Describe the factors to be considered in the preparation of an order of cost estimate for the construction work. Make and state appropriate assumptions for stabilization

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The client requires an order of cost estimate for the development of the building and external areas into a Country Club and Wedding Venue, which takes account of the construction costs and associated professional fees, taxes, and charges, but not the building acquisition costs.

The project is at the early design stage.

The initial proposals for Ground and First floor are as shown in the Project Drawings.

Describe the factors to be considered in the preparation of an order of cost estimate for the construction work.

You should make and state appropriate assumptions for stabilization and other works not defined by the drawings and Scenario.

Based on your assessment of the business’s public image, recommend communication approaches or strategies designed to mitigate the impact of negative information about the business

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After submitting your analysis memorandum, your CEO has decided that your business needs the additional resources that Jack Harris and his firm Crisis Consulting can provide. Time is of the essence, and so Jack has called a meeting of the team that will work on this project next week. While Jack is familiar with your business, due to your overview, the rest of his team is not. Your CEO has asked you to provide a memorandum to Jack that he can distribute to his team that will be assisting your business. Do not assume that the team knows anything about your business or the government action it faces. In addition, the CEO has asked you to include your recommendations for addressing the situation the business is facing.
A. Business Project Teams: Based on your evaluation of the internal resources that are available to the company, how can business project teams be efficiently engaged to obtain the most favorable results for the company? [MBA-665-02]
B. Communication: Based on your assessment of the business’s public image, recommend communication approaches or strategies designed to mitigate the impact of negative information about the business. [MBA-665-03]
C. Solution: Based on the courses of action and their impacts that you previously described, determine an effective solution for the business in the situation it is facing. How does the solution address the governmental action(s) or political challenge(s) faced by the business? [MBA-665-04]
D. Political Influence: Based on your evaluation of external resources, how should the company utilize outside resources and approaches to advocate for the business and influence the political process?

Analyze the strategic fit between the business vision and the key elements of the business strategy, considering domestic and global environments.

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  • Analyze the strategic fit between the business vision and the key elements of the business strategy, considering domestic and global environments.
  • Analyze the alignment between business strategy, customer needs, and overall teaching and learning model to determine how organizational value has been established.
  • Creates organizational value in the recommendations provided.
  • Demonstrate the ability to plan strategically in domestic and global environments in the recommendations provided.
  • Employ high-performing business management techniques in the analysis and recommendations; the techniques consistently promote delivery of value-added, bottom-line results.
  • Solve problems within professional standards.
  • Use appropriate financial models and principles to support decisions and recommendations.

As part of your action plan, how would you assess a potential job candidate’s teamwork skills? Discuss the benefits of using reference checks when hiring individuals for your team.

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Required Activity:
In this 34-minute interview, Kevin Ryan discusses what he considers to be the key building blocks of starting a new venture: ideas, people, and money. Consider using the following discussion questions:

Assume you are a new manager at Nomad Health, Kevin Ryan’s latest start-up which is focused on developing a website where doctors and nurses can search for temporary work and hospitals and clinics can find temporary staffing. Further, assume that you have been tasked with developing a great team within the next five months. Describe your action plan for how you would achieve that goal.

As part of your action plan, how would you assess a potential job candidate’s teamwork skills? Discuss the benefits of using reference checks when hiring individuals for your team.

Assume that one of the job candidates that you hired is just not working out. Discuss how you would handle the situation, and justify your proposed action plan.

Use research to verify your facts

Evaluate the benefits of the introduction of the Consumer Right Act 2015, Trade description Act of 1968, The Supply of Goods and Services Act of 1982, Consumer Protection Act of 1987 and General Product Safety Regulations of1994.

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Your application was successful and you have been called in for an interview. Because the firm specialises in helping organisations address issues relating to employment and consumer protection you want to impress the recruiter with your knowledge on this topic. The secretary of the partner already told you to prepare for a 10-15 minutes interview segment, during which:

 

  1. You should evaluate the benefits of the introduction of the Consumer Right Act 2015, Trade description Act of 1968, The Supply of Goods and Services Act of 1982, Consumer Protection Act of 1987 and General Product Safety Regulations of1994.
  2. You should describe laws relating to employment, in particular with regard to Employment Relations Act 2004 and what these legislations means with regards to termination of employment
  3. Justify the importance of acting in accordance with consumer safetylaws.
  4. Determine the nature, constitution and structure of acompany.
  5. Assess how employment laws contribute to termination ofcontracts.

 

Provide an illustration showing the different approaches to business ethics. You should then provide examples of ethical issues that could affect the operations. Also provide examples of “absolute” and “relative”ethics.

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You are working for “Computing Supplies Ltd” and you are an idealist: you only buy Fair Trade, you work in a charity shop over the week-end, you often participate in charity runs, and every year you attend community beach cleaning events.

Although you’ve already tried to approach the subject of Corporate Social Responsibilities, nobody has taken it seriously. However, the company recently received bad publicity after a documentary showing the obsolete computers being stripped down for gold by 10 year-olds in Africa. To complicate things further, the computers are actually being burnt to collect the gold which creates dangerous fumes both for the environment and for the children.

In addition to this new issue, “Computing Supplies Ltd” pays the majority of its employee the minimum wage in order to maximize profit. Several employees have now joined a union and trying to negotiate a living wage to no avail, which has also caused some bad publicity.

Due to the bad publicity, 4 large clients have already terminated their contract and as a consequence, the revenue is down 15% compared to the previous year.

To make the matters worse, although this has not emerged in the news, “Computing Supplies Ltd” is planning on relocating some of its manufacturing to India in order to cut down costs, however it seems that it would not really benefit the locals as the subcontracting cost implies cuts, in particular relating to local wages and local use ofwater.

You believe that this time senior management will listen, but you know that you should prepare the ground before the meeting in order to make a successful proposal.

 

  • Provide an illustration showing the different approaches to business ethics. You should then provide examples of ethical issues that could affect the operations. Also provide examples of “absolute” and “relative”ethics.
  • Create a mind map of the stakeholders, and comment on the implications for each stakeholder when operating ethically, including potential conflicts between the stakeholders
  • Explain the regulatory framework for CSR

 Provide a case study of an organization that has implemented Corporate Social Responsibility. You should:

  1. Briefly describe the changes that the organization , and why.
  2. Review the impact of CSR on their supply chain
  3. Analyse the impact of changes in CSR on business performance such as profitability, revenue, brand,etc.

 Based on the scenario, write a report to suggest an implementation of CSR. You should:

  1. Research a current ethical issue in an organisation.
  2. Describe how business objectives are affected by ethical considerations.
  3. Report on how the business could improve the ethics of their operations.
  4. Recommend changes to CSR policy to benefit different stakeholders.

Reflect on the leadership style of either yourself or your supervisor. What leadership style do you have, or what leadership style does your supervisor have? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this style for your team?

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Companies like Target and Walmart often works with outside consultants—people who are not employees of the company but who are hired on a contract basis to help with a specific project. As a Leadership Consultant, you’ve been hired by a large discount retail company to help the company improve its leadership structure and approach to management.

Take a look at the Organization Chart provided by the company.

  • Based on your knowledge of hierarchies, would you say that this team has tall structure or flat structure?

Underline your selection:

  • Tall Structure
  • Flat Structure

The company would like to improve the culture of its team and the quality of its work. Its leadership has provided you with a Process Chart detailing how it currently applies Human Resources best practices.

You have been asked to help improve the leadership style of the team leader in order to meet the team’s performance goals. The team leader has given you a description of what is most comfortable in terms of leading others.

  • Identify this leader’s style of leadership. Underline your selection:
  • Pacesetting
  • Visionary
  • Affiliative
  • Coaching
  • Coercive
  • Democratic

Explain your reasoning and list two benefits and two drawbacks to the style of leadership you identified as it

Apply the thinking in Steps 1-3 as if you were a Leadership Consultant hired by the company where you work or for a previous employer.

  • Review the organization chart for your company. Based on your knowledge of hierarchies, would you say that your company’s team has a tall structure or flat structure? How does this affect the way your team works? Explain your answer.
  • Consider the work conducted by the Human Resources team at your company. What steps of the Human Resources Cycle do they implement well? What steps of the Human Resources Cycle might be missing from your company or are not implemented as well as they could be? What is the effect of this on you and your team? Explain your answer.
  • Lastly, reflect on the leadership style of either yourself or your supervisor. What leadership style do you have, or what leadership style does your supervisor have? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this style for your team? What might you or your supervisor do to improve leadership? Explain your answer.

Assess the maturity of your organization (Citgo Corporation – Corpus Christi Refinery).If the evaluation of your organization is extremely good, identify what Stage of maturity you think your organization is at.

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Assess the maturity of your organization (Citgo Corporation – Corpus Christi Refinery).  Use only the Stage 1 PMO Questionnaire: The Project Office, found on page 660 in Appendix B of the Hill text. Complete the assessment for each of the 20 questions and calculate the overall rating (in the excel document attached)

If the evaluation of your organization is extremely good, identify what Stage of maturity you think your organization is at. However, you only need to complete the Stage 1 assessment.

Based on the final maturity rating, draft a plan of at least 100 words that identifies what steps should be taken to increase the maturity of the organization.

 

Compare and contrast the two companies in terms of how well or how poorly they are performing in the areas of profit, debt, and asset turnover. Use appropriate ratios in your analysis

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Answer the following question regarding the companies Apollo Global Management and American Financial Group;

Identify two items or issues that cannot be derived from the financial statements of the two companies that you selected for your research.

Explain why these items or issues would be of concern to investors and other stakeholders.

In your rationale, address the specific interests of the different users of financial statements.

Compare and contrast the two companies in terms of how well or how poorly they are performing in the areas of profit, debt, and asset turnover. Use appropriate ratios in your analysis. Indicate strategies for possible improvement in each area.

What are the main political and economic risks that ABB must deal with given that it has a strong focus on entering emerging economies?

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ABB, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, is a major competitor in the power and automation technologies industries across the major markets globally. It has 140,000 employees operating in almost 100 countries. In fact, it has five major businesses—power products, power systems, discrete automation, low voltage products, and process automation. It operates in eight major regions: (1) Northern Europe, (2) Central Europe, (3) the Mediterranean, (4) North America, (5) South America, (6) India, the Middle East, and Africa, (7) North Asia, and (8) South Asia. Over time, ABB has been a successful company using its geographic diversification across the globe to its advantage.
It also exemplifies the difficulty of managing an international strategy and operations. For example, its power systems business has experienced performance problems in recent years due to poor performance in some countries due primarily to the economy downturn. Notwithstanding the difficulty of managing in emerging economies, much of its growth is focused on improving country infrastructure such as power systems and grids. In 2014, the firm announced that the Asia, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA) region currently contributes about 37 percent of ABB’s total revenue, or about $15.3 billion, and “emerging markets were planned to contribute to two-thirds of the forecast growth between 2015 and 2020.”
In recent years, most of ABB’s entries to new markets and expansions in existing markets have come from acquisitions of existing businesses in those markets. Recently, it acquired Siemens’ solar energy business, Power-One, and U.S.-based Los Gatos Research, a manufacturer of gas analyzers used in environmental monitoring and research. The purchase of Power-One represents a major risk as the solar power industry is in a downturn. Yet some analysts predict a brighter future for the industry over the long term. ABB also uses other modes of entry and expansion, exemplified by the 2013 joint venture with China’s Jiangsu Jinke Smart Electric Company to design, manufacture, and provide follow- up service on high voltage instrument transformers. It also recently procured major contracts for business in Brazil and South Africa.
Partly due to the global economic recession that began in 2008, recent weak economic performance, and some poor expansion decisions, ABB’s performance has been weaker than expected. As a result, the CEO and chief technology officer announced their resignations in 2013. Despite these changes, ABB is a highly respected global brand, and, after its recent changes (e.g., closing some country operations), its revenues and earnings have started to rise. These positive changes have been largely attributed to the success of its North American businesses. Its acquisitions of Baldor (maker of industrial motors) in 2010 and Thomas & Betts in 2012 greatly enhanced its North American operations and
revenues. It has also had success in manufacturing equipment and robots with its robotics business headquartered in the United States. It is even moving to help small companies, such as ones in the beer industry, to automate their production processes. Therefore, even in turbulent times, ABB’s future looks bright.

What are the dominant reason’s for ABB to enter into international markets?
Which corporate international strategy would you classify ABB as using? Explain your answer.
Why has ABB used acquisitions and joint ventures as dominant entry modes in international markets?
What are the main political and economic risks that ABB must deal with given that it has a strong focus on entering emerging economies?
What are the significant organizational complexities that ABB encounters as it tries to manage its international strategy?