BUS 515 All Discussions

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BUS 515 Wk 1 Discussion – Mrs. Acres Homemade Pies

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to other students.

Due Thursday

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Read the following case study, and reply to one of the prompts:

Shelly Acres, whose grandmother gave her a family recipe for making pies, loved to cook, and she decided to start a business she called Mrs. Acres Homemade Pies. The company produces specialty pies and sells them in local supermarkets and select family restaurants. In each of the first six months, Shelly and three part-time employees sold 2,000 pies for $4.50 each, netting $1.50 profit per pie. The pies were quite successful and Shelly could not keep up with demand. The company’s success results from a quality product and productive employees who are motivated by incentives and who enjoy being part of a successful new business.

To meet demand, Shelly expanded operations, borrowing money and increasing staff to four full-time employees. Production and sales increased to 8,000 pies per month, and profits soared to $12,000 per month. However, demand for Mrs. Acres Homemade Pies continues to accelerate beyond what Shelly can supply. She has several options: (1) maintain current production levels and raise prices; (2) expand the facility and staff while maintaining the current price; or (3) contract the production of the pies to a national restaurant chain, giving Shelly a percentage of profits with minimal involvement.

• Explain the relationship between supply and demand for Mrs. Acres Homemade Pies.
• Identify the challenges Shelly faces as she considers the three options.
• Defend what you would do in Shelly’s position.

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates. Be constructive and professional in your responses.

BUS 515 Wk 2 Discussion – Checkers Pizza

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to other students.

Due Thursday

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Read the following case study, and reply to one of the prompts:

Checkers Pizza was one of the first to offer home delivery service, with overwhelming success. However, the major pizza chains soon followed suit, taking away Checkers’ competitive edge. Jon Barnard, Checkers founder and co-owner, needed a new gimmick to beat the competition. He decided to develop a computerized information database that would make Checkers the most efficient competitor and provide insight into consumer buying behavior at the same time. Under the system, telephone customers were asked their phone number; if they had ordered from Checkers before, their address and previous order information came up on the computer screen.

After successfully testing the new system, Barnard put the computerized order network in place in all Checkers outlets. After three months of success, he decided to give an award to the family that ate the most Checkers pizza. Through the tracking system, the company identified the biggest customer, who had ordered a pizza every weekday for the past three months (63 pizzas). The company put together a program to surprise the family with an award, free-food certificates, and a news story announcing the award. As Barnard began to plan for the event, however, he began to think that maybe the family might not want all the attention and publicity.

• What are some of the ethical issues in giving customers an award for consumption behavior without notifying them first?
• Do you see this as a potential violation of privacy? Explain.
• How would you handle the situation if you were Barnard?

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates. Be constructive and professional in your responses.

BUS 515 Wk 3 Discussion – Infinity Computers, Inc.

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to other students.

Due Thursday

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Read the following case study, and reply to one of the prompts:

Infinity Computers Inc. produces notebook computers, which it sells through direct mail catalog companies under the Infinity name and in some retail computer stores under their private brand names. Infinity’s products are not significantly different from competitors’, nor do they have extra product-enhancing features, although they are very price competitive. The strength of the company has been its CEO and president, George Anderson, and a highly motivated, loyal workforce. The firm’s weakness is having too many employees and too great a reliance on one product. The firm switched to computers with the Intel Core i7 processors after it saw a decline in its netbook computer sales.

Recognizing that the strategies that initially made the firm successful are no longer working effectively, Anderson wants to reorganize the company to make it more responsive and competitive and to cut costs. The threat of new technological developments and current competitive conditions could eliminate Infinity.

• Evaluate Infinity’s current situation and analyze its strengths and weaknesses.
• Evaluate the opportunities for Infinity, including using its current strategy, and propose alternative strategies.
• Suggest a plan for Infinity to compete successfully over the next 10 years.

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates. Be constructive and professional in your responses.

BUS 515 Wk 4 Discussion – Audiotech Electronics

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to other students.

Due Thursday

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Read the following case study, and reply to one of the prompts:

Audiotech Electronics, founded in 1959 by a father and son, currently operates a 35,000-square-foot factory with 75 employees. The company produces control consoles for television and radio stations and recording studios. It is involved in every facet of production—designing the systems, installing the circuits in its computer boards, and even manufacturing and painting the metal cases housing the consoles. The company’s products are used by all the major broadcast and cable networks. The firm’s newest products allow television correspondents to simultaneously hear and communicate with their counterparts in different geographic locations. Audiotech has been very successful meeting its customers’ needs efficiently.

Audiotech sales have historically been strong in the United States, but recently, growth is stagnating. Even though Audio-tech is a small, family-owned firm, it believes it should evaluate and consider global expansion.

• What are the key issues that need to be considered in determining global expansion?
• What are some of the unique problems that a small business might face in global expansion that larger firms would not? Should Audiotech consider a joint venture?
• Should it hire a sales force of people native to the countries it enters?

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates. Be constructive and professional in your responses.

BUS 515 Wk 5 Discussion – BrainDrain Corporation

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to other students.

Due Thursday

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Read the following case study, and reply to one of the prompts:

You have just been promoted from vice president of marketing of BrainDrain Corporation to president and CEO! That’s the good news. Unfortunately, while you know marketing like the back of your hand, you know next to nothing about finance. Worse still, the “word on the street” is that BrainDrain is in danger of failure if steps to correct large and continuing financial losses are not taken immediately. Accordingly, you have asked the vice president of finance and accounting for a complete set of accounting statements detailing the financial operations of the company over the past several years.

Recovering from the dual shocks of your promotion and feeling the weight of the firm’s complete accounting report for the very first time, you decide to attack the problem systematically and learn the “hidden secrets” of the company, statement by statement. With Mary Pruitt, the firm’s trusted senior financial analyst, by your side, you delve into the accounting statements as never before. You resolve to “get to the bottom” of the firm’s financial problems and set a new course for the future—a course that will take the firm from insolvency and failure to financial recovery and perpetual prosperity.

• Describe the 3 basic accounting statements. What types of information does each provide that can help you evaluate the situation?
• Which of the financial ratios are likely to prove to be of greatest value in identifying problem areas in the company? Why? Which of your company’s financial ratios might you expect to be especially poor?
• Discuss the limitations of ratio analysis.

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates. Be constructive and professional in your responses.

BUS 515 Wk 6 Discussion – Pentaverate, Inc.

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to other students.

Due Thursday

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Read the following case study, and reply to one of the prompts:

Paul Easterwood, a recent graduate of Colorado State University with a degree in computer science, entered the job market during a slow point in the economy. Tech sector positions were hard to come by, and Paul felt he wouldn’t be making anywhere near what he was worth. The only offer he received was from an entrepreneurial firm, Pentaverate Inc., which produced freeware. Freeware, or public domain software, is offered to consumers free of charge in exchange for revenues generated later. Makers of freeware (such as Adobe and Netscape) can earn high profits through advertisements their sites carry, from purchases made on the freeware site, or, for more specialized software, through fee-based tutorials and workshops offered to help end users. Paul did some research and found an article in Worth magazine documenting the enormous success of freeware.

Pentaverate Inc. offered compensation mainly in the form of stock options, which had the potential to be highly profitable if the company did well. Paul’s job would be to develop freeware that people could download from the Internet and that would generate significant income for Pentaverate. With this in mind, he decided to accept the position, but he quickly realized he knew very little about business. With no real experience in marketing, Paul was at a loss to know what software he should produce that would make the company money. His first project, IOWatch, was designed to take users on virtual tours of outer space, especially the moons of Jupiter (Paul’s favorite subject), by continually searching the Internet for images and video clips associated with the cosmos and downloading them directly to a PC. The images would then appear as soon as the person logged on. Advertisements would accompany each download, generating income for Pentaverate.

However, IOWatch experienced low end-user interest and drew little advertising income as a result. Historically at Pentaverate, employees were fired after two failed projects. Desperate to save his job, Paul decided to hire a consultant. He needed to figure out what customers might want so he could design some useful freeware for his second project. He also needed to know what went wrong with IOWatch because he loved the software and couldn’t figure out why it had failed to find an audience. The job market has not improved, so Paul realizes how important it is for his second project to succeed.

• As a consultant, what would you do to help Paul figure out what went wrong with IOWatch?
• What ideas for new freeware can you give Paul? What potential uses will the new software have?
• How will it make money?

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates. Be constructive and professional in your responses.