Should defined-benefit plans be replaced by defined-contribution plans, thereby avoiding the risk altogether?

208 Defined Benefits Plan

Post your answer to the questions below. Postings should be at least 1 – 2 complete paragraphs including in-depth content that demonstrates knowledge of the subject matter. Be sure to use correct grammar and spelling.
• In recent years, many defined-benefit retirement funds have been unable to meet their obligations. These failures include both private companies and government funds . There are many reasons, but often these failures are due to the same sort of issues that have caused Social Security to be in trouble.
• What kind of solutions would you recommend for this serious matter?
• Should defined-benefit plans be replaced by defined-contribution plans, thereby avoiding the risk altogether?

 

Differentiate between open-end and closed-end mutual funds.Identify this fund and explain why you are interested.

208: Mutual Funds

Respond to the following prompt and scenario:

• Differentiate between open-end and closed-end mutual funds.

• Now imagine that you bought a mutual fund that had a beginning NAV of $10 per share. It paid dividends of $0.50 and distributed capital gains of $0.75. After one year, the ending NAV is $9.50.What is your total return?

You must cite your sources. Be sure to respond in a business-like manner using proper spelling, grammar and sentence structure.

Mutual Funds Discussion

Discussion Forum Prompt

Post your answer to the questions below. Postings should be at least 1 – 2 complete paragraphs including in-depth content that demonstrates knowledge of the subject matter. Be sure to use correct grammar and spelling.

• Research mutual funds and choose a fund in which you might like to invest.

• Identify this fund and explain why you are interested.

• Be sure to address such issues as past returns, expected future returns, the amount of fees and expenses, and why its investment objectives are attractive to you.

Explain what parts of your results were the most impactful. Provide rationale.

Overview A useful tool for gauging one’s effectiveness in a role, particularly in a leadership role, is a self-assessment. In this module, you learned about the importance of leadership within an organization. For this assignment, you will first complete the leadership self-assessment questionnaire, then transfer your ratings to the self-assessment scoring sheet, and finally you will briefly reflect upon your results. This video journal is a private conversation between you and your instructor, and you are encouraged to deeply explore the concepts presented.
Prompt Record a reflective journal video about your understanding of your self-assessment results. Note that you will be reviewing your results again in more depth for Milestone One as part of the course scenario. In this reflective journal, you are not required to use sources; however, you can emphasize and support your thinking with resources if you feel it is applicable. Address the following:
1. Purpose: Explain how self-assessment tools, such as this one, are useful to you in your leadership development. Provide rationale.

2. Impact: Explain what parts of your results were the most impactful. Provide rationale. 3. Application: Explain how you could apply the results of your assessment to your current or intended industry or career. Provide rationale.

Produce a report which should review the current situation of the Students’ Union Shop  queueing system and suggest ways of improving the service level.

Operations and Business Analytics

Produce a report which should review the current situation of the Students’ Union Shop  queueing system and suggest ways of improving the service level. Also, produce a model using Excel, which could be used by the Students’ Union Shop management team for evaluation of their performance using the data provided or any new data that becomes available in a similar format.

Discuss how they are disrupting the specific retail industry. Use the criteria. Use academic journal articles

You must choose one type of retailing before starting the essay.Define disruptive technology- Use definitions, and discuss the concept. Use academic journal articles

Choose disruptive technologies that are relevant to retailers. Use reputable Business and industry reports

Discuss how they are disrupting the specific retail industry. Use the criteria. Use academic journal articles

In retail industry, it is most likely they are using several disruptive technologies combined to create value. Then, discuss the combination of technologies in specific industry context. Use reputable Business and industry reports

What evidence or examples does the author use to support her/his argument? What did you find difficult to follow?

Reading Guides + Keywords

Read the introduction to find:
Context – back ground statement
Summarise below, in a sentence, what the journal article is about
Key arguments or points: as you read use dot points to note the key arguments or points the author is trying to make.
What evidence or examples does the author use to support her/his argument?
What did you find difficult to follow?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

What interested or challenged you in the article?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

Main conclusion: identify the main conclusion/s
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Adapted from: Nixon D. n.d.
UNDERSTANDING READING 3
What is the key argument or point of Reading 3? __________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Which BABC Report Question keywords does Reading 3 mention?  List a keyword and a citation. The format for a citation is , for example
Are there any limitations of Reading 3? Which keywords does it not address? __________________________________________________________________________

How would you proceed in restoring a productive organization? Explain how you would improve employee morale, while still motivating employees to catch up on work that is behind schedule.

For this week’s assignment, you will complete a case study. Review the following scenario to get started:

Right in the middle of the busy time of year, XYZ Corporation was suddenly struck by an all-encompassing technology failure. Its main website and internal systems went off-line for over 24 hours, causing an entire shutdown of production. Over the course of the next several days, leadership directed employees to attempt to resume fulfilling orders in addition to responding to customer complaints.

Unfortunately, the volume of work and number of customer complaints overwhelmed staff, leaving numerous orders unfulfilled and complaints ignored. Ideally, the organization needed to respond to each customer in a timelier manner and effectively deploy service recovery. Employees are beginning to lose trust in leaderships’ decision and were facing burn-out from working many extra hours.

Assignment criteria:
Given the current situation, acting as the CEO of XYZ Corporation, how would you proceed in restoring a productive organization? Explain how you would improve employee morale, while still motivating employees to catch up on work that is behind schedule. Help your employees compose responses to the various customer complaints and indicate how you would communicate with those customers. Include anything else you feel is important as the CEO in your response.

Be sure to relate theories and strategies leading to certain best practices that leaders of successful organizations utilize to improve a struggling environment.

What key factors does a business need to consider when making an investment? Discuss why these factors are important, the impact of not taking them into account and actions a company can take to ensure their decision is a strong one.

Finance for Managers

1. You were asked to use examples to describe the advantages and disadvantages of costing techniques used during relevant costing decisions.  Make sure you meet the requirements of the question.
2.  Be careful that you don’t imply that relevant costing and CVP are the same thing. When we perform CVP analysis we do use relevant costing but they are two different concepts.
QUESTION
What key factors does a business need to consider when making an investment? Discuss why these factors are important, the impact of not taking them into account and actions a company can take to ensure their decision is a strong one.

Identify three journal articles that report on quantitative research studies that address the chosen research topic.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, review the articles by Barnham, Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Perceptual Foundations, and Rutberg and Bouikidis , Focusing on the Fundamentals: A Simplistic Differentiation Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research.

Additionally, review the Qualitative vs. Quantitative video and the How to Read a Scholarly Article interactivity.

Instructions:

Identify three journal articles that report on quantitative research studies that address the chosen research topic.