Category: Management

Scenario:
You are a business executive representing a company that is interested in expanding into a new international market. You have scheduled a negotiation meeting with a potential business partner in that market. Your goal is to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with this partner to ensure a successful market entry. Your counterpart represents a local company with extensive industry and market experience.
Product/Industry:
You can choose any product or industry that you find interesting.
Checklist:
Part 1: Background Research
Research the industry and market of the country you are targeting for expansion. Gather information on cultural differences, business practices, and negotiation styles.
Prepare a negotiator profile for your counterpart. Consider factors such as their background, experience, goals, interests, and potential negotiation strategies.
Part 2: Draft
Analyze and prepare a negotiation planning document that includes the following as seen in the example (do not use the example): Use your own version of this template as a working draft for your report.
Stated purpose:
Clearly define the purpose of the negotiation and what you hope to achieve.
Interests:
Identify your interests as well as your counterpart’s interests. Analyze both tangible and intangible interests.
BATNAs:
Determine your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) as well as your counterpart’s BATNA. This will help you set your reservation point.
Options, Issues and Opportunities:
Explore strategies to broaden opportunities or reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Examine potential trade-offs and methods to enhance value.
Standards and Criteria:
Take into account fairness, need, equity, prevailing market rates, industry benchmarks, historical context, underlying assumptions, etc.
Proposal/Proposed Solution:
Aim for the desired outcome, content with an acceptable point

A company is planning its production and distribution network to serve five customer regions at the minimum total cost. The cost to be minimized includes:
the fixed cost of opening plants,
the variable transportation cost of shipping units from plants to demand regions, and
a shortage penalty cost of $200 per unit for any unmet demand.
Note: Unlike your previous assignment, this model includes shortage (unmet demand) penalties. Demand does not need to be fully satisfied. Instead, you must model and penalize any unmet demand. Pay close attention to this change when writing your model and setting up Solver.
Four cities labeled A, B, C, and D are considered for setting up production plants. Each city can host only one plant. The objective of this problem is to determine which plants to open and how much to ship to each customer region in order to minimize total cost, which includes the cost of building production plants, the cost of shipping goods from plants to regions, and the unmet demand (shortage) penalty cost for any unmet customer demand.
Note: The total production capacity across all four plants is 800 units, while the total customer demand is 700 units. However, opening all plants may not be cost-effective. Therefore, the model should evaluate whether meeting all demand is cost-effective, and allow for unmet demand when it minimizes total cost.
Task 1: Model Formulation
Write the complete optimization model for this problem, using the following structure:
Write a complete mathematical model using Microsoft Word.
You must typeset all equations using Insert → Equaton (do not paste images or handwritten work).
Clearly define decision variables and parameters in a table
State the objective function (minimize total cost)
List all constraints:
Demand constraints
Capacity constraints
Non-negativity and binary constraints

Case 15.2: Conducting Interviews and Technology Stacy Rollins was pensive as she waited for her interview with an investment banking firm. She felt well prepared because she had summarized all her critical information into her resume, which had been reviewed by her business communication professor prior to sending it to the recruiter. She felt well qualified for the position and wanted to make a good impression. She had been through three other interviews for different positions and had developed the ability to respond to questions that ll the recruiters seemed to have in common. Unlike the first three however, this interview was going to be conducted as a teleconference. The recruiter placed the phone call, introduced herself and added that she was placing stacy on speaker phone, although she did not describe who else was in the room listening in. The recruiter began the interview by saying , “ Stacy, we have the resume you emailed yesterday. It looks good. You are familiar with the job requirements, I suppose. We are seeking a candidate with superb analytical skills, demonstrated ability to work in team settings, and the ability to communicate and to manage communication effectively.” “Oh, yes!” Stacy replied. “ I think I am a good match for your criteria.” The recruiter was silent for a moment. “So…” she said finally. A prolonged pause ensued. The recruiter said nothing further, though the phone line was apparently still open. Stacy was perplexed. She had not experienced this in other interviews. She did not know what do.1: Place yourself in Stacy’s shoes; knowing what you do about interviews, what would you do at this point?2: What could the recruiter’s objective be for posing the non question and then saying nothing further?3: What advantages and disadvantages of conducting interviews by teleconference does this case demonstrate?

Expertron Group, founded by Dr Walter Smuts and Gavin Ehlers, is a South African privatelyowned company specialising in the new product development for information and communication systems with a focus on applications utilising technologies at the convergence between mobile (GSM) and conventional data networks (the Internet). We build long-term, trusted relationships with our customers, whether it be through licensing one of our products, developing software according to bespoke requirements or consulting on general IT and Software Engineering matters. Expertron has a total of 12 employees and employs a team of highly trained software development engineers with the capacity to specify design and develop products that provide tangible business solutions. Expertron, the developer of Cell-ID a strong user authentication system was the first major success story of the Maxum Business Incubator of the Innovation Hub. Since joining the Innovation Hub, an entrepreneurship intervention designed to accelerate the growth of innovative knowledge and technology-based enterprises in Gauteng, the company has made notable achievements. In a deal facilitated by the Innovation Hub, Expertron formed a partnership with Grintek, a major player in the local and international defense, electronics and telecommunication industries. An important advantage of being part of the Innovation Hub as the leading knowledge-intensive business cluster in South Africa, is being near other entrepreneurs and being able to share ideas and be assisted to commercialise technological innovations
1.3.
Give three advantages and three disadvantages of the form of business ownership chosen by Walter and Gavin. (6)
1.4.
According to the National Small Business Act of South Africa, what would the business in the case study be classified as? Support your answer with evidence from the case study.

The day is November 19, 2004. You are the Event Director at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan, home of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. As the Director of Event Operations at The Palace, I am somewhat your boss. I am on the Events Committee who hired you earlier this year to handle all aspects of any event occurring in The Palace. In essence, you report to me and this committee. We hired you and we can fire you. That being said, on November 19 th of 2004 the Detroit Pistons (who call The Palace home) are hosting the Indianapolis Pacers. Something unprecedented will happen tonight. Do your research and do everything you can to view the incident from all aspects: players, fans, security, etc. This project is designed to take approximately 6-10 weeks to complete. Although I know this could be completed in a significantly shorter time frame, my hope is that you would spend several days researching ALL aspects of what occurred and looking at the entire picture. Keep in mind that the NBA is responsible for the actions and discipline of its players and this falls outside of the scope of your job. Your assignment is to write a 10 (minimum)-20 (maximum) page report using the format below. Keep in mind, your job is on the line. This report will determine if the committee decides to keep you in your current position as Event Director, demotes you to a lower position, or decides to fire you. The paper should follow the guidelines below:
Times New Roman, 12 point font
Double-spaced
APA style for all references;
The paper should roughly use the following format; use the following headings:
Summary of the Incident
Issues That Contributed to the Incident
Changes That Will Be Made to Prevent This Type of Incident From Occurring Again
Estimated Cost of Changes Necessary (from item above)
Brief Summary of How The Changes You Make Will Be Effective, Yet Cost Effective

One of the important lessons about competing in a gobaly compettive marketplace that emerges from participating in The Buchess Strategy Game simulation enercise in thata compary’s managers are pressured by ever-shiting compettive conditions to carefuly study the strategies and moves of rival companies in order to judge what actions they need to take to imonove their company’s competitiveness vis-a-vis rivals and boost its overal performanct-a compaty that ignorst the latest maneuvers of rival companies is flying bilind into competive bartie and ili-prepared to craft a set of competiliely succestal competitive efforts in each region.after 3 or 4 decision rounds (fearsh, it becomes relablvely easy to diagnose what atrategy a rival company is pursuing, to anticipate what moves the rival is liely to make nest, and fo cratt a strategy and an evolving set of competitive efforts in each region that will overpower many, if not most, rival flrms.the best time for a company to overhaul iss strategy and churt a new atrategic course to overpower fival firms is after the first few decision rounds (years) when the strategies of rival firms become apoareet and it is nelatively easy to outwit and outmaneuver themthe company that lumps out to be the industry leader earty on is very lialy going lo be the industry leader at the end of the simulation enercipe-it is extremely difficult for traling companies to ever develop a strategy and combination of competitive efforts in each region that enables them to compete more effectively and overtake the early industry leader.the best strategy for being among the top-performing comparies in the industry is to strongly differentiate a company’s product oftering from the oflerings of rival firms and charpe prices that are close to the lowest of any company in the induatry in all segments of the world market.

Item shrm3066-1Refer to the following scenario for the next 2 questions.In preparation for upcoming performance evaluations, the chief human resources officer (CHRO) sends an email message to all department managers outlining key policies and processes to follow when conducting reviews. A department manager on the email distribution list meets with an HR generalist to discuss several issues, including critical hiring needs, the general decline of the market, the possibility of essential layoffs, and the direct impact of the CEO’s company-wide strategy on the manager’s department. They also talk about the manager’s low ratings of employees’ performance last year when compared to the ratings of other department managers who used an identical scale. They discuss the extent to which this strict process unfairly punished the manager’s department. Because of the latter concern, the manager requests the HR generalist’s guidance on how to establish operational objectivity this year. The HR generalist provides guidance by reviewing the key points in the CHRO’s email message to ensure that the manager understands the requirements, the review process, and how ratings impact bonuses and compensation.How should the HR generalist respond if the department manager asks whether performance appraisal results will justify layoff decisions?
Answers
Performance appraisal results are the primary factor for determining layoffs. However, legal issues and the impact on companywide strategy are also considerations.
Performance appraisal results are the primary factor for determining layoffs. However, market decline is also a consideration.
Salary is the primary factor for determining layoffs. However, performance appraisal results are also a consideration.
Seniority is the primary factor for determining layoffs. However, performance appraisal results are also a consideration.

Refer to the following scenario for the next 3 questions.A company is building a new sawmill facility with advanced processing technology in a medium-sized community to replace an older sawmill. The older sawmill employs over 500 people in a small community and will close once the new sawmill is complete. Approximately 100 employees at the older sawmill will be transferred to the new sawmill facility, with the other positions eliminated due to process and technology improvements. The companys leadership has drafted a plan to communicate the impending layoffs to all employees. According to the HR department, uncertainty is high throughout this transition. Several weeks ago, tension escalated significantly at the old sawmill when a maintenance department worker, a long-term employee with the company, initiated a verbal dispute over the company radio system with a forklift operator who recently joined the company’s shipping department. A physical altercation resulted when the operator drove a forklift from the shipping department to the maintenance department to confront the maintenance employee.With the new technology and culture, there is some concern as to whether current employees are qualified to work in the new sawmill. Which most effectively addresses this concern?
Answers
Generate a questionnaire for employees at the old sawmill that asks them to document their current capabilities.
Require employees to go through a validated hiring process to ensure that they are a good fit for the new sawmill.
Review employees’ performance history to assess their potential success with the new technology and culture.
Administer a test to current employees to measure their potential to learn the technology at the new sawmill.