Business and Finance Homework Help

Whose major is Economics? Here is a paper that need you to write. You can choose any economics issue but need to avoid the topics covered in classes, I will provide you the topics in this classes, please do not choose these issues. This paper should have a strong thesis/hypothesis, which you will analyze and support by rigorous and cogent appeal to empirical evidence gathered and interpreted by you and others. You must include at least five references of which two must by peer-reviewed, academic sources(a journal or peer reviewed academic book). I will provide you some resources links that you can find references there. I will also give you the detailed paper guidelines and paper grading rubric. Please follow these requirements to write this paper.

Using the MBA 515 Library Resource Guide and other resources, create an overview of your selected market domain that identifies and examines factors and the impact factors have on your selected domain. Analyze the factors that contributed to the obsolescence or dissolution of notable companies in your selected market domain in the recent past. Make sure to discuss both inhibiting and enabling factors in your analysis. Assess the impact of the factors you analyzed on opportunities for change and innovation in the business environment of your selected market domain.

Factors: Analyze the factors that contributed to the obsolescence or dissolution of notable companies in your selected market domain in the recent past. Make sure to discuss both inhibiting and enabling factors in your analysis.
Impact of Factors: Assess the impact of the factors you analyzed on opportunities for change and innovation in the business environment of your selected market domain

Creating a Career Development Program

As the director of learning and development, you have been tasked with creating a career development program for the senior sales team of your organization. You currently support five individuals on the senior sales team. Each team member has aspirations of becoming either a senior sales manager, sales director, or vice president of sales. None of the team members have any experience in leading a team, but they show some potential for management. Choose one of the roles above (i.e., senior sales manager, sales director, or vice president of sales), and create an outline, outlining a career development program for the employee. In your outline, please include the elements below. Title each section.

• Describe skills needed to be successful in the desired role.

• Discuss three to four training and developmental interventions needed to gain the skills to be successful in the desired role and provide a timeframe of completion for each intervention. For example, a job rotation program should be completed in 60 to 90 days, and an apprenticeship should be completed in 2 years.

• Explain the outcomes of each developmental intervention. For example, “Through this job rotation exercise, you will be able to effectively manage a virtual team.”

Your completed assignment must be at 3 pages in length and use at least two outside sources. As you create your outline, keep in mind that you are presenting for executives at your organization. All sources used, including the required unit resources, must be cited and referenced according to APA guidelines.

Financial Ratio Analysis and Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix Instructions

Throughout this course, you will work on a strategic case analysis project. This project consists of different parts you will complete each week that build on each other.

Go to the Strategy Club website and review the Sample Strategic Plan for Colgate-Palmolive (2019) under the student resources section. This sample strategic plan is an example of what your completed strategic case analysis should look like at the end of the course.

Part 1: Financial Ratio Analysis

Perform a Financial Ratio Analysis of your company (Nike, Inc.). Complete the following:
Step 1: Using the resources listed in Table 4-8 in Chapter 4 of the David text, research, and find as many financial ratios as possible for your company (Nike, Inc.). Be sure to record your sources.

Step 2: Open your Strategic-Planning Template. Click on the Ratios tab at the bottom of the template.

Step 3: Use the pertinent data on your company to complete the Historical Ratios Table in your Strategic-Planning Template.

Step 4: In 500-750 words, prepare a report of the research information being sure to discuss what the findings mean regarding strategy creation.

Part 2: Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix

Construct an IFE (Internal Factor Evaluation) Matrix by doing the following:

Step 1: See Chapter 4 of the David text to learn how to complete an IFE Matrix.

Step 2: Open your Strategic-Planning Template. Click on the IFE tab at the bottom of the template

Step 3: Use the pertinent data on your company to complete the IFE Matrix in your Strategic-Planning Template.

Step 4: In 250-300 words, write a brief explanation of the findings and implications of the data identified in the IFE.

Step 5: In 250-500 words, address the following prompts:
• What strategies do you think would allow the firm to capitalize on its major strengths?
• What strategies would allow the firm to improve on its major weaknesses?

Submit the Financial Ratio Analysis, IFE Matrix, the brief explanation of implications of the matrix, and the short essay responses to the prompts as one deliverable.

Be sure to cite three to five relevant and credible sources in support of your content. Use only corporate websites or those provided in Topic Materials.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA style guidelines.

SECTION 2 WRITING A PROBLEM-SOLUTION-EVALUATION TEXT (70 marks)

21) Follow the instructions below to write THREE paragraphs of approximately 500 words in total.

Topic: A New Zealand MNO has a problem with its expatriate employees on overseas assignments.
(The topic is very wide – you decide the exact problem yourself, based on the information provided in the reading text, and the visuals on the next three pages.)

21(A) Write a paragraph that explains the problem in more detail. (150 words) (20 marks)

21(B) Write a paragraph that presents two possible solutions for the problem. (200 words)
(20 marks)

21(C) Write a paragraph that evaluates the two solutions and provides a recommendation. (200 words) (20 marks)

Referencing (10 marks)
• Incorporate 1-2 quotations and 1-2 paraphrases using, as sources, the ACADENG104 Final Assessment Reading Text titled “FINAL READING TEXT” in Section A and the visuals that follow on pages 8 -10.

• Provide in-text citations for all sources used. No end-text references list is required.

It is not a full essay. Do not write an ‘Introduction’ or ‘Conclusion’ paragraph.

Start writing your paragraph answers on page 11.

Question 1:
During such a distressing time for everyone, COVID-19 has took a toll completely over many economic values in America. Sport managers in the industry in particular have faced lost revenue in all areas of sport due to the suspension in sport entertainment.
For instance, the Majority of the NBA shut down all practices facilities the moment a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the virus, this proceeded the NBA to shut down the season in its entirety (Wojnarowski 2020). Without a season the NBA sees no ticket sales, food, beverage, merchandise and etc. The impact of having zero fans in the stands can cause the NBA’s finances to sky rise, nearly costing them a fortune (Quin 2020). This has created a negative domino affect to then leading players and coaches having to sign a salary reducation contract (NBA 2020). This then caused a bigger dilemma being that most players are signed years in advanced and paid out throughout the course of the regular season and was nearly completed before the ban of the NBA (Quinn 2020).
Furthermore, the NBA may take on a strategy to overcome these challenges. Marketing that the media industry is far more reliable and suitable during such a time and increase the fan base viewing on T.V can play a part. By doing this sponsorships ads will have to play a big role.
Being that people will be forced to continue social distancing and not be in a room (stadium) with 10+ people, fans will want to be active in their homes for their favorite sports team, rather then not supporting them at all.

This is a Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) assignment.

The purpose of this assignment is to conduct an environmental scan and industry analysis on a company and identify how external and industry environmental factors impact the operational and competitive landscapes of your corporation.

Consult Table C-2 and C-3 in the Case Studies section of the textbook and choose a publicly traded company to research in this assignment and throughout the course. If you choose not to use one of the companies listed, identify an industry in which you are interested and select a publicly traded company and operating unit therein to study. You will need to obtain instructor approval before moving forward with this assignment and confirm that sufficient information on your selected company exists and is available for you to research.

Perform an external environmental scan and industry environmental analysis on this publicly traded company from the perspective of a business unit. Begin your analysis with the seven segments of the general environment (Figure 2.1) and the five forces of competition model (Figure 2.2) as presented in the text, and then complete a detailed outline of the meaningful trends, issues, and factors that impact or are likely to impact the overall competitive landscape for your company in the future. The purpose of this multilevel analytical approach is to break down macro trends and issues until you identify how exactly they affect your company and business unit.

This analysis will require significant research. Although the framework suggested is structured, this assignment is not intended to be a linear exercise. Be creative in your research—the entire idea of strategy lies in having information or insight that your competition may not have, so this assignment may require a little digging. Tables C-2 and C-3 in the textbook indicate where each of the listed companies are mentioned within the text, but these references will only serve as a starting place. You may want to look for standardized SEC corporate filings and industry analyses through the GCU library, or you could also begin your research by consulting online NAICS databases, SEC filing databases (such as EDGAR), or sources like business and industry periodicals.

The format of your analysis is limited only by your own creativity, though the “Environmental and Industry Analysis Framework” resource may be referenced as one method of organizing your research. While you may choose to use an Excel spreadsheet to show your thought process and research, it is not required, and the attached framework is intended to serve as an example rather than a template.

However, you choose to present your material, your analysis should include the following components:

Sectors of the external environment and the five forces of competition.
Concepts to research in each category. (Note: This list is intended to be used as a springboard and should not be considered exhaustive in any individual case.)
Macro trends related to the issues noted in section B. (Note: There may be more than one trend or issue identified for each section B concept.)
Impact of the trends and issues identified in section C on your corporation.
Impact of the trends and issues identified in section D on your operating business unit.
Conclusions about how and why these assessments are relevant to the company overall. (These conclusions may be your own personal suppositions, or they may be provided from external sources.)
Sources referenced in each section of your analysis.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Attachments

Originality Report .5 pt (No higher than 30%.. Anything above 60% will be carefully assessed and with a high probability that you will be requested to re-submit)
– Content Relevancy .5 pt (100% relevant content to the subject matter)
– Content Volume .5 pt (it must be at least 200 words of writing per question)
All explanations must be based on your own words, Not copy and paste from the internet
Plagiarism free

Answer the following questions:
– Some economist believe that in order to really understand macroeconomics, you must first understand microeconomics. How does microeconomics relates to macroeconomics?
– What is the law of demand? Give two examples of how you have observe the law of demand at work in the “real world.” How is the law of demand related to the demand curve?
– Why is the price elasticity of demand for Coca-Cola greater than price elasticity of demand for soft drinks generally?
– Some restaurants offer “all you can eat” meals. How is this practice related of diminishing marginal utility? What restrictions must the restaurant impose on the customer in order to make a profit?

Read Evolution of operations planning and control: from production to supply chains (Reading 3.1) to learn how planning and control has evolved in the last 50 years and the historical key trends that require implementation of operational planning and processes beyond the shop floor.  In terms of operations planning and scheduling—and profitability—there is no question as to the the transformation of the affect it has at every level of the organization. As you read this article, assess the transformation of these control systems and how they meet our current day business practices and the competitiveness we see at every level.

Download and read:

Evolution of operations planning and control: from production to supply chains from Olhager, J., (2013), International Journal of Production Research, 51(23/24),pp. 6836-6843

On the Discussion Forum, post a 300-word response to the following question(s)/prompt(s), include at least one APA-formatted citation/reference to a source from this lesson.

Respond to the question:
What type of system procedural processes are used in evaluating the quality of a business operations? Explore the role of operations planning in conjunction in context of “quality” in the manufacturing industry as outline in the article. When considering the evolution of operations planning and control industry, and the shift it has made in the last 50 years, what do you think the most significant factors affecting these changes in respect to operations planning control?

Reference
Evolution of operations planning and control from production to supply chains from Olhager, J., (2013), International Journal of Production Research, 51(2324),pp. 6836-6843

1.    Introduction
Provide a brief overview of the mission, business, markets, products and scope of operations the company is in.  The past/current strategic direction of the firm can be briefly summarized but the focus should be on the most recent events that will impact the decisions and future direction of the firm.  Identify strategic actions by generic and grand strategies.

This is NOT a long historical view.  It shows how capable you are of describing the company’s business and current strategy using strategic vocabulary.
Common Errors
    Focusing on history rather than the current situation.
    Not using strategic vocabulary for strategies.
    Giving too much detail about the case—assume I’ve read the case.

2.    Strategic Issue
In one or two paragraphs, summarize the company and strategic situation.  This should characterize the fundamental state of affairs that exists in the focus company and industry with enough background information to understand it.  See page 85 in the textbook for a definition of strategic issue and review page 9 for the tests of a winning strategy.

This section MUST summarize the strategic situation the company faces.  “Situation” means “state of affairs.” Summarize and connect to the key findings of each section.  Weave these findings into a summary story leading to a clear and specific statement about the future prospects for strategic success for the company.  Make a specific statement about whether the company’s prospects are good, indefinite, or poor.

The strategic issue must be a single, well-crafted sentence that captures the fundamental problems and concerns that came out of the analysis.  This single sentence must be formed as a question and will end with a question mark.  Write this in very specific terms addressing both the company’s short-term situation and the broader strategic situation.  Incorporate the need to provide shareholder value, sales growth, profitability and sustained competitive advantage but incorporate the specific challenges with which the focus company must deal.  Everything prior to this question is headed toward this one culminating formulation of the problem.  This question forms the basis for the recommendations. 

Do not make recommendations in this section.

3.    External Environment
Provide an introduction that characterizes the essence of the external environment and industry situation at the time of the case and sets the stage for the analysis that follows.  In each section/paragraph that follows, discuss the STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS of the analysis.  ALL the discussion in this section relates to the INDUSTRY, not the focus company.  You may use examples of the focus company or other competitors to justify your analysis. 
Common Errors
    Writing about historical events rather than the current state of the industry.
    Identifying the topics you are about to discuss without discussing the state of the industry.
    Not using the vocabulary and discussion in the textbook supported with facts from the case.

Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis.  Use the Porter model to evaluate the strength of the five forces that affect the strategic choices of all firms in the industry.  Discuss the balance of power in the industry.  Relatively weak forces (low threats) place power in the hands of the firms that comprise the industry, and, therefore, broaden their freedom of choice of strategic actions.  Relatively strong forces (high threats) reduce the power of the industry firms and limit their strategic choices.  An industry with strong forces tends to be less attractive than an industry with weak forces.

Specifically state your assessment of the strength of each of the 5 forces—intense, strong, moderate or weak.  Justify and show why you reached your conclusion.  For example, it is not enough to write, “Competitive rivalry is strong because the number of competitors is high, barriers to entry are low and product differentiation is low.”  A better explanation is, “The many competitors in this industry must aggressively battle for market share in this slow-growth market.  They each have considerable investments in the physical plant, which makes it difficult to leave the industry.  The products are difficult to distinguish from one another, so companies must focus on aggressive, marketing programs to win customers away from their competitors.  All these factors contribute to a strong rivalry and continued downward pressure on profit margins.”

Put the actual diagram of the model in the APPENDIX and discuss each force in the body of this section.  Include a closing paragraph on the implications of the analysis to the overall attractiveness of the industry and the potential for companies to be profitable.
Common Errors
    Not identifying the strength of a force or the conditions that lead you to your finding of a force as being strong or weak.
    Getting supplier, firm and buyer mixed up.
    Overlooking key factors you previously identified in the external/industry analysis.
    Not recognizing the strength of competitive rivalry.

Macro environment

Analyse the external macro environment that the company using the PESTLE framework. Identify and describe 3-4 major external developments that are of significant importance. Then, for each trend, describe what is the strategic significance of this trend for the company. Why is it of importance and what may be the impact for the company’s strategy?

As much as possible, the trends should be obtained from the information that is in the case. No external research needs to be done to complete this.

Common Errors
    Being too general.
    Not specifically identifying why the external development is important.
    Failure to convince why the development is important.

Industry Profile and Attractiveness.  Summarize the characteristics of the industry.  Draw together all of the key findings from each area of the external analysis.  What conclusions can you draw about the nature of the industry?  How attractive is it to its current incumbents?  What are the key success factors in the industry? What are the future prospects for the industry?  Why?  What challenges does the industry face?  Provide a summary statement about whether it is highly attractive, moderately attractive, etc., to current players re profits, sales and competitive intensity.

4.    Company Situation
Provide an introduction that characterizes the essence of the company situation and sets the stage for the analysis that follows.  Calculate the past sales growth rate for the company if there is historical data. If the case has data on historical industry sales, calculate the sales growth rate and determine whether the industry is in the introduction, growth, maturity or decline phase of their life cycle.    If there is information such as the revenue of the top 3 competitors for the last few years, combine their sales and calculate the change in sales growth to infer where the industry is in their life cycle.  Then discuss this analysis in any of the sections where it is appropriate.  Based on the conclusions from the preceding section and the case analysis, determine the stage of the industry life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity or decline).  Identify the key company-specific issues with which the company is dealing. 

Financial Analysis.  Be sure to distinctly address each of the four areas of financial analysis—profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity—identify each in the topical sentence for that paragraph.  The financial analysis must be thorough and accurate.  Look at trends and compare the company’s performance to industry targets, if available.  Evaluate the primary financial indicators, provide supporting data and interpret them to show how they affect the company regarding its present and future strategic performance. 

Put the calculations of the ratios in a table in the APPENDIX.

Close this analysis by writing a paragraph that draws conclusion about the company’s overall financial situation, prospects and the impact of its financial condition on its potential strategic plans.  The fundamental question you are trying to answer is, “What is the overall financial status of the company now, and what does its current financial status mean for its future strategic success or ability to grow sales?”

For this section, use any numerical data available in the case (both financial and non-financial) that will help the reader to understand the most important elements of the Company Situation at the time of the case. You will most likely use the Tables in the case, but you can also use other numerical information that you find in the text.
Try to analyze the information you have available by looking at relevant trends and ratios. Summarize any data you use in clear tables or graphs. Give a brief description in words of what your analysis means.

Common Errors
    Incorrect computation of the ratio.
    Incomplete computations of the ratios (trends, etc.).
    Focusing on the definition rather than the strategic impact that the ratio implies.

SWOT Analysis.  Discuss each of the four legs of the SWOT fully—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in this section.  Be clear that events are not the same as attributes.  SWOT is about attributes, not events.  An attribute describes the characteristics of the company.  For example, you might say, “The company isn’t profitable.”  True, but what is its weakness attribute?  What characteristics of the company drives its lack of profitability?  A better way to express it is, “The company has not managed costs in its value chain.  This is supported by the sustained increase in cost of goods sold accompanied by flat sales reflecting a weakness that must be overcome to improve profitability.”

Summarize the SWOT analysis in a one-page table and place in the APPENDIX.  Discuss the table in the body of the paper.

SWOT is the “integrator” of the analysis.  SWOT draws from the findings resulting from the Macroenvironment, Industry Analysis, and Financial Analysis.  No new information is provided.  Use the terminology in the previous sections.  For example, “An opportunity identified in the discussion of the competitive analysis . . .”  Another example, “The dumping of foreign products into this industry, identified earlier as a driving force, is a significant threat to incumbents.”
Common Errors
    Not linking the findings to the previous analysis through the use of common terminology.
    Omitting important findings discussed previously.
    Focusing on historical events rather than inherent strengths and weaknesses.
    Not recognizing obvious strengths and weaknesses in the business functions:  financial analysis, marketing (product, price, place and promotion), human resource management, operations, etc.

5.    Recommendations
Strategic Issue.  This is the same question that is presented at the end of Section 2.
Strategy Recommendations.  Identify the GENERIC and GRAND strategy recommendations.  These will tie closely to the SWOT analysis.  The recommendations should play into the company’s strengths and opportunities.  They should minimize the company weaknesses and overcome its threats.  Discuss each strategic initiative in detail including the actions required in the functional areas to support the strategic recommendations:  marketing, operations, human resource management, finance, etc.

Objectives.  Specify the performance objectives that should be monitored and result from the strategic recommendations and earlier analysis.  What key performance indicators should be reported and what are the appropriate targets?  For example, what are the sales and profitability goals?  What goals should be established for nonfinancial indicators?

Strategic Justification.  Justify why your recommendations are the best option and why other options are not.  This is a comparative analysis.  Develop this fully, tying it back to the various factors in your strategic analysis.  Evaluate the pros and cons of the recommended direction.  Demonstrate that you understand the implications of your recommendations. 

A justification analysis weights the strength of the pros and cons for a given alternative in comparison to the other alternatives.  It presents a rationale for why the pros of the recommended alternatives are better than the pros of the other alternatives.  It also addressed why the cons of the recommended alternatives are less significant the those of the rejected alternatives.
Common Errors
    Not naming and discussing a generic and several supporting grand strategies
    Developing recommendations that don’t tie clearly to the previous analysis.
    Not describing distinguishing characteristics of the strategies.
    Not clearly describing each strategy.
    Not aligning strategy recommendations with objectives.
    Writing in generalities rather than company and situation specific.
    Not describing strategies for all the relevant functions, e.g., human resource management, finance, etc.