Business

This assignment focuses on how the management practices of planning, leading, organizing, staffing, and controlling are implemented in your workplace. Using the Ashford University Library and other credible online resources, find three Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources  (Links to an external site.)  that provide information on Amazon.com’s business structure. Here is the scenario and situation: Assume you are an employee working in the Amazon warehouse, and you pack orders and categorize them into small, medium, and large batches. You are considered a packer. You have experience packing all sizes and have been with the organization for two years. You are considered one of their best employees, you have a solid reputation for being a hard worker, and all of your orders are packed correctly. You have also been busy; you recently completed Amazon’s management training program, and you have completed your BABA degree at the Forbes School of Business and Technology at Ashford University. Congratulations: You have just been promoted to manager. You will be relocated to a new plant that is two hours away that employs 100 employees. You will oversee a team of 10 supervisors and 90 packers and will now oversee the entire warehouse operation. How will you work to use and apply the five functions of management? Now let’s apply the five functions. In your paper, include the following sections: Planning: Examine the specific areas you will choose to manage that fall under the planning function. For example, what might be some of the things you will plan to do and implement to build an effective team and culture? People are the most important resource in any business, what do you plan to do to build a positive team culture? What processes and systems do you plan to use? Organizing: Assess if the present structure that Amazon has set up is working. Do you need to make or suggest any changes to make it more efficient and effective? What structure will you use and implement? Explain how you will use departmentalization in your organizational structure. Staffing: Analyze your staffing needs. How do you intend to staff your organization and replace members that leave or are promoted? How does the HR process apply? What things (if any) will you suggest? Leading: Justify the leadership theory and style you will follow to ensure efficiency. Will you use transformational or transactional leadership? Why or why not? Controls: Identify what controls and measures you will implement. How will you apply the four steps of control (these are in Chapter 7; i.e., establishing standards, measuring performance, comparing performance, and making decisions)? Be sure to integrate vocabulary learned throughout this course and citations from the text to support your analysis. The paper should be five to six double-spaced pages in length, must include at least three scholarly sources, in addition to the textbook, and be formatted according to APA style guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. The Team Management Activity and Reflection paper Must be five to six double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center  (Links to an external site.) . Must include a separate title page with the following: Title of paper Student’s name Course name and number Instructor’s name Date submitted Must use at least three scholarly, peer reviewed, and/or credible sources in addition to the course text. The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources  (Links to an external site.)  table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment. Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Option #1: Critical Investigation Use Paul and Elder’s (2012) intellectual standards to find a topic or problem that is clear, relevant, significant, and precise. Select an issue that you wish to investigate critically (social, professional, or personal). Examples of topics: How can I secure a job in accounting when I have no experience in the field? What proposals has the city of Denver made to reduce water consumption? How might this impact individual consumers? What financial changes do I need to make to retire at the age of 62? Should wolves be reintroduced to Rio Blanco County? How can I manage my children’s cell phone usage? How can the pay gap between men and women best be addressed in my company? What are the most effective ways to address anxiety and depression? How can I use these to better my health? IMPORTANT: The Final Portfolio is not a traditional “term paper.” Your final portfolio submission should include the following sections: Title page Introduction Engagement with issue or problem using scholarly sources and the intellectual standards proposed by Paul and Elder (2012): What is the issue? Why is it significant? Why is this issue relevant to you (and/or your community)? What have you learned about the depth and breadth of the issue or problem from scholarly sources? Engagement with your own assumptions or thinking about the issue. What assumptions do you bring to this subject? What concepts are “at work” in your mind as you investigate this issue? Why is this subject of interest to you and how might this skew your investigations? These questions constitute some of the issues covered by Paul and Elder (2012) in their “elements of reason.” Engagement with scholarly sources: How do the scholarly sources aid you as you think about the issue fair-mindedly and with depth? What have you learned from the scholarly sources that have helped you analyze the issue? Conclusion: Reflect on your issue or problem and how the sources informed your thinking. What have you learned? How can you apply the intellectual standards and elements of reason to this issue or problem to come to creative solutions? What critical questions remain? References Page Details: You may write in the first person for your Final Portfolio Project. Your paper should engage a minimum of six scholarly sources that are not required or recommended readings for this course. Your paper should be 7-8 pages in length

You have recently been hired by Swan Motors that sells mid-priced cars, and have been tasked to determine its cost of capital. Because the company is privately owned, you decided to use the pure play approach. You have identified Tesla Motors as a representative company in this industry. The following questions will lead you through the steps to calculate this estimate. 1. Most publicly traded corporations are required to submit quarterly (10Q) and annual reports (10K) to the SEC detailing the financial operations of the company over the past quarter or year, respectively. These corporate filings are available on the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov. Go to the SEC Web site; follow the “Search for Company Filings” link and the “Companies & Other Filers” link; enter “Tesla Motors”; and search for SEC filings made by Tesla Motors. Find the most recent 10Q or 10K, and download the form. Look on the balance sheet to find the book value of debt and the book value of equity. 2. To estimate the cost of equity for Tesla Motors, go to finance.yahoo.com and enter the ticker symbol TSLA. Follow the links to answer the following questions: What is the most recent stock price listed for Tesla Motors? What is the market value of equity, or market capitalization? How many shares of stock does Tesla have outstanding? What is the most recent annual dividend? Can you use the dividend discount model in this case? What is the beta? Now go back to finance.yahoo.com and follow the “Bonds” link. What is the yield on three-month Treasury bills? Using the historical market risk premium, what is the cost of equity for Tesla Motors using CAPM? 3. You now need to calculate the cost of debt for Tesla Motors. Go to finra-markets.morningstar.com, enter TSLA to get company information, and click bond issues. Under bond issues, click for more bond information to find the yield to maturity for each of Tesla’s bonds. What is the weighted average cost of debt for Tesla Motors using the book value weights and using the market value weights? Does it make a difference in this case if you use book value weights or market value weights? 4. You now have all the necessary information to calculate the weighted average cost of capital for Tesla Motors. Calculate this using book value weights and market value weights, assuming a 35 percent marginal tax rate. Which number is more relevant? 5. You used Tesla Motors as a pure play company to estimate the cost of capital for Swan Motors. Are there any potential problems with this approach in this situation?

Read the “Disney HR” article assignment 4_ Resorts_HR.pdf (1).docx Rubric First paragraph and second paragraph 40 points Which one of the Disney employee motivation strategies appeal the most to you? Choose one strategy from above and write two paragraphs about why you think it is the most effective one. Please use an external source such as journal article or newspaper article to support your argument. Formatting 10 points Format and presentation (Times New Roman,  Double spaced, Font size 12)

First identify which factors of the PESTEL model are impacting Best Buy. How should Best Buy adjust based on recent changes in its external environment? Then evaluate the  competitive forces in the consumer electronics retail industry to identify the forces controlling its profitability (Porter’s five forces analysis). You are going to go through each of the five forces and discuss whether you think the force is strong (remember strong means bad for the firm)

From this assignment, I expect two documents: 1. a comprehensive report (8 Pages) that will answer the big task below (All the references must be peer-reviewed and include a link to the reference). 2. (3 pages) a summary of at least 9 peer-reviewed references (the same that you will use to write the report with): This summary means that you will list all the references, then write a very short paragraph that summarizes each reference, then how you’ll use that same reference in the report to support your argument. Read Gamble, J., Thompson, A., & Peteraf, M. (2018). Essentials of strategic management (6th ed.). McGraw-Hill ISBN: 978-1260261547 all of Chapter 6: Strengthening a Company’s Competitive Position: Strategic Moves, Timing, and Scope of Operations. Based on the reading of Chapter 6 especially Gap case on Page 297 and watching the following videos, read the below description and answer the below questions: 1. https://youtu.be/TdARiQIrFgE 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvTFvw6E53Y The assignment: Gap, Inc. (Gap) became a household name in the 1990s through its clever advertising and merchandising strategy that made it largely responsible for making the jeans-and-t-shirt style ubiquitous during that decade.  In this Assignment, you will evaluate the pros and cons of Gap’s strategy, do a SWOT analysis, identify the strategic issues that Gap management needs to address, and propose action recommendations. Your assignment: Gap has employed you as a consultant to assess the company’s overall situation, identify the strategic issues that management needs to address, and recommend a set of actions to improve the company’s future prospects. Please prepare a minimum of six (6) preferred eight (8) APA 7th edition formatted pages analytical/critical report to Gap management that includes the following: 1.   What are the strategically relevant components of the U.S. Retail, Family Clothing Stores industry macroenvironment? 2.   What is competition like in the family fashion industry?  Which of the five competitive forces is strongest?  Which is the weakest?  What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness and the potential profitability of new entrants? 3.   What does your strategic group map of the family clothing retail industry look like? Is Gap Inc. well positioned?  Why or why or why not? 4.   What do you see as the key success factors in the market for family clothing? 5.   What key factors may determine the success of Gap Inc.? 6.   What recommendations would you make to Gap Inc. to improve its competitiveness in the market while mitigating any current and future risks?

BOND & STOCK VALUATION Bob Bell and Carrie Norris are senior vice-presidents of the Mutual Money Investment Bank of New York. They are co-directors of the company’s investment securities underwriting division. A major new client has requested that Mutual Money of New York produce an investment report to describe the valuation process for stocks and bonds. As a result, Bell and Norris have asked you to analyze the Tech Temps Company, an employment agency that supplies IT workers to businesses with temporarily heavy information technology workloads. Your detailed report must provide descriptive answers and examples for the following questions, along with a list of reputable sources used to support the contents of your report. Use appropriate headings and subheadings to organize your writing; do not simply restate the questions followed by short answers for each. Your client is expecting much more than that! a. What is the difference between common stock and preferred stock? What are some of the characteristics of each type of stock? b. What is classified stock? When “going public, why might a small company designate some stock currently outstanding as “founders’ shares”? c. (1) What formula that can be used to value any stock, regardless of its dividend pattern? (2) What is a constant growth stock? How do you value a constant growth stock? (3) What happens if the growth is constant, and g > rs? d. Tech Temps has an issue of preferred stock outstanding that pays stockholders a dividend equal to $10 each year. If the appropriate required rate of return for this stock is 8%, what is its market value? e. Tech Temps’ financial statements show the following information: Average cost of funds 10.0 % EBIT $ 500,000 Total capital $1,250,000 EPS $2.00 Shares outstanding 150,000 Marginal tax rate 30.0% © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. (1) Compute the company’s economic value added (EVA) (2) Interpret the value you computed in part l(1). f. Suppose that normally Tech Temps’ P/E ratio is 20x. Using the information given previously, estimate the market price per share for Tech Temps’ common stock. g. What are the key features of a bond? h. How do you determine the value of a bond? i. What is the value of a 1-year, $1,000 par value bond with a 10% annual coupon if its required rate of return is 10%? What is the value of a similar 10-year bond? j. What is interest rate price risk? Which bond has more interest rate price risk, a one-year bond or a 10- year bond? Why is this? k. What is interest reinvestment rate risk? Which bond has more interest rate reinvestment rate risk, assuming a 10-year investment horizon?

I have to analyze three publicly traded companies in the food and staples retailing industry. 20 pages not including the title page, table of contents, reference page, appendices. The paper is due Dec 11th. But I have an outline that’s due Sunday, Nov 1st. Describe the requirements of the Industry Background section of the Industry Analysis paper. Evaluate your industry’s General Environment and Five Forces. Construct the Introduction/Overview, Industry Background, Five Forces and General Environment sections of the Industry Analysis. ___________ GEB 5930 INDUSTRY ANALYSIS OUTLINE I. Title Page A. Name of industry B. Student name C. Date E. Course II. Table of Contents A. Show each section B. Page number III. Introduction/Overview of Industry [¾-1 page] A. Introduction that is interesting to reader B. Broad description of industry C. Important factors relating to industry D. Dominant company identification (which three companies will be contained in your paper) E. Preview of analysis that will be conducted IV. Industry Background [1 page] A. SIC/NAICS codes B. Industry characteristics C. Industry life cycle D. Driving forces V. Industry Analysis A. General Environment i. Political ii. Economic iii. Social iv. Technological v. Environmental vi. Legal B. Porter’s Five Forces i. Rivalry ii. Power of the buyer iii. Power of the seller iv. Threat of new entrants v. Threat of substitutes C. Major Competitors i. Dominant companies ii. Position within the industry D. Products and Services VI. Financial Analysis [5 pages] (include all tables) A. Balance Sheet Analysis (5 year trend) B. Income Statement Analysis (5 year trend) C. Ratio Analysis (profitability, leverage, debt) 5 year trend D. Metrics (Appropriate and revelant ratios related to the industry) E. DuPont Formula (5 year trend) i. Determine ROE ii. Isolate causation iii. Examine components – explain which component is the dominate cause (if the cause is assets – how were they funded) F. Benchmarks (Industry standards for ratio’s), compared to your companies. VII. Companies in the News [½ -1 page] A. Current events affecting the industry B. Events affecting top companies VIII. Industry Trends and Outlook [1 page] A. Identification of trends B. Attractiveness C. Internal or external factors D. Outlook IX. Conclusion [½ page] A. Summary of research B. Wrap up of recommendations C. Concluding statement X. References A. S&P NetAdvantage or IBISWorld B. Mergent or Intrisic for financial information C. Well-rounded collection of quality business sources XI. Appendices [Not more than 5 pages] that is for the industry outline that’s due Nov. 1st Include a Title page Number your pages per APA Provide a Table of Contents based on the outline Section the Outline using APA level headings; list all components of the paper Complete bulleted information for Sections I, II, III, and IV. (A). Include some bulleted points you intend to cover in section V. Provide a Reference Page

Assignment: You realize that this is a good time to discuss communication options for the project that supports your communications management plan. Create a memo to the IT Department and Communications Department that discusses the following: 1) Describes the methods of communications that are required for the project 2) Why they are important to the success of the project 3) What is needed from the IT Department and Communications Department to support these needs Create a memo (in proper memo format).  Required length is 500 words narrative for elements (1), (2), and (3) above. 3 references in APA format required.

Assignment Content The assessments in this course give you the opportunity to design a project plan. Throughout the 5 weeks, you will choose an organization, create a project, write project metrics, and develop a plan that includes a contingency plan. You may use the course textbook and outside resources for all assessments.    This week you will choose your organization and learn about its corporate values. Review Strategic Management-8 Most Popular Cases in Connect. Access the case studies from the folder on the main course page in Blackboard. Choose one of the organizations to use for all weekly assessments. You will not be able to change your organization, so make sure you are comfortable with your choice. An organization is typically centered on its mission and vision, but it may not always do as its statement says. Use the Degree of Alignment: Advanced Organizer template to: Describe the mission, vision, values, structure, and culture of the company. Each description should be 75-100 words. Based on your advanced organizer and further research on your company, analyze the degree of alignment between what the organization is currently doing (actions) and their mission, vision, values, structure, and culture. Think about what your company is doing right and on-brand and where there is room for improvement. Your analysis should be 500-750 words.   Submit your assignment.