BUS 10
Introduction To Business

Assignments Page

Assignment 1

Establish An Economy

You have just purchased a small island in the pacific. The island is named after you. You have the opportunity to establish whatever form of Government and Economy you want. Review the Economic Systems we discussed in class and come up with an Economic system for your island. If it has an accompanying Government tell me what it is. Tell me why you choose that economic system and give me the pros and cons for your situation. I am looking for about an hours worth of work here and about a page of output. When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 2

Supply and Demand

A situation you would love to be in as a business person would be to have a Business in an industry with little marketplace supply and lots of marketplace demand, while at the same time having ample wholesale supply available exclusively to your Business. How would you go about finding such an industry? How would you determine the supply to the marketplace? How could you determine the demand to the marketplace? Can you find such an industry? I am looking for about an hours worth of work here and about a page of output. When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 3

Ethics

You have been asked to gauge the Ethical readiness of a company doing business in the United States. You do not work for this company and really have no prior knowledge of their ethical track record. You have done some research on web sites like: http://www.busreslab.com/ethics-surveys.htm http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/polls_ethics_compliance.html From this information you get the general impression that 35%-40% of employees feel their company is engaged in unethical activity. Create a survey of 10 to 20 questions (better questions means fewer questions) to give to all the employees of the company. Are there any special considerations for giving the survey? If so, what are they? I am looking for about an hours worth of work here and about a page of output. When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 4

New Business Idea

The potential for new products and services is all around you. For this assignment I want you to look for something in your daily routine that does not work or does not work as well as it should. It can be while you are shopping, at the movies, in your car or at home eating. For the purpose of this assignment the idea does not have to be completely feasible from a technology standpoint. Give me a short 1 page or less description of your new product or service. It should include: The name of the product or service Who would buy the product or service When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 5

Organizational Structure

You have just been named President of Lower Story Skylight Inc. The company has about 250 employees and is in need of a reorganization of management. Lower Story Skylight Inc. produces 3 products: Model 1 - Standard Model 2 - Deluxe Model 3 - Custom The company has its main offices in Sebastopol, California but sells products world-wide via their website and through retailers like Home Depot. In about 1 page tell me how you would organize the company (Hint: using one of the organizational structures in the book would probably save you time). When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 6

Employee Motivation Plan

You are the President of a small company. Lately you have noticed that the productivity has declined and the demeanor of the employees you talk to indicates that they are not happy to be working for your company. You decide to develop a policy to improve employee motivation. Come up with a set of actions that your company will take to improve employee motivation. Remember you are a small company, keep it simple and affordable. Quality is better than Quantity here, so the results should be no more than a page long. (Hint** If you read the chapter you will spend less time on this) When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 7

Labor Relations

You have been called in to mediate a dispute between Lower Story Skylight Inc. LSS and the labor union which represents most of their workers USWA (United Skylight Workers of America) . They have been negotiating since the last contract expired 6 months ago. Both parties have made offers which are unacceptable to the other party. Here are their latest offers: LSS Management 2% per year pay increases for all employees Cost of living increases based on differences in the CPI Medical benefits where LSS pays only for emergency major medical Retirement plan that has only a employee contribution component No commitment on job security when the economy forces the company to reduce production and cut jobs A Merit promotion system based on employee performance USWA Management 4% per year pay increases for all employees Cost of living increases based on the ECI (Employment Cost Index) Full Medical, Dental, prescription and Vision benefits where employees pay no more than 20% of the cost A Matching fund retirement plan where the employer matches what the employee places in the plan Job security commitment, bringing new employees into a semi protected status that can be laid off in bad economic times protecting the employees with seniority A seniority promotion system Your job is to get them to agree. In a page or less propose a neutral ground scenario that does not offer a disproportionate advantage to either side. When you are done email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 8

Project Planning

Using Project Management Software (Like Microsoft Project) or any software that will allow you to draw boxes with text in them (Microsoft Word will let you draw boxes with text), complete a CPM schedule for a simple everyday task. Examples might include: Cooking a meal Changing the oil in your car Washing your laundry (correctly) Yard Maintenance Chores Your Plan Should Include At least 15 activities Duration of each activity Relationships shown with arrows Critical Path – Shown in red The end result will be a series of boxes connected by arrows. If your plan was not created in Word, take a screen shot and place the image in Word as a picture. Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus. See Example of Assignment Here

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Assignment 9

Pricing Strategy

You have just invented the greatest auto theft device available to date. The device is called Shut-er-Down and it works in conjunction with common cell phone towers. As soon as a vehicle is reported stolen the law enforcement department taking the report enters the vehicle ID number into the Shut-er-Down website. Each law enforcement agency has their own username and password to prevent unauthorized access. As soon as the Shut-er-Down system receives the law enforcement request, it sends a signal through all cell telephone services. The cell tower nearest the stolen vehicle will activate a computer chip in the car. The Shut-er-Down chip will disable the car and send a location signal back informing law enforcement of the cell tower that is relaying the signal. After analyzing the product and service bundle needed for Shut-er-Down, you realize it is incredibly cheap: The chip itself will only be $2.00 when mass produced Chip installation is super simple -- plugging into an existing engine kill socket The cell tower owners are eager to participate and offer you time at a discount in exchange for marketing exposure using Shut-er-Down The web site is something you already know how to do and can have working at almost no cost in a few weeks All total, a single unit will cost you $5.00 and a Shut-er-Down call will cost $2 per call. Adding web site maintenance in we get an average price of $10 per unit In less than a page, outline a pricing strategy that will MAXIMIZE YOUR PROFITS on Shut-er-Down. Keep in mind that you are the only business offering this service and you have an exclusive use agreement with the cell phone tower operators for the next two years. Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 10

Welcome to Advertising

The product from the last assignment (shut-er-down) needs an advertising campaign and you are in charge of the process. Quality not Quantity is the key here. Using the book to help you through the process identify and list the following: Identify The Target Market - Include Demographic label if any Identify Your Objective (Exz: Public Relations, Customer Loyalty, etc.) Media Plan - What media you will use (Can be more than one) Projected costs Once you have a plan in place create an advertisment. If you are using a visual medium then there should be a catchy graphic. In either case there should be an easy to remember catch phrase or slogan. I do not expect you to be a marketing executive, I just want you to experience the process. Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus. My Example

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Assignment 11

Information Technology

You have just been asked to develop a plan to create an information system for a small business that is exanding. Here are some discriptive aspects of the business in question: Business is growing quickly Business needs to make sense of customer buying habits Many employees need remote access to company systems Business experiences frequent reorganization of office space due to growth In a page or less make a short presentation for the company President that will tell her what features the new information system will use. Note: there are several concepts in the reading assignment that should end up in this presentation. Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 12

Profit Margin

In this exercise you will state and evaluate the profit of a publicly traded company of your choice. The first step is to pick a company which you may be interested in. Your interest can be for future investment potential or just because you like (or hate) their product. Once you have selected your company go here: The Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR Company Search Page Enter the name of your company in the box titled Company Name and hit the Find Companies button at the bottom of the form. From the resulting list select the 10K report. This is the companies annual report. We want to look at their Net Profits so locate the appropriate financial statement in the annual report. When you are there provide me with the following information: The Name of your Company Their Net Profits from their latest Annual Report Are their Profits in a upward or downward trend? The URL of where you found the information, it will look something like: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/852772/000119312505049666/d10k.htm#fin35308_6 You will notice that the 10K report has a table of contents and most companies have the different sections (like Financial Reports) hyperlinked. Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Assignment 13

Create Your Own Portfolio

You have been asked to take the surplus of cash your company has managed to put aside from doing business and invest it in securities. Use the internet for example (http://finance.yahoo.com) to create a portfolio for your company. You amount to invest is $2,000,000 and it should be diversified. You may use any investment instrument discussed in class, but you need to tell me how much money is in each security. Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf) at the email address on my syllabus.

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Combination Final Assignment 14

Information Management

Take all 14 assignments and place them into a single indexable package. The index can function like a table of contents which hyperlinks to each assignment. You can place them all in the same document or place them all in the same directory and hyperlink from the table of contents to them. Send me the final version (I would like multiple documents to be zipped into a single file) Email your assignment to me (as an attachment in either MS Word .doc format or Rich Text Format .rtf or a zipped file .zip) at the email address on my syllabus.

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