Discuss on Quality Process Improvement

 

The purpose of this forum is to explore the role of the team regarding quality and process improvement. Consider the team principles relayed in chapter 7 of the Starbird and Cavanah text. Select one or more principles from this chapter (i.e. The War Room or Curmudgeons) and write a 500–700-word thread discussing them in the context of an organization—either one you have worked for or work for now or in a researched-based case study that reveals these principles. Support your observations and/or assertions with at least 4 scholarly resources that have been published in the last 3 years. Your thread must be in current APA format and must include a reference list.

 

The purpose of this forum is to explore the role of the team regarding quality and process improvement. Consider the team principles relayed in chapter 7 of the Starbird and Cavanah text. Select one or more principles from this chapter (i.e. The War Room or Curmudgeons) and write a 500–700-word thread discussing them in the context of an organization—either one you have worked for or work for now or in a researched-based case study that reveals these principles. Support your observations and/or assertions with at least 4 scholarly resources that have been published in the last 3 years. Your thread must be in current APA format and must include a reference list.

Profitability Analysis Exercises And Problems

Do the assigned problems using Summer Peebles, Inc.’s condensed 2014 financial data below:

Assets

Current Assets

$250,000.00

Noncurrent Assets

$1,750,000.00

Total Assets

$2,000,000.00

Liabilities and Equity

Current Liabilities

$200,000.00

Noncurrent Liabilities (8% Bonds)

$675,000.00

Common Stockholders’ Equity

$1,125,000.00

Total Liabilities and Equity

$2,000,000.00

Additional Information:

  • Net income for 2014 is $157,500.
  • Income tax rate is 50%.
  • Amounts for total assets and shareholders’ equity are the same for 2013 and 2014.
  • All assets and current liabilities are considered to be operating.

Required:

  1. Determine whether leverage (from long-term debt) benefits Rose’s shareholders. (Hint: Examine ROCE with and without leverage.)
  2. Compute the NOPAT and RNOA (use ending NOA).
  3. Demonstrate the favorable effect of leverage given the disaggregation of ROCE and your answer to part (B).

Your submission should:

  • Be 1-2 pages for the written portion.
  • Include the Excel spreadsheet with computations.
  • Clearly separate your responses so your instructor knows the problems you are answering.
  • Follow the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..Do the assigned problems using Summer Peebles, Inc.’s condensed 2014 financial data below:

    Assets

    Current Assets

    $250,000.00

    Noncurrent Assets

    $1,750,000.00

    Total Assets

    $2,000,000.00

    Liabilities and Equity

    Current Liabilities

    $200,000.00

    Noncurrent Liabilities (8% Bonds)

    $675,000.00

    Common Stockholders’ Equity

    $1,125,000.00

    Total Liabilities and Equity

    $2,000,000.00

    Additional Information:

    • Net income for 2014 is $157,500.
    • Income tax rate is 50%.
    • Amounts for total assets and shareholders’ equity are the same for 2013 and 2014.
    • All assets and current liabilities are considered to be operating.

    Required:

    1. Determine whether leverage (from long-term debt) benefits Rose’s shareholders. (Hint: Examine ROCE with and without leverage.)
    2. Compute the NOPAT and RNOA (use ending NOA).
    3. Demonstrate the favorable effect of leverage given the disaggregation of ROCE and your answer to part (B).

    Your submission should:

The Patient Experience

Competency

Evaluate the role and importance of the patient experience.

Course Scenario

Chaparral Regional Hospital is a small, urban hospital of approximately 60 beds, and offers the following:

  • Emergency room services
  • Intensive care
  • Surgical care
  • Obstetrics
  • Diagnostic services
  • Some rehabilitation therapies
  • Inpatient pharmacy services
  • Geriatric services and
  • Consumer physician referral services

 

Recently, the CEO has been hearing complaints from both patients and staff. You have been hired to design and implement a Quality Improvement Plan to help uncover quality problems and satisfactorily resolve them.

Scenario Continued

The Public Information Officer for Chaparral Regional Hospital as contacted you requesting information for the employee newsletter. In particular, she would like you to write a short article with an accompanying infographic detailing the role and importance of the patient experience when working towards quality improvement.

Instructions

The article should address the role and importance of the patient experience in healthcare when working towards quality improvement. Both the article and the infographic should include appropriate information and graphics.

 

The goal of the article is to provide the reader with valuable information and enlighten them about the subject. Therefore, your article should be more persuasive than academic. In the article, you will address the role of the patient experience in healthcare and its importance. APA standards would still apply.

APA formatting for the article, and proper grammar, punctuation, and form are required.

You will highlight the major ideas from your article in the infographic. An infographic is a visual representation of ideas, and you are free to be as creative as you want when creating your infographic.

Evaluate ways to improve Management Skills

 

  1. Complete the Building Your Management Skills Portfolio Activity at the end of Chapter 1. Your Management Skills Portfolio is a collection of activities specially designed to demonstrate your management knowledge and skill. Be sure to save your work. Taking your printed portfolio to an employment interview could be helpful in obtaining a job.

The portfolio activity for this chapter is Managing the Blind Pig Bar. Read the following about the Blind Pig and complete the activities that follow.

You have just been hired as the manager of the Blind Pig, a bar in Cleveland, Ohio.42 The Blind Pig has a local bar feel with downtown style, has 42 beers on tap, and offers games such as darts, foosball, and Silver Strike Bowling. Also available is a DJ to provide music and encourage dancing. Thursdays are Neighborhood & Industry Appreciation nights, with half-priced drinks for those living or working in the area.

Given your five years of managerial experience in a similar bar also in Cleveland, you know that managing a bar or club is a high-profile job. You also know that even with 12 employees, as manager you’ll sometimes have to do everything from carrying kegs of beer up flights of stairs to handling irate customers. Naturally, as manager, you’ll be responsible for smooth bar operations and bar profitability. You start your new job in two weeks.

To get a head start on managing the Blind Pig, you decide to develop a list of issues within the bar that you’ll check upon your arrival. You know that for your list to be useful, it must include issues related to bar planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling. Fill out the following form to indicate issues related to each management function you’ll check when you arrive at the Blind Pig.

  1. Complete the Building Your Management Skills Portfolio Activity at the end of Chapter 2 (Bugaboo Social Responsibility Issues). Your Management Skills Portfolio is a collection of activities specially designed to demonstrate your management knowledge and skill. Be sure to save your work. Taking your printed portfolio to an employment interview could be helpful in obtaining a job.

The portfolio activity for this chapter is Identifying Corporate Social Responsibilities. Read the following about the Bugaboo Strollers Company and answer the questions that follow.

Bugaboo is the brainchild of Dutch designer Max Barenburg and his physician brother-in-law, Eduard Zanen. Together they wanted to invent a baby stroller that is functional, fashionable, appealing to both fathers and mothers, and able to function on different types of surfaces.

Their initial product was the Bugaboo Frog. Introduced in Holland in 1999 and named for its “frog-like” suspension wheels that “jump” over obstacles in its path, the Frog became the “must-have” stroller of celebrities and parents who wanted this elite stroller for their babies.

After years of customer feedback and further testing and development of the Frog, the pair realized that parents want more options and that different parents have different needs. In September of 2005, the pair introduced to the world the Bugaboo Cameleon, the Bugaboo Gecko, and the Bugaboo Bee strollers to offer customers more choices.

The management of a company such as Bugaboo must clearly keep in mind the responsibilities that it has to society as a result of its business operations. The following list shows the four categories in which companies commonly have social responsibilities because of their business operations. For each category, list the responsibilities to society that you believe Bugaboo has as a result of the products that it offers.

Book that is used for course : “Certo, S. and Certo, T. (2016). Modern Management: Concepts and Skills (14th edition). Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall.”

Modern Management Concepts & Skills

1. Diverse Employees Contribute to GE Lighting’s Bright Future Case. This case introduces chapter 3. After reviewing the case, respond to the following three questions:

  • How important is it to GE Lighting to have a diverse workforce? Discuss fully.
  • How would you control diversity activities at GE Lighting if you were top management?
  • What are the potential negative consequences if GE had very low levels of diversity in their workforce? (Note that this question is not shown in the textbook)

2. Building Your Management Skills Portfolio (page 101): this assignment is structured around the context of managing a business in Japan. Using the template framework shown in the book, respond to the questions asked in both exercise one and exercise two. You may need to do a bit of Internet research to enrich your answer.

1. Diverse Employees Contribute to GE Lighting’s Bright Future Case. This case introduces chapter 3. After reviewing the case, respond to the following three questions:

  • How important is it to GE Lighting to have a diverse workforce? Discuss fully.
  • How would you control diversity activities at GE Lighting if you were top management?
  • What are the potential negative consequences if GE had very low levels of diversity in their workforce? (Note that this question is not shown in the textbook)

2. Building Your Management Skills Portfolio (page 101): this assignment is structured around the context of managing a business in Japan. Using the template framework shown in the book, respond to the questions asked in both exercise one and exercise two. You may need to do a bit of Internet research to enrich your answer.

Business Administration Capstone

In this assignment, you are to use the same corporation you selected and focused on for Assignments 1, 2, and 3.

Consider the corporation you have selected to use in your first three assignments (NIKE, INC). Identify one of the firm’s major competitors that you would consider working for.
Research the corporation on its own Website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), in the University’s online databases, and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.
You will do a 15 minutes presentation to the Board of Directors of the corporation. Develop an eight to twelve slide PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes or record a video based upon Assignments 1 through 4. You may choose to compare your chosen corporation to a major competitor with whom you would like to work. You will make recommendations to the Board of Directors based upon your analysis and decision on why the corporation remains or is not a good fit for you.
Determine the impact of the company’s mission, vision, and primary stakeholders on its overall success as a competitive employer in the industry.

Create a SWOT analysis for the company to determine its major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Based on the SWOT analysis, outline a strategy for the company to capitalize on its strengths and opportunities, and minimize its weaknesses and threats.

Discuss the various levels and types of strategies the firm may use to maximize its competitiveness and profitability.

Outline a communications plan the company could use to make the strategies you recommend above known to all stakeholders.

Develop an executive level Power Point presentation with 8 -12 slides with speaker notes and appropriate graphics or professional video.

Assess efforts by this corporation to be a responsible (ethical) corporate citizen and determine the impact these efforts (or lack thereof) have on the company’s bottom line. Provide specific examples to support your response.

Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

References must be submitted on a Works Cited page using SWS format. This course requires use of Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details.

 

  1. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
    • Determine ways in which the vision, mission, and stakeholders of a firm impact that firm’s overall success.
    • Identify how the six segments of the general environment affect an industry and its firms.
    • Identify the five forces of competition.
    • Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm.
    • Analyze the internal environment of a company for strengths and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.
    • Identify various levels and types of strategy in a firm.
    • Assess the ethical implications related to strategic decisions.
    • Predict ways in which corporate governance will affect strategic decisions.
    • Assess the relationship between strategy and organizational structure.
    • Use technology and information resources to research issues in business administration.
    • Write clearly and concisely about business administration using proper writing mechanics.

Discuss International Financial Management

Citrus, Inc. is a medium-sized producer of citrus juice drinks in Florida. Until now, the company has confined its operations and sales to the United States, but its CEO, Heidi Sims, wants to expand into Europe. The first step would be to set up sales subsidiaries in Spain and Sweden, then to set up a production plant in Spain, and, finally, to distribute the product throughout the European Union. The firm’s financial manager, George Benson, is enthusiastic about the plan, but he is worried about the implications of the foreign expansion on the firm’s financial management process. He has asked you, the firm’s most recently hired financial analyst, to develop a 1-hour tutorial package that explains the basics of multinational financial management. The tutorial will be presented at the next board of director’s meeting. To get you started, Benson has supplied you with the following list of questions.

  1. A. What is a multinational corporation? Why do firms expand into other countries?
  2. B. Discuss at least six major factors which distinguish multinational financial management from financial management as practiced by a purely domestic firm. (Please consider doing additional research on this question and document your findings).Citrus, Inc. is a medium-sized producer of citrus juice drinks in Florida. Until now, the company has confined its operations and sales to the United States, but its CEO, Heidi Sims, wants to expand into Europe. The first step would be to set up sales subsidiaries in Spain and Sweden, then to set up a production plant in Spain, and, finally, to distribute the product throughout the European Union. The firm’s financial manager, George Benson, is enthusiastic about the plan, but he is worried about the implications of the foreign expansion on the firm’s financial management process. He has asked you, the firm’s most recently hired financial analyst, to develop a 1-hour tutorial package that explains the basics of multinational financial management. The tutorial will be presented at the next board of director’s meeting. To get you started, Benson has supplied you with the following list of questions.
    1. A. What is a multinational corporation? Why do firms expand into other countries?
    2. B. Discuss at least six major factors which distinguish multinational financial management from financial management as practiced by a purely domestic firm. (Please consider doing additional research on this question and document your findings).

Spreadsheet Applications

  • Open this Excel workbook titled “Fundraiser Receipt” and save the worksheet as “FirstInital_LastName_School expenses.xlsx.”
  • Add a column to the right of the “Last Name” column and name as “Full Name.” Use the Concatenate function to join First Name and Last Name together split by a space.
    • Click here for more information on how to use the concatenate function.
  • Sort Columns C (C2:C21), using A-Z formatting.
  • Using the Conditional Formatting, determine which students have provided over $50 for the fundraiser in Funds Received Column and also in Funds Pending Column.
    • The conditional formatting function allows you to apply different formatting options to data that meets certain conditions.
    • Click here for more information on how to use the conditional formatting function.
  • Click on any cell in (A1:E22), and apply a design to your data: In the Styles group, select Format as Table and use a dark formatting option.
  • At Total row (E22 and F22), provide a Sum for the Funds Raised and Funds Pending.
  • Add the Title “College Fundraiser Project” by inserting blank lines. Change the font size of the title to 22, fill color with white background, darker 35%.
  • Change the orientation to landscape.
  • Name the worksheet “Fundraiser_Receipt_Solution.”
  • Save the workbook. Close the workbook and then exit Excel.
  • Open this Excel workbook titled “Fundraiser Receipt” and save the worksheet as “FirstInital_LastName_School expenses.xlsx.”
  • Add a column to the right of the “Last Name” column and name as “Full Name.” Use the Concatenate function to join First Name and Last Name together split by a space.
    • Click here for more information on how to use the concatenate function.
  • Sort Columns C (C2:C21), using A-Z formatting.
  • Using the Conditional Formatting, determine which students have provided over $50 for the fundraiser in Funds Received Column and also in Funds Pending Column.
    • The conditional formatting function allows you to apply different formatting options to data that meets certain conditions.
    • Click here for more information on how to use the conditional formatting function.
  • Click on any cell in (A1:E22), and apply a design to your data: In the Styles group, select Format as Table and use a dark formatting option.
  • At Total row (E22 and F22), provide a Sum for the Funds Raised and Funds Pending.
  • Add the Title “College Fundraiser Project” by inserting blank lines. Change the font size of the title to 22, fill color with white background, darker 35%.
  • Change the orientation to landscape.
  • Name the worksheet “Fundraiser_Receipt_Solution.”
  • Save the workbook. Close the workbook and then exit Excel.

Strategic Management Discussion

Assume you are in charge of developing the strategy for an international company selling products in 50 different countries around the world. One of the issues you face is whether to employ a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy.

a. If your company’s product is mobile phones, do you think it would make better strategic sense to employ a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy? Why?

b. If your company’s product is dry soup mixes and canned soups, would a multi-domestic strategy seem to be more advisable than a global strategy? Why?

c. If your company’s product is large home appliances such as washing machines, ranges, ovens, and refrigerators, would it seem to make more sense to pursue a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy? Why?

d. If your company’s product is apparel and footwear, would a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy seem to have more appeal?

Assume you are in charge of developing the strategy for an international company selling products in 50 different countries around the world. One of the issues you face is whether to employ a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy.

a. If your company’s product is mobile phones, do you think it would make better strategic sense to employ a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy? Why?

b. If your company’s product is dry soup mixes and canned soups, would a multi-domestic strategy seem to be more advisable than a global strategy? Why?

c. If your company’s product is large home appliances such as washing machines, ranges, ovens, and refrigerators, would it seem to make more sense to pursue a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy? Why?

d. If your company’s product is apparel and footwear, would a multi-domestic strategy, a global strategy, or a transnational strategy seem to have more appeal?

Define and explain the term flotation costs

Thinking about the definition of the term “flotation costs,” should we expect the flotation costs for debt to be significantly lower than those for equity?  Why or why not?  Please support your answer using supporting information from the chapters in this unit and the course.

Unit 7 DB: Music, Musicians, and Protest Music(MUS320)

Listen to the songs in the required listening for this week, and then choose a protest song to discuss.  Locate the lyrics to this song online.

  • What did you notice in the song as you listened?  How did it make you feel?  What did you hear that makes you say that?
  • How does the song connect to the time period it is from?  Do you think the song is effective as a protest song?  Why?

Thinking about the definition of the term “flotation costs,” should we expect the flotation costs for debt to be significantly lower than those for equity?  Why or why not?  Please support your answer using supporting information from the chapters in this unit and the course.

Unit 7 DB: Music, Musicians, and Protest Music(MUS320)

Listen to the songs in the required listening for this week, and then choose a protest song to discuss.  Locate the lyrics to this song online.

  • What did you notice in the song as you listened?  How did it make you feel?  What did you hear that makes you say that?
  • How does the song connect to the time period it is from?  Do you think the song is effective as a protest song?  Why?