Cultural Profile

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Overview

Over the past two modules, you have explored the fundamentals of global business, such as key drivers for expansion of domestic business and cultural considerations. In this milestone, you will complete the first part of your course project by explaining what you have learned about global business thus far.

Scenario

You are a business analyst working at a small domestic organization that produces high-quality baseball bats. Your organization has begun to see its sales flatten in the domestic market. While the organization is not losing money, leadership would like to explore options to continue to grow. One option that leadership has noticed competitors attempting is entering international markets.

You have been asked to examine the benefits, drawbacks, and key considerations for your organization to enter one of the global markets below, and to summarize your findings in a business brief for leadership.

Select one of the following international markets to use for your course project:

  • Republic of Korea
  • Canada
  • Germany

If you would like to use another country for your course project, please reach out to your instructor.

Prompt

In this milestone, you will complete Section One of the Business Brief Template (located in the Guidelines for Submission section of this document).

Drivers for Global Entry: Develop the first section of the Business Brief Template that explains the purpose of global expansion, business impacts of global business, societal impacts of global business, and cultural considerations using evidence from course and outside resources to support your explanations. Make sure to use evidence from course resources to support your responses.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

  • Country Selection: State the country you have selected to use for your course project.
  • Purpose of Global Expansion: Explain key benefits of successful global expansion for domestic organizations.
  • Business Impacts of Global Business: Explain how global expansion of a domestic organization can impact business operations such as strategic planning, marketing, supply-chain management, human resources, and so on.
  • Societal Impacts of Global Business: Explain how the global expansion of organizations has impacted society, citing specific examples regarding culture, transportation, employment, infrastructure, and environmental climate.
  • Cultural Considerations for Global Business: Explain the importance of researching the culture of a potential global market prior to market entry, as well as key cultural considerations to explore to inform expansion decisions.

Guidelines for Submission

Template: Business Brief
Submit Section One: Drivers for Global Entry of this template as a 350- to 500-word Word document. Sources should be cited according to APA style.

Literary Essay

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“Heroes or Zeroes” Literary Essay with Turnitin

NO outside sources other than the textbook are allowed for this assignment (see attached).

In a literary essay, you are exploring the meaning and construction of a piece of literature. A literary essay focuses on such elements as character, theme, style, tone, and setting. You are taking a piece of writing and trying to discover how and why it is put together the way it is. You must adopt a viewpoint on the work(s) in question and show how the details of the work support your viewpoint. A literary essay will be a mixture of your own interpretation based on your reading and references to the work.

Task in Detail:

To help you prepare this component of the final project, you will be writing in phases.  You will be given a topic this week (week 4) for which you will need to write approximately 1600  words.  The final essay will be uploaded to Turnitin. MAKE SURE YOU SEE THE ASSIGNMENT BELOW.  Readings are attached.

Heroes and Zeroes Literary essay assignment

Type your response to the following topic in approximately 1600 words according to MLA guidelines: “The literary works (see attached) that we have read have a main character that may or may not be considered a hero. Select two of the main characters from TWO of the stories that we have read and create an argument that provides your opinion as to whether the characters you chose are heroes or not and why. If you find one that is a hero and one that is not, compare and contrast the two. Additionally, we often hear about the consequences of our choices and actions. Analyze these two characters and discuss several of the choices that he or she made and the consequences of those choices. Consider opportunities where making different choices might have led to other consequences (bad or good) for these individuals and how this made them a hero or not. Make sure you create a strong argument and use solid supporting points to convince the reader to consider your opinion.”

There are four (4) required elements in the final literary essay which should be 1600 words:

a)  An introduction with a thesis statement

b)  The body of the paper with arguments and support evidence

c)  A conclusion that summarizes the entire paper

d)  Works Cited page in MLA format

Crime mapping

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For this unit’s Complete assignment, write a comprehensive scholarly essay (minimum 1500 words) in which you analyze, explain, and apply these concepts in the context of a law enforcement crime mapping issue. You must incorporate and cite, using correct APA citation format, at least four different scholarly research sources. Be sure your essay demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of the READ and ATTEND sections from this unit. In-text citations must be used in the body of your essay, and all research sources must be fully cited at the conclusion of your essay. Correct APA citation formats must be used. Your essay should include the following elements:

  • Identify and discuss the different types of hotspot analysis described in Chapter 11. Select two of the types of analysis and compare and contrast their strengths and weaknesses. 
  • Discuss the three basic categories of maps that are developed in the crime analysis process. Provide examples of different issues which might require each type of map.
  • Identify and describe two salient issues in the varied efforts of mapping crimes for two distinct audiences, their purposes and recommended types of presentation.
  • Discuss why are tactical maps so important? What are some of the barriers to creating effective tactical maps?

Business Policies and Strategies MGMT455 Discussion Boards 1-3

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1. Unit 1 – Discussion Board 2 

 – This course features a debate component within the Discussion Boards. To prepare for the debate topic within this course, click here to view a video that reviews and considers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends (SWOTT) analysis of a fast-food franchise. Once completed, provide a quick synopsis (100-200 words) with 2-3 points that stand out to you in particular. This video will be the construct by which the Discussion Boards will structure a debate discussion.

Reference

Ddd9925. (2013, January 8). McDonald’s SWOT [Video file]. Retrieved from the YouTube Web site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbyb0ht-dsk&feature=youtu.be

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Other Information

Instructor’s Comments:

This session we will begin discussing the fast-food industry and the major competitors within the industry.   This industry was chosen because the strategy is involved differently in each one of the chains within the industry.   They ultimately have the same goal, but how they achieve it is very different from the others.  The video to be reviewed this week (YouTube Web site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbyb0ht-dsk&feature=youtu.be)  does a great job explaining one of the biggest competitors McDonald’s.  There have been some very public changes within the company over the last 10 years.  This video not only introduces some of the changes but also incorporates the SWOTT analysis into the analysis process.  This SWOTT analysis includes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends.  When reviewing this video, please keep in mind the things that stick out to you most about the changes at McDonald’s but also anything new that is learned about the SWOTT analysis.  The 2-3 paragraph recap is a combination of both personal ideas and facts from the video.   

Here is some additional information about the SWOTT analysis that will help you complete this assignment:   https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp

2. Unit 2 – Discussion Board 

– Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Part 1 (post this response in the main U2 DB thread “Unit 2 Discussion Board”)

In the Unit 1 Discussion Board, you reviewed a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends (SWOTT) analysis of a fast-food franchise that was done in 2013. There have been many more recent changes with the fast-food giant toward improved business results. Read this article on these changes, and conduct a brief SWOTT analysis based on these new changes that includes the following:

  • Strengths: The internal and external characteristics of a company that are stronger than its competitors
  • Weaknesses: The internal and external characteristics of a company that are weaker than its competitors
  • Opportunities: The issues internal and external to a company that can affect the company and its competitors in a favorable way
  • Threats: The issues internal and external to a company that can affect the company and its competitors in an unfavorable way
  • Trends: The internal and external patterns in the organization, market, or industry

Part 2 (post this response in the appropriate topic within U2 DB (labeled “for” and “against”)

Based on the first initial of your last name, complete the following:

  • First initial A-L: Provide an argument for the success of the strategies that a fast-food franchise has instituted. Submit your position by posting in the Unit 2 Debate forum under the for topic.

In both considerations, provide research that supports your assertions.

3. Unit 3 – Discussion Board 

– Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:

Part 1

Having experienced a robust debate discussion on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends (SWOTT) analysis and strategic planning for a particular fast-food franchise, it is time to shift gears a bit and consider the competition in the fast-food industry. Read this article to frame this week’s discussion. Complete the following:

  • Identify 1 or 2 other major competitors in the fast-food industry, and describe their sources of competitive advantage.
  • Discuss a current issue that this industry faces. It could be favorable or unfavorable to the industry.
  • Which of the major competitors has the strongest competitive advantage and ability to overcome the barriers presented by the current issues identified and why?

Part 2: Based on the first initial of your last name:

First initial A-L: provide an argument ‘AGAINST’ the ability of the competition to overtake fast-food franchise. Submit your position by posting in the Unit 3 Debate forum, under the ‘AGAINST’ topic.

In both considerations, provide research that supports your assertions. 

 

 

 

Math 201-Statistics project

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Project Part 5 – Final Report

You will submit a final report, written in Word (or similar word processing software), based on your findings and submissions from parts 1-4. It is highly suggested you not submit this paper without first reviewing all the feedback from your instructor on submissions from weeks 1-6. Be sure to ask any questions you may have on your feedback.

This final submission should be three paragraphs and summarize your entire project. It will be submitted through SafeAssign, Liberty’s Plagiarism software on BlackBoard. The project must be submitted in paragraph form and not just a list of the calculations from your project. Be sure your paragraphs flow (not just listing the answers to the questions, but complete sentences with transitions) and are written in third person. You are presenting your results to a nonstatistical audience, do not describe the calculations, describe your results. It should include the following:

  • Paragraph 1:
  • Paragraph 2 (address the claim about the mean):
    • Summary of sample statistics (mean, standard deviation, median, quartiles, sample size)
    • Confidence interval, along with interpretation of the confidence interval
    • Description of hypothesis test (alpha, test statistic, p-value, conclusion, interpretation)
  • Paragraph 3 (address the claim about the proportion):
    • Summary of sample statistics (sample size, successes, proportion)
    • Confidence interval, along with interpretation of the confidence interval
    • Description of hypothesis test (alpha, test statistic, p-value, conclusion, interpretation)

What information regarding inventories and property, plant, and equipment must be disclosed by Koch Corporation in the audited financial statements issued to stockholders, either in the body or the notes, for the 2020–2021 fiscal year?

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Concepts for Analysis

CA24.1 (LO 1, 2) (General Disclosures; Inventories; Property, Plant, and Equipment) Koch Corporation is in the process of preparing its annual financial statements for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2021. Because all of Koch’s shares are traded intrastate, the company does not have to file any reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company manufactures plastic, glass, and paper containers for sale to food and drink manufacturers and distributors.

Koch Corporation maintains separate control accounts for its raw materials, work in process, and finished goods inventories for each of the three types of containers. The inventories are valued at the lower-of-cost-or-market.

The company’s property, plant, and equipment are classified in the following major categories: land, office buildings, furniture and fixtures, manufacturing facilities, manufacturing equipment, and leasehold improvements. All fixed assets are carried at cost. The depreciation methods employed depend on the type of asset (its classification) and when it was acquired.

Koch Corporation plans to present the inventory and fixed asset amounts in its April 30, 2021, balance sheet as shown below.

Inventories   

$4,814,200

Property, plant, and equipment (net of depreciation) 

6,310,000

Instructions

What information regarding inventories and property, plant, and equipment must be disclosed by Koch Corporation in the audited financial statements issued to stockholders, either in the body or the notes, for the 2020–2021 fiscal year?

HUM 5010 /2.2

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Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 7: Gerontology: Human Services with Older Adults. In addition, find an article within the University of Arizona Global Campus Library or from the Recommended Resources listed for this course addressing the current issue of the aging adult. The aging population has issues such as being a parenting grandparent, depression, elder abuse, exposure to ageism, dementia (and levels of care), what constitutes successful aging, non-traditional and traditional retirement, aging and healthcare costs, and substance abuse in aging.

In your paper,

  • Summarize the article.
  • Discuss the service delivery explored in the article.
  • Examine how human service professionals are addressing the issues identified with the aging population in the article.
  • Analyze the recommendations for service delivery as outlined in the article.

The Article Review: Current Issues in Aging paper

  • Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) based on an article from 2011 to present and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
  • Must include a separate title page with the following:
    • Title of paper (bold and with a space between the title and the rest of the information)
    • Student’s name, followed by institution name (“University of Arizona Global Campus”)
    • Course name and number
    • Instructor’s name
    • Date submitted

For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).

Dicussion response

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reply 1: 

The company I chose is Square.  I believe Square offered and IPO to raise more cash for additional investments into new products and services.  In 2015, privately held technology companies were al seeing a decrease valuations and Square in particular had a net loss of $154M in 2014. (Lederman, 2015)  Given the overarching reduction in valuations and the net losses, Jack Dorsey (the CEO) had to IPO the company to bring in extra cash. In my opinion, Square would have been the best company to invest in for many reasons.  First, Square held the lion’s share of the market for mobile friendly credit card payment processing – and as we all know – debit and credit cards are the primary payment methods (not much competition) for most consumers.  In addition, Square at the time was offering an IPO $2-$3 per share less than the expected price.  This raised the propensity for a rise in the value per share.  I would have considered this a growth and value investment as it was underpriced and the company was expected to grow. I chose Xtera as a poor investment.  Xtera was offering their IPO due to an expected net loss of about ~$5M in 2015.  The company offers long range fiber solutions – and they are significantly less equipped and not nearly as established as the competitors (Alcatel-Lucent and Ciena).  Xtera needed to raise cash to potentially enter new, more lucrative, markets to start turning a profit. (IPOCandy.com, 2015) As stated above, they are significantly less equipped and not nearly as established as the competitors (Alcatel-Lucent and Ciena).  As a small supplier of fiber solutions, they simply cannot compete with larger competitors and they also cannot complete the large and complex infrastructure that many consuming businesses required.

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reply 2:

IPO Investing is risky. According to Kaplan & Warren, (2016); “The first step taken by investors looking at a seed or early stage company is to estimate the company’s future value at the planned exit date of usually three to five years” (p. 217). After reading the Nasdaq article about the IPO market, the two companies I selected to research are loanDepot (LDI) as a bad investment and Instructure (INST). as a good investment. According to Renaissance Capital (2015), LDI was set to raise more capital than the other eight IPO’s combined during the week the report was generated. INST was fast growing and venture-backed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider with a large sales backlog. Profit is several years out meaning that if the value picks up, the time to get out via merger or acquisition may lead to a good return on investment (p. 1).  INST issued an IPO at this time to help it expand its investments in partnerships that offer horizontal integration and expansion into new products. I would be willing to invest in INST as the company seems to be on a growth path in pursuit of competing with Blackboard. The problem they are attempting to solve is providing an interactive space that links on line learning (distance learning) to the more interpersonal learning enjoyed at a university or business campus. As global markets open and companies and universities expand learning opportunities for traveling and remote workers, I suspect to see growth in this sector after significant investments in the various tools valued by the customers. Indeed, since 2015, INST has performed poorly in cash flow and operating income. Today the stock is over-valued, however, at the time of the IPO I likely would have invested in this company for these reasons.    Competition is too high and the competitive advantage, for me, is not tangible.  On October 09, 2015, LDI announced the filing of a registration statement Form S-1 with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The book-running managers for this IPO are well known banking institutions: Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman, Sachs & Company (LoanDepot.com, 2018). Using Morningstar.com, there seems to be some good competition in the market for this company by established companies. Competitors are LendingTree.com, Ally Financial, and Santander Consumer USA Holdings, and Essent Group Ltd. (Morningstar.com website, 2018). Our reading indicates that LDI IPO stock price would range from 16-18 per share, with 30M shares issued. In reference, the competition is showing a fair value between $17.76 and $281 per share (Morningstar.com, 2018). Based on the competitive market, LoanDepot offers no tangible competitive advantage over Lending Tree or the others in the market space, and the IPO release value would likely fall below the offering price as a result.

For the writing assignment, I give you a policy issue or situation that you are asked to comment on using economic analysis.

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For the writing assignment, I give you a policy issue or situation that you are asked to comment on using economic analysis. You may submit no more than 2 pages. It must be typed, double-spaced with 10-12 point font and 1-inch margins all around. Please use Times or Times New Roman font. If you want to use graphs to support your arguments they may be on additional pages but should be drawn with a program like MSWORD or PowerPoint, and pasted in as pictures. 

Topic 

In the aftermath of California and New York becoming the first states to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15, some small businesses with hourly workers are rethinking how they can absorb the increase.  According to an article by Joyce Rosenburg, https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/as-minimum-wage-marches-toward-small-businesses-adapt/article_f2e44b8a-4cba-5edd-82be-2c4a17942abc.html, https://excellentwriter.xyz/nursing-homework-help/ego-integrity-presentation/ 

one restaurant may have owners pick up food at a counter instead of delivering it to tables.  It may also have workers do more tasks, for example, a cashier doing some administration.  Rosenberg notes some businesses are cutting staff, others are raising prices.  Meanwhile a pizza chain in Washington DC is giving raises without raising prices because of solid revenue growth.  A smoothie business in NYC suburbs has raised prices 30%, https://smartwriterblog.com/operations-management-homework-help/discussion-3/ as has a seafood restaurant chain in Seattle. It is also a fact that a manufacturing firm in Seattle is replacing some labor with technology.  Using production and cost theory, and profit maximization rules, contrast and discuss these different reactions, and perhaps discuss https://perfectwriterblog.com/economics/im-working-on-a-economics-question-and-need-a-sample-draft-to-help-me-understan/ how the different responses gives us some insights about how much market power the different businesses have.

formal essay 2

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Write an essay on a topic related to the theme of racism and/or xenophobia that we have been discussing in this class.  Be sure to have or develop a main idea.  

One way to do this would be to use one of our readings on the theme of racism or immigration issues (or both), or find a current article or other source online to introduce your own main idea and supporting ideas on the same topic. Summarize the article, video, poem, story, or essay, and let it lead you into what you want to say on the subject.  Other essay-writing techniques could also work for you, such as beginning with an anecdote or a personal experience leading into your main idea.

Your essay should be 2-3 pages long (about 600-750 words), typed, double-spaced, on Microsoft Word, Pages, Googledocs, or whatever other platform you feel comfortable with. (If it’s a platform I cannot download for some reason, I will let you know.)  E-mail your essay to me by Wednesday night, Mar. 24, 11:59 pm (just before midnight). Know that you will have the opportunity to revise it and improve it after receiving feedback from me and/or your fellow students (your peers).

Here are some examples of possible topics (though you can come up with your own if it is related to these themes):

  1. “Racial Profiling”: How do Brent Staples’ experiences with racial profiling compare with things that are still happening today?  You can compare/contrast Staples’ experiences and feelings with any one or more incidents that have been reported on in more recent years.  Profiling could also refer to other races or ethnicities, such as Muslims, Asians, etc.
  2. Compare and contrast any two (or more) poems by Langston Hughes: Are they optimistic or pessimistic, in your view?
  3. “Innocence”:  A traumatic experience you or someone you know had as a child and why it is significant.
  4. “Hard Rock” and Imprisonment as the New Slavery
  5. “Incarceration” or “Justice and Injustice in the United States.” Any piece of Ava DuVernay’s film, such as images of Black “criminality” in the movie “Birth of a Nation”; how “The War on Drugs” led to mass incarceration of Black people; assassination of Black leaders; the issue of reparations; the issue of keeping Blacks in jail because they can’t afford bail; etc. 
  6. Economic inequality as expressed in two literary works:  “The Lesson” and “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs From Americans.” 
  7. “To the Lady”: What happened to Japanese Americans during World War II, and why?
  8. Compare and contrast the attitudes towards immigration in the two poems “The New Colossus” and “Unguarded Gates.” How does each compare with today’s attitudes?
  9. If you are a “mixture” of different ethnicities or cultures, discuss how this affects who you are, based on one or more of the poems we read.
  10. The Native American experience as seen in poems by nila Northsun and Sherman Alexie.
  11. The Hispanic children’s experience as seen in “Bully,” by Martin Espada. 

These are suggestions. If you think of a different topic relating to these readings or issues, feel free to pursue it for your Formal Essay #2; or you can combine topics if you wish. You also don’t have to take up every subtopic within a given topic. Ask if you aren’t sure your plan is appropriate for this assignment. Again, the purpose of choosing a topic is to move on to developing a main idea: What about this topic?