Day: March 4, 2018

Strategic Management

Purpose of Assignment 

Students will have the opportunity to research a company and industry to conceptualize forming a new division of an existing company based on a new product or service. The assigned text and Strategic Planning Outline serve as a guide to complete sections of the capstone project each week. This will allow the student to lay the basic foundation for an effective strategic plan. A final plan will be presented in Week 5. 

Assignment Steps 

Resources: Strategic Planning Outline and Week 2 textbook readings 

Use the Strategic Planning Outline as a guide to complete sections of your capstone project each week. A final strategic plan is due in Week 5. Cite your resources. 

Develop a minimum 1,400-word proposal in which you explain the importance of innovation in your selected division's vision, mission, and values, and determine your business model for this new division. 

Include the following:

• Propose a new product or service for the new company division. The division should be customer-focused with an innovative mission statement. Ensure you are differentiating your product or service.
• Describe how the division addresses customer needs and achieves competitive advantage.
• Create a vision and a business model for this new division that clearly demonstrates your decision on what you want your business to become in the future.
• Explain how the vision, mission, and value of the new division align with the company's mission and vision.
• Summarize how the vision, mission, and values guide the division's strategic direction.
• Define your guiding principles and values for your division in the context of culture, social responsibility, and ethics.

Cite a minimum of two peer-reviewed references. 

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. 

 

In Week 2, students will employ the supply and demand model to develop consumer surplus and producer surplus as a measure of welfare and market efficiency. Students learn about welfare economics–the study of how the allocation of resources affects economic well-being–and will discover that under most circumstances, the equilibrium price and quantity is also the one that maximizes welfare. Students will review different sources of externalities and a variety of potential cures and will see that while markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity, governments can sometimes improve market outcomes. Students will see how the U.S. government raises and spends money and the difficulty of making a tax system both efficient and equitable. 

Assignment Steps 

Scenario: Imagine you have been assigned the responsibility of preparing a paper for the governor's next economic conference. 

Prepare a minimum of 800-word paper addressing each of the following:

• Explain why equilibrium of supply and demand is desirable.
• Explain the following concepts using the concept of consumer and producer surplus:
  • Efficiency of markets
  • Costs of taxation
  • Benefits of international trade
• Discuss how externalities may prevent market equilibrium and the various governments policies used to remedy the inefficiencies in markets caused by externalities.
• Include at least one chart or graph to help explain sn economic concept in your paper. Include the chart's source citation and a reference.
• Analyze the difference between the efficiency of a tax system and the equity of a tax system as it refers to the costs imposed on taxpayers using the benefits principles. 
• Use a Running head on the title page and use a page header on the other pages.
• Use a section heading for each topic in your paper.

Discussion Question 2

WeGotApps, a revolutionary software application development company, is developing rapidly and hiring hundreds of new employees every month. The CEO places a premium on software programmers, but tends to ignore administrative functions such as human resources. In fact, the CEO instructs his managers to begin monitoring all electronic communications and social media posts of WeGotApps employees without alerting the employees to this fact; he wants to know which employees he can trust and which employees he might want to release. What issues might the CEO encounter by taking this approach to human resources management? Can these potential issues be mitigated through a course of action other than creating a human resources function, or is a human resources function a necessity for the continued development and success of the business? Explain.

 

Discussion Question 1

Choo Choo Rides offers individuals the opportunity to develop their own business by utilizing their own vehicles as a transportation alternative for customers who need a ride. Choo Choo requires drivers to wear a train hat, install a train whistle on the vehicle, utilize Choo Choo's proprietary GPS-based customer ordering system, and make themselves available for rides at least 4 hours per day and 3 days per week. Choo Choo sets the pricing for all rides through its proprietary software program. The driver receives 80% of the cost of each ride and 100% of all gratuities. Choo Choo collects 20% of the cost of each ride. Are Choo Choo drivers employees or independent contractors? Explain. Which of these distinctions is to the advantage of Choo Choo and which is more advantageous to the drivers? Support your position. 

The Future of the Tootsie Pop Strategy

The most common architecture for organizations when the Tootsie Pop strategy was developed and widely implemented was static data that largely remained behind the firewall. The line of demarcation was very clear. The ability to protect the firewall by opening very narrow point-to-point connections and opening a small number of commonly used ports and services made the firewall a relatively powerful tool that unfortunately was soon perceived as the be-all and end-all of security. Some network administrators who employed firewalls became a little too complacent. The idea that Port 80 would be used for the degree of malware and maliciousness that is now possible was not even on the horizon. 

Today, we have ubiquitous access to data using bring your own device (BYOD) policies and Internet cafe users on the negative side and the widespread use of virtual hosts and mobile device management solutions on the controls side.

Use the study materials and engage in any additional research needed to fill in knowledge gaps. Discuss the following:

 

• Make a case for why the Tootsie Pop strategy is still important and useful.
• Make a case for why the Tootsie Pop strategy is outdated and no longer a viable way to think about network security.
• Suggest what the next strategy might be that would be a good replacement for the Tootsie Pop strategy.

Office Of Management And Budget Breach Notification

1. In this assignment, you play the role of an inspector general. You’ve been given the assignment of reviewing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) breach notification plan requirements and submitting a checklist to senior management regarding the steps necessary to comply. You need to review the breach notification plan requirements and create a checklist to be submitted to senior management. The checklist should identify all OMB requirements for a breach notification plan, along with an example of actions that could be taken to comply with the requirement.
   Submission Requirements
   • Format: Microsoft Word
   • Font: Arial 12-point size, Double-space
   • Citation Style: Follow your school’s preferred style guide
   • Length: No more than 500 words
2. By submitting this paper, you agree: (1) that you are submitting your paper to be used and stored as part of the SafeAssign™ services in accordance with the Blackboard Privacy Policy; (2) that your institution may use your paper in accordance with your institution's policies; and (3) that your use of SafeAssign will be without recourse against Blackboard Inc. and its affiliates.

 

SAP Vs. Oracle Vs. Microsoft Dynamics: Strengths, Weaknesses, Tradeoffs And Trends

Purpose of the Assignment: This assignment has a two-fold purpose: 1. To help students better understand Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the three leading ERP vendors: SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics. 2. To find out the strengths, weaknesses and tradeoffs that tend to neutralize the appeal of each of these leading ERP systems.

 

Requirements of the Assignment: 

Visit the websites of SAP at http://www.sap.com, and Oracle at http://www.oracle.com, and Microsoft Dynamics at http://www.microsoftdynamics.com, then, identify the following: 

1. The strengths, weaknesses and tradeoffs that tend to neutralize the appeal of each of these leading ERP systems; 

2. Three major trends we would expect to see with SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics between now and the near future.

 

Write a short report on the findings of the above items 1 and 2 with appropriate comparison, contrast, analysis and discussion. The report should be in APA (American Psychology Association) style but without a cover pager. The report should be word-processed in Times New Roman 12 pt font and double spaced, with no less than four and no more than SIX double-spaced and numbered pages (with 1” margins on all sides), excluding figures, tables, illustrations, and references. Fewer or more pages will result in points deduction. The report should include the following parts (in order to save paper, no cover page! Otherwise, some points will be taken off):  Your name and course information  Title of the report  Abstract of the report (single spaced and in between the title and the Introduction)  Introduction  Main findings and major trends with comparison, contrast, analysis, and discussion in details  Conclusion  References (not counted for the requirement of the report length)

 

Grading Criteria: Grades will be based on:

  The appropriate content of your report (50%).

  The quality, clarity, and concise of your report (50%).

 

ASAP: "Change And Patch Management"

• Analyze IT change management and patch management processes needed within organizations. Identify three (3) challenges organizations face when implementing change and patch management processes for the first time. Make suggestions to address these challenges.
• Suggest the elements of change and patch management that are most difficult to audit in a large corporate environment with multiple IT issues and changes occurring every day. Provide a rationale for your suggestions.

 

"Quality Assurance And Auditing Standards"

• Describe the actions an organization needs to execute in order to improve their quality assurance and auditing processes within the organization.
• Create a list of at least five (5) auditing best practices for organizations to follow when implementing their quality assurance auditing programs.
• Select the auditing best practices you feel are most difficult to implement and offer means of addressing them.

 

Adult Education Writing

In a discussion post, point to an example from this article and explain how the authors do one of the following:

• refer to another work in order to give legitimacy to their own point;
• refer to another work in order to build upon the ideas of others; or
• refer to another work in order to challenge that work.