ADMN 400 Final Exam

Spring 2024: Outline of Core Concepts

Acquiring and Nurturing Talent

Concepts
1. Employee Recruitment
  1. Methods: TV ads, print, radio, job/career fairs, online search engines, social networking
2. Motivating and Retaining Employees
  1. Compensation and benefits: direct pay (salary), indirect pay (pensions, health insurance, vacation time, workers comp. etc.)
3. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  1. Diverse backgrounds/experiences/perspectives = more effective idea generation for improvements
Videos and Other Readings
1. This is how Google motivates its employees
  1. Psychological safety: ability to take risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed.
  2. Dependability: team members must be able to count on each other to do good work
  3. Structure and clarity helps employees understand their goals, roles and plans of execution
  4. Meaning and impact: People want to work on something with meaning, something that makes a difference to their organization/society
2. Reengineering the Recruitment Process
  1. the skills needed in many roles are being replaced by tech
  2. Gifted candidates are found outside their normal environments, people are developing the same skills on their own in their homes
  3. Candidates are pickier about who they work for, they want to be compensated well
  4. To prepare for this companies need to:
    1. Hire for potential, not experience

OpenStax Text: Chapters 6&8

Industry Guest: Carolyn Barry

Business Intelligence & Data-Driven Decision-Making

Concepts
1. Components of Management Information Systems
  1. MIS: methods and equipment that provide information about all aspects of a firm's operations. It provides managers info needed to make decisions, help managers process data into useful information.
2. SMART Goals
  1. Specific: state what you will do using action words
  2. Measurable: Provide a way to evaluate, use metrics or data targets
  3. Achievable: within your scope, possible to accomplish
  4. Relevant: Makes sense, improves the business
  5. Time-bound: Dates, timeframes, when you will be done
3. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s): a measurement of performance for an organization that indicates how well the organization is achieving its goals within a specific time
  1. KPIs drive performance
  2. Provide crucial info on sales, marketing, finances and productivity
  3. Enable you to make changes to underperforming areas
  4. KPIs can be related to market, customers, employees, sustainability, community etc.

Videos and Other Readings
1. Workflow Automation: The Future of Work in the Era of Intelligent Information Management
2. The Success Of Streaming Has Been Great For Some, But Is There A Better Way?

16 cognitive biases that can kill your decision making

OpenStax Text: Chapter 13

Industry Guest: Peter Zaimes

Bringing a Product to Market

Concepts
1. Production Planning
  1. Deciding where, when and how production will occur. Determine site locations and obtain necessary resources.
  2. Long-term planning: 3–5-year timeframe: focuses on which goods to produce, quantity and location of production
  3. Medium-term planning: 2-year timeframe: factory layout, where and how to obtain resources for production and labor
2. Production and Operations Control
  1. Controlling quality and costs, scheduling, and day to day operations of factory
3. Critical Path Method: manager identifies all activities required to complete project, order of activities and relationship between activities
  1. This develops a diagram using arrows to show the activities dependence, longest path is called the Critical Path
4. Quality Improvement and Risk Management
  1. Quality: how well a product meets predetermined standards, how well it serves its purpose
  2. Quality Control: producing goods that meet standards throughout production process

Videos and Other Readings
1. The Next Manufacturing Revolution is Here
2. Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World
  1. Identify vulnerabilities
  2. Diversify supply base
  3. Hold intermediate inventory or safety stock
  4. Automation

OpenStax Text: Chapter 10

Industry Guest: Doug Clark

Sales & Marketing: Strategies for Selling to Customers

Concepts
1. Integrated Marketing Communications
  1. Creating a unified and seamless customer experince
2. Promotional Mix
  1. Traditional ads: any paid form of nonpersonal promotion by a sponsor delivered through traditional media channels
  2. Personal selling: face to face presentation to prospective buyers
  3. Sales promotion: Activities that stimulate consumer buying, coupons, samples, displays, exhibits, demonstrations etc)
  4. Public relations: linking of organizational goals with key aspects of public interest (lobbying, publicity, special events, internal publications)
  5. Social media: use of platforms to generate “buzz” about a product or comapny
  6. e-commerce: use of a company's website to generate sales through online ordering, information, interactive components etc.
3. Promotional Strategy and Goals
4. Distribution Channel
  1. Supply chain managements increses efficiency of logistics service by minimizing inventory and moving goods efficiently from producers to ultimate users
  2. it reduces the number of transactions to get a product from manufacturer to consumer
Videos and Other Readings
1. Integrated Marketing Communications
  1. All varying parts working together for one unified result
  2. IMC merges marketing channels with one clear/consistent message, helps clarify company’s mission
2. Is There a Buy Button Inside the Brain: Patrick Renvoise
3. People don't buy what you do people buy why you do it: Simon Sinek

OpenStax Text: Chapter 12

Industry Guest: Christina Pescatore

Investing Earnings and Strategizing Growth

Concepts
1. Dividends, Retained Earnings & Investment Securities
  1. Dividend: payments to its shareholders from profits (cash or stock)
  2. After paying stock dividends (payment in form of stocks) value of each share often declines
  3. Investors buy stocks expecting dividends so if they are not paid the investors may sell their stocks
  4. Retained earnings: profits that are reinvested into the company
  5. Used for growth within the form along w tax advantages
2. Primary Business Growth Strategies
  1. Intensive growth strategies: exploit opportunity in the current market
  2. Market penetration: increase sales in current target market by expanding distribution channels, and lowering selling price
  3. Market development: expand sales through geographic representation, franchising
  4. Product development: increase sales through new products
3. Integrative growth strategies: exploit growth within industry as a whole
  1. Vertical integration strategy: growing upward/downward with the distribution channel
  2. Horizontal: purchasing competitors within current industry
4. Diversification strategies: exploit opportunities outside the current market/industry
  1. Investing in products/businesses outside the core competencies
  2. Use when all other growth strategies have been exhausted
5. Global strategies: exploit opportunities in the international arena
  1. Go global bc of competition and saturated markets
6. Stages of Growth
  1. Phase 1 – start up success: focus on capital, customers and distribution
  2. Phase 2 – initial growth: focus on cash flow and marketing
  3. Phase 3 – high growth: focus on resources capital and management
  4. Phase 4 – Stable growth and maintenance: focus on innovation and maintaining success

Videos and Other Readings
1. Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World
2. How to Finance the Scale-Up of Your Company
  1. Multiple sources of finance
  2. Cross leverage money from one source into cash from others
  3. Use appropriate language depending on which capital provider you talk to
  4. Use opportunities to raise money well
  5. Manage accounts receivable but pay on time
  6. Cultivate customer finacing

The 13 Money Mistakes Most Business Owners Continue to Make

OpenStax Text: Chapter 16

Industry Guest: Christine Lee