kellermgmt-530-blog

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MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 2 Course Project Presentations

Briefly describe your problem and post a brief PowerPoint presentation that summarizes your Co

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MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 1 Linked Decisions

Describe a decision situation that involved linked decisions. What flexible plans did you use for the subsequent decision?

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MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 2 Sharing Risk with Partners

Describe a decision situation in which you have shared risk with an internal or external business partner. What were the conditions of the shared risk? Explain why the arrangement was successful or not.

Is “blame” a risk-mitigator or risk-enhancer?

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MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 1 Risk Tolerance

Describe your risk profile - risk seeking, risk neutral, or risk averse. What are the pitfalls of your risk attitude? How can knowing your manager’s desirability curve come in handy during the decision-making process?

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MGMT 530 Week 5 Case Analysis Labadee Decision

In January 2010, the island nation of Haiti was devastated by an earthquake.

Royal Caribbean International, a major cruise line, owns a private beach in Haiti, which is typically a port of call on several of their Caribbean cruise itineraries. The private port, known as Labadee, is about 80 miles away from Port au Prince. The beach was unaffected by the quake. In the days following the earthquake, the company wrestled with several issues as they determined whether to continue to stop in Labadee or temporarily abandon the port of call.

Their objectives would be to

1) ensure guest satisfaction;

2) protect the brand; and

3) maximize profitability. Some of the consequences they considered as they tried to determine whether the cruise line should continue to make a stop in Haiti in the midst of this crisis are as follows.

Will cruise passengers be interested in relaxing on a beach when hundreds of thousands are homeless and hungry just 80 miles away? Could this impact new reservations or cause people to cancel? Based on research and consulting with others, you believe there will be minimal impact.

Because the community near the beach depends financially on the cruise line for income, would suspending the stop in Haiti make the country worse off? Based on your analysis, there is a high likelihood that the area would be negatively impacted if the line pulled out of Labadee.

How would the media respond? Would they get bad press for continuing to stop in Haiti and be perceived as profiting in the midst of this tragedy, or will the public perception be worse if they suspend sailing to Haiti during this crisis? You determine that there is a higher chance that the company would get bad press if the company suspended services than if they continued to include it on itineraries. Using a risk profile such as the one below, define the uncertainties and make the recommendation for a decision for the Labadee Case. For additional resources pertaining to this assignment, please review the How to Draw a Simple Decision Tree Video found under the Week 5 Lecture tab, the Developing a Decision Tree Video found under the Week 4 Lecture tab, and the Labadee Decision Video below.

Submit your definition of the problem in a MS Word document to the Week 5 Case Analysis Dropbox. Input your responses in the template found here. This document is also available in the Doc Sharing tab.

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MGMT 530 Week 4 Midterm Exam

1. (TCO A) Your small services company has grown rapidly during its first two years and has outgrown the workspace that you have leased for three years. As the operations manager, you have been asked to lead a decision-making team to select a location for the growing company. Your desire is for the team to make an effective decision.

i. What criteria should your decision-making approach have to ensure that it is effective?

ii. Describe the eight elements for effective decision making used in a rational decision-making approach. (Points : 20)

2. TCO A) Understanding fundamental and means objectives are important to decision analysis and decision making. As your business has grown, you are evaluating moving your company to a larger office closer to several of your key customers and are looking at several different alternatives. i. Identify your fundamental objectives.

ii. How would those objectives be used in the decision-making process?

iii. Identify your means objectives.

iv. How would the means objectives be used in the decision-making process

3. (TCO A) Sally Jones, customer service manager for Gecko Insurance, is considering three job candidates for an open senior customer service representative position. In trying to decide which candidate is the best overall fit for the job, Sally has concluded that three criteria are important in this decision. First, of course, is to have a candidate with at least five years of customer service experience in the car insurance industry working in a call center. This objective is most important, twice as important as each of the other two criteria. The second criterion is to have a candidate with excellent customer service skills. The third criterion is for the candidate to have some experience in a coaching or supervisory role. Sally will be losing one of her managers to retirement in a year and wants to prepare this candidate for that job. The second and third benchmarks are equally important. Here is a summary of each of the candidates.

I) Robert Bentley: seven years of customer service experience; scored an 80 out of 100 on the customer service skills questionnaire; one year of experience training new customer service representatives.

II) Jane Porsche: five years of customer service experienc

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MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 1 Defining Uncertainties

How does your organization assess uncertainties in your decision-making process? What are the benefits to using decision trees to assess uncertainties? Provide an example where uncertainties played a major role in a decision situation. In the context of uncertainty, is there a difference between 'possibility' and 'probability'?

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MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 1 Understanding Consequences and Tradeoffs

Why can it be difficult to identify consequences for each alternative and objective? What techniques can be used to simplify the process? Describe a decision situation in which you made tradeoffs to simplify the alternatives. Did you use the even-swap method, weighted scoring model, or another approach? Our objectives this week are to:

Build a consequence table with accuracy and completeness. Compare alternatives using a consequence table. Evaluate alternatives by examining tradeoffs. Evaluate alternatives by using a weighted scoring model. Concepts covered this week will help you as you develop alternatives for your course project.

Please start by answering the main question.

Would you say that past experiences are only loosely good predictors of future outcomes ....why?

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MGMT 530 Week 3 Case Analysis Conference Decision Case Part 2

wo weeks after New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, you made the decision to postpone the conference and select a different city to hold the conference. Based on your initial objectives and a survey you took of the registered attendees, you created the following consequence table based on the information available.

   ALTERNATIVES

Cancel conference for this year—schedule for next year    

Keep in New Orleans, but schedule for a later date (when the hotels re-o

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MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 2 Intuition

What role does intuition play in decision making? What role does quantitative data play in decision making? Identify a decision situation in which you used both intuition and data for your analysis of the situation. For the second discussion, we will analyze the role that intuition plays in the decision-making process.

OK, I would like to get this politically incorrect idea out of the way from the start ... As you begin to participate in this topic, please consider and share your position on whether you believe intuition is more of a female skill and data analysis more of a male skill?

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MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 1 Defining Objectives and Alternatives

Why is it important to define clear objectives for the decision situation? How can you ensure that you have identified all the appropriate alternatives? Give an example of a problem that you are in the process of deciding or have decided on in the past—identify the objectives and alternatives. We will be looking at two key decision-making elements, which are objectives and alternatives. The objectives will determine the criteria for evaluating solutions to the defined problem. The alternatives for a decision situation are the options that need to be considered.

Let us kick off the week by answering the following questions.

When relating objectives to decisions, is it fair to say that the clearest objectives lead to the easiest decisions?

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MGMT 530 Week 2 Case Analysis Conference Decision

In less than two weeks, an accounting system user’s conference is scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 13–16, 2005. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina has struck the city leaving a wake of destruction. Based on what you see on television, the hotel and the city cannot possibly accommodate this or any conference for the foreseeable future.

Approximately 200 attendees are scheduled to attend, flying in from all over the country. All attendees pre-paid their registration fee for the conference. With a lot of competition in the marketplace, getting the users to participate in the annual user’s conference is critical to retain current customers. During the conference, several product enhancement ideas are developed by the users, and this input is often used in future releases of the product.

Potential new customers are invited to the event and their involvement often leads to securing new contracts for the accounting system as they gain confidence in the system seeing others use it.

As head of the group that put

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MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 1 Defining the Problem

What is the difference between problem solving and decision making? What are the key aspects to defining the problem for a decision situation?

Give an example of a decision problem that you are currently dealing with.

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MGMT 530 Final Exam Guide

(TCOs A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H) Tidewater Services recently celebrated its 10th anniversary as a professional services firm that handles investigations for law firms offering amenities, such as background checks, surveillance, interviewing of witnesses, crash scene investigation, and other related services. The company was founded by Lee Herbert who had extensive experience working for companies that handle investigative work. Herbert is more of a people person and is always looking for the next new client to take on. Admittedly, Herbert had no experience in running a business when he decided to go out on his own and enlisted the help of his long time friend, Bradley Simmons.

Simmons has spent his career working for larger corporations in finance and had no experience in investigative services, but was looking for a change. Over the 10 years since the company’s founding, Tidewater Services struggled at first but slowly grew over the last five years. The more law firms the company works with, the more cases they receive. The more cases they receive, the more hours they can bill. Tidewater currently has six investigators and two clerks in addition to Herbert and Simmons. Over the years, they have expanded and contracted based on the volume of business and the local economy.

Based in Norfolk, Virginia, Herbert is really interested in expanding the business to other major cities in the region, believing that “there are only so many law firms here in Norfolk.” He feels that if they’ve survived 10 years, then they should continue to focus on growing the business. Simmons, on the other hand, feels that expansion will put the company at risk as it takes time to develop a decent client base. They had opened a second office several years back across town but eventually closed it when it didn’t generate enough revenue to cover expenses. He’s worried the expansion may bankrupt the company. Even though the two are business partners, Herbert is the president and Simmons the vice president. Herbert asked Simmons to evaluate several options to further expand the business. From Herbert’s perspective, he has concluded that three objectives are important in this decision. First, is to find a city with a large number of Fortune 500 companies, a cost of living comparable to Norfolk, and a city that is in a reasonable distance from Norfolk as he and Simmons would be spending a lot of time in the new office at first. Because both have families with young children, Herbert feels that the distance is twice as important as the other criteria.

Here is the summary of Simmons’ research.

I. Richmond, Virginia: Number of Fortune 500 Companies: 5; Cost of Living Comparison: 0.934 (less than Norfolk); Driving Distance: 81 miles

II. Charlotte, North Carolina: Number of Fortune 500 Companies: 7; Cost of Living Comparison: 0.834 (less than Norfolk); Driving Distance: 283 miles

III. Atlanta, Georgia: Number of Fortune 500 Companies: 10; Cost of Living Comparison: 0.854 (less than Norfolk); Driving Distance: 503 miles

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MGMT 530 Entire Course With Midterm And Final Exam

MGMT 530 Week 1 Case Analysis Conference Decision

MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 1 Defining the Problem

MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 2 Enabling Conditions

MGMT 530 Week 2 Case Analysis Conference Decision

MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 1 Defining Objectives and Alternatives

MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 2 Intuition

MGMT 530 Week 3 Case Analysis Conference Decision Case, Part 2

MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 1 Understanding Consequences and Tradeoffs

MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 2 Decision Making in Your Organization

MGMT 530 Week 4 Midterm Exam

MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 1 Defining Uncertainties

MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 2 Decision Making Styles

MGMT 530 Week 5 Case Analysis Labadee Decision

MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 1 Risk Tolerance

MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 2 Sharing Risk with Partners

MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 1 Linked Decisions

MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 2 Course Project Presentations

MGMT 530 Week 7 Course Project US Foods

MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 1 Psychological Traps

MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 2 Estate Case Analysis

MGMT 530 Final Exam

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MGMT 530 Entire Course

MGMT 530 Week 1 Case Analysis Conference Decision

MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 1 Defining the Problem

MGMT 530 Week 1 DQ 2 Enabling Conditions

MGMT 530 Week 2 Case Analysis Conference Decision

MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 1 Defining Objectives and Alternatives

MGMT 530 Week 2 DQ 2 Intuition

MGMT 530 Week 3 Case Analysis Conference Decision Case, Part 2

MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 1 Understanding Consequences and Tradeoffs

MGMT 530 Week 3 DQ 2 Decision Making in Your Organization

MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 1 Defining Uncertainties

MGMT 530 Week 4 DQ 2 Decision Making Styles

MGMT 530 Week 5 Case Analysis Labadee Decision

MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 1 Risk Tolerance

MGMT 530 Week 5 DQ 2 Sharing Risk with Partners

MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 1 Linked Decisions

MGMT 530 Week 6 DQ 2 Course Project Presentations

MGMT 530 Week 7 Course Project US Foods

MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 1 Psychological Traps

MGMT 530 Week 7 DQ 2 Estate Case Analysis