Reflective Journal B Each module includes "Journal:" exercises. Unless otherwise specified it is expected that students will provide 1-2 paragraph short answers for each exercise listed. Your Reflective Journal should be formatted in a .doc document as follows: 1.1.1 This is a 1-3 paragraph response to the first Journal question under module 1.1. 1.2.1 This is a 1-3 paragraph response to the first Journal question under module 1.2 1.2.2 This is a 1-3 paragraph response to the second Journal question under module 1.2 1.3.1 This is a 1-3 paragraph response to the first Journal question under module 1.3 and so on 5.1 WHAT DO MANAGERS DO? Read: Foundations of Business: "Chapter 6 Introduction" and "6.1 What Do Managers Do?" Read this section for an overview of the activities conducted by managers. B1: Consider the things that the principal of your old high school had to do to ensure that the school met the needs of its students. Identify these activities and group them by the four functions of management: planning, organising, directing, and controlling. 5.3 ORGANISING Read: Foundations of Business: "6.3 Organising" Read this section for an overview of the types of organisational structures common in businesses. B2: Define organisational structure and identify five different forms that it can take. For each form, identify a type of company that might use it and explain why it would be appropriate for the company. Use examples other than those mentioned in the reading. 5.4 DIRECTING Read: Foundations of Business: "6.4 Directing" Read this section for an overview of the different leadership styles common amongst managers. Journal: Complete the following exercises and add them to your reflective journal. B3: Compare and contrast three forms of leadership – democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire. Which style would you prefer to use yourself? Which would you prefer your boss to use? Explain your answers in both cases. B4: Compare and contrast the transactional-leadership style with the transformational-leadership style. Which style would you adopt as a manager, and why? Read: Foundations of Business: "6.6 Managerial Skills" Read this section for an overview of key kills needed by various levels of manager. B5: Detail each of the steps that you take to solve the problem described above and implement a solution. 6.1 THE TEAM AND THE ORGANISATION Read: Foundations of Business: "8.1 The Team and the Organisation" Read this section for an overview of teamwork within organisations. B6: List a few of the challenges that you're likely to encounter as a member of the virtual team and explain the steps you'd take to deal with each of the challenges that you've listed. 6.3 THE TEAM AND ITS MEMBERS Read: Foundations of Business: "8.3 The Team and Its Members" Read this section for an overview of roles within teams. B7: Assume that you've just been assigned to a team in one of your classes. Prepare a first-draft charter in which you spell out rules of conduct for the team and its members. Read: Foundations of Business: "Chapter 9 Introduction" and "9.1 What is Marketing?" Read this section for a basic overview of marketing. B8: For each of these products, identify at least five segmentation characteristics that you'd use in developing a profile for your customers. Explain the segmentation category into which each characteristic falls – demographic, geographic, behavioural, or psychographic. Where it's appropriate, be sure to include at least one characteristic from each category. Read: Foundations of Business "9.3 Pricing a Product" Read this section for an overview of different product pricing strategies. B9: Prepare a brief report describing both your introductory and you long-term alternatives. Then explain and justify your choice of the methods that you'll use. 7.5 PROMOTING A PRODUCT Read: Foundations of Business: "9.5 Promoting a Product" Read this section for an overview of the promotional mix. B10: Companies encourage customers to buy their products by using a variety of promotion tools, including advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity. Your task is to develop a promotion strategy for two products – a small domestic hatchback car and an energy softdrink. For each product, answer the following questions: What's the purpose of the promotion? What's your target market? What's the best way to reach that target market? What product features would you emphasise? How does your product differ from competitors? Then describe the elements that will go into your promotion mix, and explain why you chose the promotional tools that you did. 7.7 PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE Read: Foundations of Business: "9.7 The Product Life Cycle" Read this section for an overview of the stages of development and decline that products go through over their lives. B11: Did you ever have a XBox 360? Is the product still popular? Like all products, the XBox360 has a product life cycle. Your job is to describe that product life cycle. Identify each of the product life stages that XBox 360 has gone through, and speculate on the marketing actions that Microsoft would have taken during each stage. Where do you think XBox 360 is now in its product life cycle? Where do you think it will be in five years? Justify your answers. 8.1 THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTING Read: Foundations of Business: "Chapter 12 Introduction" and "12.1 The Role of Accounting" Read these sections for an overview of accounting in business. B12: Who uses accounting information? What do they use it for, and why do they find it helpful? What problems would arise if they weren't provided with accounting information? 9.3 THE ROLE OF THE FINANCIAL MANAGER Read: Foundations of Business: "13.4 The Role of the Financial Manager" Read this section for an overview of the most common sources of funding for business. B13: You've developed a financial plan for a retail business that you want to launch this summer. You've determined that you need $500,000, including $50,000 for a truck, $80,000 for furniture and equipment, and $100,000 for inventory. You'll use the rest to cover start-up and operating costs during your first six months of operation. After considering the possible sources of funds available to you, create a table that shows how you'll obtain the $500,000 you need. It should include the following items: Source of all funds Dollar amounts to be obtained through each source The maturity, annual interest rate, and security of any loan The total of your sources must equal $500,000. B14: Write a brief report explaining the factors you considered in arriving at your combination of sources. 10.2 MANAGING DATA Read: Foundations of Business: "15.2 Managing Data" Read this section for an overview of databases, date warehouses, and data mining. B15: Caesars Casino uses data mining to identify its most profitable customers and predict their future behaviour. It then designs incentives to appeal to these customers. Do you see any ethical problems with this process? Is it ethical to encourage people to gamble? Read: Foundations of Business: "15.6 Security Issues in Electronic Communication" Read this section for an overview of the security challenges that internet connected businesses face. B16: Are you, or is someone you know, hesitant to buy things over the internet? What risks concern you? What are companies doing to ease consumers' concerns about the safety of internet transactions?