Category: Business and Management

I do not have the book.
MIS 11th Edition. Author: Hossein Bidgoli. Publisher Cengage.
Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, 7th Edition Authors: Fred Phillips and Robert Libby and Patricia Libby. Publisher McGraw Hill.

The case study is on Ooni, a UK company that builds and sells pizza ovens.
The analysis should consist of an introduction, external analysis, internal analysis, businessstrategy analysis and finally corporate strategy analysis.
These parts should logically lead to a conclusion which would include three strategic recommendations for Ooni’s future.

Applied Project Management Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric Competency Name: Applied Project Management Competency Statement: Demonstrate an understanding of project management, applications, and tools used. Final Assessment Title: Project Plan Competency Objectives: 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the foundational concepts of project management, including the system view of project management and information systems development life cycle. 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the five project management process groups and their interactions, project integration management, and cost-benefit analysis. 3. Demonstrate an understanding of project quality, communications, and human resources management. 4. Create a project plan including project scope management and work breakdown, project timeline, project resources, cost management, and post-appraisal. Program Learning Outcome(s): N/A Institutional Learning Outcome(s): N/A Purpose of this Assessment People have been undertaking projects since the earliest days of organized human activity. The hunting parties of our prehistoric ancestors were projects. Large complex undertakings such as the pyramids and the Great Wall of China are also considered projects. Even something as simple as creating a dinner is considered a project. We use the term “project” frequently in our daily conversations. For this final assessment you are expected to demonstrate knowledge of project management, applications, and tools used by creating a project plan. Items Required for Submission The item required for submission is a 15 to 20-page Project Plan. Step ONE: Choose a Project Choose a project for your project plan. The project that you choose can be work or community related. As you choose your project for this assignment, consider the answers to the questions below. For something to be considered a project, the answer to all of these questions must be “yes.” • Is it unique? • Does it have a start and end date? (Is it a temporary endeavor?) • Is there a way to determine whether the project has been completed? • Is there a way to determine stakeholder satisfaction? • Is this project complex enough to meaningfully discuss each and every section of the project plan, yet limited enough to discuss in less than 20 pages? For example, creating a dinner for your family would not be complex enough to detail a meaningful staffing plan, communications plan, etc. Creating a dinner at Buckingham Palace would be complex enough, but possibly difficult to discuss 1 Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric Applied Project Management Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric thoroughly in 20 pages. Read through all the required sections for the Project Plan before you make your final decision about your project. • Do you know the project very well? Project Management is a highly transferrable skill from one profession to another, but most individual project plans rely on intricate, finely grained understanding of all the particular industry terms, components and relationships. For this plan, you cannot rely on technical jargon or industry standard operating procedures to describe the sections. Your plan must explain to a reasonable stakeholder, with very basic knowledge about the project, exactly what to expect. Step TWO: Write a Project Plan Once you have identified a project you must create the project plan. Recall that project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle and tells everyone involved where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. The planning phase is when the project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through the implementation and closure phases of the project. The plans created during this phase will help you manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk and related issues. It will also help you control staff and external suppliers, to ensure that you deliver the project on time, on budget and within schedule. Your Project Plan must include: • Introduction o The Introduction provides a high-level overview of the project and what is included in this Project Management Plan. This should include a high-level description of the project and describe the project’s deliverables and benefits. Excessive detail is not necessary in this section as the other sections of the project plan will include this information. This section should provide a summarized framework of the project and its purpose. Typically, you would look back at the Project Charter for information to include in this section. • Project Management Approach o Explain in general the roles and authorities of project team members. Include information about which departments, etc., will provide the resources and what resource constraints are to be considered. If there are decisions to be taken by specific persons, such information should be included here as well. • Milestone List o Provide a summary list of milestones, including dates for each milestone. Include an introductory paragraph in this section, which provides some insight to the major milestones. This section should also mention or discuss actions taken if any changes to the milestones or delivery dates are required. • Baselines o Schedule § The schedule baseline provides a reference point for managing project progress as it pertains to schedule and timeline. o Cost 2 Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric Applied Project Management Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric § This section contains the cost baseline for the project upon which cost management will be based. The project will use earned value metrics to track and manage costs while the cost baseline provides the basis for the tracking, reporting, and management of costs. o Scope/quality § This section should include the quality baseline for the project. The purpose of this baseline is to provide a basis for ensuring that quality can be measured to determine if acceptable quality levels have been achieved. It is important for all projects to clearly define and communicate quality standards and the quality baseline serves this purpose. • Project Scope and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) o State the scope of the project in this section. The scope statement from the project charter should be used as a starting point; however, the project plan needs to include a much more detailed scope than the charter. This detail should include what the project does and does not include. The more detail included in this section, the better the product. This will help to clarify what is included in the project and help to avoid any confusion from project team members and stakeholders. o The WBS provides the work packages to be performed for the completion of the project. • Change Management Plan o This section should describe your change control process. Ideally, this process will be some type of organizational standard, which is repeatable and done on most or all projects when a change is necessary. Changes to any project must be carefully considered and the impact of the change must be clear in order to make any type of approval decisions. Many organizations have change control boards (CCBs), which review proposed changes and either approve or deny them. This is an effective way to provide oversight and to ensure adequate feedback and review of the change is obtained. This section should also identify who has approval authority for changes to the project, who submits the changes, and how they are tracked and monitored. • Communications Management Plan o The purpose of the Communications Management Plan is to define the communication requirements for the project and how information will be distributed to ensure project success. You should give considerable thought to how you want to manage communications on every project. By having a solid communications management approach you’ll find that many project management problems can be avoided. In this section you should provide an overview of your communications management approach. Generally, the Communications Management Plan defines the following: § Communication requirements based on roles § What information will be communicated § How the information will be communicated § When will information be distributed § Who does the communication § Who receives the communication § Communications conduct • Cost Management Plan o The Cost Management Plan clearly defines how the costs on a project will be managed throughout the project’s lifecycle. It sets the format and standards by which the project costs 3 Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric Applied Project Management Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric are measured, reported, and controlled. Working within the cost management guidelines is imperative for all project team members to ensure successful completion of the project. These guidelines may include which level of the WBS cost accounts will be created in, and the establishment of acceptable variances. The Cost Management Plan: § Identifies who is responsible for managing costs § Identifies who has the authority to approve changes to the project or its budget § How cost performance is quantitatively measured and reported upon § Report formats, frequency, and to whom they are presented • Procurement Management Plan o The Procurement Management Plan should be defined to clearly identify the necessary steps and responsibilities for procurement from the beginning to the end of a project. The project manager must ensure that the plan facilitates the successful completion of the project and does not become an overwhelming task in itself to manage. The project manager will work with the project team, contracts/purchasing department, and other key players to manage the procurement activities. • Project Scope Management Plan o It is important that the approach to managing the project’s scope be clearly defined and documented in detail. Failure to clearly establish and communicate project scope can result in delays, unnecessary work, failure to achieve deliverables, cost overruns, or other unintended consequences. This section provides a summary of the Scope Management Plan in which it addresses the following: § Who has authority and responsibility for scope management § How the scope is defined (i.e. Scope Statement, WBS, WBS Dictionary, Statement of Work, etc.) § How the scope is measured and verified (i.e. Quality Checklists, Scope Baseline, Work Performance Measurements, etc.) § The scope change process (who initiates, who authorizes, etc.) § Who is responsible for accepting the final project deliverable and approving acceptance of project scope • Schedule Management Plan o This section provides a general framework for the approach, which will be taken to create the project schedule. Effective schedule management is necessary for ensuring tasks are completed on time, resources are allocated appropriately, and helping to measure project performance. This section should include discussion of the scheduling tool/format, schedule milestones, and schedule development roles and responsibilities. • PERT Chart Development o The Program Evaluations Review Technique (PERT) is a technique used to plan, schedule, and control projects. This tool uses a precedence diagram technique which means an activity proceeds an activity and is represented through the use of associated graphics; arrows and nodes. When creating a PERT chart be sure to include the tasks or activities and present them as arrows. Then ensure the Milestone/Dates are captured as nodes. If you choose to code the activities and milestone dates, be sure to provide a key for the coded activities so the chart can be interpreted correctly. 4 Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric Applied Project Management Final Assessment: Outline and Rubric • Quality Management Plan o This section discusses how quality management will be used to ensure that the deliverables for the project meet a formally established standard of acceptance. All project deliverables should be defined in order to provide a foundation and understanding of the tasks at hand and what work must be planned. Quality management is the process by which the organization not only completes the work but completes the work to an acceptable standard. Without a thorough Quality Management Plan, work may be completed in a substandard or unacceptable manner. This section should include quality roles and responsibilities, quality control, quality assurance, and quality monitoring. • Risk Management Plan o This section provides a general description for the approach taken to identify and manage the risks associated with the project. It should be a short paragraph or two summarizing the approach to risk management on this project. • Stakeholder Management Plan • Staffing/Human Resource Management Plan o Discuss how you plan to staff the project. This section should include discussion on matrixed or projectized organizational structure, depending on which is being used for this project. This section should also include how resources will be procured and managed as well as the key resources needed for the project. Step THREE: Complete Checklist for Submission Before you submit your work, check to see if you have met the criteria noted below. Did you: ü Make sure your plan contains all required components as indicated in the guidelines, with clear and complete descriptions for each? ü Demonstrate sophisticated understanding of project management, applications, and tools throughout the project plan? ü Show that you fully understand the depth and breadth of the subject matter as well as all related concepts as they relate to project management? ü Make sure there are no errors in content or interpretation of the material? ü Use or apply project management methodologies throughout the project plan? ü Review your plan to see that it is logical, well written, and of the required length? Use accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation? Follow APA formatting standards? 

I need an Academic essay supporting the idea that start-ups should implement holocracy as a governance system instead of hierarchy. 
I will leave a template with the structure needed and the word count that has to be followed. The introduction is already written and doesn’t need to be changed. It is the guide on how the rest of the work needs to be developed.
I have attached some sources that will need to be used; some others need to be found and integrated into the work. The final number of sources needs to be at least 15. The sources have to be not older than 2021 and well related to the work.
Sources need to be found in Google Scholar or any other reliable and public platform.
The work is research, but the final goal is an argumentative essay.
References have to be in-text cited and at the end as well, in APA 7th edition.
It is fundamental that it is not written at all by AI and that there is no plagiarism, meaning every source is well cited (I will be checked on both of these and risk failing the whole work).

Directions:
Read the following case carefully. Then write a one page, single spaced persuasive message following the task instructions.  Make sure to follow what you have learned from Chapter 9 when writing this message, using the AIDA approach. The outline provided in the Portfolio 3 Assignment will also be helpful for this persuasive message. Please note that the plagiarism/AI scanner is on. E-Book is attached, chapter 9 is from p.228>230.
Exam: Write a Persuasive Business Message
As someone who came of age in the “post email” world of blogs, wikis, social networks and other Web 2.0 technologies, you were rather disappointed to find your new employer solidly stuck in the age of email. While you use email, it is only one of many tools you use to communicate (both personally and professionally). In fact, your use of social media on the job has recently allowed you to find potential sales contacts at several large companies, connect with peers from other companies, and learn about some upcoming legislative matters that could hamper your company’s current way of doing business (not to mention it’s how you found this job).
Sadly, waiting in your email in-box this morning was a message from the CEO, announcing that the company is now cutting off access to social networking websites and banning the use of any social media at work. The message says that using company time and computers for socializing is highly inappropriate and might be considered grounds for dismissal in the future if the problem gets out of hand.
Your task: Send a message to your immediate superior explaining why you believe the new policy should be reversed. Using your boss’s favorite medium (email, of course) write a persuasive message, explaining why Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are valid and valuable business tools.
Note:
Be creative in what company (fictional or not)/who you write to/any other. necessary facts to make your audience/purpose more concrete.
Look at chapter 9 for help and ideas.
Consider the AIDA approach.
Don’t forget audience and purpose as you put this together.
Remember that this is an email – audience is very important (do they have time to read a very long and verbose email? Probably not so be concise)!
For this message, keep the following in mind (Chapter 9 goes into detail on this):
AIDA Approach (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)
Indirect/Direct Approach depends on PURPOSE/AUDIENCE
Balance emotion (pathos) with logic (logos) for a stronger message – also establish ethos 
Anticipate the counterargument and be ready to refute it
Argument vs. Rhetoric – this is more argument!
Organize as an email OR a formal letter that you would send/drop off – up to you this time

Business plan for a Caribbean restaurant serving
Haitian-based cuisine in Palm Beach, Florida USA, write a comprehensive complete business plan that will serve as a roadmap as well as proposition to potential donors for a successful restaurant. 

Write a paper (suggested length of 10–16 pages) by doing the following:
A.  Describe an existing organization with which you have had personal experience and its objective(s).
1.  Describe three leadership practices of the current leader, other than yourself, in the existing organization.
Note: Leadership practices are routine actions, behaviors, functions, and responsibilities that the current leader performs.
2.  Discuss how the current leader has affected organizational culture.
Note:
You may represent any level of the chosen organization (e.g., team,
department, division, whole) and the respective current leader in your
description.
B.  Conduct a SWOT analysis evaluating the chosen organization by doing the following:
1.  Evaluate two of the organization’s current strengths.
2.  Evaluate two of the organization’s current weaknesses.
3.  Evaluate two of the organization’s current unmet opportunities.
4.  Evaluate two of the organization’s current unresolved threats.
Note:
The accepted model for a SWOT analysis defines strengths and weaknesses
as internal to the organization, and opportunities and threats as
external to the organization.
C.  Conduct a leadership evaluation of the current leader discussed in part A1, using one of the scholarly leadership theories below that is different from task 1, by doing the following:
•   transformational leadership
•   transactional leadership
•   situational leadership
•   participative leadership
•   servant leadership
•   behavioral leadership
•   trait theory of leadership
1.  Evaluate three strengths of the current leader, using the chosen scholarly leadership theory, including how each strength relates to the theory. Support the evaluation of the leader’s strengths with at least one scholarly source.
2.  Evaluate three weaknesses of the current leader, using the chosen scholarly leadership theory, including how each weakness relates to the theory. Support the evaluation of the leader’s weaknesses with at least one scholarly source.
3.  Recommend three actionable items to improve the effectiveness of the current leader, including how each actionable item relates to the chosen scholarly leadership theory. Support the recommendations of actionable items with at least one scholarly source.
Note: The recommendations need to address the current leaders identified leadership weakness.
Note:
A scholarly source could be a reputable journal, a published book, or
any source from a university faculty member or business leader.
Scholarly sources also include any article or book in the online WGU
library.
D.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
E.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

My company: American Express
Select a publicly-traded company that is traded on U.S. exchange. Locate the annual report for at least the last three fiscal years. 
Analyze the financial statements for the company and review for large movements in specific accounts from one year to the next. In addition, review the notes to the financial statements as these are an integral part of the financial reporting package. Evaluate the balance sheet to determine if there are large changes in the company’s assets, liabilities, or equity accounts. In addition, analyze the income statement and statement of cash flows.
At a minimum, calculate the following ratios for two years, the debt-to-equity ratio, current ratio, quick ratio, return on equity, and net profit margin. For each ratio, explain what the ratio tells you about the company. 

Jack is a 36-year-old leader within a major hospital.  As a leader, he prides himself as a professional who supports his team and helps each of them to meet their chosen goals.   From a personal standpoint, he focuses on eating healthy, exercising regularly, and playing on his church’s basketball team but for the past year, his focus on healthy living has declined because of professional responsibilities.  During a follow-up visit to his physician for laboratory test results, he is told by his primary care doctor that his cholesterol is 286, HDL 30, LDL 85, and triglycerides 500. The primary care doctor explains the meaning of the test results. The primary care doctor explains that Jack will need medication to control his cholesterol and lipids, writes prescriptions, and explains that his condition is one of a chronic nature and will likely require lifelong treatment. The risks and benefits of treatment are explained while Jack sits quietly in disbelief. Jack takes the prescriptions and leaves the office convinced that this is a joke. He tears the prescriptions in pieces and throws them in the trash. Jack knows that his recent lack of focus related to his health have taken its toll, along with his family history.  He vows to exercise more and eat a better diet but also wonders how he can turn his bad habits into good ones without neglecting his team.  (Self-Concept Case Study, 2010)  Please address the follow questions.
What actions by Jack suggest his self-esteem may be negatively impacted by his diagnosis?
What positive direction might Jack explore to help with the acceptance of his diagnosis? How can he motivate his team to get involved in the process?
Identify the potential causes in Jack disturbance of self-concept. 
How can the behaviors related to self-disclosure and time play a role in helping Jack to accept and live with his diagnosis? What role does communication play in Jack’s overall acceptance? As a leader, how can Jack engage his team in this new healthy lifestyle while respecting his privacy?
Submit a 2-3 page paper. The paper should cite at least 2 sources, using APA format, independent of the textbook and other reasons.

This assessment has two parts for you to complete. Please read the business case and complete part 1 and part 2.
Case: Eighteen months ago, you decided to set up a company in the retail sector that sells sustainable goods. You have sold your products locally until now but have plans to expand internationally. To achieve this, you have decided to move online and therefore need to produce an e-commerce website that is appropriate for customers in the UK, EU, and USA. As you have not yet established an online presence, you have no customer following or trust in the market. You have a small team of employees with limited technical expertise and a moderate budget of £11,500. The budget has been allocated as follows:
1. £3,500 for CMS solution including internationalisation (currency and language)
2. £1,000 for security
3. £2,000 for staff training
4. £2,000 for legal consultation
5. £3,000 contingency money
Part 1: Practical (1,800-word equivalent)
Choose a specific industry within the retail sector and produce an e-commerce website using a CMS package for a small to medium-sized business. The e-commerce website must sell sustainable goods, be fully functional and easy for customers to navigate. Functionality should include:
1. An online shop that is populated with multiple products, tax, and shipping capabilities
2. An integrated payment processing system
3. Internationalisation of the website (currency and language)
4. Integrated social media for marketing purposes
5. Security integration
6. Enhanced features to improve user experience
You will need to provide the URL, ID, and password of your e-commerce website on the submission template provided, along with a screen recording. Please note, you must include the following disclaimer on your website – “This site and all of its contents is for educational purposes only”
Part 2: Report (1,200 words)
Choose one topic from the list below and then answer the following three tasks. Please note, this should be written in third person, in an academic/professional style and relate back to your chosen business. Harvard citing/referencing should be used throughout to support all assertions.
List of topics to choose from (only choose one):
• Security (e.g., password protection, malware, social engineering, phishing attacks, etc. – only choose one)
• Content management system issues (e.g., features)
• Payment processing issues (e.g., payment methods, technical issues, fraud, etc. – only choose one)
• Accessibility issues
• Affiliate marketing
• Language support and translation
Once you have picked your topic, answer the following 3 tasks.
1. Introduce your chosen company, e.g., target customer, sustainable goods sold, etc. (approx. 100 words)
2. Assess how the chosen topic could pose a threat for your business (e.g., financial implications, loss of data and downtime, impact on customer experience, staff training, etc.). (approx. 550 words)
3. Examine 1-2 opportunities (method and/or technology – e.g., software, hardware, personnel, etc.) that your company could use to mitigate against the above threat and discuss how they specifically relate to your firm’s business/technology requirements. (approx. 550 words)
Note: You must refer to your company and the business case throughout.
How should I present my work?
For this assessment you need to submit a screen recording of your e-commerce website (frontend and backend), in addition to completing the submission template provided on Blackboard, under the ‘Assessment’ tab.
1. Your screen recording should be set out as follows:
a) Products and pages
• The contents of all product pages, which should include any images, descriptions, and variations (frontend)
• The contents of any extra pages (frontend)
b) Design and shopping cart
• Any changes to improve user interaction and experience. This could include amendments to your theme and menu (frontend)
• The location and functionality of the language translator and currency converter plugins (frontend)
• The settings and functionality of any discount coupons, including where they are displayed to customers (frontend and backend).
• The shopping cart, showing its functionality and that orders can be placed (frontend)
• How tax and shipping has been configured on WooCommerce (backend).
c) Extra plugins and features
• Any additional plugins installed and activated, including how the settings have been configured (frontend and backend)
• Security plugins, including how the settings have been configured (frontend and backend)
• Any social media buttons, how they have been configured and where they link to (frontend and backend).
2. Your completed submission template should be set out as follows:
On the title page, list the following:
Module code and name
Student number
Submission date
Assignment Number/Title
Grading Matrix (not required)
Executive Summary (not required)
Table of Contents (optional and not counted in word count)
Introduction (not required)
Part 1: Practical (1,800-word equivalent)
• A working link (URL) to your e-commerce website
• ID and password of WordPress website (not to be confused with your university/server login details)
Part 2: Report (1,200 words)
• Answer to Task 1 (approx. 100 words)
• Answer to Task 2 (approx. 550 words)
• Answer to Task 3 (approx. 550 words)
Conclusion (not required)