Individual Written Assignment #1: Your personal vision and strategic management

Review the discussion of vision, “strategic managers” and strategic leadership in Chapter 1 and the HBR article “Building your company’s vision” by Collins & Porras. A strategic manager is a person whose job involves formulating strategies and putting those strategies into effect.Typically

,the most important strategic managers are “general managers”—people who are primarily in charge of a company as a whole or of one of the major businesses inside it. However, it is important to remember that functional-level strategies, developed and implemented by functional managers, are just as important, because functional strategies underpin the business-level or corporate-level strategies formulated by general managers.An entrepreneur—someone who starts a business—is also a strategic manager. Entrepreneurs often face the challenge of developing and implementing strategy at both the functional and business levels. In no more than 1200 words (about five-to-six pages,double-spaced, 12-point font, 1” margins), answer the following questions:

1.What is your mission (i.e., core purpose) in your working life?

2.What are your core values?

3.What is the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) that you would like to achieve in your career within the next fifteen years(i.e., by 2033)?

4.Do you want to be a strategic manager at some point in your career? Explain why this is part of your vision,or why not.

5.Whether you want to be a strategic manager or not, explain how your BHAG relates to your career.

6.Why do you want to pursue this goal? What might stop you from achieving this goal? What might help you achieve this goal?

7.What do you hope to get out of a course in strategic management that might help you overcome the obstacles and reach the goal?

Watch the attached videos and answer the questions.

First, watch Igniting Creativity to Transform Corporate Culture. This TED Talk by Catherine Courage examines how creativity needs to be infused into the organizational culture to foster innovation and to challenge the status quo. Next, watch this video about Zappos and its own unique company culture. As you watch the videos, think about the various elements of effective organizational structure. In your initial post, answer the following questions:

• Do you think the unique culture of Zappos will help or hurt the company in the long run? Explain and provide specific examples, where applicable.
• Do you think more companies in the future will follow this model? Why or why not?
• In your opinion, what company today could benefit from this unique strategy? Explain your rationale.

1) How would you apply this ethical issue to guide your behavior in this situation? (Discuss your decision making process, including pros and cons of your chosen behavior and any conflicts with personal values that you may need to address in order to apply this ethical principle in this situation)

2) Discuss any ambiguities involved in applying this ethic to this situation.

Case :-Alfonso has just been given information about a new client who is
scheduled to see him later today. The client is a 17-year old boy whose
parents have specifically requested that he be assigned to Alfonso. They
said, “Alfonso is the only person we want to work with our son.” Alfonso
recognizes the client’s name as a boy who is in his 15-year old son’s scout
troop. As the troop draws from the local high school population, Alfonso
knows the family lives near him and the boy attends his son’s school in
addition to being in the same scout troop

APA format, three pages , use the text book picture atthed to this question to cite your work

Competencies

1. Value the importance of information technology to accountants.
2. Assess accounting information systems.
3. Design the steps to justify an information system initiative.
4. Synthesize appropriate and effective use of technology for managing accounting and financial information flows and presentation.
5. Evaluate the threats and risks associated with accounting information systems.
6. Explore special topics in accounting information systems to include the impact of globalization and a multinational business presence.

Scenario Information

Your company, Swift Athletics is a publicly held, mid-sized manufacturer, with $20 million dollars in annual revenue. You produce high-end running shoes exclusively in the US. You are planning to sell your products internationally within the next two years. You operate in a lean environment, and your supplier monitors your raw materials needs, and shipments are made JIT.

Assume that you are the Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) for the company. The company is publicly held; therefore, it must follow all reporting requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company is expanding rapidly and has outgrown its information system. You have been given the task of evaluating and recommending a viable accounting information system solution for the accounting and financial data. Your final proposal will be delivered to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO). You must be able to support your proposal with appropriate research.

Instructions

To complete this project:

1. Articulate the value of an AIS and how it can be used to facilitate growth at Swift. Identify the departments/functions of a manufacturer like Swift that will utilize the AIS, and how the departments will interact.
2. Prepare a summary that identifies the departments listed above, a weakness or threat for each department, explanation of why the weakness exists, and the steps that you will implement in your new system to address the weakness issues. Note: An example of a weakness or threat in the general ledger and reporting system might be an unauthorized disclosure of financial statements. Controls to respond to this weakness or threat include access controls and encryption. You may wish to present this information in a table for your presentation.
3. While the balanced scorecard is not a new concept, it does offer a framework allowing managers to measure an enterprise’s performance from four categories: financial, customer, business processes, and learning and growth. The balanced scorecard considers both financial and nonfinancial measures. After researching the balanced scorecard, for each of the four categories, identify at least one critical success factor for Swift to achieve shareholder value.
4. As part of the planning process for your new accounting information system, you need to prepare flowcharts. This graphic will present the flow of information through the accounting cycles. Prepare flowcharts for at least two business departments/functions for Swift. Each flowchart should be detailed, and have the right symbols for each process. Also, think your way through the processes from beginning to end. For example, how is sales revenue defined, such as when is it considered earned? The following are the business processes that you may elect to address:
   • Sales
   • Purchasing
   • Production
   • Payroll

   Please note that you will have two distinct flowcharts for this assignment. Be sure your flowcharts are professionally presented and clearly labeled.

5. What are the steps you will take to justify the new information system initiative? What must be considered for Swift? How will you assess the financial implications? What is the impact on the AIS of globalization and a multinational business presence?
6. How will appropriate and effective use of technology for managing the accounting and financial information flows and presentation be affected?
7. Evaluate the threats and risks associated with the accounting information system for Swift.

Prepare a PowerPoint presentation along with an executive summary to be delivered to the CEO and CIO which includes the information in 1-7 above. Be creative in your slides by incorporating charts, graphs, and/or artwork. Your PowerPoint presentation should begin with an introduction as to why the project is being considered, and conclude with the value of the project. Incorporate slide notes where needed. Include an APA formatted reference slide and in-text citing where appropriate.

Essay #2: Analyzing Monsters In The Media

Background:

Now that we have been discussing Monsters both real and fantastical developing criteria around what is a monster, and looking for logical fallacies in ethics and rhetoric, it is time for you to begin thinking about some of the major ideas surrounding Monsters

Assignment Options:

Option 1: Monsters of Science and Nature in Fantasy

Step 1: Analyze a primary media source(TV Show Episode, Movie, Song, etc.) of your choice that engages with the theme of monsters of science and/or monsters of nature

The source should be a mainstream popular text—a film, television episode, or video game.

Step 2: Write a paper in which you describe the text you have chosen and argue for how it connects to the longer history we have studied of monsters of science and nature via our Monsters readings.

Step 3: Then, analyze your text as an image of monstrosity, employing one or more of the monster theories we’ve discussed in Monsters: A Bedford Reader. No additional outside academic research is required. However, you MUST integrate material from “How Signs Work”, at least two of the scholarly articles we read in Monsters: A Bedford Reader, and your primary Source.

Option 2: Analyzing a real-life monster in history/News Coverage/Media Coverage

Step 1: Analyze a Pick a “real life” person that was considered a monster by society e.g. OJ Simpson, Hitler, etc.

Step 2: Write a paper in which you describe the source you have chosen, articulate whether the coverage of this person has been fair or biased, and argue for how it connects to the long history we’ve studied in the Monsters readings.

Option 3:

Step 1: Read: “How Signs Work” & at least two articles from Monsters

Step 2: Pick a popular song, movie, or TV show and identify a symbolic Monster within the text

Step 3: Write a 1000+ word analysis of what the symbolic monster(s) signifies to the text

Criteria for Evaluation

I will use the following criteria to evaluate your position paper:

1. Have you engaged the readers’ interest at the beginning and throughout the paper?
2. Have you chosen an arguable position and defined it carefully (e.g. placing the issue in its historical or cultural context, citing specific instances to make the issue seem less abstract, or establishing or redefining the terms of the debate)?
3. Have you organized your paper into an introduction, body (containing several paragraphs), and conclusion?
4. Have you included at the end of the introduction a thesis statement that asserts a clear, unequivocal position on the issue you have chosen and, possibly, forecasts the stages of the argument, identifying the main reason or reasons that you will develop and support in the essay?
5. Have you given reasons why readers should take your position seriously?
6. Have you organized your reasons into a logical order (e.g. placing the strongest reason last and the second-strongest reason first, with the other reasons in the middle)?
7. Have you supported each reason with examples, facts, analogies, statistics, anecdotes, or quotes from authorities? Remember: you need 5 quotes from the readings.
8. Have you anticipated readers’ questions and their positions on an issue, counterarguing as needed?
9. Have you signaled explicitly the move from one topic to the next using forecasting statements, transitions, topic sentences, rhetorical questions, and/or summaries?
10. Have you cited at least 5 quotes in your essay, using MLA in-text (parenthetical) citation strategies correctly?
11. Have you integrated the sources into your essay, using signal phrases to introduce long quotations or incorporating shorter quotations into the sentences smoothly?
12. Have you included an MLA Works Cited at the end of your essay?
13. Are the sentences clear and correct?
14. You stayed in 3rd Person for the Essay
15. Is the essay between 1000-1500 words (please do not exceed 1800 words)?

A Successful Essay Will Have

Introduction:

* A title specific to the topic

* An attention getter

* Background on the topic (please make it clear which prompt you are answering)

* End with your thesis

* A clearly stated thesis (your opinion – your 1-2 sentence response to the essay prompt) which speaks to the “so what” of the issue and is not merely a list plan of development.

Body:

* Topic sentence that is related to the thesis

* Supporting evidence

* Quotes from the text (Remember to cite the quotes)

* Consideration of and rebuttal against the other side of the topic

Conclusion:

* DO NOT bring up a new topic

* A suggestion of the consequences of your position for society, readers, individuals, what you want to happen in the future, or how the author might feel about your position, etc.

Works Cited Page

• That cites all sources using current MLA guidelines.