Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Obtain the Whole Foods Market 2010 Annual Report

Obtain the Whole Foods Market 2010 Annual Report by visiting the Whole Foods Market site or searching Google. Review Whole Foods Market’s 2010 accomplishments as well as its goals and strategies for the future.
Based on your review, respond to the following:
  • What is the Whole Foods' company strategy? What were the company's goals and were they successful in achieving those goals?
  • Would you invest in Whole Foods stock? Why or why not?
  • What recommendations would you make to senior management for the upcoming year? Would you consider expanding into new markets? Would international expansion be profitable? Are there new products or services that you would recommend to management to offer? Are there markets that you might recommend closing or products/services that should no longer be offered? Should prices be reduced or increased?

    (Note: Stating you have no advice or that management should keep doing what they have been doing is not sufficient.)
Write your initial response in 200–250 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

In the United States women are more likely than men to initiate divorce. Why do you think this is so?

In the United States women are more likely than men to initiate divorce. Why do you think this is so?


#8 . How is our age related to what people expect of us? Is age always a good indicator of our abilities? Explain. 

To feel confident that all of the employees in your strategic planning team understand all that you have taught them, you require each to prepare a streamlined version of the key elements of a company’s strategic plan. ............

To feel confident that all of the employees in your strategic planning team understand all that you have taught them, you require each to prepare a streamlined version of the key elements of a company’s strategic plan. You require each employee to prepare the following sections of a strategic plan for any one of the corporation’s four divisions. You intentionally gave them no information about any of the divisions and suggest that they pick a current leading competitor in that field, and are to assume they are in that company as they write the following parts of a strategic plan:
  • Mission statement (simply copying an existing real company’s mission is unacceptable)
  • Industry analysis
  • SWOTT analysis
  • 2 perceptual maps
    • Choose any 2 pairs of criteria that you think are important to plot.
    • Explain why you picked those 2 pairs of criteria.
The 4 corporate industries that each employee can pick from are the following:
  • Auto industry
  • Pharmaceutical industry
  • Mass merchandiser industry
  • Home movie rental industry
Part 2
Deliverable Length: 4 or more blank forms (minimum 1-page each), a complete set of instructions for each form, (200–300 words minimum), and a 200–300 word cover letter
Your team has practiced doing strategic planning for a competitor company in an associated industry. The team has done the preliminary work of learning about the process of strategic planning and is now set to begin the necessary preparatory work to assist each division’s senior management team in creating its own strategic plan.
You and your team are now ready to assist in the strategic planning process with each division’s senior staff. Your team knows that a massive amount of information will need to be collected and collated as part of each division’s individual strategic plan. Ahead of your team’s visit to each division’s headquarters, you are preparing a package of forms and instructions to disseminate to each division head. The purpose of this package is to have each division’s senior staff do the necessary legwork to prepare for the week-long strategic planning meetings that you will hold at each site. You want to make sure that each division’s staff knows what they have to do, what information they have to collect, and how to present it in a consistent manner. In this fashion, each division’s strategic plans will have a consistent look and feel.
Create the necessary blank forms that the management team will need to fill out to gather the appropriate data. At a minimum, the following forms will be needed:
  • Industry analysis
  • SWOTT analysis
  • Competitor analysis and perceptual map
  • Five year financial forecast
Provide one set of clear and concise written instructions for the division senior teams to assist them in how to gather the information and transfer it to the appropriate forms for subsequent discussion and collation into the final 5-year strategic plan document. Each form’s instructions must be 200–300 words and include examples to help explain how to fill it out.
One cover letter of 200–300 words must be included and addressed to the CEO, who will then distribute the materials and instructions to the senior teams of each division regarding the overall process his or her team will be going through, culminating in a formal strategic planning meeting that you and your team will participate in.
To keep decision making as decentralized as possible, draft 2 policy statements, each of 100–200 words, that each division’s CEO will be asked to disseminate and comply with. They must both comply with the following policy-writing guidelines:
  • One policy statement must address human resource promotion policy.
  • One policy must address capital spending authority levels.
2nd Assignment:

Analyze the effectiveness of your organization’s training and development process. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation that addresses the following:
  1. Explain the training needs analysis approach that your organization uses to define training needs.
  2. Describe the process for capturing needs for individuals, groups, and the wider skills for the organization.
  3. Evaluate the effectiveness of at least 3 courses in this curriculum. For each course, address the following:
  • Are adult learning theories evident in the course design?
  • Does the course have clear and measurable training objectives and learning outcomes?
  • Is there alignment of the course objectives with organizational strategic goals and objectives?
  • Describe the training delivery methods. Are they varied and appropriate to the course topics?
  • Does the course incorporate varied learning styles in the design?
  • What level of evaluation is used to measure the effectiveness of the training?
You must include a minimum of 4 scholarly references.

Describe the strategic importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and discuss how CRM can be used to create customer satisfaction and greater profits for the firm.

The Effects of War and Peace on Foreign Aid


Assignment 1: The Effects of War and Peace on Foreign Aid
Use the Internet to research one (1) developing nation of your choice. Your research should include an examination of the effects that war and peace have on the distribution of foreign aid, as well as the material covered by the Webtext in Weeks 1 through 3.
Write a three to four (3-4) page research paper in which you:
  1. Assess the positive and negative effects that peace and war, respectively, have on the distribution of foreign aid in the developing country that you have selected. Support your response with concrete examples of each of the results that you have cited.
  2. Analyze the specific actions that the leadership of the selected country has taken, through the use of its foreign aid from donor nations and international lending institutions, to relieve the severe problems caused by warfare.
  3. Discuss whether or not the extension of foreign aid has successfully reduced poverty and the incidence of warfare in the selected country. Support your response with examples.
  4. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. 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.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
  • Analyze how funding in the form of aid, investment and loans moves from industrialized nations to the developing world to alleviate the problems caused by warfare.
  • Use technology and information resources to research issues in sociology of developing countries.
  • Write clearly and concisely about sociology of developing countries using proper writing mechanics.

surprise ending

Choose one (1) of the three (3) reading selections from the list of topic choices below. Read the selection in the textbook. Write a three to four (3-4) paragraph essay (250 words) which analyzes the “surprise ending” of the reading selection.
Topic Choices
  • Reading selection from Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (Part IV). Descartes begins with the problem of being able to prove his own existence but ends up with an argument proving the existence of God. Read more about the Discourse on the Method located at http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/authors/descartes.html.
  • Reading selection from Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Swift begins with offering the solution that the English could do things which might solve the problem of overpopulation and the mistreatment of citizens in Ireland. It ends by offering the solution that an internal change in the Irish government would best solve the problem of overpopulation and a populace victimized by its own government. Read more about A Modest Proposal located at http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html.
  • Two (2) reading selections from Voltaire’s Candide. The story begins by acknowledging the foolishness of the superstitious traditions held by the people in the city of Lisbon but ends by confirming Voltaire’s belief that religion in general is equally based in false superstitions. For the reading selection you choose: 1. Clearly state in your own words the “surprise ending” in the reading you selected. Identify the point in the reading when you realized that the ending would be different from what the beginning of the reading suggested that it would be. 2. Since you were expecting a different ending, evaluate how successful the author was in convincing you to accept the validity of the “surprise ending” that was not clearly suggested at the beginning.

For the reading selection you choose:
  1. Clearly state in your own words the “surprise ending” in the reading you selected. Identify the point in the reading when you realized that the ending would be different from what the beginning of the reading suggested that it would be.
  2. Since you were expecting a different ending, evaluate how successful the author was in convincing you to accept the validity of the “surprise ending” that was not clearly suggested at the beginning.

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 Style format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. (Note: Students can find APA style materials located in the course shell for reference)
  • Include a cover page containing the tile 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:
  • Explain how key social, cultural, and artistic contributions contribute to historical changes.
  • Explain the importance of situating a society’s cultural and artistic expressions within a historical context.
  • Examine the influences of intellectual, religious, political, and socio-economic forces on social, cultural, and artistic expressions.
  • Identify major historical developments in world cultures from the Renaissance to the contemporary period.
  • Use technology and information resources to research issues in the study of world cultures.
  • Write clearly and concisely about world cultures using proper writing mechanics.

Marketing



Textbooks =

Wiley Pathways E-Business

Greg Holden (Chicago, Illinois), Shannon Belew, Joel Elad, Jason R. Rich with Don Gulbrandsen

March 2008, ©2008

Learning Objectives =

Assess e-Commerce influence on businesses and how it provides a competitive advantage.

Discuss the role of eCommerce in practical business applications.

Evaluate and discuss issues surrounding ethics and security as related to eCommerce.

Readings =

Chapter 8: Marketing an E-Business       

Chapter 9: Effectively Using Search Engines

Assignment(s) =

(1)Discussion Board Activity Post. Respond in 3-4 well researched short paragraphs.

(a)Your team has been directed to market your online specialty wine distribution company. Discuss what automated marketing approaches might benefit your business without adding to your workload? Which forms of offline advertising would most benefit the wine distribution company?

Support your view with evidence, explanations and credible references.



(2)Week 5 Homework Assignment:

(a) Recommend a strategy to attract online customers, which may include online (e.g. search engines) as well as off line (e.g. print ads) techniques. 

(b) Would your strategy include pop-ups?  Why or why not. 

Response should be no less than two pages, supported with credible references and submitted in a APA format. Outside references are required.  Please cite any outside sources you use, such as financial projections, etc. in APA style.