LEGAL FACTORS AFFECTING BUSINESS

What is Organizational Law?

Refers to the many ways a business can be legally formed under state laws. In addition to being incorporated as a corporation, businesses can also be formed as partnerships, limited liability companies, and other business forms. Since each business organization brings with it a specific set of tax, administrative and liability benefits and drawbacks, choosing the right type of organization for your business depends on many factors, some examples of this are business corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, non-profit organizations for profit, trusts, limited liability companies and marriages

What does Employment Law refer to?

A set of laws dealing with the rights of employees and the responsibilities of employers. Without those statutes, workers would be vulnerable to a number of threats. Key labor laws include discrimination, minimum wage, and workplace safety and health laws, as well as worker's compensation and child labor laws.

How are Consumer laws defined?

Refers to any piece of government legislation designed to protect consumers from poor-quality products and poor business practices. Complying with the law will avoid legal problems and assure customers about the quality of the products sold by a business. Consists of regulations and statutes that seek to create a more equitable balance for a buyer in the marketplace. Provides protection to the consumer against issues like fraud or mis-selling when they purchase a product or service.

What is Securities Law?

Securities Law are the laws and regulations governing financial instruments such as stocks, mutual funds, and bonds. These group of laws and regulations that govern the issuance of securities. A security is a financial instrument usually designed to raise money for a business from investors in the business, ​are designed in part to prevent fraud, insider training, and market manipulation, while also promoting transparency through a complex system of reporting and enforcement. By protecting information traders, securities regulations enhance efficiency and liquidity in financial markets. Furthermore, by protecting information traders, securities regulation represents the highest form of market integrity by ensuring accurate pricing and superior liquidity to all investors.

What does Health and Safety at the Workplace refer to?

 Is about promoting positive wellbeing, in terms of their comfort, happiness and contentment not simply preventing people from getting ill and having accidents. And it places several serious responsibilities on employers.

They are the laws, rules, and principles that are intended to keep people safe from injury or disease at work and in public places. Improving a company's occupational health and safety standards ensures good business, a better brand image, and higher employee morale.

What is Taxation?

Taxation refers to the practice of a government collecting money from its citizens to pay for public services. The tax is a class of tax governed by public law, which is characterized by not requiring a direct or determined consideration on the part of the tax administration, not only pays for public goods and services; it is also a key ingredient in the social contract between citizens and the economy. All governments need revenue, but the challenge is to carefully choose not only the level of tax rates but also the tax base.

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN COMPLETE SENTENCES 

·        Why do you think accounting is seen as boring? Explain.

Because everyone thinks it is repetitive work, in which they focus on one thing and are not open to doing more than just numbers and finances.

·        Which of the jobs mentioned would be most interesting for you? Give your reasons.

Management accountant because he is the main manager of the accounts of a company and he is the one in charge of ensuring that at the end of the year everything fits perfectly, in addition, they make sure that their bosses know in what financial state their company is, have a good management accountant that represents the company will be important to have a successful company

·        Why is it so important for accountants to be ethical? Explain in detail.

Because if an accountant breaks the rules, he could face severe punishment. In addition, having an ethical accountant is a sign of a reliable and successful company.

 INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLANNING

What is “Integrated Business Planning” (IBP)?

The IBP is an evolution of the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, but the IBP offers greater visibility to supply restrictions, allowing the company greater reaction capacity, it is a monthly process that seeks to create a single operations plan for the company, agreed between departments or areas that considers internal demand, supply, the development of new products, strategic projects, and financial plans.

What is “Sales and Operations Planning” (S&OP)?

It is a management tool that improves communication within companies, and this continuously achieves focus, good alignment between departments and synchronization between them. Some of the benefits are:

• ·      Improvement of horizontal communication between the departments of the company.
• ·      Reduction of operating costs by reducing excess inventories
• ·     Greater inventory control
• ·    More efficient management processes by generating hypothetical situations that allow detecting in advance possible problematic situations.
• ·  Better control of performance and results of new products and promotions as part of the development of a global strategy. 

What are the similarities between IBP and S&OP? Mention and describe them.

Both need backup data, help align forecasting with capacity, and guide senior management in their planning decisions.

What are the differences between IBP and S&OP? Mention and describe them.

The main difference between S&OP and IBP is that IBP starts at the executive level. Each month or planning cycle, the IBP process culminates in a Business Management Review in which the executive team reviews the latest projections,

Potential gaps in achieving business and strategic goals, gap-closing options, and the projections of resources to execute the plan.

These are the characteristics of IBP with which we can differentiate it from S&OP:

• ·      Ownership and leadership of senior executive management
• ·      Integration of strategic plans, initiatives, and activities.
• ·      Product and portfolio review integration
• ·      Integration of financial planning
• ·      Enhanced simulation, modeling, scenario planning, and analysis
• ·       Gap identification and gap closure analysis
• ·   Easy and efficient translation of aggregated plans to detailed plans, up and down the data hierarchy
• ·       Greater confidence in a cross-functional team

How does the IBP process work? Describe in detail.

It is a process in which decision-making is made to realign tactical plans in all business functions, which leads to supporting the business objectives and goals of the company. A main objective of IBP is to reach an agreement on a single operating plan, to which the executives of the management team take responsibility and allocate the resources: (of people, equipment, inventory, materials, time, and money) to be able to satisfy the clients in the most efficient and profitable way

What are the challenges of IBP?

·      Attract the main customers and suppliers

• ·     Model finances in an agreed upon way to handle complexity: discounts, discounts, exchange rates, prices, etc.
• ·      Consider business objectives: market share / growth, channels, impact
• ·      Business language (EBIT, revenue, cost, margin) instead of supply chain KPIs (OTIF, DOH, CTS)
• ·      Shift focus from 1 number plan to risk and opportunity management
• ·      Include project management to maximize the business impact of new product introductions (NPI)
• ·       From data to insights

Which are the most common difficulties/problems when implementing IBP? Mention them and provide examples. 

• ·       Lack of Customization
• ·       It’s very expensive
• ·       Security: The movements are going to be registered, so there is no time for make mistakes.
• ·      Loss of Control of Software and Services: Every movement realized in the software would not be erased. 
• ·        Software Updates: You need to adapt to the software. 
• ·        Integration: Every part of the company is going to be integrated into the same software

What are the advantages and disadvantages of IBP?

PROs

• ·       Demand volatility has increased considerably for most companies.
• ·      Supply complexity has increased with options such as subcontracting manufacturing and logistics operations — both of which are more common.
• ·       Supply chains are broader in scope, including goods that are distributed across worldwide supply chains.
• ·     Input cost volatility is a constant, increasing challenge for profitability. No matter the commodity (e.g., aluminum, gas, or petrochemicals), all experience sudden market changes.
• ·      Non-linear connection between costs and volume fluctuates with a mix of fixed and variable costs; some costs vary by volume and others by time, making it more difficult to understand the financial implications of business decisions.

CONs

• ·    Technology and process structures don’t allow integration. Traditional software solution designs differ in structure, hindering integration.
•           Complex skill set required
•       Optimization solutions present barriers within barriers: modeling a complex supply chain often requires difficult coding and provides no visualization.
•     Different cultures within the organization. Business units within the enterprise usually have a culture of its own; the undertaking of understanding another unit’s goals while striving to reach its own seemed impossible.
•   Use of spreadsheets as a primary planning tool. Maintaining the status quo use of spreadsheets presents an inflexible resource unable to integrate and align business goals.
•     Inflexible solutions prevent data quality, access, and management. Solutions are designed to operate a specific way, and often unlike the business, meaning that the access to data or its quality and management are reliant upon the system.

What is the importance of IBP nowadays?

It is very important for a company to implement IBP that allows companies to focus on making better informed decisions. It is a tool that facilitates the collection of data, it also helps in the analysis and creation of reports, which makes it less tedious to carry out the tasks, since they will not be carried out manually. The IBP also provides us with information on the supply chain, strategic and financial plans in real time.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION

    What is Managing information within and outside the organization?

Business managers now must know about information technology, new structure must setup to manage information in a world, those who have knowledge of information technology will be successful business leader.

    What is the importance of it?

Today business faces many challenges in handling new technologies, managing they’re in their information for greatest productivity communications with media: email and internet will continue grow in use like other communication technologies (voice mail, group ware, teleconferences, faxes).

What are the new technologies that companies have to manage for communications purposes?

Now exist private information service, and these are another means for accessing business information, development of fiber optics, local areas networks, satellite technologies facilitate the growth of information technology, now we have: computers, desktop publishing capabilities and electronic spreadsheets.

Describe the role of technological discoveries throughout history.

Is very vast because in business the new technology help and support to businessmen to save time, money, and spade work. Also, by incurring less money much information can send/get in no time.

What is the importance of technologies in the globalized business world? 

The importance of technology is that we live in a globalized world, it is essential to keep in touch and now all businesses are growing and joining the technological world. As time goes by, it is essential that countries remain interconnected.

Describe the use of the technologies in the communication field. 

The individuals can work in their house, use e-mail to transmit work, advantages are reduced time, increased flexibility of working hour. Employees use modems, telephone lines, and remote workstations to transmit their work.

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of Electronic Communication?

DO: Handy way to communicate quickly with another person, every person is responsible for the content of an e-mail message, being conscientious in checking and responding to electronic messages, read each message before sending it, decide which electronic system is appropriate for the message, organization of the message.

DON’TS: Sending confidential information, flood system with junk mail, write lengthy messages.

How have the Information & communication technologies changed the structure of business organizations?

• Technology has loosened the strings that bind the traditional company
• Telecommuting lets people work where it is more convenient
• Can boost profits
• From home computers to car phones is easy to feel like you’re always “plugged in”
• Respond instantly to every message whether you’re at home, business trip, or action
• Technology has loosened the strings that bind the traditional company.

What are the legal and Ethical implications of the use of technologies? Explain the in detail.

•   Has the potential to exalt or debase the people.
•   Threatens privacy; anyone’s privacy be invaded if put to the wrong use with the wrong people, and many people prefer not to give out information on any site as it may frighten them.
•   Invasion of privacy; the intrusion of technology into our privacy is multidimensional and humiliating; social networking can be misused by privacy breach to cause identity theft.
•   Sexual predating, stalking, unintentional fame, employee tracking, and online victimization. Collects a lot of information, Monitors the exact time of employees

QUALITY MANAGEMENT 

What is Quality Management?

It is an important factor in commercial markets, because companies need the approval of customers to know if their product has good quality, to have a good quality it is necessary to meet various requirements. Quality is not about the product, it includes customer experience.

What is the objective of Quality Management?

satisfy customers, create a good reputation, loyal customers, have low prices with big profits, create a recognized brand, have good level and standard and be different and get noticed.

Which are the key components of Quality management? Describe in detail each one.

Quality assurance: are the steps that a company does to meet requirements and demands of quality. Is based on inspection.

Quality control: Is the process that a company has to know if the product has the required standards quality.

Describe what Quality Management involves. (process)

Is divided on:

Tangible; reliability, functions and features, support levels and standard, cost of ownership (repairs)

Intangible; Brand image, exclusiveness and market reputation.

What does “Quality Improvement Methods” refer to? Explain in detail.

It is a set of models and approaches that help collect and analyze data, based on this knowing what to change to improve the quality and performance of a company.

What are the Quality Management principles that the International Standard for Quality Management adopts? Write a description of each. 

ISO14001: This is the one that specifies the requirements for an environmental management system.

ISO27001: This is the one that specifies the requirements for an information security management system.

ISO45001: This is the one that specifies the requirements for an occupational health and safety management system.

ISO9001: It was created in 2015; The requirements of this are: Scope, Normative References, Terms and Definitions, Context of the organization, Leadership, Planning, Support, Operation, Improvement.

What are the benefits of Quality Management?

Customer satisfaction, repeat purchase, customer recommendation, lower marketing cost and higher customer loyalty.

 Task 1 Resource Management study guide questions. 

1.What is Resource Management?  

Resource management is centered around optimization and efficiency. When you know what you need to make a project successful, you can effectively understand how to plan resources in an efficient way. To some companies, optimum efficiency is so important that they hire someone solely devoted to resource management.

2.Mention what is the importance of Resource Management in business.

Helps us to ensure that internal and external resources are used effectively on time and to budget.

3.What are the Concepts and Components of Resource Management? Define them in detail.

1.Resource scheduling: Is a process used by teams to organize and structure their employees so the tasks they need to complete are scheduled based on availability and capability. Using this process, team leaders can allocate and assign

2. Resource utilization: This one describes the percentage of an employee's available time that is used for tasks and as well as how productive each team member is. Resource Managers can proactively mobilize resources from non-billable to billable/ strategic tasks and maximize their billable utilization.

Utilization can be measured in terms of :

• Overall resource utilization

• Billable utilization

• Strategic utilization

• Non-billable utilization

3. Resource forecasting: this is predicting your future resource requirements. Project managers will use forecasting to ensure that their upcoming projects are adequately staffed.

Leveraging this information, one can

Mobilize the resources to billable tasks from non-billable or BAU activities.

Ensure effective bench management

Bridge the capacity and demand gap

4. Resource and capacity planning: capacity planning is the practice of planning or determining production capacity and workforce needs to make sure your supply chain is equipped to meet demand. So resource capacity planning is the process of defining the amount of work that is able to be done by resources at a company, determining the tasks and projects that can be completed by said resources, and matching work to be done with available resources to meet current and future demands.

5. Business intelligence and reports: is broadly defined as the process of using a BI tool to prepare and analyze data to find and share actionable insights.Using real-time data, individualized reports, and dashboards on important resource management metrics are generated

4.What are the advantages of resource management? 

It has many benefits but the most importants are: gives you control over your project, provides you with an overview of everyone and everything involved in your project, enables utilization planning, helps you see problems before they start and makes the planning and management process more transparent.

5.What are the skills that every resource manager should have? Explain  each in detail.

1. Communication skills: are the abilities you use when giving and receiving different kinds of information. If we want to have good communication we need to apply these 5  communication skills . It will enable them to explain the roles and responsibilities to the resources better while also making reasoning with the project managers seamless.

• Listening

• Straight talking

• Non-verbal communication

• Stress management 

• Emotion control.

2. Conflict resolution: Is the process by which two or more parties engaged in a disagreement, dispute, or debate reach an agreement resolving it. Several skills are needed for you to resolve conflicts in the workplace effectively.The steps to resolve the problem peacefully and effectively are:

• Define the problem

• Come together and communicate

• Establish relationships

• Develop an action plan

• Gain commitment

• Provide feedback.

3. Domain knowledge: Domain knowledge is knowledge of a specific and specialized discipline or field, in contrast to general knowledge or domain independent knowledge.They include skills such as communicating, problem-solving, curiosity, patience, flexibility, purpose, persistence, resilience, courage, and creating.

4. Proactive planning: Involves designing a desired future and then inventing ways to create that future state. Not only is the future a preferred state, but the organization can actively control the outcome.They should be quick-witted to make calculated decisions about implementing the right resourcing treatments.

5. Negotiation skills: It is a process by which compromise or agreement is reached while avoiding argument and dispute. Negotiation skills can be of great benefit in resolving any differences that arise between you and others.

6. Risk management: Is the process of identifying, assessing and controlling threats to an organization's capital and earnings. These threats, or risks, could stem from a wide variety of sources, including financial uncertainty, legal liabilities, strategic management errors, accidents and natural disasters.

 HUMAN RESOURCES 

DEFINE HUMAN RESOURCES.

Human resources are used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing all matters related to employees, who collectively represent one of the most valuable resources in any businesses or organization.

 WHAT IS THE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES? DEFINE IN DETAIL.

Human resource management is focused on a number of major areas, including:

·         Recruiting and staffing

·         Compensation and benefits

·         Training and learning

·         Labor and employee relations

·         Organization development

Due to the many areas of human resource management, it is typical for professionals in this field to possess specific expertise in one or more areas.

WHAT IS CAPITAL?

 It is the part of an amount of money borrowed or invested which does not include interest. Capital includes the cash and other financial assets held by an individual or business, and is the total of all financial resources used to leverage growth and build financial stability.

IN YOUR OPINION, IS HUMAN RESOURCES NECESSARY? EXPLAIN. 

I don't think HR are necessary, I think are indispensable. I believe that having a good human resources team is essential since it is the starting point of any company. Provides stability, prestige and quality.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN AREAS OF HUMAN RESOURCES?

·         Compensation and Benefits.

·         Recruitment and Staffing.

·         Training and Development.

·         Employee Relations.

·         Employee Satisfaction.

·         Labor Laws and Legal Compliance.

DEFINE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.

Human resource management is the practice of recruiting, hiring, deploying and managing an organization's employees. HRM is employee management with an emphasis on those employees as assets of the business. In this context, employees are sometimes referred to as human capital.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES OF A HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER? DEFINE THEM IN DETAIL.

will lead and direct the routine functions of the Human Resources (HR) department including hiring and interviewing staff, administering pay, benefits, and leave, and enforcing company policies and practices.

WHICH OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES YOU MENTIONED IN THE PREVIOUS QUESTIONS DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST CHALLENGING OR AN HRM? WHY?

 I think enforcing company policies and practices, it is difficult to be behind the staff and be aware of their every move, you can pay for every mistake with your work. Because at the end of the day you hired him, you are a little responsible for that person

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILLS OF A HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER?

·         Communication skills.

·         Organizational skills.

·         Decision-making skills.

·         Training and developmental Skills.

·        
Budgeting skills.

Empathetic skills.