...pay attention to both the case text and the exhibits when you prepare your analysis. 90% of the score will be based on content, as discussed in the critical thinking grading rubric. 10% will be based on style. While it will be okay to fill in the table below with bullet points, each bullet point should be a full sentence. The analysis should be comprehensive, yet concise; there is no minimum or maximum word count. Grammatical and spelling errors will lower your style score. Total value: 22 points. 1A. Please analyze the opportunity: Customer value 1. Who is end user and purchaser/decider? Is this a Pro or con and why? The target market is something the team struggles with throughout the case. The students (Henry and Dana) believe the ideal market is the education market (i.e. elementary school aged children), however the founders believed they should be going after the entertainment market (i.e. junior high and above). Both have sound reasoning for their opinions; however I tend to side with the students that the best approach in the beginning would be to go after the education market because of the inherent benefits available. I will be answering the questions based on the standpoint their target market is the education market. In the education market, the end user would be younger children (elementary school aged children) with the decision maker being their parent or their music teacher at school. By targeting the younger students, MGI can...
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...Getting shot at from all kinds of direction people risk their lives trying to help others in danger fleeing them from the area. “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles” by Christopher Reeve. If you were at a shooting what would do, risk your life to save others or save yourself? what is a hero? There are many people in this world and many people are not heroes. A hero is someone who would put their lives in danger to help someone,step out of their normal life to help others and sue their strength for good reasons life saving people. Someone who would step out would help people who are getting shot at and help them to safer areas, knowing they would not get any prizes would be a hero. Life is precious and if you step out into danger you are in danger. There is a possibility that you can die but you can help other people out of danger. If you live, you will know that you would not get a reward, but know that you saved people and have the satisfaction if it. If you die you did the right thing saving people. You would be a person who died a hero. Others would not acknowledge that you were a hero, but you are. Heroes are people who would step out of their normal life or comfort zone and helps people when they are in danger or face a challenge. There are many heroes throughout this world, in stories, movies, and even real life. First of all, Johnny from the novel “The Outsiders”. It starts out when he lives...
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...What makes someone a hero? It is defined by the dictionary as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Did Christopher Columbus not utilize his courage and nobleness when traveling across the dangerous Atlantic Ocean? Christopher Columbus was a hero because he was courageous and unique, he created a bridge from the old to new world, and he provided his country with material riches. Without his exploration of North America, the world we live in today would be completely different. Columbus originally set out to find a shorter sea route to Asia. Although he did not reach his destination, that does not make him any less courageous. At the time there were no accurate maps and there was the...
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...“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles” (Christopher Reeve). A hero is not someone who shy’s away from a conflict or someone who is selfish for their own needs. A hero is not reckless, therefor he should not be violent while doing his deeds. A hero is an ordinary human who is wounded but still fighting hard. They never give up. To illustrate what a hero looks like there are some characteristics of a hero and what they should be. The image that comes to most people’s minds when they think the word hero is superman or a red cape but we find hero’s in everyday life. Heroes are at your school at your job, even in your community. Heroes could be the firefighters at the house that is burning down the street saving the kids inside. Likewise, policeman put there life in danger for complete strangers. On the contrast, your parents help their children every day. Working hard every day to be able to provide them with necessities like driving them to school, proving them with food water and shelter. You might find a hero a lot closer to you than you think. Heroes are people who think that the good in people are not far away. They can fight hard to find what is necessary to survive. Self-sacrifice is giving your life for the wellbeing of others. The military, firefighter and the most common example that some people believe is god. Many more ordinary people have ended their lives or put their lives in danger just...
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...In the words of Christopher Reeve, “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” I think that his words have true meaning because when analysing heroes like Spiderman and Martin Luther King Jr. you would notice that both come from a background full of struggles. For example, Spiderman dealt with the death of his parents and uncle and Martin Luther King Jr. suffered from beatings and depression. The two are now heroes because they found the strength to live and endure. This theme is also commonly found in Greek mythology. Heroes from those times had also undergone many hardships in their way to glory. A great example of a hero from Greek times is Theseus. He fought through many obstacles and it is because of his strength, leadership and determination through them that he carved his name in history. One of the manifest qualities of Theseus is his strength. “By the time he was sixteen no man could wrestle him for more than a minute before being thrown down.”(page 81 paragraph 2) Theseus further confirmed his strength when he killed the giant, the troll and the innkeeper. This aspect is important because if he were not strong he wouldn’t have had the physical ability to defeat beasts and surmount his obstacles. The second aspect of his strength is that he uses it to help others and not just himself. An example of this is when he slayed the man-eating Minotaur and saved the lives of nine humans and more. This...
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...Enterprise Information System is generally any kind of computing system that is of "enterprise class". This means typically offering high quality of service, dealing with large volumes of data and capable of supporting some large organization [ ("an enterprise"). Enterprise Information Systems provide a technology platform that enables organizations to integrate and coordinate their business processes. They provide a single system that is central to the organization and ensure that information can be shared across all functional levels and management hierarchies. Enterprise systems are valuable in eliminating the problem of information fragmentation caused by multiple information systems in an organization, by creating a standard data structure. A typical Enterprise Information System would be housed in one or more Data centers, run Enterprise software, and could include applications such as Content management systems and typically cross organizational borders. The word enterprise can have various connotations. Frequently the term is used only to refer to very large organizations. However, the term may be used to mean virtually anything, by virtue of it having become the latest corporate-speak. Implementing enterprise systems can contribute to achieving operational excellence because when an employee enters information into an enterprise system, it means that that much less time goes into sharing that information through other mediums. It takes time to print out and distribute...
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...understand the effects of leadership, objectives, individual characteristics and action, and employee behavior and attitudes within an organization. It also explains the effects of internal environments, such as culture, the structure of the organization, resource and task allocation, and external environments such as competition or government regulation. These factors contribute to the performance, success or failure, and survival or fall of an organization. Organizational-behavior theories help to explain the collapse of Enron and how leadership, management, and organizational structure contributed to its failure. Organizational Structure With a market capitalization of nearly $74 billion, Enron was one of the world’s leading energy companies by the late 1990s. However, it had gained this status through the perpetration of illegal activities at the very highest levels of the organization. Enron’s fall was because of the organizational-level corruption that grew from its structure and trickled down to the collective behavior of its employees. Enron’s top-down, hierarchical structure by unit grouping meant that the top management team either directly or indirectly through their subordinates influenced the actions of the organization. For example, the structure of the accounting department allowed it to disregard legal requirements through “structural secrecy” that Enron’s executives could exploit (Beenen & Pinto, 2009, p. 283). As part of its strategy to grow its business, Enron’s...
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...Models of Organized Crime Jalaine Franklin University of Phoenix CJA/384 Week-2 Mario Honore November 08, 2012 Models of Organized Crime Patron-Client Orgnizations When it comes to models of organized crime there are two organizations that this paper will refer to, the first is the Patron-Client organization and the second is the Bureaucratic organizations. The Patron-Client is a group of criminals that united together to establish connections that would benefit the groups clients later on. They were structured to run with just one leader and then a chain of command that follows. If an order is given it has to come from the leader and then it is passed down through the chain of command to the members. In order to become a member of a patron-client organization everyone has to be initiated (University of Phoenix, 2007). Bureaucratic Organizations Bureaucratic organizations are slightly different than patron-client organizations in the way they are structured. They are structured with rules and procedures. Bureaucratic organizations also have one main leader and a chain of command that leads to their members. Here the lower managers are not allowed to make any orders; all orders must come from only one person. When it comes to conducting business only high ranking individuals can look for new resources and proceed with new contacts but they still have to have the approval of the leader. Similarity/ Differences Both the patron-client...
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...Week 3 Management Structures By: Misty Ladnier The organization is run by people chosen best to handle the stressful situations that we are faced on a daily basis. I have been trained to make sure that my victims are treated correctly to their individual cases. In order to do so I need an organizational structure. I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of Departmentalization, Matrix organizations, the project team, and the collegial model. Departmentalization is very tricky; you have to pair individuals up so that the department runs smoothly. Sometimes you have people that need to be trained to do this kind of work so that the department does have great communication skills to understand what is going on at all times to keep your patients happy. Matrix organizations have resources that can be shared amongst the department or company. They run on getting ideas from whatever can be tapped at that particular time. What would lead to complications are two or more people that are management and the lack of communication. This can lead to frustrations with the staff that are one step below or one step higher. The project team is the people that come up with ideas. They are the people that have events for the employees or the patients. These events can bring fundraisers for things needed for the organization. But disagreements can put any planning at a standstill and then it can become too late to have it. The collegial model is people within the company that have...
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...Implement a matrix structure. Similar in some ways to the divisional structure described in action one, a matrix structure can benefit from the functional divisions formed in the divisional structure but also supplement these divisions with divisions based on products as well. Employees are grouped by both function and product in a matrix and frequently teams of employees will be assigned to a project to accomplish a specific goal. This type of structure can take advantage of the best parts of divisional and team based structures. If Appex were to consider a matrix format I would recommend a balanced/functional matrix. This form of a matrix structure is one in which a project managers are assigned to oversee projects and these project managers must share power with the functional managers who are the normal chain of command. One of the disadvantages of this arrangement is the division of power between the managers but if Appex’s managers could overcome the difficulty inherent in such a power sharing scheme then this could be a beneficial way to structure the company. 4) A classical hierarchy. I believe that this time-tested structure is what Appex needs as it has grown too large and complex to operate efficiently in any of the structures described above. Although some consider this to be an impersonal form which would not allow for the employees of Appex to operate in the unstructured way that they did at the beginning, the simple fact of the matter...
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...words « In this age of hyper-competition, organisations should adopt a decentralised structure ». Businesses have entered in a new era, the era of hyper-competition, more competitive as they become more global. Business has shifted dramatically from a slow-moving stable environment to an environment where competitive advantages are no longer sustainable but temporary as new competitors enter the market. Aveni argues that, to have a chance to survive in this constantly changing environment, firms should adopt a new strategy that best suits with these unpredictable variations. In recent years, organisations have been reassessing their strategy and structure because of this growing competition, thinking that their success is widely related with re-matching to its environment. (Johnson, 1988; Miller and Friesen, 1980) Tom Peter (1987) and Michael Porter (1990) claimed that adopting this attribute if changing ability will in some sense guarantee competitive advantage. In this assignment, we will base our discussion on managing theories in order to explain organisations’ structure choice by describing how they respond to their changing context. We will comment on the view that structure depends on the contingency theory and contrast both decentralised and centralised structure in each contingency factor, using resources to support statements. Finally, we shall decide which structure best fits with this context of hyper-competition. It is possible to characterize the...
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...Differentiation:- It is the process by which organization allocates people and resources to organizational task and establishes the task and authority relationships that allow the organization to achieve its goals. Organizational Roles An organizational role is a set of task-related behavior required of a person by his or her position in an organization. Organizational structure is based on a system of interlocking roles, and the relationship of one role to another is defined by task-related behaviors. Authority:- is the power to hold people accountable for their actions and to make decisions about how to invest and use organizational resources. Subunits: Functions and divisions In organizations, people with similar and related roles are grouped into a sub unit. The main subunits that develop in organizations are functions or departments. A function is a subunit composed of a group of people, working together, who possess similar skills or use the same kind of knowledge, tools, or techniques to perform their jobs. A division is a subunit that consists of a collection of functions or departments that share responsibility for producing a particular good or service. The number of different functions and divisions that an organization possesses is a measure of organizations complexity – its degree of differentiation. As organizations grow in size, they differentiate kinds of functions. Support functions: - facilitate an organizations control of its relations with its environment...
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...From the past up to now, the organization has changed a lot in order to make the jobs and employees to become more effective and efficient. Among these changes, we have noticed many organizations nowadays try to restructure their organization’s structure to move toward “virtuality”. According to the Modern Management book, virtual organizations refer to as network organizations or modular corporation (Samuel & S. Trevis, 2012). There are both pros and cons for having a virtual organization. To begin with the positive points, organizations can reduce the cost by having a virtual organization. In this way, they can reduce some cost for working spaces and as well as utility expenses such as rent, maintenance, insurances, water, electricity, and raw materials. Secondly, some employees may find themselves to work faster at home rather than in the company’s office. Working at the office can sometimes be very disturbed as there can be a lot of people in one office. Thus, virtual organization can increase productivity for those who like to work at home or in a silent place. Finally, virtual organization allows firms to redesign jobs to make employees more effective and efficient. For example, some jobs do not require employees to come to office every day as the jobs require employees to work directly with customers, so it is not important for them to be present at the office every day. As a consequence, they can get access to the customer more quickly and save time. Moving onto the...
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...employees. Therefore, external as well as internal equity play an important role in an organization’s design of its compensation structure. In this essay, it shall examine the total compensation plans for the Home Depot Corporation and IBM Global Services, focusing on internal as well as external equity. Additionally, it shall also review the various advantages as well as disadvantages of internal and external equity for both organizations. Finally, it will provide an explanation to how each plan supports each organization total compensation objectives as well as the relationship of the organization’s financial situation to its plan (University of Phoenix, 2009). Internal and external equity An Organization that notably uses internal equity to form its pay structure is the Home Depot. The Home Depot’s internal equity exist because of its pays wages and hiring processes designed to fit each store budget, instead of hiring people with the skills to do the job at a market rate pay. The Home Depot’s decentralized stores use an elitist compensation system with different compensation plans by organization level and incentives offered only to specific employees or units. The Home Depot’s internal equity compares each pay level to other employees and business units in the company’s hierarchy. This process exists to balance the compensation structure appropriate to a job profile in comparison to the pay wages of its senior and junior level executives in the company. However...
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...had identified what we considered that the best way to implement MBO was byfollowing our own seven step process.Step 1. Organisational goals should be clearly clarified and communicated to all membersof the organisation. This way everyone involved would have a clear understanding of thenew goals, in terms of what the organisation wants to achieve, what is expected of themand the importance of their involvement to accomplish them. There should be morecommitment and an increase in efforts towards the accomplishment of those set goals.Step 2. The organisational structure must now be reviewed and designed so that it isflexible and promotes effective communication, quick decision making and promptfeedback. Frankly, the structure that the Goodman Company had employed before thenew process clearly could not work after the process was implemented since the structurecould not facilitate group work. Mr. Goodman would have to structure the groups in terms of specifying roles, norms, status, size and the degree to which members areattracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group. Moreover, Mr....
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