How to Solve an Organizational Case Study – Second Case

A case study is a collection of facts and data based on a real or hypothetical business situation.  The goal of a case study is to enhance your ability to solve business problems, using a logical framework.  The issues in a case are generally not unique to a specific person, firm, or industry, and they often deal with more than one business strategy element.  Sometimes, the material presented in a case may be in conflict.  For example, two managers may disagree about a strategy or there may be several interpretations of the same facts.

In all case studies, you must analyze what is presented and state which specific actions best resolve major issues.  These actions must reflect the information in the case and the environment facing the firm.

The case should not exceed seven (7) pages in length, excluding the reference list.

STEPS IN SOLVING A CASE STUDY

Your analysis should include these sequential steps:

1. Presentation of the facts surrounding the case. (~0.5 page)

2. Identification of the key issues. (~0.5 page)

3. Listing of alternative courses of action that could be taken. (~1 page)

4. Evaluation of alternative courses of action. (~1.5 pages)

5. Recommendation of the best course of action. (~1.5 pages)

Presentation of the Facts Surrounding the Case

It is helpful to read a case until you are comfortable with the information in it.  Re-readings often are an aid to comprehending facts, possible strategies, or questions that need clarification and were not apparent earlier.  In studying a case, assume you are an outside consultant hired by the firm.  While facts should be accepted as true, statements, judgments, and decisions made by the individuals in a case should be questioned, especially if not supported by facts—or when one individual disagrees with another.

During your reading of the case, you should underline crucial facts, interpret figures and charts, critically review the comments made by individuals, judge the rationality of past and current decisions, and prepare questions whose answers would be useful in addressing the key issue(s).

Identification of the Key Issue(s)

The facts stated in a case often point to the key issue(s) facing an organization, such as new opportunities, a changing environment, a decline in competitive position, or excess inventories.  Identify the characteristics and ramifications of the issue(s) and examine them, using the material in the case and the text.  Sometimes, you must delve deeply because the key issue(s) and their characteristics may not be immediately obvious.

Listing Alternative Courses of Action That Could Be Taken

Next, present alternative actions pertaining to the key issue(s) in the case.  Consider courses of action based on their suitability to the firm and situation.  Proposed courses of action should take into account such factors as the goals, the customer market, the overall organizational strategy, the product assortment, competition, and personnel capabilities.

Evaluation of Alternative Courses of Action

Evaluate each potential option, according to case data, the key issue(s), the strategic concepts in the text, and the firm’s environment.  Specific criteria should be used and each option analyzed on the basis of them.  The ramifications and risks associated with each alternative should be considered.  Important data not included in the case should be mentioned. Your discussion of the alternatives should include concepts from organizational diagnosis and change theory.

Recommendation of the Best Course of Action

Be sure your analysis is not just a case summary.  You will be evaluated on the basis of how well you identify key issues or problems, outline and assess alternative courses of action, and reach realistic conclusions (that take the organization’s size, competition, image, and so on into consideration).  You need to show a good understanding of both the principles of organizational diagnosis and the case.  Be precise about which alternative is more desirable for the organization in its current context.  Remember, your goal is to apply a logical reasoning process to this organization. A written report must demonstrate this process.

Strategic Marketing for T-mobile

• You may want to find a Most Valuable Customer (MVC) of the product or service if you are not one yourself, or alternatively think like an MVC. What is the evidence of an MVC of your product or service?   It means that the customer is treated differently — better — than other customers. It means that the MVC represents about 20% of the company’s revenues. These are the customers with whom the company regularly communicates, offers special deals, and other ways as outlined in the text and as you can find with just a little bit of googling on the internet.
• You may want to calculate the lifetime value of a most valuable customer. See the discussion of the lifetime value calculation in the week’s reading, and calculate the LTV using this simple equation: LTV = (Price – cost to produce the product) * number of annual purchases * number of years expected to purchase – initial acquisition costs. For simplicity sake, you can assume your customer will have a relationship with you for ten years and you can make an educated guess as to how much the initial acquisition costs were to get him as a customer in terms of advertising or other types of promotion efforts.  If you are not an MVC yourself, make and share your assumptions about your calculation. If you are not an MVC, you might want to find someone who is and ask them why they are loyal to the product or service and what they feel the company does for them that is special that they don’t do for other customers.
• Take a look at your product or service privacy policy. Usually the privacy policy is available on the website.

1. Competitive Analysis for T-mobile. What is two major competitors or those two products for T-mobile that are trying to sell essentially identical products to the same type of consumer. Find three criteria that are important to those consumers when they are making their decision as to which of the three competing offers to buy (e.g. price, specific benefit, service, warranty, convenience, specific feature, etc.). Make a chart with the three criteria along the left-hand side and the competitor products (including T-mobile) across the top. Rank each of the products on a scale from 1= low to 5= high on each performs on each of the three criteria. Add down each column. Which product ranked highest overall based on the sum of the columns. Then, look at the highest score in each of the criteria boxes. Which products ranked the highest on each of the three criteria? Was it the same product, was it three different products? What do these results tell you about the competitive environment of your product category. Which product is the leader? Which product is the follower, challenger and nicher if those categories apply? Attach chart as an exhibit.

Employers have been coming up with innovative employee rewards to boost morale and acknowledge employee needs for creativity and personal goal accomplishment. Some of the latest potential employee rewards include using the Internet at work for personal reasons such as shopping, communicating with friends, or personal finances; bringing a pet to work; instituting a controlled napping policy, and the sports and office betting pools.  Write an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you:

1. Determine how innovations in employee benefits can improve the overall competitive compensation strategy of the organization.
2. Explain how innovative benefits could be tied to specific jobs.
3. Critique the effectiveness of equity-based rewards systems versus those with more creative approaches.
4. Discuss the key elements of integrating innovation into a traditional total rewards program.
5. Recommend a process that optimizes an employee-based suggestion program to continually refresh the total rewards of the organization.
6. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Employment Law 3
Using APA style format, write a paper of 4-5 pages describing the provisions of the following major labor laws as well as their impact on organizations and the union-management relationship:

The Railway Labor Act
The Norris-La Guardia Act
The Wagner Act
The Taft-Hartley Act
The Landrum-Griffin Act
Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

Title page: Remember the running head and title in all capital letters.
Abstract: This is a summary of your paper, not an introduction. Begin writing in third-person voice.
Body: The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page, and it must be double-spaced between paragraphs. The typeface should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 4–5 pages. In-text academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
Reference page: References that align with your in-text academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hang indention, italics, and upper- and lower-case usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the reference page is not a bibliography, but it is a further listing of the abbreviated in-text citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-text citation.

Quality Improvement in the Health Care Organization Accreditation

The mandate for improving the way in which health care is delivered was stimulated by the public outcry over the estimated 98,000 deaths because of medical errors each year, according to the Institute of Medicine in 1999. Since then, health care organizations have sought means by which the public can be reassured that they were meeting quality and safety standards. Accreditation agencies (e.g., The Joint Commission) and quality awards provide a means for the public to evaluate where the agency is meeting minimum standards.

You have been assigned by your manager to determine which accrediting agencies or quality improvement programs your hospital will utilize in its upcoming revenue cycle. Your hospital is a magnet hospital in a large urban area that provides multilayered services. You have previously used The Joint Commission for your accreditation but feel that you might be better served by using another accrediting body. You have three months in which to gather data and present the information to your manager.

Complete the following for this assignment:

• Choose 3 quality improvement or accreditation-related programs to consider in replacing The Joint Commission for your organization, and briefly describe them. Your agency accepts Medicare and Medicaid payments; therefore, you will need to explore, as background, the conditions of participation for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This is important information because you will need to compare your list of accrediting agencies and quality improvement programs with the conditions of participation to see if they meet the criteria.
• Analyze the costs and benefits of each quality improvement or accreditation-related program by stakeholder group (e.g., patient, provider, and third-party payer).
• Rank your quality improvement or accreditation-related program suggestions with rationale.