Chapter 9-10 Critical Thinking Questions

Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow.

Respond to at least two of your peers with meaningful content.

Innovation and E-mail Rules

This chapter provides insights into how manufacturing and service organizations can implement processes and controls to increase efficiency, manage expenditures, and increase profits for the organization. For companies such as General Motors that need to manage suppliers and make sure that all components are procured on time and at the best costs to ensure the final assembly runs efficiently, and for service organizations such as Marriott, which wants to have clean rooms and an efficient check-in process when guests arrive, the main lessons of this chapter are readily apparent.

All companies, however, need to innovate continuously to improve their products and services. Automobile companies such as General Motors have to constantly measure customer tastes and needs and provide products that meet and exceed their expectations. Likewise, Marriott needs to cater to the needs of business and leisure travelers in a variety of locations.

Perhaps no company in recent years has captured the attention of the public more than Tesla and SpaceX, both headed by CEO Elon Musk. Tesla is named after the inventor Nicola Tesla, a contemporary of Thomas Edison, who designed the first electric engine. SpaceX is a company that is known for innovation such as reusing rocket launchers to reduce costs. While Tesla and SpaceX still manage their operations with all the processes covered in this chapter, their constant innovation requires new processes.

Perhaps no aspect of modern business has had a bigger impact than the proliferation of e-mail. No longer confined to the desktop, e-mail messages are delivered via mobile devices, and managers must find ways to manage the proliferation of communication to keep on top of things.

Elon Musk communicated the processes and rules for communicating at Tesla in this e-mail to all employees. Subject: Communication Within Tesla

There are two schools of thought about how information should flow within companies. By far the most common way is the chain of command, which means that you always flow communication through your manager. The problem with this approach is that, while it serves to enhance the power of the manager, it fails to serve the company.

Instead of a problem getting solved quickly, where a person in one dept talks to a person in another dept and makes the right thing happen, people are forced to talk to their manager who talks to the manager in the other dept who talks to someone on his team. Then the info has to flow back the other way again. This is incredibly dumb. Any manager who allows this to happen, let alone encourages it, will soon find themselves working at another company. No kidding.

Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk to anyone else according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. You can talk to your manager’s manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else’s permission.

Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens. The point here is not random chitchat, but rather ensuring that we execute ultra-fast and well. We obviously cannot compete with the big car companies in size, so we must do so with intelligence and agility.

One final point is that managers should work hard to ensure that they are not creating silos within the company that creates us vs. them mentality or impede communication in any way. This is, unfortunately, a natural tendency and needs to be actively fought. How can it possibly help Tesla for depts to erect barriers between themselves or see their success as relative within the company instead of collective? We are all in the same boat. Always view yourself as working for the good of the company and never your dept.

Thanks, Elon

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Why would an e-mail rule memo like this work better as an innovation-driven company such as Tesla rather than at a manufacturing-driven company such as General Motors?
2. What are the potential problems that could arise out of this approach to e-mail?

• “IKEA: Furniture Retailer to the World”

Write a 500- to 750-word paper in which you address the following topics:

• Describe the legal, cultural, and ethical challenges that confront the global business presented in your selected case study.
• Determine the various roles that host governments played in this particular global business operation.
• Summarize the strategic and operational challenges facing global managers illustrated in your selected case.
• Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
  • “IKEA: Furniture Retailer to the World”

  Write a 500- to 750-word paper in which you address the following topics:

  • Describe the legal, cultural, and ethical challenges that confront the global business presented in your selected case study.
  • Determine the various roles that host governments played in this particular global business operation.
  • Summarize the strategic and operational challenges facing global managers illustrated in your selected case.
  • Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

1-

CRAFTING A PERSONAL VISION AND MISSION STATEMENT

Drawing on an analysis of internal and external constraints, a firm creates a mission and vision as a cornerstone of its strategy.You can do the same for yourself as an individual. A personal vision will be a broad statement of your intended future, whereas a personal mission statement we’ll emphasize your individuality and inspire you to achieve and be relevant to all of your particular stakeholders. Together they form the foundation for the strategies that you will choose to achieve for your future desired state.

Craft your own personal vision and mission statements.You’ll have one vision statement and one mission statement.Each should be brief; ideally, the vision statement will be one sentence and the mission statement will be three or four sentences.

Share your personal statements in the discussion forum.In your discussion forum response, address the following:

·How different are your final personal statements from what you started with?

·Does this process have value?

·How flexible should these statements be; should they be reviewed and adapted often?

·What are your thoughts, now, about corporate vision and mission statements?Is there real value here for stakeholders?

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2-Amazon

This case describes a unique opportunity for one of the largest financial brand names in the world, American Express, whose leaders have demonstrated a knack for identifying obscure market niches. The rapid success of Green Dot has drawn attention to American Express and creates an interesting opportunity to explore the dynamics within a company attempting to diversify its revenue stream and to discover a long-term strategy.

This case begins with the birth of Enterprise Growth. The CEO of American Express, Kenneth Chenault, named Dan Schulman to lead the group, and stated, “the Enterprise Growth group is designed to extend our leadership into the world of alternative payments and to create new fee-based revenue streams for the post-recession environment.” Other leaders include Chokshi as the president and Wright as the head of the product development. The case then delves into the American Express’s primary and traditional business model, the model of exclusion for the affluent consumers. The leadership team, competitive landscape, history of prepaid products, the target customer segments, and marketing efforts are presented to justify why American Express wants to serve the unbanked and the underbanked. Financial records are also included, so that an assessment of the company’s performance and capital structure can be conducted.

Respond to these questions in the discussion forum:

1.  Define American Express’s overall business-level strategy. Does Bank 2.0 fit into American Express’s overall business-level strategy?

2.  How does Bank 2.0 stand up against the competitors in the industry?

3.  What insights does a SWOT analysis reveal about how Bank 2.0 should be positioned in the future?

4.  Integrate the results of the analysis into recommendations for growing the business and combatting competitive pressures to maximize performance.

————–

3- Is it possible to make sound managerial decisions without business research? What

advantages does research offer to the decision maker over seat-of-the-pants
(decision making without research) decision making?

1. Compare the three (3) current health care financing and funding models (i.e., employee based, government based, and individual based) used with the healthcare delivery system of the United States.

·         Thoroughly compared the three (3) current health care financing and funding models (i.e., employee based, government based, and individual based) used with the healthcare delivery system of the United States. Thoroughly compared and contrasted key economic goals of public and private health insurance plans. Thoroughly evaluated the success potential of key economic goals in terms of populations covered, services included, financing arrangements, reimbursement strategies, and economic competition policies. Weight: 10%

1. Compare and contrast key economic goals of public and private health insurance plans.

·         Thoroughly compared and contrasted key economic goals of public and private health insurance plans. Thoroughly evaluated the success potential of key economic goals in terms of populations covered, services included, financing arrangements, reimbursement strategies, and economic competition policies. Weight: 10%

1. + Evaluate the success potential of key economic goals in terms of populations covered, services included, financing arrangements, reimbursement strategies, and economic competition policies.
2. Analyze the key effects of labor market, insurance market, and competitive market factors on health care delivery requirements at your current or previous organization of employment.

·         Thoroughly analyzed the key effects of labor market, insurance market, and competitive market factors on health care delivery requirements at your current or previous organization of employment. Weight: 15%

1. Determine what changes are occurring in the economy or concerning labor and regulatory factors that must be considered in the future.

·         Thoroughly determined what changes are occurring in the economy or concerning labor and regulatory factors that must be considered in the future. Weight: 10%

1. Suggest the key national trends that you believe currently affect competition and pricing initiatives. Justify your response.

·         Thoroughly suggested the key national trends that you believe currently affect competition and pricing initiatives. Thoroughly justified your response. Weight: 15%

1. Suggest the main quality indicators that typically affect health insurance pricing at the local level. Justify your response.

·         Thoroughly suggested the main quality indicators that typically affect health insurance pricing at the local level. Thoroughly justified your response. Weight: 15%

1. Use a minimum of six (6) reputable references sources including three (3) sources from peer reviewed journals.

·         Exceeds number of required references; all references high quality choices. Weight: 5%

9.      Error free or almost error free grammar, spelling, punctuation, or formatting. Weight: 5%

10.  In-text citations and references are error free or almost error free and consistently formatted correctly in APA style.. Weight: 5%

11.  Sources are consistently integrated using effective techniques of quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Weight: 5%

12.  Information is provided in a clear, coherent, and consistent manner with reasons and evidence that logically support ideas.Weight: 5%

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Assess current economic trends that influence the cost, quality, and access to care.
• Analyze the impact of managed care on cost, quality, and access within managed care organizations and the health insurance market.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health economics.
• Write clearly and concisely about health economics using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills,v

As a chief operating officer of a hospital, you have been tasked with opening a new ambulatory care center in your city.

Write a 2-3 page paper in which you:

1. Specify whether you would utilize the professional autonomy, social contract, or free market perspective as the paradigm to design the structure of your new center. Debate at least two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages of your chosen perspective. Provide at least two (2) examples of your perspective in action to support your response.
2. Analyze the key components of three (3) sources of law related to the effects that each source could potentially have on your healthcare organization’s new initiative.
3. Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.As a chief operating officer of a hospital, you have been tasked with opening a new ambulatory care center in your city.

   

  Write a 2-3 page paper in which you:

   

  1. Specify whether you would utilize the professional autonomy, social contract, or free market perspective as the paradigm to design the structure of your new center. Debate at least two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages of your chosen perspective. Provide at least two (2) examples of your perspective in action to support your response.
  2. Analyze the key components of three (3) sources of law related to the effects that each source could potentially have on your healthcare organization’s new initiative.
  3. Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

   

  Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

   

  • Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
  • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.