Unit 1
An advantage of this form of business is that it often qualifies for government grants and subsidies.
A Not-For-Profit Business
Many of the lecturers had inadequate IT skills to prepare and deliver high-quality online courses.
The university should have offered ____: the process of teaching a particular new skill or knowledge in order to develop a person’s competence in the workplace. The purpose is to match the skills of employees with the needs of the organization.
Training
Peacewick University has to pay these costs even though there are no classes at the moment at the physical campus.
Fixed Costs
Adriana reduced Peacewick University's marketing budgets significantly because of the economic recession in order to cut costs. True or False?
False - she decided to maintain aggressive marketing strategies in contrast to most other universities.
Fewer employees and students at the university have led to significantly lower energy consumption; it also means less waste, less use of water, less pollution, and a reduction in PU’s carbon footprint. What type of sustainability involves preventing depletion of natural resources?
Ecological Sustainability
Describe one category from the STEEPLE Analysis by applying it to PU.
STEEPLE: identifies opportunities and threats by examining external influences on business decision making
Technological Factors: increasing reliance on technology for online learning (threat if PU can't adapt quickly enough, but could otherwise be an opportunity if done well)
Economic Factors: pandemic causes economic decline (threat)
Environmental: contamination of campus due to explosion at a neighboring chemical plant (threat)
Peacewick University had a very challenging year. To solve its cash-flow problems the university used a certain HR strategy that often results in low staff morale.
Redundancy
Peacewick University is considering:
(1) refurbishing teaching facilities that were damaged by the accident, and
(2) opening a campus in Country B.
Describe one of the three investment appraisal methods that could be used to analyze the viability of these potential projects.
Payback Period: Length of time it takes to repay initial capital cost
Average Rate of Return: Average annual cash flow generated over the life of an investment
Net Present Value: Current (discounted) value of all future cash flows generated by an investment
Peacewick university has an interesting approach to pricing. International students pay higher fees to the university than the fees that the university receives from local students. What type of pricing strategy is this?
Price Discrimination
Teaching a group of students could be considered which method of production?
Batch Production
Peacewick University wants to open another campus in Country B. This is a form of which growth strategy where a business sells its existing products into new markets?
Market Development
Jim now expects members of his department to do as they are told, and he rarely consults anyone. A disadvantage of this leadership style is that it stifles initiative and creativity as employees are not involved in decision making. What type of leadership style does Jim seem to have?
Autocratic Leadership
Opening another campus involves spending money on fixed assets including IT equipment, research facilities and buildings. This is also commonly known as what type of investment expenditure?
Capital Expenditure
The Faculty of Medicine’s research into medicines is proving positive following testing on the public. Financial support from pharmaceutical companies could result in commercial production of the medicines, once approved.
Part of the recovery required investing in which type of research (including testing and experiments)?
Primary Research
Fewer employees and students at the university have led to significantly lower energy consumption; it also means less waste, less use of water, less pollution, and a reduction in PU’s carbon footprint.
To continue the momentum, Adriana could consider applying the following operations method in its research and testing facilities:
All material inputs in the operations method must be either technical (recyclable or reusable with no loss of quality) or biological (consumable or compostable in an ecologically friendly way). It can be time consuming and expensive to implement effectively. Which (HL) Lean Methodology approach is this?
Cradle-to-Cradle
How is Adriana more of a leader than a manager?
Strategy & growth: considers the long-term impacts of decisions, sees the bigger picture, and makes strategic decisions to ensure a sustainable future.
Financial allocation: rather than just sticking to a set budget, she is determining where all the money should be assigned to (marketing, development projects, etc.)
"Most of her time and energy has been spent on the critical problems at PU - recovery, cash flow, and managing redundancies. However, she must still deal with the usual day-to-day issues (84)."
Due to the chemical accident and destruction of buildings, the university had to offer a new type of flexible work utilizing advancements in telecommunications and internet technologies, called _________.
Teleworking
The successes of some of the research projects suggest further growth and investment in those areas of the university’s activities. The government and some computer manufacturers helped provide IT equipment for students and employees through which type of external financing?
Government Grant
As 2021/22 progressed, evidence indicated that PU’s marketing was increasing student interest for the next academic year. However, applications for student places at PU remained low. To connect with prospective students, colleges and universities need to leverage relevant platforms using which type of marketing?
Social Media Marketing
What is one of Peacewick University's USPs that they should focus on when marketing to prospective students?
Growth in the following College Faculties: research in IT (artificial intelligence) and medicine
High student satisfaction, competitive fees
Teaching and services for students
Emphasis on sustainability: using renewable energy sources, social responsibility, reduced energy consumption, funding for IT & medical research to detect and reduce the impact of contamination from chemicals
The university has an emphasis on meeting the needs of 21st-century society, so it has strong IT, business, electronics, medicine, engineering and media faculties.
What type of orientation is this considered?
Market Orientation
(Product Orientation involves a focus on making high quality and innovative products so that people will want to buy them, whereas Market Orientation focuses on understanding the customer first and adapting a product to suit their needs.)
Recently, many of the faculty resigned, despite
few job vacancies in the domestic economy. Adriana thinks that, in the shorter term, PU needs to revise its employment contracts to try to restore morale to the teaching staff following redundancies. What is the formula for calculating the rate at which employees leave a firm?
Employee Turnover Ratio = (# of employees who left in 1 year / average # of people employed that same year) x 100
Peacewick university suffered from declining enrollment and consequently has cash-flow problems. How can a business calculate its closing balance?
Net cash flow + opening balance
Which two subjects have demonstrated a decline in popularity and could be categorized as being a "dog" from the BCG Matrix?
History and international languages
Explain why crisis management and contingency planning are so important to Adriana.
For business continuity and sustainability
To prepare for risks
To manage the crisis and minimize losses (reduce/mitigate the impact/damage)
In an attempt to resume normal operations as quickly as possible