considered as a highly innovative and advanced transportation service, Uber Technologies, Inc. is a multi-national, ride-sharing application originally founded and based in San Francisco, America. It was first founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick under the banner of Uber Cab CITATION Cra16 \l 1033 (Cramer, 2016). Currently operational in more than 785 areas across the globe, the majority of which are metropolitan, Uber provides a wide range of services inclusive of ride-hailing, food delivery, peer-to-peer ridesharing, and a bicycle sharing system as well. Anyone having a smartphone with a functional internet connection can access the platform and use these proficient services through its website or mobile applications.

Statistics report Uber's high share of market concentration through an exponential increase in its users and by alluding to a market phenomenon known as, "uberisation" CITATION OBy16 \l 1033 (O’Byrne, 2016).

Uber has faced a fair share of criticism accounting to a lot of management and service delivery issues ranging from the adverse reactions from the existing taxi industry, to allegations of sexual harassment by the users resulting in a total shake-up of the management.

The managerial context which paved the way for this report is about ineffective recruiting and continued mismanagement of the staff. In a recent press release, Uber's management apprised the public about the kind of challenge it faced regarding workplace practices and the difficulties it posed in the way of hiring highly skilled and professional individuals as potential staff members. The company also opined that this existing inability to recruit or retain employees who were considered vital for the envisioned expansion and boom of the business may impair the current growth rates. As the drivers in these ride-sharing apps and businesses are not considered as staff or sub-ordinates but are given the same treatment as given to contractors or partners, therefore, the drivers are also exempted from any special perks and benefits of internal defense against any allegations or other workplace complaints.

Problem Statement

The growing concerns of Uber drivers about ineffective recruitment of new drivers which results in a haphazard flow of rides and shortage of opportunities for drivers who have established some routes as a daily ritual are problematic areas in the domain of Uber's management. This issue also led to drivers' inability to reach their target which qualified them for a daily or weekly bonus. Additionally, new recruitment processes without any prior security clearances resulted in users' unsatisfactory responses towards service delivery.

There were complaints received and registered by the consumer body against the relatively new drivers, a lot of which were associated with the abysmal behavior of the drivers. The wide spectrum of complaints include drivers using mobile phones during the ride, smoking causing extreme health allergies for one or two users, ride changes during the process, straight-up refusals of the drivers to transport a service dog or domesticated animal and many other complaints of the same nature.

These complaints also brought a bad reputation to the established drivers who had been doing their duties as lawful citizens for a long time and did not violate any rules. Their earnings also faced a decline and they had to move to other modes of livelihood in the pursuit of a decent living.

Analysis of the Management Issue

Function of the Management

It is a pre-requisite for the successful development and launch of any start-up or online business which has an agenda to gain recognition in the sharing economy to fully realize the users’ requirements and the challenges they face which will be dampened with the full potential of this business. The user community facing the fear of the unknown, in this case, unfamiliarity with the drivers was solved by the management of Uber by showing full details of the drivers on the website and the applications. The drivers' respective profiles and ratings based on previous experiences by other users were also present on the application before a user could order for a ride. The management also provided real-time notifications to the users about the arrival and departure points and time of the ride which was not available to the communities in the previously existing taxi business. The management, fully accommodating the needs of a diverse group of people in the various cities of its operation introduced a cashless payment system for those who were short on cash at different points of time or if they had to re-route their rides, in which case the pricing increased.

Apart from introducing and maintaining all these services and practices, the management also recruits new drivers against the growing demand in any region.

The problem in the functions of management arose when there was a relentless increase in the hiring rate of new drivers without any formal security clearances and the previous drivers encountered various problems.

As a necessary step of the process, the user is meant to rate the driver and the driver is meant to rate the user at the end of the ride which prohibits the interference of human resource management of Uber into gauging the performance of its drivers. It is a very tech-dependent procedure, one which does not rely on the business for solving any conflicts between both the parties.

Aspects of managerial functions influencing the issue

Lack of managerial activity has led to this issue where anyone could register to be a driver and providing his/her services. Technology and online performance measurement were solely relied upon by Uber regarding the recruits and this caused problems for the growth of business in general. Even though the online performance measurement system is very thorough and covers almost every aspect regarding the driver and vehicle's condition including vehicle's condition and quality, driver's abilities and service, yet without any proper check-and-balance provided from the management, there is a possibility that aforementioned problems will continue to rise.

The online management through the application prevents the drivers from pitching any innovative ideas, voicing their concerns or have any say in the policy changes as the traditional worker or employee does with a human manager. There are also judgments regarding the ethical nature of the philosophy of management in the self-employed environments of the sharing economy.

Various perspectives in the literature

It is established from various studies and reports in the literature that regular monitoring and evaluation prove to be a sustainable competitive advantage for a business CITATION Hug19 \l 1033 (Hughes, 2019). Managing the performance leads to the attainment of some goals and objectives which every employee in the workplace can adopt in the pursuit of the successful growth of the business. Honesty, hard work, diligence, and ethical behavior are some of the characteristics which every driver in such ride-sharing businesses should have as inherent qualities so that users can fully trust them and spread the word about the standard of the service CITATION Smi19 \l 1033 (Smith, 2019). The paradoxical nature of the performance management in this business which is a growing trademark of the sharing economy makes it difficult to properly scrutinize the performance of the drivers, which results in multiple issues. Drivers and users of the app are simultaneously acting as initiators, providers, and recipients of the performance measures, and the growth of the business cannot be left in the hands of these independent actors without proper management and periodic reviews.

The absence of an employee-employer relationship in this business is portrayed as a negative aspect of sharing economy in the literature, one which has advocated on both ends CITATION McK16 \l 1033 (McKeown, 2016).

Alternate strategies

Currently, Uber is practicing self-recruitment as a process of hiring new drivers which implies that anyone fulfilling the criteria of being an independent, apt driver could deliver their services after registering to the application. The claims by the company that all the drivers are self-employed agents and are not working for anyone were rejected by the Court of Appeal which declared that these drivers are workers and are eligible to a certain limit of minimum wage and other perks CITATION Ken19 \l 1033 (Kenner, 2019).

After this verdict, I presented an alternate strategy for recruitment to the CEO of the company which constituted of the following:

A streamlined process for the recruitment mush be put into practice which is based on different phases:

Preparation of a detailed job description and advertising

Shortlisting of candidates

Initial screening test

Background check

Driving test

Induction (first 45 days as a probationary period)

Special focus was given to the importance of background checks of the drivers which upon due implementation could present different outcomes and results regarding the drivers’ performance.

Conclusion

To conclude, problems in the management domain have been mentioned and discussed in detail in the former sections which demand an immediate change in the recruitment strategy. Shreds of evidence from the literature have also supported the cause apprising the founding committee of the business and the general public about the rising negative perception about the Uber drivers. Alternate courses of action have also been included in the prior sections of this paper which if executed effective immediately can be helpful for the maintenance of the business's position in the market concentration of the sharing economy. If drivers are recruited in an efficient and well-organized process, user departure can also be prevented in a short period.

Recommendations

It is recommended that my client should instantly deploy the services of an established hiring agency for efficacious recruitment of new drivers and must match the size of the consuming body (users of the application) with the staff's (drivers) size. Besides taking this step, the recently recruited new drivers who have displayed unwanted behavior must be given notices and warnings. Formal agreements can be signed with the old drivers of a particular region and they can be promised some sort of incentive so that service quality maintains its standard. Apart from this, an online portal distinct in its function from the performance measurement in the application should be launched which gauges the satisfaction of the users.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Cramer, J. &. (2016). Disruptive change in the taxi business: The case of Uber. American Economic Review, 177-182.

Hughes, C. R. (2019). Artificial Intelligence, Employee Engagement, Fairness, and Job Outcomes', Managing Technology and Middle-and Low-skilled Employees (The Changing Context of Managing People). 61-68.

Kenner, J. (2019). Uber drivers are workers: the expanding scope of the worker concept in the UK's gig economy. Precarious Work.

McKeown, T. (2016). A consilience framework: Revealing hidden features of the independent contractor. Journal of Management & Organization, 779-796.

O’Byrne, R. (2016). The uberisation of logistics. MHD Supply Chain Solutions, 36.

Smith, N. C. (2019). Uber and the Ethics of Sharing: Exploring the Societal Promises and Responsibilities of the Sharing Economy. Managing Sustainable Business, 575-607.

Business Law Assignment

Business law

[Name of writer]

[Name of institution]

Business Law

Part A

In order to assess this case for contract law, we will first define the term contract, All agreements are contracts if they are undertaken with free consent of parties eligible to contract for a lawful return, with a lawful objective and are not expressly said to be void

Based on above definition, below are the major characteristics of a legally enforceable contract.

Offer and Acceptance

In a legally enforceable contract, there have to be at least two parties, one of these parties puts forward the offer and the other party will accept it. In this scenario, an offer has been put forward by the burger company and accepted by general public including the two people specifically mentioned in case namely Mickey and Brett.

Legal Relationship

There is an intention shown by both parties to contract so that a legal relationship between them is formed. If any one of the parties does not fulfill the respective obligation, that party will be held responsible for failure of contract. In this particular case, the burger company is liable to perform its obligation towards Brett only because he had got the golden ticket before the company had declared the offer as void. As far as Mickey is concerned, there is no obligation on the company to fulfill claim made by Mickey. The company has already declared the offer invalid due to the printing of more than one golden ticket.

Consensus

Both the parties to an contract should agree upon the same thing and in same meaning. Initially this characteristic was present in the situation under consideration. There was an offer by the company that the holder of golden ticket will be given a car as a prize and the people also perceived the offer correctly. Thus, both the parties agreed upon the same aspect and in the same meaning. The problem arose when company announced that there was a mistake on its part to print more than one golden ticket.

Competency of parties

The parties to any agreement must legally qualify entering into a contract. The parties to the agreement should have reached the age of voting, must have a healthy mind and should not be disabled to enter a contract by any law in the country he resides. The case suggests that both the parties are competent to enter into agreement with each other. The offer was made to the public as a whole, but if there is a person of unsound mind who comes to the company to take the prize will not be entertained and there will be no legal liability on the company. Similarly, a minor will not pose any legal obligation to the company. In the particular cases of Brett and Mickey, the contract is valid as both of these persons are fully allowed and capable of entering into a legally enforceable contract.

Free Consent

The will of both the parties should be free while entering to any contract which means that no party should be forced by any external factor to enter to the contract. These factors may come in the form of coercion, misrepresentation, fraud, undue influence and mistake. In the present scenario, there has been free consent shown by both the parties CITATION Ran86 \l 1033 (E.Barnett, 1986).

Lawful consideration

A contract that is undertaken to fulfill some unlawful activity is void ab- intio. The word consideration is used here to mean something in return. This aspect is necessary for the validity of any contract. There should be something given to both parties in return of performing their duties in the contract. The promise in which there is nothing to be given in return of doing something, cannot be enforced under the law. The consideration should not be against the laws that are followed in the society. The case under consideration shows that the consideration is given in form of car and it is a lawful consideration as well.

Lawful Objects

Any agreement that is against the laws followed by society, forbidden by law, against any other law, fraudulent, damages any person or property will not constitute a valid contract. The case under consideration shows that the contract does not include any of the mentioned criteria so it has the lawful objects and constitutes a legally enforceable contract.

Agreement not expressly declared void

An agreement is not a valid contract if it is clearly declared void by any section of the law used in the country. The examples may include the agreements made between the parties who do cannot enter into a contract. In the case under consideration, there is no point in declaring this agreement void.

Certainty and possibility of performance

The valid contracts must be certain and possible to perform under the normal course of life. An agreement to do something impossible will be considered void under section 56 of the law.

After considering the characteristics of valid contract and referring to the case, the company is supposed to honor the obligation in case of Brett only. The reason behind this is that the Brett had come before the announcement had been made to consider the campaign as void. Mickey had not come across any media that announced the invalidity of their offer. The agreement was invalid as soon as the company announced its mistake on the various channels of communication. Further analysis reveals that Brett was at the office when an employee of the company came and placed a notice on the front door. This notice read that more golden tickets were printed by mistake of the company and company will not honor the deal. This may come under the fraud on the part of company and Brett can sue them for this. The opinion of Brett would be that the company had not informed him in advance about the mistake committed by it. In case of Mickey, the mistake was more on the part of himself because he did not remain up to date with the announcements. The company used a variety of media to communicate the news that there have been mistakes in the campaign. This made the contract void and released the company from any obligation arising from this agreement. Brett should get the car that was promised and company should arrange another car to be given to him CITATION Gre93 \l 1033 (T.Gundlach, 1993).

Part B

The result of this case will be that the bank will sue the company for the repayment of the loan. There are two points that go against company in this case, one is that it did not report completion of contract of Sarah well in time to concerned authorities and allowed her to work as a managing director. The second point that goes against company is that it accepted loan taken by Sarah. There must have been proper documentation of loan taken from bank and organization did not raise any objections on Sarah dealing with bank. This weakened position of company in case bank sues it for repayment of loan. Another negligence on part of company was that Sarah was not authorized to deal in loans more than $ 20000 even if she was a part of that organization. Thus, almost all things point out that company will have to pay loan and accumulated interest to bank. Just as appointment of Sarah was recorded with the ASIC, her completion of contract should also have been reported there. This would have released company from any responsibility arising from act of Sarah. The company will also be questioned as to how and why board of directors was not presented with documents of this loan for approval. The company can tackle this situation by removing Sarah from post immediately and share a letter with bank that she is no longer an employee of this company. This will make loan agreement as void and a fresh set of documentation will be needed to re do loan documentation CITATION Rob96 \l 1033 (Romano, 1996).

The result of this case should be that Sarah is held responsible for her act. She has played foul with bank as well as company. She knew that she has no capacity to represent company in front of bank and that her contract had already expired, effectively she has gone into this agreement with bank in her personal capacity and company should not take any responsibility of act performed by her. There have been two mistakes from end of Sarah, one is that she misrepresented herself in front of bank as being an employee of company and second is that she exceeded maximum limit of loan that she could take as a managing director. Some repercussions should also be borne by organization in this case. The authorities should fine company for being negligent to report completion of Sarah contract. The organization should also review its system related to obtaining loan from bank. There must be at least 2 signatories who will be authorized to complete these kind of deals and every time they will have to take approval from board of directors. All parties will be considered partially liable for conduct of negligence. The bank can be asked why it did not consult company about loan application once it was presented to it.

The outcome of this case will be different if loan was for refurbishing of two clothing shops of company. The first difference will be that refurbishment documents will be placed in a meeting of board of directors and they will approve this loan from bank. If Sarah presents these documents to bank and obtains a loan, company will be solely responsible to pay off this loan as Sarah has not taken up loan in her personal capacity. The second scenario in this regard is that bank can verify position of Sarah with this company and comes to know that she is no longer designated to represent it. There is a possibility that company would have sent some other officer to deal with bank to complete loan agreement which will resolve issue completely. There will be a formal feasibility report completed for refurbishment of shops for company which will also be duly signed and approved by board of directors. This will make it easier for bank to verify authenticity of loan application. In this formal process, there will be some other employee representing company in front of bank because Sarah is no longer a part of this company. There would have been a comprehensive debate within company as to how refurbishing will be financed and pros and cons for both equity and debt would be thoroughly discussed. There will be options for debt that may be less expensive in terms of interest payments. All these things would have meant that all responsible personnel of company knew about this loan application put forward and Sarah would not have been allowed to negotiate with bank.

If bank loan officer knew that Sarah was not a part of organization, there are two different scenarios which pertain to time at which bank receives information regarding Sarah’s dismissal. Whether information regarding Sarah’s contract is received by bank before or after this loan agreement has been signed. Firstly, bank loan officer should have investigated who has sent her to negotiate a loan on behalf of this company when she is no longer a part of company. Another variant of this case can be that bank loan officer comes to know about Sarah’s expiration of contract after this loan agreement had been signed. In this case, organization will be considered liable to repay principal and accumulated interest to bank because loan manager was unaware of status of Sarah in relation to organization. Bank can ask company to consider this loan agreement void if information had been communicated after signing agreement. The loan agreement will no longer be applicable to both parties once bank comes to know that Sarah is not a part of company anymore. There is a possibility that after company management has been intimated about this issue, they can put up a change with concerned authorities and manage things in a better way. However, bank can sue company for misrepresenting itself in a loan agreement. There can be a law suit against Sarah filed by bank to have tried to misrepresent company when she was not a part of it.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY E.Barnett, R., 1986. A Consent Theory of Contract. Columbian Law Review.

Romano, R., 1996. Corporate Law and Corporate Governance. Industrial and Corporate Change , 5(2), pp. 277-340.

T.Gundlach, G., 1993. Governance in Exchange:Contract Law and its Alternatives. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 12(2).

Business Law Final Business Paper

Introduction

The business organizations have three major forms. The sole proprietorship, partnership and company. All of these forms have their own pros and cons and they are suitable to certain kinds of businesses. The business that is chosen by us is the restaurant and in our opinion, the sole proprietorship is best suited to this kind of business. Nearly three quarters of the small businesses in the USA are sole proprietors CITATION Wil17 \l 1033 (Lynott, 2017)

Sole proprietorship

This is a form of business that is run by a single person who earns all the profits and assumes all risks. Owners of this form are self employed and they are also the active managers of the business. This is the oldest form of the business organization. This business is also the easiest form to start, operate and end because there are no licenses needed to start, operate or to end them. This makes it the most common form of the business in any country. The sole proprietor can have multiple people working in the business but it must have a sole owner that owns and runs the business.

For the restaurants business, I will choose the sole proprietor style of business entity.

Advantages of Sole Proprietorship

Sole proprietorship has certain advantages in the formation and tax savings as compared to other forms of business organizations. One of the advantages that are related to this form of business organization is the ease of starting it. There are no legal formalities in starting up the sole proprietorship. A person becomes a sole proprietor simply by starting the business. This type of business offers 100% control for the owner over the operations of the entity. The single owner is entitled to the control and ownership of the business CITATION All07 \l 1033 (All business.com, 2007).

There are certain tax advantages available to the sole proprietor as compared to the other forms of business organizations. The owner can report the net income or net loss of the business on his own tax form. The owner is saved from complexity and from the calculation of double taxation as in the case of corporations. Double taxation means that the business is taxed when the business income is announced and the owners are taxed when the profit is distributed among the owners. In sole proprietorship, the owner is only taxed once as the owner files the business taxation on the personal income tax form.

There are very little legal formalities to start up a sole proprietorship. The person can start up a business of this kind only by opening bank account in the name of the business.

All the things have to be managed by the owner single handedly and all the decisions have to be taken by him. In a sense, this may benefit the business in making the quick decisions. This may also benefit the business due to the fact that the outcomes of all the decisions has to be faced by the owner himself so he will take extra care in making the decisions.

The unlimited liability aspect of the business will also help the owner in a way that he will take due care in making the various decisions. The owner will make only those decisions that are better for the business as a whole.

Disadvantages of Sole Proprietorship

The biggest drawback of this form of business is the exposure to the unlimited liability. This means that the business has no separate legal identity other than the owner. In case of any loss, the owner will be liable to cover the loss incurred in the business. The private assets of the owner can be sold to cover up the loss incurred in the business.

The sole proprietor is not able to accumulate huge amounts of funds needed to expand or even run a business properly. The banks do not lend the loans easily to the sole proprietors as their legal status is nothing else than their owners.

The sole proprietor may not have the management skills that are necessary to run a business successfully. This may result in the loss to the person running the business.

My opinion

The restaurant will be started as a sole proprietor because in the start the decisions will have to be quick so a single person will be able to take all the decisions on his own. Inclusion of any other person will mean that the decisions will be late and in the start of the business, this may create problems for the owner. The profits in the start will be lower or even nonexistent. The inclusion of another person will mean that whatever low profit will be earned, it will be divided among the partners. In the start the restaurant will be a small scaled business which is best suited for the sole proprietorship.

As far as the disadvantages are concerned, I will take minimum possible loans and manage the financing from the personal sources of financing. I will also make the expected statements for the business for around 6 months and then compare these with the actual results. The tax option will benefit me in keeping the tax costs lower.

Starting Business in New Jersey

The person will choose the type of business organization in the first place, this is decided in my case as the sole proprietorship. This kind of business does not have any licensing requirements. The business must make sure that the name that has been selected by it is not registered by someone else in the past. The sole proprietors and partnerships register themselves with their counties while the companies have separate legal process of their registration. The application should contain the identification number for the tax purposes CITATION Col10 \l 1033 (Debaise, 2010). This number should be included on all the relevant correspondence done with the federal offices. The sole proprietor needs to get the federal employer identification number only when the business employs some workers, wants to do the transactions through a bank account or wants to register a business vehicle.

The registration should be done with the state of New Jersey at least 15 days before date of commencement so that the forms for registration can be duly filled and received in the designated office.

The business can own a name form the owner himself or a trade name. A trade name must be clearly distinguishable from the name of a business already registered in the county. The name should not be confusing with some other name so that the business is not feared to face the trademark laws. Businessmen can run the search in the databases provided by the government to make sure that there is no matching of the names.

The name that is not the legal name of the owner is called an assumed name for the business. This assumed name has to be registered with the county clerk office. The form of registration is available with the same office. The fee for registration of the name will be different in the different areas of the country.

The hotel and restaurants do not need any kind of licenses to operate in the New Jersey.

After obtaining the Federal employer identification number, the next step will be to open the bank account of the business. This will be done in the name of the business and the federal employer identification number to keep the personal and business finances separate.

The sole proprietor will have to purchase a business liability insurance to cover the consequences of the unseen circumstances.

Some amount of taxes has to be reported by the business depending on the form of business organization.

Conclusion

After the discussion above and the easiness of the process of starting up the sole proprietorship, it looks very much feasible for us to open a restaurant as a sole proprietorship. If the decision goes good, then I will consider some other form of organization in the future.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY All business.com. (2007, june 5). https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/allbusiness/AB4113314_primary.html?mcubz=0. Retrieved from https://archive.nytimes.com: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/allbusiness/AB4113314_primary.html?mcubz=0

Debaise, C. (2010, March 1). https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704625004575089691123329772. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704625004575089691123329772

http://cf.linnbenton.edu/wed/dev/fichtns/upload/Sole%20Proprietorship%20(p.%20347-349).pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cf.linnbenton.edu: http://cf.linnbenton.edu/wed/dev/fichtns/upload/Sole%20Proprietorship%20(p.%20347-349).pdf

Lynott, W. (2017). Sole proprietorship or corporation? the worng choice can be a costly mistake. Water well journal.

Sumeth Kaenmanee, A. N. (2014). The situations of sole proprietorship, E Commerce entrepreneursand trends in their E commerce: A case study in Thailand. Asian Social Science, 80-88.

Business Law In The News

Your Name

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Title: Gender Discrimination Lawsuit against Nike

The unfair treatment to employees grounded on their gender differences is referred to as gender discrimination. Discrimination based on gender, race, and color is strictly prohibited by state and federal laws; besides employers engaging in such activities face penalties. Gender discrimination is not limited to women ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"H0BtBSpb","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}Sex / Gender Discrimination - Workplace Fairness})","plainCitation":"(Sex / Gender Discrimination - Workplace Fairness)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":224,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/TTX7UQJ4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/TTX7UQJ4"],"itemData":{"id":224,"type":"webpage","title":"Sex / Gender Discrimination - Workplace Fairness","URL":"https://www.workplacefairness.org/sexual-gender-discrimination","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Sex / Gender Discrimination - Workplace Fairness). Men can also be victims as can people who are discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or transgender status. This paper seeks to explore a legal challenge faced by Nike recently for gender discrimination; the case is called Cahill v. Nike Inc., U.S. District Court, District of Oregon.

Nike, the global sports apparel company recently faced a lawsuit as four women employed in the corporate headquarters filed a lawsuit against the company at the federal court in Oregon. These female employees claimed that Nike violated the Equal Pay Act by ignoring the reported cases of harassment and engaging in the discrimination in compensations. According to the plaintiffs, they are not paid equally like their male employees for the same work done. Besides, they are given fewer bonuses and are less likely to be promoted in comparison with their male colleagues. A New York Times publication unearthed Nike as a toxic place for women. The lawsuit was the outcome of the internal survey after three high-level employees left the company. The survey was about sexual harassment in the company. The allegations on the company are serious enough that the top employees are looking forward to leaving the company.

Kelly Cahill had been the former brand director of Marketing, who argued that she has been paid less, compared to the male employees at the company. After putting several complaints about this matter, Cahill left the job in 2017 ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"w5Qjl4MW","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Campbell)","plainCitation":"(Campbell)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":222,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/Z3YTGKA7"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/Z3YTGKA7"],"itemData":{"id":222,"type":"webpage","abstract":"Women who worked at Nike are suing over pay discrimination. Their demands are critical in a broader fight.","container-title":"Vox","language":"en","title":"Why the gender discrimination lawsuit against Nike is so significant","URL":"https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683484/nike-women-gender-pay-discrimination-lawsuit","author":[{"family":"Campbell","given":"Alexia Fernández"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,14]]},"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018",8,15]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Campbell). Like Cahill, Sarah Johnston who was working in another department in the same company, for the past six years, left the job since she refused sexual advances from male co-workers. She believed that after rejecting these sexual advances, her career suffered, as she had to leave the position of business system analyst. She left the company after forwarding more than six complaints, in which she raised questions on the company’s ability to police itself ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"FmXlW45A","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Campbell)","plainCitation":"(Campbell)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":222,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/Z3YTGKA7"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/Z3YTGKA7"],"itemData":{"id":222,"type":"webpage","abstract":"Women who worked at Nike are suing over pay discrimination. Their demands are critical in a broader fight.","container-title":"Vox","language":"en","title":"Why the gender discrimination lawsuit against Nike is so significant","URL":"https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683484/nike-women-gender-pay-discrimination-lawsuit","author":[{"family":"Campbell","given":"Alexia Fernández"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,14]]},"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018",8,15]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Campbell). The plaintiffs look for unspecified monetary damages by Nike and a court order that demands Nike to develop and create validated, reliable and job-related standards for hiring and promotion decisions at the company. These allegations on the company have also been confirmed by many other employees. This lawsuit has now grown to seven plaintiffs.

The company claims that they have created a mandatory training for the managers that include the significance of inclusion, respect, and accountability. In addition, it claims that they have increased the investment in leadership and managerial training, and on employee diversity and inclusion and employee-focused training. Nike also declined any comment on the lawsuit. Besides, the company also announced that they are going to review their pay structure that will result in an increase in pay of about 7,400 workers globally. The company also fails to provide specific facts and filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit saying, "The named plaintiff's inconsistent theories ... highlight the untenable nature of this alleged class action". It also highlighted that among the seven plaintiff women, one was having an equal salary to the male employee.

In my opinion, the court must order Nike to revise their compensation, recruitment and training policies to ensure they align with the Equal Pay Act Oregon Equal Pay Act and other laws that prohibit any segregation ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"bMehvW97","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA)})","plainCitation":"(The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA))","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":227,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/5GI6FPWR"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rhLtY1cq/items/5GI6FPWR"],"itemData":{"id":227,"type":"webpage","title":"The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA)","URL":"https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",12,14]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA)). Numerous examples of companies exist that face lawsuits due to violations of the Equal Pay Act. Since Nike did not ask the court to dismiss the claims reveals failings from the company’s side.

Works Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Campbell, Alexia Fernández. “Why the Gender Discrimination Lawsuit against Nike Is so Significant.” Vox, 15 Aug. 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683484/nike-women-gender-pay-discrimination-lawsuit.

Sex / Gender Discrimination - Workplace Fairness. https://www.workplacefairness.org/sexual-gender-discrimination. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA). https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.

Business Law In The News

Vincent

Instructor Name

Course Number

Date

Business Law in the News

This case is related to a challenge faced by a local cakeshop 'Masterpiece Cakeshop' in Lakewood, Colorado, in 2018, which is operated by a Christian owner named Jack Philips. The main argument of the case was that does First Amendment permits the public accommodations possessor to refuse to serve based on personal beliefs and whether the right to free speech as well as exercise of religion exempts owners from laws which ensure non-discrimination in public accommodations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"gck1SGQ0","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Shop)","plainCitation":"(Shop)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":214,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/6TIJRDCU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/6TIJRDCU"],"itemData":{"id":214,"type":"book","title":"Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 US (2018)","author":[{"family":"Shop","given":"Masterpiece Cake"}]}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Shop).

In the Obergefell case decided in 2015, the Supreme Court pronounced that states that do not legalize homosexual marriage are in volition of the Fourteenth Amendment. This court ruling legalized homosexual marriage in the U.S. However, this case created a backlash in some of the religious communities. Not everyone was pleased with the court ruling.

Facts

Homosexual marriage was prohibited in Colorado in 2012. In 2014, it was allowed by the constitution, and in the Obergefell case (2015), the Supreme Court declared that homosexual couples have fundamental rights. A Colorado same-sex couple Charlie Craig and David Mullins, intended to get married legally in Massachusetts in 2012. When they returned back, they wanted to rejoice with relatives and friends. They visited a cakeshop located in Lakewood to order a wedding cake, and a message written on it with frosting. The message was related to same-sex marriage. 'Masterpiece Cakeshop,' owner, Jack Philips believes in Christianity, refused to take the order. He told the couple that his response was based on personal religious views and that Colorado prohibited homosexual marriage back in 2012. However, he said the couple can buy other bakery items from him. The couple did not discuss anything further about the cake and left the shop. They ordered the cake at another bakery, which provided them with the desired cake.

Later, the couple filed a complaint against the bakery in accordance with the public accommodation state law known as the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. According to this act, it is illegal for business, open to the public, to differentiate between based on gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. In Colorado's anti-discrimination law, Sexual orientation is included as a protected class. The complaint leads to a lawsuit against the bakery, named as 'Craig v. Masterpiece Cakeshop.' Colorado Civil Rights Commission decided in favor of the couple. As a result, the commission ordered the cake shop to lift the restraint of not providing a cake to the homosexual couple and, in addition to this, modification of company policy, training of staff related to the public accommodation discrimination act. For the next two years, the cakeshop also had to submit quarterly reports based on their compliance with the ruling, and it should include any similar incidents.

Masterpiece, with help of Alliance Defending Freedom, requested the Court of Appeals to review the decision. The bakery owner stated that they would leave the wedding cake business rather than complying with the commission’s orders. During the appeal, the couple was represented by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission as well as the American Civil Liberties Union. The state affirmed the decision of commission reasoning that the ruling is based on the fact that providing a cake to the customer is part of the cake shop’s business, which is not observed as an expression of speech or exercise of religion ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"AnBenu7C","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gershman and Audi)","plainCitation":"(Gershman and Audi)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":210,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/ADF5XRCM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/ADF5XRCM"],"itemData":{"id":210,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Supreme Court Preview","journalAbbreviation":"Sup. Ct. Preview","page":"43","title":"Court Rules Baker Can't Refuse to Make Wedding Cake for Gay Couple","URL":"https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/suemrtpre25&id=48&div=&collection=","volume":"2017-2018","author":[{"family":"Gershman","given":"Jacob"},{"family":"Audi","given":"Tamara"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]],"season":"2018"}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gershman and Audi). The court stated that this decision is distinguished form another case where the Plaintiff argued that he refused by three bakers to provide a cake with a Bible quote. Later, it was revealed that the bakers declined the order on the base of the offensive message and not creed. However, in Craig's case, the refusal was because of sexual orientation discrimination.

Later, the cakeshop requested the Supreme Court for certiorari. The case ‘'Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission’ was filed.

Perspective of the Plaintiff

Plaintiff was of the view that same-sex marriage was prohibited according to his religion. Therefore, he did not want to provide a cake that was against his beliefs. After his appeals, he was ordered to provide cake and change the company policy. He felt that his right to free speech and exercise his religion is violated. The owner of the cakeshop believes that his decorations of cakes are a form of artistry, through which he honors God, and if he decorates a cake which is against his religious teachings, it would be a displeasing act. According to his perspective, he should have the freedom to refuse any order which goes against his beliefs. So, he challenged ruling of the Court of Appeals in the Supreme Court.

Perspective of the Defendant

Colorado Civil Rights Commission based on Public Accommodation act ruled that the Plaintiff was at fault and should have taken delivered the order by a same-sex couple. The delivery of the cake was part of business conduct and did not suppress his rights given by the First Amendment. The defendant is more focused on the defense of rights of gay people. According to the defendant, after the legalization of same-sex marriage, the people should comply with the law and treat homosexual couples the same as others.

Question to Court

The question raised for the Supreme Court was whether the application of law stated by Colorado’s Public Accommodation Act for a man to provide a cake, which goes against his religious belief, is the abuse of his right to free speech and exercise of religion as stated by First Amendment. 

Ruling of Court

As a result of an argumentative majority of 7–2 votes, the court reversed the previous decision and held in favor of Jack Phillips that implementation of public accommodation act violated his right to exercise his religion freely. In this context, court clarified the same constitution, which protects the rights of a same-sex couple and gay people, also protects the right of other people to express their religious beliefs and exercise their religion at liberty. It was cited that the Colorado law, which ensured that the rights of gay people are not violated, should have also taken the religious belief of other people impartially. The majority of jury recognized the perspective of Phillips that making cakes was an expression of his religious belief and artistry, and it should be covered in the First Amendment.

Conclusion

Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission became controversial in many communities and landmark cases. The Obergefell v. Hodges case ruled that homosexual marriage is given by Due Process and Equal Protection which are clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

I agree with the court’s finding that Masterpiece Cakeshop reserves its right to free speech and exercise of religion. The baker should not be forced to write a message which he disagrees with ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"njqTl9wk","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Duncan)","plainCitation":"(Duncan)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":215,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/MEAXYNXJ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/MEAXYNXJ"],"itemData":{"id":215,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"College of Law, Faculty Publications","title":"A Piece of Cake or Religious Expression: Masterpiece Cakeshop and the First Amendment","title-short":"A Piece of Cake or Religious Expression","URL":"https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/lawfacpub/204","author":[{"family":"Duncan","given":"Richard"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2019",1,7]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Duncan). I believed that the decision of the commission was a discriminatory behavior towards a religious belief. Phillip did not show hostile behavior or hatred towards the couple. It is evident from the fact that he offered them to buy other bakery goods. He only refused to provide a cake with a specific message, which is his right of freedom given to him by the First Amendment ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"UylWMMOk","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Anderson)","plainCitation":"(Anderson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":212,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/D587YPPR"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/6144444/items/D587YPPR"],"itemData":{"id":212,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy","journalAbbreviation":"Geo. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y","page":"123","title":"Disagreement Is Not Always Discrimination: On Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Analogy to Interracial Marriage","title-short":"Disagreement Is Not Always Discrimination","URL":"https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/geojlap16&id=131&div=&collection=","volume":"16","author":[{"family":"Anderson","given":"Ryan T."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Anderson). 

However, a question arises whether the corporate sector can rightfully refuse to serve people belonging to the LGBT community on grounds of the First Amendment. Thus, it depicts that regulations for businesses which serve consumer based on their religious beliefs are necessary. 

Works Cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, Ryan T. “Disagreement Is Not Always Discrimination: On Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Analogy to Interracial Marriage.” Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, vol. 16, 2018, p. 123, https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/geojlap16&id=131&div=&collection=.

Duncan, Richard. “A Piece of Cake or Religious Expression: Masterpiece Cakeshop and the First Amendment.” College of Law, Faculty Publications, Jan. 2019, https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/lawfacpub/204.

Gershman, Jacob, and Tamara Audi. “Court Rules Baker Can’t Refuse to Make Wedding Cake for Gay Couple.” Supreme Court Preview, vol. 2017–2018, 2018 2017, p. 43, https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/suemrtpre25&id=48&div=&collection=.

Shop, Masterpiece Cake. Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 584 US (2018).

Business Law Paper

Legal Options for Sexual Harassment

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Legal Options for Sexual Harassment

Introduction

In the recent days, there has been lot of hue and cry about how the sexual harassment is supposed to work and how the victims are supposed to come forward and take on the harassers. The legal options were always there but not the stigma with regards to the sexual harassment is eliminated due to which it has become easier for the victims to come forward and discuss about some of the issues that were faced by the victims at the given point of time. The same was the case with one of my co-workers. She always used to talk about us with some of the issues that were faced by him in terms of how the sexual harassment is supposed to work. She was facing serious problem in a sense that her supervisor was passing some lewd remarks towards her. As she was not willing to retaliate and report the authority about the incident, his approach become more and more aggressive with the passage of time and later on the tone of the messages that he used to send to her as well as the underlying message became more and more aggressive. She was quite disturbed. One day though, she has had enough, and she decided to report the whole incident. To her surprise, there was not much cooperation towards her from the organization. She was quite disappointed by the behaviour of the organization which was despite the fact that they had a very clear anti-harassment policy. She decided to take matter to the legal court.

Key Facts

When one talks about the sexual harassment, it talks about how it tends to affect the working conditions for the people who were facing some sort of sexual harassment. To make sure that they are able to take care of things in an appropriate manner, the subjected women was facing considerable mental trauma. Not only that, there was an impression created by the supervisor that if she does not respond to the sexual advances that were made by him, then there were going to be serious consequences for her career. This is the classical example that how the behaviour of the supervisor has created an environment at the workplace that how the whole thing that has created an unsafe working environment for her and thus it has went a long way towards making sure that how the working conditions for her were affected due to that incident. In most modern legal contexts, sexual harassment is illegal. Laws surrounding sexual harassment generally do not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents—that is due to the fact that they do not impose a "general civility code". In the workplace, harassment may be considered illegal when it is frequent or severe thereby creating a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim's demotion, firing or quitting). The legal and social understanding of sexual harassment, however, varies by culture.

Issue

It has to be noted that each of the organization has its code of conduct when it comes to the cases of the sexual harassment and it is important for the victim to make sure that they first reach out to their organization for reporting these cases. Now the key thing that has to be kept in mind when it comes to this case is that the organization that is in subject has not taken any action when it comes to the way this whole scenario was supposed to be discussed. If that is the case, then the legal options are needed to be explored and this is what exactly that is going to be done during the course of this case. Now, what has happened here is that how the illegal sexual harassment has been carried out for a very long time and here repeated sexual comments were being made that made the colleague uncomfortable in terms of how the work performance suffers among different stakeholders at the given point of time. Not only that, due to the case, the lady was not willing to pursuit in terms of how the performance suffering is going to be happening at the given point of time. The other implication that has to be kept in mind is that how it has created a hostile working environment that does not allow productivity to be taken care off in terms of how this sexual harassment is supposed to be done. When it comes to defining the whole issue, it is going to be helpful if one goes on to define what sexual harassment is. According to the Federal Laws, the sexual harassment laws are as followed.

“Sexual harassment at work is a form of unlawful sex discrimination. The law defines sexual harassment as, unwelcome verbal, visual, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature or based on someone’s sex that is severe or pervasive and affects working conditions or creates a hostile work environment.”

Ruling and Legislation

Due to the fact that how the sexual harassment laws at the workplace are supposed to work out, it is quite clear that the legislation has to be quite clear in this regard. There are different state repercussions as far as the way sexual harassment laws are supposed to work out. Now, the key implication of this law is that how the legal definition of sexual harassment is going to fit in this case. The sexual harassment should be of such nature that it should be causing severe and pervasive mental distress to the employee at the given point of time. It does not have to be both and thus in this case, it is quite clear that the text messages as well as the overall behaviour that was carried out at the end of the supervisor was such that it can be defined as sever and pervasive and thus there are going to be legal implications in this case. Now, the key thing that has to be noted here is that how the harassment laws are going to be applicable even if there is a case that the sexual harassment of the less sever nature has been carried out. This is something that quite meets the part of the definition at the given point of time. For instance, the sexual harassment might be illegal if there are repeated sexual comments that are making the person uncomfortable at work and how it is making sure that the performance of the individual is suffering at the given point of time. So, the whole thing is needed to be kept in mind when the implications of the sexual harassment are kept in mind.

Analysis of the Situation

Now some clarity is developed with regards to the nature of the case, the next thing that is needed to be kept in mind is that what are some of the legal options at the disposal of the people at the given point of time. The first thing that is needed to be done is that the sexual harassment complaint process has to Be carried out to make sure that some sort of clarity is developed in terms of how the file of the change and federal agency is needed to be kept in mind. The discussions with the lawyers and the legal experts are also needed to be carried out. Not only that, the Equal Rights Advocate must sit together and make sure that the selection of the choices that are available for the victim are needed to be discussed. Not only that, there has to be realization of some of the risks that are faced by the victim and she must be made aware that if there is lack of evidence, then the case would not have much merit. Throughout the United States workplace, 79% of sexual harassment victims are women, and 21% are men. Out of those numbers, 51% of those people were harassed by a supervisor. Though sexual harassment happens in not all, but most professions, business, trade, banking, and finance are the biggest industries where sexual harassment occurs.

Conclusion

In the hindsight, it can be said that the way sexual harassment laws are supposed to work, it is important that there has to be realization at the end of all the stakeholders that how the safe working environment is supposed to be provided. In this case, the key fact is that the organization despite having a very clear anti-harassment policies is not willing to take any action against the perpetuator. At the same time, with the text messages as well as some other evidences, it becomes quite clear that it is the case of the sexual harassment. The important thing is that with renewed awareness about the issues of the sexual harassment, it has become quite pertinent that action has to be taken. The Federal as well as the State laws are quite inclusive and very clear in this regard and there is a likelihood of the strict action.

References

Boland, M. L. (2016). Sexual Harassment: Your Guide to Legal Action: what You Should Know and what You Can Do. SphinxLegal.

Fitzgerald, L. F., Swan, S., & Fischer, K. (2017). Why didn't she just report him? The psychological and legal implications of women's responses to sexual harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 51(1), 117-138.

Livingston, J. A. (2018). Responses to sexual harassment on the job: Legal, organizational, and individual actions. Journal of Social Issues, 38(4), 5-22.

Business Management

Running Head: REPORT

Assignment

Marketing Management

By

Name

University Name

Executive Summary

Customer value and value proposition are the most important concepts in marketing and strategy literature and are considered essential for the success of a corporation. Customer value is used as a foundation of product and marketing decisions, and development of value proposition, and therefore its understanding must be obtained. Both terms have no single specific definitions and value proposition can be defined as the whole set of experiences which a company brings to its customers, including the value of price they pay. One of the most successful market competitive strategies that a firm can have is its ability to provide superior customer values. Values that this supermarket delivers are not only included in the service but in the whole prescript of organisation, where they are providing all the services to their organisation. These retail stores offer online services, home delivery services, customer loyalty schemes, discount schemes and superior customer service in the form of courteous, helping and kind staff at the retail stores. Coles delivers superior customer values such as fresh food, friendly staff, home deliveries, and discount offers. In order to improve the shopping experience and enhance the loyalty of its customers, Coles can make its website better which shows clear description of the benefits that one can obtain from Coles in comparison with other retail stores and it must provide service of helper carrying the shopping to the parking lots.

Table of Contents

TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc6759003 \h 2

Introduction PAGEREF _Toc6759004 \h 4

Customer value PAGEREF _Toc6759005 \h 4

Value proposition PAGEREF _Toc6759006 \h 5

Explanation of why the concepts are critical to a firm’s financial success PAGEREF _Toc6759007 \h 7

How UK supermarkets deliver value PAGEREF _Toc6759008 \h 8

How your supermarket delivers value to you PAGEREF _Toc6759009 \h 10

One customer segment at your supermarket and the value it seeks PAGEREF _Toc6759010 \h 11

How value is communicated via your supermarket’s website PAGEREF _Toc6759011 \h 11

Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc6759013 \h 12

Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc6759014 \h 13

Introduction

Customer value and value proposition are the vital concepts in marketing literature. Customer value is considered as the value that an organisation provides to its customers and the value propositions encourage customers to buy more and remain loyal to the company. Understanding of customer perceived value is vital for an organisation as it enables companies to provide what customers actually seek. The purpose of this task is to evaluate both the concepts of customer value and value proposition to develop a better understanding of them. In addition, it seeks to analyze the values that the retail supermarkets of the UK offers and further making an analysis of the supermarket which is usually preferred for shopping. The report will first present the definitions of customer value and value proposition and will evaluate the ways UK supermarkets provide value to their customers. Then it will give an analysis of the values obtained from shopping at Coles, the value that one of its segment seeks and the ways it satisfies that segment. Furthermore, it seeks to highlight if the website provides communicate those values or not and based on all the knowledge and understanding, recommendations will be provided to the Coles supermarket.

Customer value

The term “customer value” is increasingly used in marketing studies from the past decades. Every brand claim that they provide value to their customers and customer value is considered as a crucial concept for the success and competitive advantage of an organisation. However, there are several meanings of this term in literature and it is considered a crucial concept in marketing and strategy literature ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"UsVKHW0v","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Smith and Colgate, 2007)","plainCitation":"(Smith and Colgate, 2007)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1670,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/6PYF4SH3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/6PYF4SH3"],"itemData":{"id":1670,"type":"article-journal","title":"Customer value creation: a practical framework","container-title":"Journal of marketing Theory and Practice","page":"7-23","volume":"15","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Smith","given":"J. Brock"},{"family":"Colgate","given":"Mark"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Smith and Colgate, 2007). It is examined that two of the concepts related to customer value are dominated, customer perceived value and customer received value. One of the definitions is, "customer value is the perceived preference of the product attributes, their performance and the consequences of using those attribute to fulfil the customer needs and objectives" ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"NuQjGTCZ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Smith and Colgate, 2007)","plainCitation":"(Smith and Colgate, 2007)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1670,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/6PYF4SH3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/6PYF4SH3"],"itemData":{"id":1670,"type":"article-journal","title":"Customer value creation: a practical framework","container-title":"Journal of marketing Theory and Practice","page":"7-23","volume":"15","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Smith","given":"J. Brock"},{"family":"Colgate","given":"Mark"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Smith and Colgate, 2007). From this definition, it can be analyzed that customer value can be evaluated post-use or pre-use. This makes the customer value a sophisticated concept as it includes multiple contexts, such as pre-use and post-use, cognitive tasks such as evaluation and preferences and attributes and benefits.

Another definition identified in an article is that customer value is an interactive and relativistic experience and preference, which also make the concept of customer value a complex one. The customer value is also considered as the ratio of benefits over sacrifices and cost over benefits obtained. Given this complexity of the concept of customer value, it is not easy to accurately define and measure the value of customer when it comes to the value obtained from a product or a service ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"fkMEoWza","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Smith and Colgate, 2007)","plainCitation":"(Smith and Colgate, 2007)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1670,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/6PYF4SH3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/6PYF4SH3"],"itemData":{"id":1670,"type":"article-journal","title":"Customer value creation: a practical framework","container-title":"Journal of marketing Theory and Practice","page":"7-23","volume":"15","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Smith","given":"J. Brock"},{"family":"Colgate","given":"Mark"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Smith and Colgate, 2007). The complexity of customer definition may need to make the value framework to understand the concept of the value proposition. Many authors also state the difficulty in defining the customer value owing to the subjectivity and complexity involved in this concept. In addition, it is a dynamic concept and it also evolves over time. Customer value is also considered as a personal and a holistic perception of the quality of a product and service, therefore it can be assessed by evaluating both the positive and negative consequences of using a product of utilizing a service ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"aBg9gDlf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"article-journal","title":"The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom","container-title":"International journal of marketing studies","page":"68","volume":"4","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Hassan","given":"Almoatazbillah"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hassan, 2012). Customer value is used as a foundation of product and marketing decisions, and development of value proposition, and therefore its understanding must be obtained. Generally, the whole discussion on the concept of customer value is grouped into three groups such as value component model, cost-benefit ratio and means-end model.

Value proposition

Given the complexity of the concept of customer value, it is hard to estimate the value proposition, the value that is offered in the product or service. it is also a widely used concept in marketing and it evolved over time, therefore there is no single definition of it ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"HIQ1wuj3","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"article-journal","title":"The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom","container-title":"International journal of marketing studies","page":"68","volume":"4","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Hassan","given":"Almoatazbillah"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hassan, 2012). The value proposition is enabling an organisation to understand the value that they offer to their customers, and it also enables the company to make this value communicable. A number of definitions of this concept have been made and developed such as it is a promise that a company made to its customers that it will provide a set of values or benefits in the form of a product or a service. It is also considered as the written statement of the values a company provide to its customers, “the value position is a written statement of all the focusing on the market activities of a company, which influences the customer decision to purchase its offerings in comparison with that of a competitors offerings ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"eckwVGXA","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"article-journal","title":"The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom","container-title":"International journal of marketing studies","page":"68","volume":"4","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Hassan","given":"Almoatazbillah"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hassan, 2012). It is also considered as the value of money that the organization brings to its customers. From the customer's perspectives, it can be something superior or inferior to the alternatives available to the customer. The value proposition has three kinds, according to some experts, it must have all the benefits, and any distinguishes points and the resonating factors ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"CR6wfClY","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"article-journal","title":"The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom","container-title":"International journal of marketing studies","page":"68","volume":"4","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Hassan","given":"Almoatazbillah"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hassan, 2012).

There are also different concepts of value position from the perspectives of buyers and sellers. For a customer value proposition is the features and benefits of the product. When it comes to the value proposition, it is the combination of internal and external values. Internal value is the concept of value from shareholder's perspective and external value is the value from the customer perspective, i.e. benefits in the company's offerings. Customers define values in different forms according to the features of the products or services. Customer resulting experience from the use of products or service is the essence of the value proposition CITATION Sal04 \l 1033 (Salem Khalifa, 2004). From the customer perspective, the value proposition is the description of the benefits that a customer obtains from the use of products or services. Since value proposition has no single specific definitions it can be defined as the whole set of experiences which a company brings to its customers, including the value of price they pay. To better understand this concept it is important to integrate the external and internal value.

Explanation of why the concepts are critical to a firm’s financial success

Customer Value and value proposition are the two most important concepts when it comes to the success of a company. The success of a company is linked with the value that it provides to its customers, instilled in these products and services. Customer value is a concept which drives all the marketing activities of a company ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"utQorQN5","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"article-journal","title":"The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom","container-title":"International journal of marketing studies","page":"68","volume":"4","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Hassan","given":"Almoatazbillah"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hassan, 2012). It also provokes decisions regarding investments and production activities. Customer value and experiences fluctuate with the changing environment and their needs, therefore, it is recommended to the companies, especially leaders in the market to perform research and development aimed at assessing deeper customer insight to shape their plans to develop in the market. Based on the importance of value proposition, different experts emphasize that it must be the core focus of a company's economic and psychological value, along with other benefits ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"utQorQN5","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Hassan, 2012)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1671,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/IHNZXLY3"],"itemData":{"id":1671,"type":"article-journal","title":"The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom","container-title":"International journal of marketing studies","page":"68","volume":"4","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Hassan","given":"Almoatazbillah"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hassan, 2012). Value proposition guides the company towards ways in which it can beat competitors and gain more customers.

A superior value proposition offers the breadth of resulting experiences which may improve the scenario of other experiences, and there is no method to discover these scenarios. The only way is to understand customer expectations and perceived values. Porter is credited to highlight a few strategies which can be used to create and deliver the unique value proposition to customers, against the competitors, these strategies include cost leadership or differentiation (Hassan, 2012). McDonald's is an example of delivering a constant value proposition to its customers. For a successfully distinguished business, a novel and fully tested value position are essential, and it can enhance the efficacy and effectiveness of an organisation. The outcome of an effectively developed value proposition statement is shareholder’s satisfaction, increase in market share and rise in profits.

One of the most successful market competitive strategies that a firm can have is its ability to provide superior customer values. The sole purpose of a value proposition is to think of customer benefit and differentiate the product from its competitors that are used to better lead and communicate the products and service to its potent customers. Value proposition also enables organisations to achieve success via positioning, and it leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. The heart of marketing is to distinguish the offering from its competitors and this can only be achieved by having a distinguished value proposition. When it comes to a service brand, customer value mediates the influence of service brand on customer loyalty. The importance of superior customer value is also recognized in some of the brand strategies. Studies indicate that the in-depth and better understanding of the concept of customer value is vital for the development and success of value-based strategies CITATION Sal04 \l 1033 (Salem Khalifa, 2004).

How UK supermarkets deliver value

The United Kingdom has some of the leading supermarket chains known for the customer services and their distribution of outlets. To name some of them, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda Stores Ltd., Morrisons, and Aldi. There are many ways in which these supermarkets are providing value to their end customers. Like any other business, these supermarkets seek to deliver superior value to their customer in order to achieve customer loyalty, customer retention and attract new customers. These values are incorporated in their vision, mission, strategies and social responsibilities, and some are also reflected in their market activities. The websites also have information about the ways they claim they create and deliver superior customer value.

Values that this supermarket delivers are not only included in the service but in the whole prescript of organisation, where they are providing all the services to their organisation. These retail stores offer online services, home delivery services, customer loyalty schemes, discount schemes and superior customer service in the form of courteous, helping and kind staff at the retail stores. Other forms of customer value include offering to park, and taking care of customer needs. One of the leading supermarket store chains, Asda offers low-cost value, and it is known to be second in terms of sales and discounts. The company's core value is "saving your money every day". It also won an award for being the lowest price offering supermarket in the UK.

Tesco, another leading supermarket chain store is famous for its loyalty card scheme which is a value offering technique that the company adopted. It is considered as the third largest retailer in the world. Its loyalty cards also give insight and data regarding customer buying choices and preferences. Another value that it offers to its customers is "every little help". In addition, it considers social responsibilities and its responsibilities towards the environment and society. Sainsbury's shows a continued commitment to its customers, suppliers and is highly emphasized on the ethical business practices. The superior value proposition that the company offers to its customers is the fair and good price. They have a strong belief in the statement "Our value makes us different", and it includes five core values such as health, integrity, fair price, respect for community and environment and making Sainsbury's a happy place to work. Waitrose is also a recognized retailer in the UK and it provides the value of best shopping experience to their clients. It is nominated for its superior customer service and it has also created its good reputation in the form of fresh and quality food. Its quality food is also fairly priced, though it is a little expensive it claims that they sell "quality food, honestly priced". In addition, their superior value is based on packing and carrying customer's shopping, providing them with wheelchairs, online shopping and home deliveries. This shows that each supermarket in the UK has its own values that they offer to their customers. For different groups of customers, they offer different values and customers also seek different values depending on their needs and wants.

How your supermarket delivers value to you

Coles is one of the leading retail stores in Australia and it is the best option to do groceries. Woolworths and Coles both are the best when it comes to shopping for groceries, but Coles is the one visited most due to its proximity to the residence. It delivers superior customer values in the form of fresh food which it claims. The products purchased from Coles are always very fresh and they have a strict check of the freshness of their products and expiry dates of products with preservatives. In addition, one of the best things about the Coles store is that the staff is very friendly and they are always ready to help out shoppers. The prices they charge are also reasonable and fairly set. Shopping at Coles gives a sense of comfort that it is not expensive and offers good value for money. The friendly staff recognize faces and warmly welcomes the customers, they are already familiar with the needs of their regular customers and makes shopping at the store very easy.

Another reason for satisfaction and comfort at the Coles store is it is very neat and tidy. The environment is very calming and it is the clear representation of the best organization of products and their categories. The neatness and calming ambience along with the friendly staff makes the shopping experience at Coles very amazing. Another value that they provide is the form of ordering online. If one is not able to visit the store they can place orders online ad the items get delivered at the doorstep. In addition, the sales, and discounts are a great attraction which is not only available on online products but also in the stores as well. They also offer huge discounts on important events such as Christmas, Mother's Day, Father Day etc. it provides the most convenient shopping hours and also a mobile application which makes it super easy to shop online. It also offers a loyalty program to collect points and redeem when desired.

One customer segment at your supermarket and the value it seeks

One of the supermarket's segment is the group of shoppers that seek healthy and fresh foods. They need fresh seafood, fresh meat, fresh fruits and vegetables. These shoppers are health and diet conscious and want fresh foods for their meals. Such shoppers are also focused on a healthy and active lifestyle and they will also select retailers that are environmentally friendly. They also considered the credibility and ethical values of brads from which the shop. Coles is known for offering fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood as well. It is the best choice of these conscious consumers and is considered better in their fresh food offering even as compared to Woolworths.

Every day, Coles ensures that it offers fresh food to its customers especially when it comes to perishable products. They assure to get the fresh supply every single day and do not disappoint their customers in this regard. In addition, the staff has the information on the nutritious factors in the products. The staff assists customers in the area of health conscious and low-fat foods and they are ready to provide what customer seeks.

How value is communicated via your supermarket’s website

Coles’s website also delivers the important values that it provides and claims to provide. It communicates that it offers fresh food to its customers. In addition, the website has deals and discount offers, with respect to the event. Its focus on freshness, low priced quality products and the improved shopping experience are listed on its website in its strategy and value section. So it essentially provides all these values. The friendly staff enhances the customer experience. On its website, most of the things listed are the products and services that it offers, recipes and magazines. Not a lot of information is available on the website regarding how it provides excellent customer experience and in what ways.

Recommendations

In order to improve the shopping experience and enhance the loyalty of its customers, Coles can make its website better which shows clear description of the benefits that one can obtain from Coles in comparison with other retail stores. The website has no clear information about its loyalty programs which is an important value it offers to its customers. Another service that it must provide to its customers is the helper carrying the shopping to the parking lots. In addition, there must be an automatic system of making payments at the check-out along with the credit card options that it provides. For on the go and customers who are in a hurry there must be very quick service and the staff must be ready to assist such customers. It must also provide very little help to the elderly and uninformed customers.

Bibliography

Hassan, A., 2012. The value proposition concept in marketing: How customers perceive the value delivered by firms-A study of customer perspectives on supermarkets in Southampton in the United Kingdom. Int. J. Mark. Stud. 4, 68.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Salem Khalifa, A., 2004. Customer value: a review of recent literature and an integrative configuration. Management Decision, p. 645–666.

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Smith, J.B., Colgate, M., 2007. Customer value creation: a practical framework. J. Mark. Theory Pract. 15, 7–23.

Business Management

ASSESSMENTS Version 2.0 January 2019

Submitted by

XXX

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Introduction

Aussie Fitness Center is a fitness corporation which is serving to its customers 24/7. This fitness corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is owned by Mary Franklin and James. The board of directors of the corporation is based on a team of Human Resources and Marketing, General Manager Finance, support staff, and an Executive Assistant. The aim of the corporation is to expand their number of centres with the increasing demands of their customers. According to the estimates, the investment per centre would be approximately $300,000. Aussie Fitness centre is very famous for its services to the customers. According to survey, conducted across Australia, Aussie Fitness centre can train 30 new clients every week, if 5 staff members will work full time. However, in the off peak times, the Aussie Fitness centre face decrease in number of client, due to which it becomes difficult for it to manage its electricity, water, and rent space costs. Thus, it is essential for the Centre to focus on its marketing strategies in order to attract more customers in the off peak times.

Aussie Fitness centre observed that training of the staff and their qualification plays an effective role in attracting more customers. This is because a trained and educated staff member can deal customers in better way than a less trained individual. Thus, Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit additional two staff members per centre, who must be trained and qualified with a minimum certificate III in personal training. Further, Aussie Fitness centre will arrange training sessions for the existing staff, and they will be required to obtain their minimum Certificate III in personal training. In this way, the staff will be able to serve to the customers in highly skilled way, and thus the Aussie Fitness would like to use the highly skilled and qualified team as a selling point for obtaining more members.

Further, the owners of the Aussie Fitness centre requested all managers to be more involved in lifting the level of the centres and attract more customers via promoting a safe environment for all ages. Further, the owners of the Aussie Fitness centre encourages the managers to seek feedback regarding customers’ views about Aussie Fitness centre and what do they suggest about enhancing the quality of services. This feedback will be helpful to the owners and managers in making better decisions and implement continuous improvement. Additionally, the owners are willing to encourage the employees to perform well. By involving them in decision-making, the employees will feel valued and thus will work hard for the successful future of the Aussie Fitness centre. Also, the owners announced that the employee with better suggestion and recommendation will be rewarded for supporting and creating a positive work culture. Also, the managers of the Aussie Fitness centre decided to make communication plan with stakeholders in order to keep them informed regarding all strategies and effective measures taken by the corporation for better future. Also, owners suggested the managers to work on ‘Open door policy’ to encourage a team to approach senior staff with any concern they might have. In this way the authorities will be aware of what is going on in the organization, and how the managers are dealing with the issues faced to employees at Aussie Fitness centre.

The owners of the Aussie Fitness centre received a suggestion that they must find a suitable software system in order to conduct feedback surveys, collect data, and generate reports for the managers. Through this report, the managers will be able to evaluate the requirements of the employees and customers and the need of change in the Aussie Fitness centre in order to gain competitive advantages. Further, a cost-benefit analysis can be conducted to evaluate the payback period of implementing new software system in the Aussie Fitness centre. Further, managers were assigned to review procedures and policies, and to ensure that all staff are aware of the Current Code of Ethics. Additionally all staff members were instructed to attend risk management training, to use the software system effectively and to reduce the chances of error and mistakes. Further, managers of Aussie Fitness centre must ensure that inductions are performed to the required standard before a staff member is allowed to work independently in the centre. Further, they must look at suitable technology requirements for their facilities to increase productivity, efficiency in generating reliable report data and for keeping up with current industry trends. In this way, Aussie Fitness centre will be able to meet all employees’ and customers’ requirement, improve the technology set up of the corporation, attract more customers, generate great revenue, and maintain the security and performance measure within the corporation.

Purpose of Report

Every organization is concerned to increase number of customers to generate more revenue and achieve a prominent position in the national or International market. Aussie Fitness centre is also focused to increase its number of customers while keeping them satisfied. It is essential to survive in this increasing competitive environment. Thus, Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit qualified and well trained two staff members. Further, the corporation will arrange training sessions for the existing staff. This is essential because highly qualified and skilled staff is essential to provide quality services to the customers and to meet the present requirements of the market. Now, this report aims to present how the skilled and qualified staff will bring positive outcome to the Aussie Fitness centre, and how the implementation of new software system will prove to be effective in meeting all customers’ requirements. For this purpose, the report will discuss the environmental, risk, and strategic analysis in order to evaluate the risks and strengths associated with the new decisions. Further the report will discuss the HR objectives of the Aussie Fitness centre, labour requirement, consultation, recruitment, training plans, education plans, feedback issues, statistical presentation, operational changes, cost-benefit analysis, communication, and decision-making. With such report, the reader will be able to analyse how to develop, implement, and maintain a strategic approach to managing human resources in an organisation.

Vision of Aussie Fitness Centre

The vision of the firm is ‘to serve to the customers successfully and profitably.’ To achieve the vision, the company has been developing strong strategies and making effective changes to the organizational performance strategies.

Mission of Aussie Fitness Centre

The mission of the corporation is to increase number of customers, generate more revenue, and gain a prominent position in the market amongst its competitors.

Values of Aussie Fitness Centre

The major values of the corporation are; Honesty, Professionalism, Discipline, and Work Ethics.

Environmental Analysis

As fitness cooperation, Aussie Fitness Centre has some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Similarly, several political, environmental, technical, and other factors may affect Aussie Fitness Centre’s market position. Thus, in order to have better market reputation and attract more customers, environmental analysis is of great important to the Aussie Fitness Centre.

SWOT Analysis

In this way, the centre managers will understand how to use the strengths of Aussie Fitness Centre over the weaknesses, how the opportunities from the market can used to have better reputation amongst competitors, and what strategies can work well to mitigate risks and threats to the Centre.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 1 - SWOT Analysis

Strengths (Internal)

Weaknesses (Internal)

Professional Coaches

Experience

Regular-Customers

Know-how via Feedback

Administration issues

Expense required for training

Customers’ fee

Opportunities (External)

Threats (External)

Getting new Customers

Expanding facilities

Introducing new activities

Competitors

Gyms

Sports Vouchers

PESTLE Analysis

PESTEL analysis is very helpful to evaluate how the host country is going to affect the business in future. For this purpose, the management makes an analysis of political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal aspects related to the business industry. When focused about Aussie Fitness Centre, the management need to develop a PESTEL analysis to analyse how the future strategies will work for the better future of the centre. The PESTEL analysis of the centre is as following;

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 2 - PESTLE Analysis

Political

Economical

Infrastructure

Tax Policy

Regulations

Growth rate

Labour cost

Inflation

Socio

Technological

Education

Income distribution

Cultural norms

Communication

Emerging technology

Technology in training and education

Environmental

Legal

Workforce health

Resource Management

Energy availability

Law enforcement

Court system

Regional laws

8. Risk Analysis

The Aussie Fitness Centre is planning to train its employees and to implement a new feedback system to evaluate what do employees and the customers think about centre’s services? Thus, with such changes a lot of risks are associated which may affect the centre’s market reputation in worst way and can cause loss of customers. Thus, what are the risks associated with the change and how to mitigate them is discussed in the table below;

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 3 - Risk Analysis

Risk

High (H)

Medium (M)

Low (L)

Mitigation Strategy

Resources Required

Responsibility

Timeframe

Loss of Customers

High

Offer attractive discounts and services to keep them in touch with centre’s services.

Activity material, social media campaign, and staff

To introduce new services and make effective plans for the implementation.

1 month

Excess budget

High

The managers must make financial plan of how much budget is required to train the employees

Financial reports.

Carefully evaluate the expenditure and make calculations carefully

1 week

System failure

Medium

Make quality check to ensure system has been installed properly and there exist no errors or fault in system.

Quality assurance equipments, hardware, and system software

Carefully check each function of the system and its analysis results.

1 week

Data breaching

High

Use effective protection software to prevent data breaching.

Anti-virus and other protection software

No unauthorized person should have access to the system.

1 month

9. Strategic Direction

Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit additional two staff members per centre, who must be trained and qualified with a minimum certificate III in personal training. Further, Aussie Fitness centre will arrange training sessions for the existing staff, and they will be required to obtain their minimum Certificate III in personal training. In this way, the staff will be able to serve to the customers in highly skilled way, and thus the Aussie Fitness would like to use the highly skilled and qualified team as a selling point for obtaining more members. Further, the owners of the Aussie Fitness centre requested all managers to be more involved in lifting the level of the centres and attract more customers via promoting a safe environment for all ages, especially for those who was born in 1960s. This will enable the Aussie Fitness to target the people from all ages, increasing older generation customers.

10. Human Resource Objectives

James and Mary Franklin, who combined bring more than four decades of personal training and life coaching expertise to the business. Their objective is to provide best training and fitness facilities to their customers and for this purpose they are planning to hire two well qualified and certified staff members. Also, Aussie Fitness Centre is planning to arrange training sessions for its employee. This will enable all staff members to provide most effective and efficient services to the customers. To manage all human resource matters, the company has established a ‘board of directors’ which consist of Human Resources and Marketing, General Manager Finance, support staff, and an Executive Assistant. Further, training staff is hired to train the customers and to motivate them in performing fitness activities appropriately and efficiently. However, the company does not want to spend a huge amount on salary budget and that is why it hires the employees on salary basis instead of making contracts.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 4 - Human Resource Objectives

Objectives

Strategies to achieve goals

To keep customers satisfied

Hire qualified training staff members.

To provide high quality fitness training services to the customers

Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit additional two staff members per centre, who must be trained and qualified with a minimum certificate III in personal training.

To manage all workplace tasks effectively.

the company has established a ‘board of directors’ which consist of Human Resources and Marketing, General Manager Finance, support staff, and an Executive Assistant.

To have better budget management.

Hire employees on salary basis instead of contracts.

11. Labour requirements

Performance Gap

The owners of the Aussie fitness Centre want to arrange a training session for all staff. This is essential because for a professional fitness trainer, minimum requirement is certificate III in fitness training. Analysing Admin staff, the manager at Sydney has first aid, customer service skills, and conflict resolution skills, but the manager at Brisbane’s first aid is out of data. Also, Brisbane Centre Manager has no formal qualification and the Admin manager has an outdated certificate IV in fitness. But this does not mean that he is not capable because his ten years experience in the field has made him the best manager. Further d;etails of the HR gap analysis is filed in the table below

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 5 - HR Gap Analysis

Staff Type

Current

Required

Gap

Sydney Centre Manager

1

NIL

NIL

Sydney Reception Manager

1

NIL

NIL

Admin Staff

3

NIL

NIL

Maintenance

1

Nil

Nil

Cleaner

1

Nil

Nil

Brisbane Centre Manager

1

Nil

NIL

Brisbane Reception Manager

1

NIL

NIL

Brisbane Admin Staff

3

Nil

NIL

Brisbane Maintenance

1

Nil

Nil

Brisbane Cleaner

1

Nil

Nil

Below identify the performance gaps for the Sydney and Brisbane Centres (finish the Sydney Centre Manager example):

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 6 - Sydney Performance Gaps

Staff Type

Current Formal Qualifications

Current Certificates

Gap

Sydney Centre Manager

Diploma in Sport Science, Diploma in Leadership and Management.

Cert III and Cert IV in Fitness, Senior First Aid, Customer service skills and team building - 8 years industry experience

NIL

Sydney Reception Manager

NIL

has first aid, Customer service skills, team building, out of date conflict resolution, 8 years’ experience in various admin roles

Out dated conflict resolution

Admin Staff

NIL

1 x Customer service skills 1 year experience

1 x Customer service skills, team building and conflict resolution, 3 years’ experience, first aid

1 x team building and conflict resolution 1.5 years’ experience, first aid

NIL

Maintenance

NIL

NIL

Nil

Cleaner

NIL

Nil

Nil

Health Specialists

must hold accredited qualifications

must hold accredited qualifications

NIL

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 7 - Brisbane Performance Gaps

Staff Type

Current Formal Qualifications

Current Certificates

Gap

Brisbane Centre Manager

No formal qualifications, 10 years industry experience,

senior first aid, Customer service skills and team building certificates

No formal qualification

Brisbane Reception Manager

NIL

Customer service skills, team building, and an out of date conflict resolution certificate, 8 years’ experience in various admin roles

Does not have current first aid

Out date conflict resolution certificate

Brisbane Admin Staff

NIL

1 x team building with 1 year work experience, no first aid

1 x Customer service skills, team building and conflict resolution, 2 years’ experience, out of date first aid

1 x conflict resolution and 1.5 years’ experience, first aid

2 of them has no current first aid

Brisbane Maintenance

NIL

Nil

Nil

Brisbane Cleaner

NIL

Nil

Nil

Health Specialists

must hold accredited qualifications

must hold accredited qualifications

NIL

12. Labour Requirements

From the above information identify Future labour needs (employment of an ACM), skill requirements that Aussie Fitness expect them to have (here decide if you want to recruit people who are already qualified and have the relevant experience or will AF qualify them? – (think about the associated costs). What options for sourcing labour do AF have? [HRSP Pg. 13]. Where can fitness trainers be employed from? E.g. local colleges.

13. Consultation

Discuss the importance of consulting with relevant managers and the owners of AF about labour requirements [See Appendix Booklet] [HRSP Pg. 20] and agree on philosophies/values that AF would like to instil in the organisation [HRSP Pg. 22].

14. Recruitment

Managers may need to consult with specialists (E.g. Human Resources/Head Office) to complete the gap employment requirements to ensure that AF are recruiting the right person for the job [MKI Pg. 73]. Discuss the importance of clearly identifying the responsibilities/accountabilities of the position that is being advertised for and additionally this is clarified in the recruitment process [MKI Pg. 76].

15. Training and Education Plans

Complete the table below by listing the training required and discuss above the table the importance of arranging and managing activities to deliver and communicate training and education plans/training matrices for each employee [LMOC Pg. 52-56] to relevant groups and individual.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 8 - Training/Education Plan

Training Session

Learning outcomes

Objectives

Length of training session

Target audience

Delivery mode

Facilitator

Customer service

Improve customer satisfaction

High quality of customer services

90 minutes

Personal Trainers

Centre Managers

In-house

Human Resource Manager

16. Employee Interventions (a & b)

a). Use the embedded scenario and provide a discussion about the importance of employee interventions to be conducted in a timely manner – and how you will action the outcomes of the intervention [LMOC Pg. 85].

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 9 - Performance Intervention

Intervention Issue

Outcome

Timeframe

b). Create a flow chart of managing under performance by using the information in the

17. Feedback and Identified Issues (answer a, b and c)

a). Member Feedback

Complete the table below with the information complaint from member Simon Sayed, above your table discus the importance of seeking feedback from internal stakeholders so that Continuous Improvement, Brand Image/Reputation and Word of Mouth can be protected.

Additionally discuss the benefits of obtaining feedback and that feedback is obtained within the guidelines of the organisation, (feedback must be sought in a legal and ethical manner by the organisation – discuss this fact further).

Review the feedback form from Aussie Fitness member Simon Sayed and identify the issues, list ALL them below:

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 10 - Member Feedback

Identified Issues:

Additionally discuss that stakeholder feedback is as a source of reliable data and in turn more informed decisions can be made.

Checkpoint: Measure Customer Service

b). Staff Feedback

Identify the issues from the internal feedback in the Continuous Improvement (CI) form below:

Above your table the importance of addressing Continuous Improvement suggestions from internal stakeholders, for example increase of productivity when systems and processes are effective, up to date and in place.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 11 - Staff Feedback

Issues

Improvement Strategies

c). Cause and Effect

Choose one of the above feedback issues and create one (1) cause and effect diagram [MKI Pg. 7, 17-26 & 43] [Appendix Booklet].

18. Statistical Presentation (a, b & c)

Create a scenario of customer feedback with dissatisfaction of the manned reception desk which is becoming apparent as an emerging trend over a period of months leading up to the complaint.

a). From the feedback generate a graph demonstrating increase in complaints Quantitative Data is required to be presented here (e.g. emerging trends in data).

b). Discuss the use appropriate quantitative methods assist in more informed decision making with regard to the complaints being received [MKI Pg. 60-61]. By coming up strategies to rectify these issues discuss that the decisions being made are within the delegation of the group/individuals responsible [MKI Pg. 76-79].

c). Above your chart/graph discuss the statistical analysis is interrelating that members are dissatisfied with the availability of the reception staff at 7am, this is becoming an emerging trend as more members are completing the feedback form with regard to this same issue. [Appendix Booklet]

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 12 - Customer Complaints

19. Priority Matrix

From the above issues identified by the Member Simon Sayed and the Reception/Admin staff, place the issues in the relevant quadrants to create a Priority Matrix [LMOC Pg. 18] [See Appendix Booklet].

Above your matrix discuss why Aussie Fitness requires conducting a priority matrix with regard to the issues that have been raised and the impacts these are having on customer service and if they do not prioritise the issues this will impact the reputation/brand image of the organisation.

NOT URGENT

URGENT

IMPORTANT

UN-IMPORTANT

20. Operational Changes (a, b, & c)

From the issues determined by the Reception/Admin staff feedback answer the following: Check Question numbers

a). Identify operational changes that will need to take place for the improvement strategies to be implemented smoothly [LMOC Pg. 13].

b). You will need to include a review of policies and practices (P&P) that will filter down from the identified operational changes above (see the example in the table).

c). Identify which stakeholders will be involved in the changes and P&P’s

You are required to mention above your table that the P&P’s must be written with consistent standards within the organisational guidelines (all organisations have set standards for writing policies and procedures).

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 13 - Operational Changes

1. Operational change required

2. P&P to be reviewed

Stakeholder

Opening Procedure to start at 6:30am

Re-write opening policy (version control document)

Centre Manager

Reception Manager

Reception/Admin Staff

21. Technology (a, b & c)

a). Consider new technology requirements, make recommendations for Aussie Fitness to up-date their Customer Relationship Management System (CRM).

Explain the benefits of updating the CRM system to the owners of AF in confirming the fact that a new system would provide high quality, optimum efficiency, increase productivity and would ensure that information for internal and external stakeholders is up-to date, sufficient, accurate and relevant for the recipients [HRSP Pg. 15].

This means that all staff members have current data on all of their clients (relevant to the recipients).

b). Additionally discuss the importance of adhering to confidentiality and privacy policies in the transmission of information [MKI Pg. 118]. Discuss how important is that staff are made aware of maintaining corporate knowledge and ensuring security measures of internal and external stakeholders data [MKI Pg. 122]. The CRM system must have secure protection of personal details of all stakeholders.

c). Once the CRM system is in place staff will need to be informed/trained about the location, format and timeline requirements (version controls and updates of information [MKI Pg. 88].

22. Decision Making (answer a, b & c)

a). Produce a sensitivity analysis by using Table 14 (what if/scenario analysis) on proposed options for the CRM system [MKI 2.4].

b). Above your table discuss that decisions are made within the organisational guidelines [MKI Pg. 81] and procedures and are consistent with objectives, values and standards [MKI Pg. 81].

Complete the below table by following the scenario steps, using the proposal of implementing the CRM in Aussie Fitness:

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 14 - Scenario Analysis

Define the problem

E.g. Current CRM system out of date, reached its capacity

Gathered Data

E.g. Staff are only able to put limited member data in to the current system

Separate certainties and uncertainties

E.g. Trends in technology

Scenarios

E.g. Competition

Planning

E.g. Pilot Test

c) Decisions need to be taken in a timely manner for reliability of current information [MKI Pg. 84].

23. Approvals

Discuss obtaining approvals from the owners [Appendix P], [LMOC Pg. 73] for the suggestion of updating the CRM system. To gain approvals from relevant authorities discuss the formal method of doing so [See Appendix Booklet].

24. Pilot Test

Additionally when seeking approval discuss the suggestion to conduct a pilot test of the CRM system to test the design and system specifications to ensure they suits the organisations requirements [MKI Pg. 104] before launching a whole new system across the organisation [MKI Pg. 120].

25. Cost Benefit Analysis

Additionally to support the request for approval and pilot test create a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) for the CRM system you are wanting to implement [Appendix Booklet] [HRSP Pg 28] [LMOC Pg. 57] [MKI Pg. 70]. Discuss above your CBA the benefits of conducting the analysis and finalise your CBA with an assumed payback period.

26. Communication (a, b & c)

Complete table 15 below

The table provides the changes required, what strategies you will be using to embed the change, who will be involved in the implementation of the changes and, within an appropriate timeline (otherwise data becomes out of date and is un-reliable) to the BOD [See Appendix Booklet] [LMOC Pg. 49] [HRSP Pg. 49].

a). Above your table firstly discuss how you will communicate the changes that will be taking place in the organisation to the BOD (e.g. formal meeting – face to face).

b). Secondly once you have decided how you will communicate your discussion with the BOD, you will need to gain their feedback in relation to your change strategies.

Discuss how you will gain their feedback (e.g. questions at the end or questions as you go for each strategy).

Discuss that the feedback from the BOD is valuable and any changes required will be adapted in the plan before being disseminated [See Appendix Booklet] [HRSP Pg. 61] [MKI Pg. 114].

c). Finally discuss the importance of ensuring information is up to date, is accurate and relevant to the recipients before being disseminated across the organisation.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 15 Communicating Changes

Changes

Strategies

Stakeholder

Timeline

Centres will have an ACM

Conduct a CBA to compare benefits to additional knowledge and skills within the organisation

Human Resources

Centre Manager

Sydney by March 2019

Brisbane by June 2019

Introducing seniors program

Staff training

Reception manned hours

Policies and procedures

27. Reviewing Plans

a) Discuss the review of the changes/objectives and goals of AF created on a regular basis [HRSP Pg. 54] and review where appropriate to achieve change program objectives [HRSP Pg. 64] [MKI Pg. 114].

b) Discuss reviews of the communication plans on a regular basis are important and conduct the importance of regular evaluation and reviews to modify the plan where appropriate to achieve change program objectives [LMOC Pg. 97]

28. Conclusion

Conclude you assessment with a comprehensive analysis of your findings

Assessment References:

Student to electronically enter references

ASSESSMENTS Version 2.0 January 2019

Submitted by

XXX

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Introduction

Aussie Fitness Center is a fitness corporation which is serving to its customers 24/7. This fitness corporation was incorporated in 2001 and is owned by Mary Franklin and James. The board of directors of the corporation is based on a team of Human Resources and Marketing, General Manager Finance, support staff, and an Executive Assistant. The aim of the corporation is to expand their number of centres with the increasing demands of their customers. According to the estimates, the investment per centre would be approximately $300,000. Aussie Fitness centre is very famous for its services to the customers. According to survey, conducted across Australia, Aussie Fitness centre can train 30 new clients every week, if 5 staff members will work full time. However, in the off peak times, the Aussie Fitness centre face decrease in number of client, due to which it becomes difficult for it to manage its electricity, water, and rent space costs. Thus, it is essential for the Centre to focus on its marketing strategies in order to attract more customers in the off peak times.

Aussie Fitness centre observed that training of the staff and their qualification plays an effective role in attracting more customers. This is because a trained and educated staff member can deal customers in better way than a less trained individual. Thus, Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit additional two staff members per centre, who must be trained and qualified with a minimum certificate III in personal training. Further, Aussie Fitness centre will arrange training sessions for the existing staff, and they will be required to obtain their minimum Certificate III in personal training. In this way, the staff will be able to serve to the customers in highly skilled way, and thus the Aussie Fitness would like to use the highly skilled and qualified team as a selling point for obtaining more members.

Further, the owners of the Aussie Fitness centre requested all managers to be more involved in lifting the level of the centres and attract more customers via promoting a safe environment for all ages. Further, the owners of the Aussie Fitness centre encourages the managers to seek feedback regarding customers’ views about Aussie Fitness centre and what do they suggest about enhancing the quality of services. This feedback will be helpful to the owners and managers in making better decisions and implement continuous improvement. Additionally, the owners are willing to encourage the employees to perform well. By involving them in decision-making, the employees will feel valued and thus will work hard for the successful future of the Aussie Fitness centre. Also, the owners announced that the employee with better suggestion and recommendation will be rewarded for supporting and creating a positive work culture. Also, the managers of the Aussie Fitness centre decided to make communication plan with stakeholders in order to keep them informed regarding all strategies and effective measures taken by the corporation for better future. Also, owners suggested the managers to work on ‘Open door policy’ to encourage a team to approach senior staff with any concern they might have. In this way the authorities will be aware of what is going on in the organization, and how the managers are dealing with the issues faced to employees at Aussie Fitness centre.

The owners of the Aussie Fitness centre received a suggestion that they must find a suitable software system in order to conduct feedback surveys, collect data, and generate reports for the managers. Through this report, the managers will be able to evaluate the requirements of the employees and customers and the need of change in the Aussie Fitness centre in order to gain competitive advantages. Further, a cost-benefit analysis can be conducted to evaluate the payback period of implementing new software system in the Aussie Fitness centre. Further, managers were assigned to review procedures and policies, and to ensure that all staff are aware of the Current Code of Ethics. Additionally all staff members were instructed to attend risk management training, to use the software system effectively and to reduce the chances of error and mistakes. Further, managers of Aussie Fitness centre must ensure that inductions are performed to the required standard before a staff member is allowed to work independently in the centre. Further, they must look at suitable technology requirements for their facilities to increase productivity, efficiency in generating reliable report data and for keeping up with current industry trends. In this way, Aussie Fitness centre will be able to meet all employees’ and customers’ requirement, improve the technology set up of the corporation, attract more customers, generate great revenue, and maintain the security and performance measure within the corporation.

Purpose of Report

Every organization is concerned to increase number of customers to generate more revenue and achieve a prominent position in the national or International market. Aussie Fitness centre is also focused to increase its number of customers while keeping them satisfied. It is essential to survive in this increasing competitive environment. Thus, Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit qualified and well trained two staff members. Further, the corporation will arrange training sessions for the existing staff. This is essential because highly qualified and skilled staff is essential to provide quality services to the customers and to meet the present requirements of the market. Now, this report aims to present how the skilled and qualified staff will bring positive outcome to the Aussie Fitness centre, and how the implementation of new software system will prove to be effective in meeting all customers’ requirements. For this purpose, the report will discuss the environmental, risk, and strategic analysis in order to evaluate the risks and strengths associated with the new decisions. Further the report will discuss the HR objectives of the Aussie Fitness centre, labour requirement, consultation, recruitment, training plans, education plans, feedback issues, statistical presentation, operational changes, cost-benefit analysis, communication, and decision-making. With such report, the reader will be able to analyse how to develop, implement, and maintain a strategic approach to managing human resources in an organisation.

Vision of Aussie Fitness Centre

The vision of the firm is ‘to serve to the customers successfully and profitably.’ To achieve the vision, the company has been developing strong strategies and making effective changes to the organizational performance strategies.

Mission of Aussie Fitness Centre

The mission of the corporation is to increase number of customers, generate more revenue, and gain a prominent position in the market amongst its competitors.

Values of Aussie Fitness Centre

The major values of the corporation are; Honesty, Professionalism, Discipline, and Work Ethics.

Environmental Analysis

As fitness cooperation, Aussie Fitness Centre has some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Similarly, several political, environmental, technical, and other factors may affect Aussie Fitness Centre’s market position. Thus, in order to have better market reputation and attract more customers, environmental analysis is of great important to the Aussie Fitness Centre.

SWOT Analysis

In this way, the centre managers will understand how to use the strengths of Aussie Fitness Centre over the weaknesses, how the opportunities from the market can used to have better reputation amongst competitors, and what strategies can work well to mitigate risks and threats to the Centre.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 1 - SWOT Analysis

Strengths (Internal)

Weaknesses (Internal)

Professional Coaches

Experience

Regular-Customers

Know-how via Feedback

Administration issues

Expense required for training

Customers’ fee

Opportunities (External)

Threats (External)

Getting new Customers

Expanding facilities

Introducing new activities

Competitors

Gyms

Sports Vouchers

PESTLE Analysis

PESTEL analysis is very helpful to evaluate how the host country is going to affect the business in future. For this purpose, the management makes an analysis of political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal aspects related to the business industry. When focused about Aussie Fitness Centre, the management need to develop a PESTEL analysis to analyse how the future strategies will work for the better future of the centre. The PESTEL analysis of the centre is as following;

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 2 - PESTLE Analysis

Political

Economical

Infrastructure

Tax Policy

Regulations

Growth rate

Labour cost

Inflation

Socio

Technological

Education

Income distribution

Cultural norms

Communication

Emerging technology

Technology in training and education

Environmental

Legal

Workforce health

Resource Management

Energy availability

Law enforcement

Court system

Regional laws

8. Risk Analysis

The Aussie Fitness Centre is planning to train its employees and to implement a new feedback system to evaluate what do employees and the customers think about centre’s services? Thus, with such changes a lot of risks are associated which may affect the centre’s market reputation in worst way and can cause loss of customers. Thus, what are the risks associated with the change and how to mitigate them is discussed in the table below;

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 3 - Risk Analysis

Risk

High (H)

Medium (M)

Low (L)

Mitigation Strategy

Resources Required

Responsibility

Timeframe

Loss of Customers

High

Offer attractive discounts and services to keep them in touch with centre’s services.

Activity material, social media campaign, and staff

To introduce new services and make effective plans for the implementation.

1 month

Excess budget

High

The managers must make financial plan of how much budget is required to train the employees

Financial reports.

Carefully evaluate the expenditure and make calculations carefully

1 week

System failure

Medium

Make quality check to ensure system has been installed properly and there exist no errors or fault in system.

Quality assurance equipments, hardware, and system software

Carefully check each function of the system and its analysis results.

1 week

Data breaching

High

Use effective protection software to prevent data breaching.

Anti-virus and other protection software

No unauthorized person should have access to the system.

1 month

9. Strategic Direction

Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit additional two staff members per centre, who must be trained and qualified with a minimum certificate III in personal training. Further, Aussie Fitness centre will arrange training sessions for the existing staff, and they will be required to obtain their minimum Certificate III in personal training. In this way, the staff will be able to serve to the customers in highly skilled way, and thus the Aussie Fitness would like to use the highly skilled and qualified team as a selling point for obtaining more members. Further, the owners of the Aussie Fitness centre requested all managers to be more involved in lifting the level of the centres and attract more customers via promoting a safe environment for all ages, especially for those who was born in 1960s. This will enable the Aussie Fitness to target the people from all ages, increasing older generation customers.

10. Human Resource Objectives

James and Mary Franklin, who combined bring more than four decades of personal training and life coaching expertise to the business. Their objective is to provide best training and fitness facilities to their customers and for this purpose they are planning to hire two well qualified and certified staff members. Also, Aussie Fitness Centre is planning to arrange training sessions for its employee. This will enable all staff members to provide most effective and efficient services to the customers. To manage all human resource matters, the company has established a ‘board of directors’ which consist of Human Resources and Marketing, General Manager Finance, support staff, and an Executive Assistant. Further, training staff is hired to train the customers and to motivate them in performing fitness activities appropriately and efficiently. However, the company does not want to spend a huge amount on salary budget and that is why it hires the employees on salary basis instead of making contracts.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 4 - Human Resource Objectives

Objectives

Strategies to achieve goals

To keep customers satisfied

Hire qualified training staff members.

To provide high quality fitness training services to the customers

Aussie Fitness centre decided to recruit additional two staff members per centre, who must be trained and qualified with a minimum certificate III in personal training.

To manage all workplace tasks effectively.

the company has established a ‘board of directors’ which consist of Human Resources and Marketing, General Manager Finance, support staff, and an Executive Assistant.

To have better budget management.

Hire employees on salary basis instead of contracts.

11. Labour requirements

Performance Gap

The owners of the Aussie fitness Centre want to arrange a training session for all staff. This is essential because for a professional fitness trainer, minimum requirement is certificate III in fitness training. Analysing Admin staff, the manager at Sydney has first aid, customer service skills, and conflict resolution skills, but the manager at Brisbane’s first aid is out of data. Also, Brisbane Centre Manager has no formal qualification and the Admin manager has an outdated certificate IV in fitness. But this does not mean that he is not capable because his ten years experience in the field has made him the best manager. Further d;etails of the HR gap analysis is filed in the table below

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 5 - HR Gap Analysis

Staff Type

Current

Required

Gap

Sydney Centre Manager

1

NIL

NIL

Sydney Reception Manager

1

NIL

NIL

Admin Staff

3

NIL

NIL

Maintenance

1

Nil

Nil

Cleaner

1

Nil

Nil

Brisbane Centre Manager

1

Nil

NIL

Brisbane Reception Manager

1

NIL

NIL

Brisbane Admin Staff

3

Nil

NIL

Brisbane Maintenance

1

Nil

Nil

Brisbane Cleaner

1

Nil

Nil

Below identify the performance gaps for the Sydney and Brisbane Centres (finish the Sydney Centre Manager example):

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 6 - Sydney Performance Gaps

Staff Type

Current Formal Qualifications

Current Certificates

Gap

Sydney Centre Manager

Diploma in Sport Science, Diploma in Leadership and Management.

Cert III and Cert IV in Fitness, Senior First Aid, Customer service skills and team building - 8 years industry experience

NIL

Sydney Reception Manager

NIL

has first aid, Customer service skills, team building, out of date conflict resolution, 8 years’ experience in various admin roles

Out dated conflict resolution

Admin Staff

NIL

1 x Customer service skills 1 year experience

1 x Customer service skills, team building and conflict resolution, 3 years’ experience, first aid

1 x team building and conflict resolution 1.5 years’ experience, first aid

NIL

Maintenance

NIL

NIL

Nil

Cleaner

NIL

Nil

Nil

Health Specialists

must hold accredited qualifications

must hold accredited qualifications

NIL

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 7 - Brisbane Performance Gaps

Staff Type

Current Formal Qualifications

Current Certificates

Gap

Brisbane Centre Manager

No formal qualifications, 10 years industry experience,

senior first aid, Customer service skills and team building certificates

No formal qualification

Brisbane Reception Manager

NIL

Customer service skills, team building, and an out of date conflict resolution certificate, 8 years’ experience in various admin roles

Does not have current first aid

Out date conflict resolution certificate

Brisbane Admin Staff

NIL

1 x team building with 1 year work experience, no first aid

1 x Customer service skills, team building and conflict resolution, 2 years’ experience, out of date first aid

1 x conflict resolution and 1.5 years’ experience, first aid

2 of them has no current first aid

Brisbane Maintenance

NIL

Nil

Nil

Brisbane Cleaner

NIL

Nil

Nil

Health Specialists

must hold accredited qualifications

must hold accredited qualifications

NIL

12. Labour Requirements

From the above information identify Future labour needs (employment of an ACM), skill requirements that Aussie Fitness expect them to have (here decide if you want to recruit people who are already qualified and have the relevant experience or will AF qualify them? – (think about the associated costs). What options for sourcing labour do AF have? [HRSP Pg. 13]. Where can fitness trainers be employed from? E.g. local colleges.

13. Consultation

Discuss the importance of consulting with relevant managers and the owners of AF about labour requirements [See Appendix Booklet] [HRSP Pg. 20] and agree on philosophies/values that AF would like to instil in the organisation [HRSP Pg. 22].

14. Recruitment

Managers may need to consult with specialists (E.g. Human Resources/Head Office) to complete the gap employment requirements to ensure that AF are recruiting the right person for the job [MKI Pg. 73]. Discuss the importance of clearly identifying the responsibilities/accountabilities of the position that is being advertised for and additionally this is clarified in the recruitment process [MKI Pg. 76].

15. Training and Education Plans

Complete the table below by listing the training required and discuss above the table the importance of arranging and managing activities to deliver and communicate training and education plans/training matrices for each employee [LMOC Pg. 52-56] to relevant groups and individual.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 8 - Training/Education Plan

Training Session

Learning outcomes

Objectives

Length of training session

Target audience

Delivery mode

Facilitator

Customer service

Improve customer satisfaction

High quality of customer services

90 minutes

Personal Trainers

Centre Managers

In-house

Human Resource Manager

16. Employee Interventions (a & b)

a). Use the embedded scenario and provide a discussion about the importance of employee interventions to be conducted in a timely manner – and how you will action the outcomes of the intervention [LMOC Pg. 85].

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 9 - Performance Intervention

Intervention Issue

Outcome

Timeframe

b). Create a flow chart of managing under performance by using the information in the

17. Feedback and Identified Issues (answer a, b and c)

a). Member Feedback

Complete the table below with the information complaint from member Simon Sayed, above your table discus the importance of seeking feedback from internal stakeholders so that Continuous Improvement, Brand Image/Reputation and Word of Mouth can be protected.

Additionally discuss the benefits of obtaining feedback and that feedback is obtained within the guidelines of the organisation, (feedback must be sought in a legal and ethical manner by the organisation – discuss this fact further).

Review the feedback form from Aussie Fitness member Simon Sayed and identify the issues, list ALL them below:

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 10 - Member Feedback

Identified Issues:

Additionally discuss that stakeholder feedback is as a source of reliable data and in turn more informed decisions can be made.

Checkpoint: Measure Customer Service

b). Staff Feedback

Identify the issues from the internal feedback in the Continuous Improvement (CI) form below:

Above your table the importance of addressing Continuous Improvement suggestions from internal stakeholders, for example increase of productivity when systems and processes are effective, up to date and in place.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 11 - Staff Feedback

Issues

Improvement Strategies

c). Cause and Effect

Choose one of the above feedback issues and create one (1) cause and effect diagram [MKI Pg. 7, 17-26 & 43] [Appendix Booklet].

18. Statistical Presentation (a, b & c)

Create a scenario of customer feedback with dissatisfaction of the manned reception desk which is becoming apparent as an emerging trend over a period of months leading up to the complaint.

a). From the feedback generate a graph demonstrating increase in complaints Quantitative Data is required to be presented here (e.g. emerging trends in data).

b). Discuss the use appropriate quantitative methods assist in more informed decision making with regard to the complaints being received [MKI Pg. 60-61]. By coming up strategies to rectify these issues discuss that the decisions being made are within the delegation of the group/individuals responsible [MKI Pg. 76-79].

c). Above your chart/graph discuss the statistical analysis is interrelating that members are dissatisfied with the availability of the reception staff at 7am, this is becoming an emerging trend as more members are completing the feedback form with regard to this same issue. [Appendix Booklet]

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 12 - Customer Complaints

19. Priority Matrix

From the above issues identified by the Member Simon Sayed and the Reception/Admin staff, place the issues in the relevant quadrants to create a Priority Matrix [LMOC Pg. 18] [See Appendix Booklet].

Above your matrix discuss why Aussie Fitness requires conducting a priority matrix with regard to the issues that have been raised and the impacts these are having on customer service and if they do not prioritise the issues this will impact the reputation/brand image of the organisation.

NOT URGENT

URGENT

IMPORTANT

UN-IMPORTANT

20. Operational Changes (a, b, & c)

From the issues determined by the Reception/Admin staff feedback answer the following: Check Question numbers

a). Identify operational changes that will need to take place for the improvement strategies to be implemented smoothly [LMOC Pg. 13].

b). You will need to include a review of policies and practices (P&P) that will filter down from the identified operational changes above (see the example in the table).

c). Identify which stakeholders will be involved in the changes and P&P’s

You are required to mention above your table that the P&P’s must be written with consistent standards within the organisational guidelines (all organisations have set standards for writing policies and procedures).

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 13 - Operational Changes

1. Operational change required

2. P&P to be reviewed

Stakeholder

Opening Procedure to start at 6:30am

Re-write opening policy (version control document)

Centre Manager

Reception Manager

Reception/Admin Staff

21. Technology (a, b & c)

a). Consider new technology requirements, make recommendations for Aussie Fitness to up-date their Customer Relationship Management System (CRM).

Explain the benefits of updating the CRM system to the owners of AF in confirming the fact that a new system would provide high quality, optimum efficiency, increase productivity and would ensure that information for internal and external stakeholders is up-to date, sufficient, accurate and relevant for the recipients [HRSP Pg. 15].

This means that all staff members have current data on all of their clients (relevant to the recipients).

b). Additionally discuss the importance of adhering to confidentiality and privacy policies in the transmission of information [MKI Pg. 118]. Discuss how important is that staff are made aware of maintaining corporate knowledge and ensuring security measures of internal and external stakeholders data [MKI Pg. 122]. The CRM system must have secure protection of personal details of all stakeholders.

c). Once the CRM system is in place staff will need to be informed/trained about the location, format and timeline requirements (version controls and updates of information [MKI Pg. 88].

22. Decision Making (answer a, b & c)

a). Produce a sensitivity analysis by using Table 14 (what if/scenario analysis) on proposed options for the CRM system [MKI 2.4].

b). Above your table discuss that decisions are made within the organisational guidelines [MKI Pg. 81] and procedures and are consistent with objectives, values and standards [MKI Pg. 81].

Complete the below table by following the scenario steps, using the proposal of implementing the CRM in Aussie Fitness:

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 14 - Scenario Analysis

Define the problem

E.g. Current CRM system out of date, reached its capacity

Gathered Data

E.g. Staff are only able to put limited member data in to the current system

Separate certainties and uncertainties

E.g. Trends in technology

Scenarios

E.g. Competition

Planning

E.g. Pilot Test

c) Decisions need to be taken in a timely manner for reliability of current information [MKI Pg. 84].

23. Approvals

Discuss obtaining approvals from the owners [Appendix P], [LMOC Pg. 73] for the suggestion of updating the CRM system. To gain approvals from relevant authorities discuss the formal method of doing so [See Appendix Booklet].

24. Pilot Test

Additionally when seeking approval discuss the suggestion to conduct a pilot test of the CRM system to test the design and system specifications to ensure they suits the organisations requirements [MKI Pg. 104] before launching a whole new system across the organisation [MKI Pg. 120].

25. Cost Benefit Analysis

Additionally to support the request for approval and pilot test create a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) for the CRM system you are wanting to implement [Appendix Booklet] [HRSP Pg 28] [LMOC Pg. 57] [MKI Pg. 70]. Discuss above your CBA the benefits of conducting the analysis and finalise your CBA with an assumed payback period.

26. Communication (a, b & c)

Complete table 15 below

The table provides the changes required, what strategies you will be using to embed the change, who will be involved in the implementation of the changes and, within an appropriate timeline (otherwise data becomes out of date and is un-reliable) to the BOD [See Appendix Booklet] [LMOC Pg. 49] [HRSP Pg. 49].

a). Above your table firstly discuss how you will communicate the changes that will be taking place in the organisation to the BOD (e.g. formal meeting – face to face).

b). Secondly once you have decided how you will communicate your discussion with the BOD, you will need to gain their feedback in relation to your change strategies.

Discuss how you will gain their feedback (e.g. questions at the end or questions as you go for each strategy).

Discuss that the feedback from the BOD is valuable and any changes required will be adapted in the plan before being disseminated [See Appendix Booklet] [HRSP Pg. 61] [MKI Pg. 114].

c). Finally discuss the importance of ensuring information is up to date, is accurate and relevant to the recipients before being disseminated across the organisation.

Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 15 Communicating Changes

Changes

Strategies

Stakeholder

Timeline

Centres will have an ACM

Conduct a CBA to compare benefits to additional knowledge and skills within the organisation

Human Resources

Centre Manager

Sydney by March 2019

Brisbane by June 2019

Introducing seniors program

Staff training

Reception manned hours

Policies and procedures

27. Reviewing Plans

a) Discuss the review of the changes/objectives and goals of AF created on a regular basis [HRSP Pg. 54] and review where appropriate to achieve change program objectives [HRSP Pg. 64] [MKI Pg. 114].

b) Discuss reviews of the communication plans on a regular basis are important and conduct the importance of regular evaluation and reviews to modify the plan where appropriate to achieve change program objectives [LMOC Pg. 97]

28. Conclusion

Conclude you assessment with a comprehensive analysis of your findings

Assessment References:

Student to electronically enter references

Business Management Assesment

Business Management Assessment

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Business Management Assessment

Question 1

Before one goes into the detail regarding how both these theories related, the first thing that is needed to be looked at is that what is the underlying concept of these theories. Now, the X and Y Theory that was presented by McGregor propagates the idea that how managers do not like to work, and are not liked to be enforced with the responsibility, and thus they should be forced with work and must be controlled when it comes to Theory X, whereas the main component of the Theory Y was that how the average person has the propensity to take on the responsibilities and exercise self-direction on their own. They like to seek out responsibility and make sure that they are doing things that bring out the best in them. McGregor himself believed that Theory Y is something that make more sense to him and thus providing employees with the sense of responsibility is something that should be done.

Looking closely at some of the points that are advocated in the Two Factor Theory, the idea is that how the factors of the satisfaction and dissatisfaction that Fredrick tends to talk about are same in a sense that they bring about the same sense of employees. He talks about the fact that entrusting the people with responsibility as well as making sure that they are being allowed to take ownership of their work is something that brings about greater sense of satisfaction among people. At the same time, the lack of satisfaction from work emerges that how the salary, entitlement as well as the relationship with the supervisor and the other underlying trends are supposed to be looked at. In the hindsight, in different ways, both the theories tend to discuss about the same set of ideals.

Question 2

The theory of the cognitive dissonance talks about how the condition of stress and the underlying feeling of discomfort that lingers in an individual with respect to their core values, ideas and beliefs. The idea of the cognitive dissonance is that how having conflicting thought process and ideas about certain situation is bound to bring certain degree of discomfort. The main premise of this theory talks about the basic human impulse where the idea among the individual is to make sure that they are able to ensure certain degree of harmony among its set of beliefs, as well as making sure that how they are able to control their internal reaction to the given situation at the given point of time. The theory discusses three ways through which stress reduction is supposed to be carried out, like change in the attitude, or gaining new information about something or making sure that the importance of the cognition and stress is being managed.

Now in the perspective of the employees, when there is a case that there is cognitive dissonance at the workplace, it means that the employees are stressed out at the given situation and they are not able to play their role in an active manner. At the same time, it also contributes towards greater absenteeism among the workforce. Not only that, there is a stark contrast and change in the attitude of the person when they are faced with cognitive dissonance. Either they completely isolate themselves at the workplace or they are creating lot of disruption. The workplace stress that is caused by the cognitive dissonance also contributes towards range of negative health consequences such as increased level of fatigue, increase in the level of anxiety and might also cause depression among an individual. Thus, continuous exposure to stress takes its toll at the people at workplace.

Question 3

The general rule of thumb is that a team is not expected to perform all the time. The formation of the team takes time when it comes to gaining comfort in each other’s surrounding like the same way relationship has to be maintained. The amount of time patience, and determination to get things right. Bruce Tuckman has discussed about the model of the group development which constituted of five stages which are as followed.

Orientation: It is a phase in which the formation of the group is taking place. It is the time period in which the group has started to come together and assemble.

Power Struggle: It is the phase where the storming is carried out and the dispute and competition among the group members starts to take shape. Also, there is also feeling of belongness that starts to develop among the group.

Cooperation and Integration: The idea behind the cooperation and integration is to make sure that how the interactions around which the group is formed becomes much easier and the activities become more fun oriented. The open communication and the feeling of mutual respect also starts to develop.

Synergy: It is the final phase, where the group has assembled, and they start to perform their activities. If things cannot work out well, they can come back to one of the earlier phases specially the third stage which is the norming.

It has to be noted that this process at times is not that simple as team dynamics keep on changing, and all the corresponding activities take lot of time before one can assume that they should be starting to expect result at the broader level with the passage of time. These processes do not work in linear manner.

Question 4

During the course of the lifespan of the organization, there are many factors that are bound to affect the organization at the given point of time. The problem is that each of these changes would either reinforce or bring about positive or negative disruption at the level of organization. Keeping this aspect in mind, it has to be seen that how differentiation is supposed to be carried out among these factors.

Now the biggest internal factor that is driving a change is the leadership, if there is a change in the leadership, most of the times, it translates into the major change in the working environment in the organization. At the same time, the way communication works in the organization, and if that mechanism is supposed to work, then it would also translate into major changes in the way organization is working at the given point of time. Then comes the organizational structure and the organizational hierarchy that prevails in the organization. Now, as far as the external changes are concerned, the market environment is the biggest determinant in the change in the organization. Most of the times, if there is any new trend or development. The other prevailing factor that might bring about the change in the organization is the market disruption happening at that point of time. The change in the technology or the way product development is supposed to be done is one of the biggest underlying factors that brings about a change in the organization. The government policies, fiscal and monetary are also supposed to change the way business is supposed to work. It is quite difficult for the employee to change and adopt to different changes that are witnessed in the organization and it is a specified aspect of organizational development.

Question 5

The emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to ensure that how they are able to comprehend the situation and how the decision making is made in this regard. One of the key aspects of the emotional intelligence is that it allows the person to have hold of their emotions and how they are reacting to different situations at the particular point of time. Following are the dimensions of the emotional intelligence that constitute the decision making in the organization.

Self-Awareness

Handling of the emotions

Level of motivation among the individual

Empathy

Social Skills

Having the hold of the emotions and making the right decision. They should have the emotional acumen and maturity to make sure that they are sensitive to the needs and wants of the other people, they are also set of people who have the general level of empathy towards the others and have the ability to stay clear headed in difficult situations. Therefore, EQ is intricately melded into each and every decision and action within the workplace. It’s there in the basic instruction to your team, just as much as it’s present in mass organisational change. Therefore, those with higher EQ typically successfully navigate the workplace more effectively. EQ enables an individual to build and drive successful teams, and to be agile and responsive as needed. They therefore are successful. Similarly, a lower level of EQ can be detrimental to the workplace. At its worst it can be seen in bullying, harassment, and demotivated staff. It can present as insensitivity, arrogance, or even aggression and volatility. Whereas a high EQ will facilitate flexibility, low EQ will typically present as inflexibility and rigidity – a dangerous tack for any business. By understanding the value of EQ in the workplace, of course we want to be able to identify it in candidates at the recruitment stage.

References

Ashkanasy, N. M., & Daus, C. S. (2016). Rumors of the death of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior are vastly exaggerated. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 441-452.

Daus, C. S., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2017). The case for the ability‐based model of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(4), 453-466.

George, J. M. (2017). Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. Human relations, 53(8), 1027-1055.

Ivancevich, J. M., Matteson, M. T., & Konopaske, R. (2018). Organizational behavior and management.

Jordan, P. J., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Hartel, C. E. (2017). Emotional intelligence as a moderator of emotional and behavioral reactions to job insecurity. Academy of Management review, 27(3), 361-372.

Business Math

Business Math: A Case Study

Author’s name

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Author Note

Business Math: A Case Study

This paper is written with the sole purpose of defining, explaining and carefully examining the state of the business using the data provided in the excel spreadsheets. The data regarding the cost of goods being sold, their retail prices markups and several other such components are provided. This paper will discuss the several components being detailed in the spreadsheet, the insights that can be extracted from them and the formulas that are used to complete the missing values from the tables. The condition of the business over time will also be discussed using the data for previous weeks provided, and conclusions will be made from the data as a whole.

Cost, Retail and Markup percentages

In regular retail business, cost of the goods being sold refers to the original price that is used for the procurement of goods for selling purposes. The retail price refers to the price at which the goods are being sold. Usually, this margin is the biggest source of profit for the retailer. One of the main aims of the shopkeeper, while selling goods, is to keep this margin as big as possible and gain as much of a profit as possible. This margin is commonly understood by the term “Markup percentage”. In economic terms, markup is the difference between a cost as a percentage of the cost of a product and its selling price. Generally, it is calculated in the form of percentages as they give us a more detailed insight at the working of the retail store. The formula used for the calculation of the markup percentages is given below ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"YzpV5XYV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}Markup\\uc0\\u8212{}Learn How to Calculate Markup & Markup Percentage}, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Markup—Learn How to Calculate Markup & Markup Percentage, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":245,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/FZFCSHFR"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/FZFCSHFR"],"itemData":{"id":245,"type":"webpage","abstract":"Markup refers to the difference between the selling price of a good or service and its cost. Markup is expressed as a percentage over the cost. In other words, it is the added price over the total cost of the good or service. Understanding markup is very important for establishing a pricing strategy","container-title":"Corporate Finance Institute","language":"en-US","title":"Markup - Learn How to Calculate Markup & Markup Percentage","URL":"https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/accounting/markup/","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,18]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Markup—Learn How to Calculate Markup & Markup Percentage, n.d.).

Markup percentage=Selling price-CostCost*100

Using the above-mentioned formula, we were able to calculate the missing values in the spreadsheet and found out that the average markup for most products in the store revolves approximately to 50%.

Cost complement and the inventory

A number of specific terms are used to express specific phenomenon related to retail. One of them is cost complement. The total price of beginning inventory when added with the cost of purchases and then divided by the retail selling prices of beginning inventory and purchases gives us the value of cost complement. It can be used as the reciprocal of the markup and the understanding can be used to generate insights for essentially the same purposes. Some of the terms that are used to understand the working of a retail store are detailed below.

Beginning of week on hand

This term refers to the number of the specific product in the inventory at the beginning of the said week. In the data shown in the spreadsheet, there are a total of 150 units of mid-grade wiper blades available in the inventory at the beginning of the week, which means that after selling 10 in the week, there were a total of 140 left which are also seen in the columns next to it.

On hand

The data detailed in the column starting with the heading “on hand” explains the number of items that are, at this moment in time, present in the inventory. It is calculated by subtracting the weekly sale from the available inventory. The formula for them is shown below.

On hand=Beginning of week on hand-Weekly sale

Percentage of last week unit sales (% SLS)

The percentage of products sold, when compared to the total number of products in the inventory, gives us the total percentage of last week sales. We can understand the differences between the sales of different weeks looking at this piece of data.

Average weekly sales

The recognition of the average of units sold per week, when aggregated, gives us the average weekly sales. This piece of information can be used to order future procurements and make sure that you do not have an extensive markdown at the end of the quarter ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"r6U9YaMk","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}How To Calculate Average Sales l Sisense}, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(How To Calculate Average Sales l Sisense, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":249,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/KP8KSW5D"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/KP8KSW5D"],"itemData":{"id":249,"type":"webpage","title":"How To Calculate Average Sales l Sisense","URL":"https://www.sisense.com/blog/how-to-calculate-average-sales/","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,18]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (How To Calculate Average Sales l Sisense, n.d.). It can also be used to see how well the store is functioning with regards to sales.

Weeks of supply

The number of weeks for which the inventory has the products stored can be calculated using the average weekly sales and the total products present in the inventory. This information is necessary to known when to order the next set of products considering the time required for manufacturing of the product.

Conclusion

The data as seen on the spreadsheet indicates that the sales are lower than expected especially considering the number of products stored in the inventory. The number of products being sold needs to increase drastically if the business is to be sustained with longevity. One good thing about the business is that the markup percentage promises good profit on every sale which can make the business sustainable, but at the end of the day, in order to increase the sales of goods, the retailer might have to decrease the markup percentage as the prices might be the main cause of a low rate of sales.

The New Season

In the data provided in the second spreadsheet, we are asked to calculate the values of retail price of each item with the already given retail price, the average of the newly provided markup and the predicted sales for the new season. We were also provided with targets to meet so that in the next season, our sales target is met.

New Retail price

With the new markup percentage provided, the new retail price for each of the provided items was calculated using the following formula.

Markup percentage=Sales price-Unit costSales price*100

After calculating the new retail price, the total retail for the season was calculated by multiplying the newly found retail price to the number of each items in the inventory. Afterwards, the total sale in dollars was calculated by using the projected values and multiplying them with the calculated retail values, for that particular season.

Conclusion

The new markup percentages that are provided have been able to meet the markup target but they have not been able to meet the target of total sales in dollars with the projected sale in dollars. It is suggested to either take steps to increase the sale somehow or increase the markup percentage a little more to meet the sales target.

Season analysis

The third spreadsheet thus provided details the next season with a few missing values for us to fill. The details include data like markdown per month, sales and receipts, the total value of stock at the start of the season at retail and the total value of stock at the end of season. The values revolve around the way that the business is doing over the season and is designed to give us an idea for the future of the business. Generally, in issues of business mathematics, there are always some recommendations that are required at the end of the problem. Such recommendations will be provided in the conclusion section of the report.

The missing values of the value of stock, at the beginning of the month at retail, are placed by using the following formula.

Stock value, month end=Stock value, start of month+Reciepts-Sale-Markdown

The above-mentioned formula was used for the missing values of the table in the columns of stock value at the start of month and the stock value at end of month. The missing sales values were also filled using this formula. As far as those columns are concerned, in which two or more than two unknown variables were present, the average value of one of them was used to fill the missing value. The other one was filled using the given formula.

The values of total number of sales were completed by adding all the prices of products sold over the timespan of six months, whereas, the average was calculated by dividing the thus found value by the total number of values of the same time. The formula used is shown below.

Average sale=61Sale6

A similar technique was used to calculate the average stock and the average turnover during the six months. Afterwards, the values of cost complements were found by subtracting the value of retail markup percentage from unity. The thus found values were used to find the total cost of stock at the beginning as well as the end of the month.

The final value of the average inventory cost over the timespan of six months was calculated by dividing the sum of total number of inventory cost found at the end of month with the total values. The formula is shown below.

Average inventory costs=61Inventory cost6

Average turnover

The average turnover in the given data is relatively low which is a good thing. In its very essence, turnover is a concept used in accounting which refers to how quickly a business conducts its different operations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"9OAX6ZOQ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kenton, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Kenton, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":247,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/A3VPPJJZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/A3VPPJJZ"],"itemData":{"id":247,"type":"webpage","abstract":"Turnover is an accounting term that calculates how quickly a business collects cash from accounts receivable or how fast the company sells its inventory.","container-title":"Investopedia","language":"en","title":"Understanding Turnover in Accounting","URL":"https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/turnover.asp","author":[{"family":"Kenton","given":"Will"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,18]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kenton, n.d.). Usually, turnover is used to understand how quickly a company collects cash that is receivable and how quickly the organization is able to sell its products that are stored in the inventory.

Conclusion

From the data that is provided in the last spreadsheet, there is a mixed trend in sales of the organization and the company is able to maintain a good business pattern over time. The markup can be adjusted to increase sales, as sales are the most important thing in any business. After building a name and reputation for your company, we can then increase the markup as people will be willing to invest in the business due to better reviews and reputation.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY How To Calculate Average Sales l Sisense. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2020, from https://www.sisense.com/blog/how-to-calculate-average-sales/

Kenton, W. (n.d.). Understanding Turnover in Accounting. Investopedia. Retrieved January 18, 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/turnover.asp

Markup—Learn How to Calculate Markup & Markup Percentage. (n.d.). Corporate Finance Institute. Retrieved January 18, 2020, from https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/accounting/markup/

Business Memorandum

Memorandum

To: Use your instructor’s name

From: Student’s Name

Date:

Subject: Vendor Selection Criteria

Company's most important internal priority is the selection of suppliers and vendors. The company should always be assiduous in the selection of its vendors and consider many tangible and intangible factors ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a243ka3h12v","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Xia & Wu, 2007)","plainCitation":"(Xia & Wu, 2007)"},"citationItems":[{"id":930,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/W84G7E3V"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/W84G7E3V"],"itemData":{"id":930,"type":"article-journal","title":"Supplier selection with multiple criteria in volume discount environments","container-title":"Omega","page":"494-504","volume":"35","issue":"5","author":[{"family":"Xia","given":"Weijun"},{"family":"Wu","given":"Zhiming"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Xia & Wu, 2007). Some suppliers should be rationalized to deliver all the services and resources. Flexibility is the next most crucial component that allows business to change and flourish as per expectations. After flexibility, reliability is the component that holds that business together, so it is essential to find a partner that can sustain the business and provide the financial strength to the business. Every company requires to develop the formal process to select the suppliers as per company needs. Efficient and reliable partner ensures that we meet the objective regarding supplies and equipment department in the right professional and the profitable way ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"afur2otqm1","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kannan & Tan, 2002)","plainCitation":"(Kannan & Tan, 2002)"},"citationItems":[{"id":931,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/4DU2JDY2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/4DU2JDY2"],"itemData":{"id":931,"type":"article-journal","title":"Supplier selection and assessment: Their impact on business performance","container-title":"Journal of supply chain management","page":"11-21","volume":"38","issue":"3","author":[{"family":"Kannan","given":"Vijay R."},{"family":"Tan","given":"Keah Choon"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2002"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kannan & Tan, 2002). The main reason for finding an active vendor is to ensure that now and future needs of the company are met on time.

In the above perspective, I have developed a unique selection criteria list. This list describes all the expectations that should be met during the selection process. This criterion will be helpful in the development of a small group of suppliers that can fulfil the requirements. Following are the criteria that have the potential to build a firm relationship between the company and probable vendors. This vendor selection criterion consists of five most essential elements. They are as follows:

Delivery of Products

The vendor must be able to continually deliver and supply the office supplies on a regular basis. Since we need the products , therefore, we do not want to have the supply issues. A vendor that has the issues with supply will affect our ability to deliver our products to the customers. This should be the most important factor while selecting the vendor to get the supplies. Another thing that is important when it comes to the selection of a vendor is that the supplier can supply the range of products or some complete solution. This becomes an important point because when business is looking for a complete solution, for instance, a new computer system. A business may need to rationalize some vendors we are dealing with or wish to purchase a whole solution form one vendor only. It gets difficult to obtain reasonable terms with many vendors for a small range of products if the one chosen by us fails to supply the complete range.

Delivery of supplies and equipment on time is another critical considerations. In time delivery is essential to have a smooth functioning of the business. A number of deliveries in a particular time are also important to consider.

Past Performance

Past is an indication of the reputation and the future performance hence the past performance of the vendor is very crucial. The past performance and reputation can be judged by the number of years in business. It thoroughly indicates that the company is established and is able to service all our requirements. To judge the business of the company another consideration can be a substantial catalogue of products and service. It indicates an established size of the vendor, and it also indicates if we can have flexibility in our ordering. As a result, we will be able to minimize the number of vendors we are dealing with and can have only one vendor to deal with. Experts are also there to give advice regarding the reputation of a particular vendor while purchasing high-value equipment this must be considered.

To check the reliability of the vendor as they purport to be, testimonials and references is another valuable asset to examine. Sustainability and financial stability is another indicator to tell their past performance and business reputation. If the vendor is not an established one we will have to change our vendor if he goes out of business. A vendor is flexible to allow changes in the order as it is the business requirement. If he penalizes for doing any changes, it means he is not the one for us.

Price

Price or cost is the most critical element that has to be considered while choosing the vendor. Vendors that are ready to give discounts and negotiate prices are the ones suitable for business dealings. The goal is to reduce overall the cost along with the desired quality from a reliable vendor that can play its role as a successful business partner. Terms of price are also relevant as they impact our cash flow.

Quality

Price becomes the secondary factor when the quality of supplies is not good. Quality of the supplies is a factor that can’t be neglected when it comes to selecting the supplier or vendor. A quality assessment has to be done before the vendor is being selected. The quality of the products, as well as their service, is important to have a relationship with that vendor.

Customer service.

Customer Service is an important part of any relationship. Before selecting the vendor, we need to check the availability of the staff ready to help us. Are they easily available and professional? Because we don’t want to get hanged on calls.

Cigna, a global health service company which has almost 95 million customers around the world has all the above-mentioned elements in the selection criteria of their suppliers and vendors. They consider all such factors which contribute to their goals with the best focus on cost, quality, delivery, and expertise ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a2ptqaknrqk","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}Supplier Evaluation Criteria,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“Supplier Evaluation Criteria,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":928,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/3NZ8A364"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/3NZ8A364"],"itemData":{"id":928,"type":"webpage","title":"Supplier Evaluation Criteria","container-title":"Cigna, a Global Health Insurance and Health Service Company","URL":"http://www.cigna.com/suppliercommunity/supplier-evaluation-criteria","language":"en"}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Supplier Evaluation Criteria,” n.d.).

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Kannan, V. R., & Tan, K. C. (2002). Supplier selection and assessment: Their impact on business performance. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 38(3), 11–21.

Supplier Evaluation Criteria. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cigna.com/suppliercommunity/supplier-evaluation-criteria

Xia, W., & Wu, Z. (2007). Supplier selection with multiple criteria in volume discount environments. Omega, 35(5), 494–504.

Business Model

Business Plan

[Name]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Business Model

TenSci technology is the important source that provides cloud, hybrid, IP and optimum services. The company is using different methods to provide reliable and high performing technologies of these services. TenSci Company produces and sells software, and hardware's and it also provides consulting and hosting services in the area going from mainframe computer towards nanotechnology. In TenSci, growth originates from the complete range of software, services, offerings and hardware that allow the company to build, advice, mange and move cloud solutions among private, public and in the customer's premises of environment. The company had fabricated a leading enterprise cloud business; they have constant increasing revenue growth by serving customers and their changing needs. The mission of the organization is to maintain the flexibility in the hybrid cloud games and gain competitive advantage by providing customer-based services. The business made great progress in boosting productivity, reducing cost and stimulating their innovation programs (Davidovici, 2014). Another mission of the company is the shifting of critical workload to more advance clouds and enhancing everything from the supply chain in core banking systems.

The company is using consistent, simple and integrated ways to manage their on and off-premises, entire infrastructure across different public and private clouds. Businesses are looking for a common environment and create a faster and agile working environment (Gottschalk, Rittmeier & Engels, 2019). It's expensive for customers to pay $3000 on the update of a gaming laptop, and they are worried about the office computer that became too slow to run anything of modern software. However, it is very difficult to provide high-quality cloud gaming with the remote cloud though the internet (Cohendet, Grandadam, Mehouachi, & Simon, 2018). To manage the environment of hybrid multi-cloud they need a technology which is more flexible and open. According to CEO and president of the company; "TenSci wants to create a collaborative culture because they need a solution to build flexibility and deploy any app or workload".

There is a long history for the development of video streaming technologies in cloud gaming services. Moreover, the demand for gaming is mostly higher as compared to live or on-demand video streaming (Osathanunkul, 2015). TenSci offerings have changed to reflect present needs of customers and greater growth. The pace of innovation has increased to stay competitive, they are going to a distributed cloud environment and looking to open source to be reactive to the innovation’s new wave. In next five years, a big and growing portion of the investment will be on the multi-cloud environment that allows them to move data, apps, and workload among different environments (Conrod & Cumby, 2016).

The company is going to launch various cloud gaming services, which includes OTT service and integrated services. The higher management of the company believes that these breakthroughs will lead to a series of dramatic upgrades in software services. Some of the future forecast of the company in case of cloud gaming services includes the implementation of Type II cloud gaming services. The purpose of the implementation of this type of cloud will reduce the hardware cost of customers and optimize gaming experiences. Context-aware optimization algorithms have proposed by the multimedia research communities for cloud gaming videos (Cai, Shea, Huang, Chen, Liu, Leung & Hsu 2016). Type II hybrid cloud will be more cost-effective and it will reduce one-third expenses of the company. TenSci Company has devoted to scaling and accelerating the hybrid cloud among industries to take competitive advantage at low cost. In next two years the aim of the company is to increase its profit up to 50% to reserve the finances for future developmental projects.

References

Cai, W., Shea, R., Huang, C. Y., Chen, K. T., Liu, J., Leung, V. C., & Hsu, C. H. (2016). The future of cloud gaming [point of view]. Proceedings of the IEEE, 104(4), 687-691.

Conrod, J. D., & Cumby, J. (2016). On-Line Gaming, Financial Reporting, and Audit: Chester Games Corp. Issues in Accounting Education Teaching Notes, 31(4), 57-66.

Cohendet, P., Grandadam, D., Mehouachi, C., & Simon, L. (2018). The local, the global and the industry common: the case of the video game industry. Journal of Economic Geography, 18(5), 1045-1068.

Davidovici-Nora, M. (2014). Paid and free digital business models innovations in the video game industry. Digiworld Economic Journal, (94), 83.

Osathanunkul, C. (2015). A classification of business models in video game industry. International Journal of Management Cases, 17(1), 35-44.

Gottschalk, S., Rittmeier, F., & Engels, G. (2019, July). Business Models of Store-Oriented Software Ecosystems: A Variability Modeling Approach. In International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design (pp. 153-169). Springer, Cham.

Business Model Canvas And Info Graphic

Business plan Infographics

Health Court

2971800227965Fruits, vegetables and other healthy products such as yoghurt, fresh salads and fruits combinations, and fresh juices

Fruits, vegetables and other healthy products such as yoghurt, fresh salads and fruits combinations, and fresh juices

37465-1982470The vision to promote healthy products for school students

The vision to promote healthy products for school students

Business model canvas

Key partners

The owners of the business (two female partners).

Key activities

Offering healthy food to the children including vegetables, milk, juices and fruits.

The school canteen will resolve the problem of unhealthy food by offering nutritious meals.

Minimizing health related issues due to the reliance of kids on unhealthy food.

Promoting overall health status by replacing unhealthy eating patterns with healthy ones.

Value proposition

Health Court will deliver better food choices to the students.

The unique selling proposition is the strength of the business, its weakness is that the natural products are perishable and may get waste, the opportunity is to offer something new and catchy and educated youth convinced about health.

“You must eat at Healthy Court because it kills obesity and gives you energy”.

Customer relationships

The business aims at providing high-quality food for retaining its customers.

Fresh vegetable, fruits and juices are provided on a daily basis.

Feedbacks will be taken from the customers for evaluating their level of satisfaction.

Customer segments

The business targets children of the school.

The first segment includes children having ages of 4 to 8 years.

The second segment includes children with ages of 9 to 13 years.

The third segment includes children having ages between 14- 16 years.

Different menus will be sold such as milk will be added for the children of 4-8 years age group.

Marketing strategies:

The promotion activities will be done across all the departments of the school, and the school social media page and the website CITATION Suz13 \l 1033 (Amaro and Duarte). The sales will be done through the canteen counters and the canteen counters will display the products in safe hygienic glass containers.

Key resources

The partners (owners) are responsible for providing resources and finance for the business startup.

The plan required a total investment of 500,000 AUD. ]The key resources include equipment, raw materials and supplies. Staff will be hired for the canteen.

Channels

The canteen will maintain a relationship with suppliers who will be responsible for providing fresh stocks of vegetables, fruits and other ingredients on a daily basis.

The food that the canteen is unable to sold will be disposed of daily.

Cost structure

* 200000: Security and Lease Payment 

* 90000: Decoration 

* 160000: Equipment and Utensils 

* 20000: Raw Material and Inventory

The variable costs are about 100000 AUD per month. Out of this total cost of one month, 100000 AUD.

Revenue streams

The estimations reveal that the average sale of about 4000 per day then the total revenue is about 100000 AUD a first month.

The business expects to attain 3% growth in the next month.

For the second month, revenues are expected to be 103000 AUD which accounts for the profit of 3000.