North West Company Case Study Summary

1. Which firms are the “identical twins” of the Collinsville investment? Using the β’s for those assets and the methodology learned in this course, determines the appropriate discount rate for the Collinsville investment.

The applicants are morally correct as long as their action promotes their long term interest. If their action produces or will produce for them a greater outcome of good, versus evil in the long hall than any other alternative, than that action is the right one to act on, and the individual should take that to be a moral act. An Assessment of Morality by Ethicsinbusiness.net

The negative outcome with this strategy would be that it may not lock-in retailers. More research and negotiation with retailers will be needed. Another negative affect would be that this strategy would be costly. We would have to see if we are financially stable to invest.

Supply chain innovations should ensure on-shelf availability at retail outlets, improving collaboration between vendors and retailers, translating supply chain costs to product pricing, lean inventory and real time replenishment. Wal-Mart should ensure that process differentiation to determine the right method of moving products with varying demand characteristics (Akehurst, C., & Alexander, N. (1995)

Martin, a behavior analyst, is working with Sara, a 14-year-old girl with severe developmental delays who exhibits self-injurious behavior (SIB). The self-injurious behaviors included pulling her hair, biting her arm and banging her head against the wall. After conducting a functional analysis, Martin decided to employ an intervention program consisting of differential reinforcement of other (DRO) desired behavior. Martin collected data on Sara's SIB before and during the intervention. Below is a depiction of the data that Martin collected:

Scenario: John is a 4 year-old boy who was admitted for chemotherapy following diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).  He had a white blood cell count of 250,000.  Clinical presentation included loss of appetite, easily bruised, gum bleeding, and fatigue.  Physical examination revealed marked splenomegaly, pale skin color, temperature of 102°F, and upper abdomen tenderness along with nonspecific arthralgia.

Northwest Canadian Forest Products Limited is a company that owns and operates five saw mills in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. They produce lumber for construction in a few different countries. The President of the company is dealing with a tough situation with one of her mills in Jackson, British Columbia. The mill in Jackson is her least productive mill and she soon has to make a decision that could cost the company a substantial amount of money. She has the choice of either investing 50 million in the weak Jackson mill or to invest more that 50 million in a new mill high demand area. The president has been informed of the many complaints from the managers and supervisors, but nothing seems to be the right solution.

This diversification approach allows them to enjoy economies of scale and also economies of scope, by offering differentiated products of a similar or even in the same category to answer different customer needs. Operational efficiency logistics to reach nearly 100% first-pass line fill and expanding global presence help the company improve and expand with their customers. The acquisition of brand name products, changing in cost structure to improve operation margins to minimum of 15% and achieving critical mass protecting its shelf space at each category. Many of the retail customers will ask Newell competitors if they ship like Newell, this proves the level of customer service and efficiency that Newell reached and all these results in decrease of cost; however increase in WTP.

Drake, P. (n.d.). What is free cash flow and how do I calculate it? Florida Atlantic University, pp. 1-6. Retrieved from: http://educ.jmu.edu/~drakepp/general/FCF.pdf [Accessed: 6 Aug 2013].

In an organization, product quality and delivery is largely dependent on the supply chain management which in turn affects the overall profitability. Therefore, supply chain quality control is essential in any organization to ensure a competitive edge in the industry and minimizing the operating costs. Firms are thus competing on the innovation front to stay upfront in meeting customer expectations. One of the industry in which advances in supply chain management have been evolving rapidly is the retail industry. Due to the changing nature of the competitiveness in the retail industry, supply chain managers must come up with expansion plans that align with multiple-channel and geographic growth.

Have you ever had a colonoscopy or endoscopy – where they take a camera and look through your mouth down into your stomach; or a camera that goes in your rectum that looks through your bowel and intestines?

As the case explains, economic changes are a big concern for Danaher’s success. The following topics will be analyzed in addressing those concerns: Business-Level Strategy, Corporate-Level Strategy, External Analysis, Internal Analysis, Recommendations.

Pros and Cons: It has proven that the Associates Out in Front as step in the right direction to solve the problem by compensating the employee and improving the loyalty. Besides, Wal-Mart did not establish much linking mechanism among Top managements, regional managers, and store managers. It will reduce the communication level inside the organization.

Question 1. What competences has IBM had to invest in arising from its transformation from a ‘product-centric’ to a ‘service-centric’ organization?

They should also carefully evaluate categories and brands and stock only the best performing products. This would allow them to reduce store size, while at the same time retain its experience and presence in multiple categories.