...Description of Technical Memo Format Technical memos are used to communicate short reports where a formal technical report is not warranted. Typically they would be employed to communicate the solution to a posed question or assignment involving a technical analysis. Technical memos often include equations, figures and illustrations, tables, data and attached appendices. Due to their longer length, the memo’s text is broken into standard first level sections, and where appropriate, into second level sections depending on the complexity of the information being conveyed. Technical reports must be clear and concise. Proper organization of the information is essential. A typical report is divided into the following sections, * Executive Summary * Introduction or Purpose * Theory and Analysis * Results and Discussion * Conclusions and Recommendations * References * Attachments and/or Appendices These sections are suitable for many circumstances but may be modified according to need. On the following pages, detailed information about the contents and function of each section is provided. Section headings are aligned with the left-hand margin in a memo and may be simply capitalized and/or given bold or italicized font. Maintain the 12 point type size. Recognize that the format itself is also flexible; however, all the critical elements or information need to be included. The Results and Discussion and Conclusions sections are sometimes...
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...27109-7285 Restaurant Development Group Memo To: Date: Re: Registered Students March 1st 2006 Restaurant Development Group’s Winston-Salem Project From: Mr. Bobbie Filet Introduction Restaurant Development Group (RDG) is considering opening a new restaurant in conjunction with the “Winston-Salem Partnership” group that is attempting develop a center of entertainment in downtown Winston-Salem, NC. As part of the project, the company plans to renovate an existing restaurant space in the downtown area and begin operations in six months. RDG has decided to hire several teams of professionals to handle various facets of the project. One team will work closely with city and county government officials to insure the project has strong support from all relevant government agencies. Another team will be responsible for developing the marketing plan and handling media and public relations to insure the project has a positive reception within the media. Finally, the finance and accounting team has responsibility for examining the financial viability of renovating the restaurant and developing a cash flow budget to determine how much cash will be needed open and operate the restaurant. You are part of this last team and are charged with preparing the necessary analyses. In addition to the “go or no-go” decision, RDG management wants to know whether the restaurant should be open for dinner only or open for lunch and dinner. The purpose of this memo is to ask you to examine the financial...
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...student (and new lawyer), you will receive legal problems and will be asked to analyze the problem and write up the results of that analysis. The typical vehicle that lawyers use to do this is the legal memorandum. When you write a memorandum, you will make use of the several analytical skills you have been developing. This handout explains the form and content of a legal memorandum. II. PURPOSE OF A MEMORANDUM A legal memorandum is a document written to convey information within a law firm or other organization. It is a written analysis of a legal problem. The memorandum is usually prepared by a junior attorney or by a law clerk for a more senior attorney early in the firm's handling of a legal dispute. The writer analyzes the legal rules that govern the issues raised by that problem and applies those rules to the facts of the case. These memoranda prepare attorneys to advise clients how to proceed, if at all, with prospective business dealings or litigation. The memo must be complete and objective including both the rules and facts that help the client and those that do not. In concludes with a considered opinion of the likely outcome on each issue. The attorneys will then use the memo to understand the issues that the case raises, to advise the client, and to prepare later documents for the case. Office memoranda present an objective analysis of a legal problem for use inside a law firm or legal institution. A business client may have questions about the future conduct...
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...MGT C38F: Entrepreneurship Case Analysis September, 2006 Each case that we study is intended to sharpen your opportunity analysis skills and to inspire you with stories of entrepreneurial success. Your preparation should include the following sections: 1. Background Describe the key player(s), product(s) or service(s), market and if really important, other elements of the situational context. For a briefing memo, this should be no more than one paragraph. For a full case analysis, this may be 2-3 paragraphs. 2. Business Problem/Opportunity What business opportunities and thus major decision(s) are available to the Entrepreneur as well as to the reader of the memo or case analysis? This can usually be summed up in a few sentences. 3. Key Resources Identify those resources available to the entrepreneur in terms of Dollinger's resource-based model. If a resource is not relevant to the opportunity being examined, ignore it. Explain why each resource is important. This should comprise 30 -- 40% of either your memo or case analysis. 4. Options Develop a series of options (at least two) for the decision-maker to consider. Make arguments in favour of each, and list any risks of each as well. This should comprise about 30% of your memo or case analysis. Given the limited space in a briefing memo, point form may be used. The options could relate to specific decisions outlined in the case, or it could be related to the decision for you to invest or not to invest...
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...In this internal Cliffside Holding Company memo, Mr. Anil Ravaswami, Vice President of Human Resources of writes to Ms. Cynthia Castle, CEO to discuss the proposition of a leadership development program for junior insurance executives. Ms. Forsythe of Cliffside Holdings has proposed the new program and identified the total cost to be “$100,000.00 per year plus approximately the same amount for lost time on the job.” Mr. Ravaswami discusses the reasons he believes Cliffside Holding Company should not fund this new development program. The memo and rationale will be analyzed using the steps for Critical Thinking modeled in Asking the Right Questions by Brown and Keeley (2015). What are the issue and conclusion? The issue, or question being raised is apparent in the first sentence of the memo, “That we establish and fund a new leadership development program of our junior insurance executives.” Ravaswami writes that several of the senior leadership members at CHCM have not gone through such training and despite this, are all very “successful and effective without such programs” He goes on to point out that personality traits such as ambition, self confidence and intelligence were possessed by several known leaders throughout history show that leaders are not made, but born. The conclusion, as highlighted in the ‘Conclusion and Recommendations’ of the memo is “CHCM should not invest in the proposed initiative to send its junior executives for annual leadership training.” In...
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...invaluable addition to every Stern student’s portfolio of knowledge. This course is a highly-interactive and participative experience that introduces the basics of business communication strategy and delivery. Deliverables will include written documents and oral presentations based on several cases. You will present both individually and in a team and will receive feedback to improve your presentation effectiveness. In the final team presentation, your challenge is to craft an oral presentation that will persuade your audience to accept your strategic recommendations. By doing this, you will see how ideas, data and advocacy are combined for a professional, persuasive presentation. Pre-Work 1. Form a team of five people before the first day of class. Refer to the class roster on Blackboard and try to link up...
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...COURSE OBJECTIVES Financial and management accounting are more closely linked in practice than one might expect from reading traditional textbooks and the problems to be resolved often have income tax and auditing consequences as well. This seminar is designed to provide you with opportunities to apply general concepts and principles learned in intermediate and advanced financial accounting courses to new economic transactions and business decisions. Cases will be used to permit you to practice the skills you will need as a professional accountant whether in public accounting or private industry. In particular, this course is intended to refine your skills in researching the professional accounting literature to solve particular accounting problems, to arrive at defensible solutions where GAAP is vague or nonexistent, and to present your research conclusions in a professional manner. You will have opportunities to present your work orally and in writing. REQUIRED MATERIALS: A recent Intermediate Accounting text (Kieso used in Acct 315 & 414 would be fine) A recent Advanced Accounting text (whatever was used in for Acct 415-515 would be fine) On-line access to FASB’s ASC (accounting standards codification). The Department has purchase academic license so you can use the $850 “professional” version rather than the free version which has fewer bells and whistles. You can log on from fasb.org but it will take you to http://aaahq.org/ascLogin.cfm where you enter...
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...Critical Incident Management Policy Management Policy 1.0 POLICY PURPOSE The purpose of the Critical Incident Management Policy is to effectively identify, respond, manage, and communicate Priority 1 (P1) Incidents, caused by errors in the infrastructure, reducing the overall impact to the business and customers. This document outlines the need and focus of identifying, communicating, and resolving these serious issues within the Enterprise Technology and Operations (ETO) environment. 2.0 POLICY SCOPE This Policy focuses primarily on Tier 1 (critical) applications and services, as defined by the Bank Impact Analysis report and maintained within the Fusion database. Those primarily involved in the Critical Incident Management Policy include:...
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...Analysis Using Critical Thinking Model: Cliffside Holding Company Memo University of Maryland University College Introduction Amidst this barrage of information in today’s world, it is often difficult to make a decision and stand by it, assured that it was the most advantageous to all those involved. Fortunately, critical thinking is a tool available to assist in making well thought out decisions in the face of contradictory opinions and impulsive actions. In Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, Browne and Keeley (2013) explain that critical thinking is “reacting with systematic evaluation to what you have heard and read” (p. 4). They further assert that critical thinking “requires a set of skills and attitudes that are built around a series of related critical questions” (p. 4). By asking the right questions, we employ the skill of critical thinking to enhance what and how we process information. To examine the concept of critical questions, this paper will analyze a business document from Cliffside Holding of Massapequa using the critical thinking model outlined by Browne and Keeley (2013) in Asking the Right Questions. Analysis Mr. Anil Ravaswami, Vice-President (VP) of Human Resources (HR) of Cliffside Holding Company of Massapequa (CHMC), wrote a memo to CEO Cynthia Castle in response to her request for the evaluation of a proposal for a new leadership development program to be designed for Cliffside’s junior insurance executives (personal...
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...organizational management for almost11 years, an agency which has shown a lack of employee input in decision making, and an agency with a departmentalization type structure that fosters the famous “Silo Effect” of management. Due to these and other problems, this report will address how Buck and Pulleyn tackled the issues and I then provide some recommendations and solutions on how to correctly apply effective organizational changes to their current organizational structure. The initial change initiatives proposed at Buck and Pulleyn are interesting but at the same time concerning. The employees reaction to The Re-Thinking our Structure Memo proposed by Chris (CEO) and Robert (Creative Director) illustrates how inexperienced the employees are with regards to management and organizational structure. This lack of feedback by the first line employees shows an organization that sems to be very specialized and proficient on their day to day advertising...
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...The business memo, written to Mr. Hector Fuentes (President, APEU Local No. 121) from Ms. Mary Ford (APEU Director of Human Resources) is in response to Mr. Fuentes request of Ms. Ford to evaluate the state’s proposed option to privatize the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) information systems management function. In order to validate each argument in the memo I will apply the critical thinking model from the book “Asking the Right Questions” by Browne and Keeley (2010). This model is comprised of ten steps for an audience to critically analyze a conclusion by speakers and writers. The first step of the critical thinking model is to identify the conclusion of a speaker’s or writer’s argument (Browne & Kelley, 2010). Browne and Kelley (2010) define the conclusion of a speaker or writer as the “message that the speaker or write wishes you to accept”. The conclusion of the business memo is stated by Ms. Ford, “APEU Local No. 121 should challenge the governor’s proposed privatization of the DMV information systems management function as an unfair management practice”. The conclusion in this memo is located at the end of the memo and clearly stated in the conclusion section however to validate that this statement is the conclusion, identification of the issue is necessary. Browne and Kelley (2010) define an issue as a “question or controversy responsible for the conversation or discussion”. The critical thinking model describes two types of issues that could...
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...Business Memos A memo, short for the word memorandum, comes from the Latin word memorandus, which means, "to be remembered." It is a compact written message designed to help someone remember something. Unlike letters, the external communications of a company, business memos are an internal form of communication and it is standard practice to save them. Their objective is to deliver information or instructions and writing them in a sensible manner that the information is delivered with more meaningful note and its impact on its reader is also serious. Confined to a single topic, each interoffice, interdepartmental and company - wide memo becomes part of the institutional memory of an organization. They record daily activities and eliminate the need for time-consuming meetings. As historical documents they are often referred to when writing reports or resolving disputes regarding past activities. In short, they speed up the daily business of doing business; they keep people who need to be kept in the know, in the know. When a business organization designs an official letterhead it often also designs an official memo sheet, complete with a company logo featured at the top of the page. Besides having a professional look and feel, preprinted memo sheets often provide specialized information fields that accommodate specific procedures for expediting in-house communications. Memos Types 1. Informational Memos 2. Instructional Memos Informational Memos is an in-house...
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...communication and public speaking. Non verbal communication is the sending or receiving of wordless messages. We can say that communication other than oral and written, such as gesture, body language, posture, tone of voice or facial expressions, this all is called nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is all about the body language of speaker. 2. Sender encodes idea in message 3. Message travels over channel 1. Sender has idea 4. Receiver decodes message 6. Possible additional feedback to receiver 5. Feedback travels to sender Sender is the person who wishing to share the information with some other person. Message is the information of sender who wants to send over for receiver. Encoding is the sender translates the massage into symbols or language. Noise is talk about the environment and the place they communicate. Receiver is the person or group to listen what sender trying to say. Decoding is critical point where the receivers translate and try to make sense of the message. Feedback phase is initiated by the receiver and the receiver decides what message to send to the original sender. The feedback estimates...
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...Critical Thinking Analysis of Cliffside Holding Company Memo Lisa A. Farinelli University of Maryland University College 1209 AMBA 610 9043 10/9/2012 Professor Bonnie Peter Abstract This paper demonstrates the application of the critical thinking and systems thinking models to analyze complex organizational issues. To illustrate the benefits of using such a model, one sample memo originating from a Cliffside Holding Company of Massapequa will be referenced. The 10-steps of Critical Thinking defined in asking the Right Questions, Browne (2012) will guide this discussion. A summation of findings and suggestions for future readings concludes this discussion. Asking the Right Questions What are the issue and conclusions? The first step to appreciating the authenticity and credibility of the work is to identify the issue as well as the conclusion purported by its author. Browne (2012) defines the issue as the question or controversy that is responsible for the discussion, the actual stimulus (p. 19). In the memo by A. Ravaswami to one of his colleagues, the issue raised is whether a leadership development program is even necessary (A. Ravaswami, personal communication, October 10, 2012). This is an example of an explicitly stated prescriptive issue. The author is raising the question as to what is the proper route for training his top-level executives. The answer to this will involve ethical, moral and personal viewpoints and is therefore a prescriptive issue...
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...Portfolio In a modern day organization’s behavior, employees and suppliers have as much impact on the organization structure as customers and competitors have had in the past. Organizations are viewed as open systems, continually interacting with their environment and in dynamic state of temporary equilibrium as they adapt to environmental changes. Successful organizations are in constant state of flux in response to their environment, many companies are looking at media technologies as way to market their product and learn about their competitors. This presence could produce a large following depending on the interest in the content created and information shared. The change stemmed from the speed at which information travel in the media arena. In most cases, the information environment outside the organization is changing far more rapidly than the information environment internally. Customers, partners, prospects, and employees can find, access, and share information in a way that corporate infrastructure, security, culture, and policies inhibit. Organizations are having a difficult time responding to or taking advantage of – these new environments. The path of information regarding the organization is no longer just the role of the marketing department. Employees talk to customers, colleagues, and suppliers. They share their experiences, impressions and expectations regarding their jobs, the organization and management. The speed at which the information travels is beyond...
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