Your Number

By the time you retire, will you have enough money to pay your bills and meet your needs?  What is your number?  Go to the AARP Retirement Calculator and follow the step-by-step instructions.  You’ll find the calculator at:

http://www.aarp.org/work/retirement-planning/retirement_calculator.html#/your-options

Just follow the instructions, step-by-step.  In Step 1 of the calculator you will enter information that is specific to your situation. In Step 2 your number will be calculated as the “Minimum needed to retire” based on the information that is entered in Step 1.  Step 3 will show you the effect of changing your retirement age (say, from 67 to 72) and changing your retirement spending.

Once you’ve made the calculations, answer the following questions:

1. What is your number (minimum needed to retire)?
2. Complete a second calculation by delaying your retirement age and/or changing the percentage that you are saving. 
3. Write a 250 word summary of 1) what the numbers are and what variables that were used (income, retirement age, saving percentage) 2) how did changing the retirement age and/or savings amount cause the number to change 3) your overall thoughts regarding your retirement plan. 

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:  

• Write a minimum of 400 words (approximately 2 pages) using Microsoft Word.
• Attempt APA style, see example below.
• Use font size 12 and 1” margins.
• Include cover page and reference page.
• At least 60% of your paper must be original content/writing.
• No more than 40% of your content/information may come from references.
• Use at least two references from outside the course material, preferably from EBSCOhost.  Text book, lectures, and other materials in the course may be used, but are not counted toward the two reference requirement.

Reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) must be identified in the paper and listed on a reference page.Reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) must come from sources such as, scholarly journals found in EBSCOhost, online newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, government websites, etc.  Sources such as Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, etc. are not acceptable. 

Please see below for instructions and I have attached 2 example Powerpoint presentations that earned an “A” grade.

This assignment will give you the opportunity to bring a current real life Organizational Behavior issue that is in the news or any type of media publication to all of the students in the class.  Your goal is to share what the issue is that is being highlighted in the media, tie those issues to the course learning ie where is the intersection of what you learned this quarter with that of the issue being highlighted. 

HERE IS WHAT YOUR IN THE NEWS MUST INCLUDE FOR FULL POINTS:

• DETAILS ABOUT THE COMPANY, ORGANIZATION OR PERSON 

• WHAT IS THE ISSUE

• YOUR ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF THE ISSUE

• YOUR TAKE AWAYS OR KEY LEARNING

• TIE INTO THE COURSE WE ARE TAKING

• REFERENCES  

This is to discuss a situation that is “ripped from the headlines,” meaning you can select your news piece based on news articles from the popular press (e.g. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg news, local paper, Business Times, Business Journal, Business Week etc.).  The organization can be in any industry and operate in the private, public or not-for-profit domain. . 

You should prepare a 4 TO 6 PAGE  PowerPoint highlighting the issue.  The presentation should emphasize the following points: 

1) a broad description of the organization, including its industry, primary operating domain and key stakeholders; 

2) a description of main organizational/business/leadership issue and how they relate to the topic of the course; 

3) integrates key points from the readings/articles and how they connect to organization and analysis , 

4) your analysis and evaluation of the organizational behavior characteristics or leadership issues and how they might be strengthened, changed, or resolved if this happens to be a case of a problem.

5) your take aways

6) cite and reference where you read or obtained the story. 

CURRENT MEANS WITHIN THE TIME THE COURSE HAS STARTED.  NO EARLIER THAN December 1, 2015.   

The business environment is continuously evolving with the integration of new management trends developed to create opportunity and respond to challenges. Innovation often challenges the status quo of organizations and change agents in an organization must become intrapreneurs to meet those challenges.

You have been tasked with communicating to the VP of Human Resources the need to prepare the current staff for a more diverse workforce as a result of opening a new office in Miami, FL. This geographical area is known for its cultural, religious and ethnic diversity in comparison to the company’s office in Topeka, KS.

Create a 1,050-word report (paper) that analyzes the relationship between these concepts or topics:

• The role of innovation in executing change strategies
• Managing diversity in the workplace
• How technology facilitates the implementation of change in today’s workforce

Explain how the workforce in the company will benefit from welcoming an inclusive and more diverse group of coworkers. Take into account all three bullet points to create an essay that outlines the benefits and the opportunity that a more diverse workforce will create.

Include at least five academic-based references with at least two from a publication from the University Library.

Format your report (paper) consistent with APA guidelines.

Write a 4-page paper that compares and contrasts at least three Internet systems development software technologies.

Explain why an Internet systems developer might choose one technology over another technology.

Explain how these technologies can bring value to the business or organization.

Incorporate additional research or academic information to support your paper.

Format your paper according to APA guidelines.

Submit your paper as a Microsoft^® Word document to the Assignment Files tab.

Please use this if it helps

Ch. 12, Designing Distributed and Internet Systems” of Modern Systems Analysis and Design

DIRECTIONS : Please reword this and elaborate more on this discussion from my previous post. This is meant to be an update of a weekly learning. So please Phrase it as a learning subject and reword.

I learned some new and valuable information that expanded my knowledge on strategic management. The new material for this week pertained to the economic drivers of strategy positioning, threats to successful competitive positioning, and the industry life cycle. In regards to the economic drivers of strategy positioning, there are 2 different strategies for business: low-cost and differentiation. Within the drivers of low-cost advantage, there are 5 aspects that are important sources of potential cost advantage. According to Carpenter & Sanders (2008), “a successful low-cost strategy means that a firm is proficient at exploiting some of these drivers” (p. 140). The 5 factors are: economies of scale, diseconomy of scale, minimum efficient scale (MES), learning curve, and economy of scope. Within drivers of differentiation advantages, it involves one or more of the following product offerings: brand image, customization, unique styling, speed, more convenient access, and unusually high quality. The main goal of differentiation is to demand a price sufficient to do two things: 1) recoup the added costs of delivering the value added feature and 2) generate enough to profit to make the strategy worthwhile (Carpenter & Sanders, 2008).

Strategies are a vital component to finding success, however there are threats that occur when a firm is trying to find a successful competitive position in the industry. Under most circumstances, a successful strategic position must meet and satisfy two requirements: 1) It must be based on the firm’s resources and capabilities, and 2) it must achieve some level of consistency with the condition that prevails in the industry (Carpenter & Sanders, 2008). In regards to my learning on threats to successful competitive positioning, there are 4 different areas that firms must look at: low-cost, differentiation, focus, and integrated. Within the low-cost position, firms can face threats on new technology, inferior quality, social, political, and economic risk of outsourcing. In regards to differentiation positions, the threats that firms must look out for are: failing to increase buyers’ willingness to pay higher prices, underestimating costs of differentiation, over fulfilling buyers’ needs, and lower-cost imitation. . “A firm relying on a focus strategy may lose its advantage by attempting to grow and consequently attempt to meet the needs of too many customers. If that happens, a competitor or new entrant may then more successfully target the needs of the original focused group of customers” (Carpenter & Sanders, 2008, p. 150-151). ). Firms that try both to differentiate and to achieve a low-cost position will end up straddling two inconsistent positions. Although firms have succeeded in pursuing integrated strategies, it is still important for mangers to fully understand and know the tradeoffs they make when they opt for one position over the other.

The last aspect of my learning curve this week was on the industry life cycle. Conditions at different phases of an industry life cycle provide differential opportunities and constraints. There are 4 different stages of the industry life cycle: embryonic, growth, mature, and decline. In the embryonic phase it’s all about establishing a strong foundation of information for the customer. Within the growth stage, firms can increase their market share by taking advantage of footholds that were established early in the embryonic stage. The new technologies and changing industry competitive structure are the two main threats within the growth stage. As a firm, it is vital to make decisions about how the firm intends to grow. They determine the strategic vehicles that they’ll use to implement their preferred strategies (Carpenter & Sanders, 2008). ). In the maturity stage, products become more familiar to the customer. Product information is available for the customer to see, so that is why it’s important to have the right quality and services for the consumer. A mature market will increase the ability for firms to reap premium prices from differentiation stages. In regards to the decline stage, price competition can be intense, so containing costs is vital and firms with low-cost positions have an advantage. It is during this stage that firms need to consider the strategy of exiting the industry. According to Carpenter & Sanders (2008), exiting means “selling the company or certain divisions to competing firms” (p. 153). Although exiting signifies failure, it can be the best use of shareholders’ resources.

Vince

Carpenter, M., Sanders, Wm. (2008). Strategic Management: A Dynamic Perspective. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.