ASSIGNMENT 28: LEGAL FACTORS AFFECTING BUSINESS

Ekateryna Calderón Hernández                                                                                                          NUA: 391880

LEGAL FACTORS AFFECTING BUSINESS}

 

What is Organizational Law?

refers to the numerous ways a business may be legally formed under state laws. In addition to incorporating as a corporation, businesses may also be formed as partnerships, limited liability companies, and other business forms. Since each business organization brings with it a specific set of tax, management, and liability benefits and drawbacks, choosing the right type of organization for your business depends on many factors.

What does Employment Law refer to?

laws that determines how an employee and employer can work together.

They regulate the relationship between workers, managers, and owners to ensure everyone is treated fairly and respectfully. It includes how and when an employee can work, what they should be paid, and the minimum conditions that are safe and appropriate to work in. It also determines when someone can be hired or fired and indicates the rights of employees and employers. 

 

How are Consumer laws defined?

Consumer protection laws exist to prevent dangerous or unethical business practices, like false advertising or faulty and malfunctioning products.

In finance, consumer protection laws seek to prevent predatory lending, housing discrimination, securities fraud, privacy violations, and other unethical practices.

What is Securities Law?

Securities law (or Capital Markets law) is the group of laws and regulations that govern the circulation of "securities". A security is a financial instrument usually designed to raise money for a business from investors in the business. Securities law dictates what a corporation has to do in order to offer their investment to the public. The laws exist in order to make sure that public investments are fair to everyone who might invest in the company.

 

What does Health and Safety at the Workplace refer to?

Workplace health and safety is all about prundently managing risks to protect a business and its workers.

Health and safety laws apply to all employers, self-employed people and employees in their workplaces. and it includes fixed-term and temporary employees.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, ​sets out the rights and obligations of both employers and employees. It also provides for substantial fines and penalties for breaches of the health and safety legislation.

 

To fulfil their responsibilities, an employer must:

• Carry out risk assessments
• Identify who needs protecting from potential hazards
• Implement health and safety procedures
• Create a health and safety policy
• Display the health and safety law poster
• Communicate with employees
• Provide training and first aid kits

 

To help keep the workplace safe, employees must:

• Follow health and safety instruction
• Attend health and safety training
• Adhere to safety procedures.
• Report any hazards or failings in safety procedures.
• Be proactive
•  

What is Taxation?

A tax is a mandatory fee or financial charge collected and imposed by any government on an individual or an organization to collect revenue for public works providing the best facilities and infrastructure. The collected fund is then used to fund different public expenditure programs.

Taxes include income, capital gains, or estate.

Imposition of mandatory fees on individuals or entities by governments

Taxes are imposed in almost every country of the world, primarily to raise revenue for government expenditures, although they serve other purposes as well.

 

 

 

 

References:

• FindLaw's team (february 03, 2020) FINDLAW. What Is Business Organization Law? https://www.findlaw.com/hirealawyer/choosing-the-right-lawyer/business-organization.html
• FindLaw's team. FINDLAW. Employement Law https://www.findlaw.com/employment.html
• Gonzalez, A. (august 26, 2021) Investopedia. Consumer Protection Laws You Need to Know https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/10/know-your-consumer-protection-laws.asp
• Legal Career Path. What is Securities Law / Capital Markets Law? https://legalcareerpath.com/securities-law-capital-markets-law/
• British Safety Council. Who is responsible for workplace health and safety?
• https://www.britsafe.org/training-and-learning/find-the-right-course-for-you/informational-resources/who-is-responsible-for-workplace-health-and-safety/
•  Groww. Tax. https://groww.in/p/tax/
• Citizens Infromation. Health and safety at work. https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/health_and_safety/health_safety_work.html

ASSIGNMENT 24: BASIC ACCOUNTING

Ekateryna Calderón Hernández                                                                                                          NUA: 391880

HINTRODUCTION TO ACCOUTINGH

  

Why do you think accounting is seen as boring? Explain.

Maybe because it's seen like just sitting at your desk and staring into the computer working on spreadsheets, crunching down numbers, reading unnapaling documents and doing calculations, besides can be very routinary and tediuos and also because accountants often seem very shy and quiet, or at least that's what I thought at first before deciding to study accounting.

And maybe from the outside it really looks like that but accounting really has a wide field of work and different jobs that you can specialize in, and it can be really dynamic.

 

Which of the jobs mentioned would be most interesting for you? Give your reasons.

The job that was most appealing to me was being an auditor because they inspect and examine the financial accounts and the transactions a company has made and ensure they're correct and everything is up to legal standards.

I think is vital to verify that the financial reports of a company are accurate because then you can detect bad practices within the organization such as fraud or money laundering.

 

Why is it so important for accountants to be ethical? Explain in detail.

Accountants must be ethical and have a moral code because they need to comply with the laws and regulations that the government imposes and if they don't act accordingly they could be prosecuted.

Also they're dealing with sensitive information and confidentiality is needed to be a good professional.

ASSIGNMENT 22: INTEGRATED BUSSINESS PLANNING

 

Ekateryna Calderón Hernández                                                                                               NUA: 391880

INTEGRATED BUSINESS PLANING (IBP)

 

What is “Integrated Business Planning” (IBP)?

Is a strategy for connecting the planning functions of each department in an organization to align operations and strategy with the organization’s financial performance.

Is a process for aligning a company’s business goals with its finance, supply chain, product development, marketing and other operational functions, powered by a companywide culture that’s all about delivering the speed, savings and responsiveness today’s consumers demand while managing risks.

 

What is “Sales and Operations Planning” (S&OP)?

It is a planning tool for the management of the logistics chain that gathers in a platform the demands of marketing, of the sales area, for example, with production budget planning.

Supports supply chain management with IBP, the company's real-time cloud-based supply chain planning platform supporting demand response, supply planning and inventory management oriented features, with supply chain analytics to support decisioning.

 

What are the similarities between IBP and S&OP? Mention and describe them.

They’re two work planning methodologies that both seek to unify and plan the business from sales to operations. And both require supporting data, which helps to align forecasts with functions and guide managers to make planning decisions.

What are the differences between IBP and S&OP? Mention and describe them.

IBP is the evolution of the S&OP. It seeks to improve alignment and collaboration throughout the business by using the financial element as a continuous review and validation mechanism throughout the process.

The key difference between S&OP and IBP is that IBP starts at the executive level.

There are differences on various levels: Objectives, focus, affiliate department (Owner), features and finally connectivity. IBP starts with the organization’s financial forecast. As a tool to move the organization forward, it is completely different from S&OP, which originates from the supply chain and its main goal is to adjust production and sales.

While S&OP is seen as a process of helping to manage the demand and supply of manufacturers by creating a single production plan in cooperation with the sales and operations department. In turn, the IBP is similar to a business planning process that extends the principles of S&OP throughout the supply chain, product and customer portfolio, customer needs and strategic planning to provide a seamless management process.

 

How does the IBP process work? Describe in detail.

The IBP process considers a time horizon that ranges between 18 and 24 months, since it brings together strategic aspects of the business and includes the following steps:

 

1. Product management review: It focuses on the review of the life cycles of the products and the market strategy around each one of them and also includes their profitability.
2. Demand review: Your objective is to develop an unrestricted demand plan that incorporates financial elements such as the cost of serving different customers and channels.
3. Supply Review: Focuses on developing long-term capacity plans and short-term production requirements, as well as production and distribution costs.
4. Integrated reconciliation: Evaluates the scenarios proposed, as well as the financial impact of the agreements reached between the areas of marketing, sales and operations. A final agreement is also reached regarding the supply chain plan.
5. Business Review: This meeting seeks to present to the top management of the organization (general management level) the agreed plan and its financial effects on the business plan of the company.

What are the challenges of IBP?

• Working to eliminate unplanned events (often known as ‘fighting fires’ in our day-to-day work lives) that are caused by a lack of focus on detail in the plan itself.
• Building trust across different business functions, especially in larger organisations. Demonstrating the benefits of sharing plans can be a difficult task.
• Correctly managing product lifecycles, and a willingness to take them out of the product portfolio when they are no longer contributing to the bottom line.
• Not utilising complex ERP systems when they are available

Which are the most common difficulties/problems when implementing IBP? Mention them and provide examples.

• Lack of commitment in some of the necessary departments.
• If the S&OP process is not yet in place or stable, IBP is too big a step.
• The objectives and the forecasts are mixed.
• Information not available.
• Discussion of numbers rather than underlying assumptions.
• Discuss only a short horizon rather than a period in between.
• Plans and discussions too granular.
• A deep understanding of trade-offs is lacking.

 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of IBP?

PROS:

• Solid financial integration.
• Inclusion of strategic plans, initiatives and activities.
• Solid product and portfolio review.
• Improved simulation, modeling and scenarios.
• Improved visibility and management of operational risk.
• Identification of gaps and better decision making.
• Easy and efficient translation of added plans to detailed plans and viceversa

 

CONS: Before commencing with a technological solution, it's important to consider an integrated theory and methodology first. Transitioning from a vertical to a horizontal organization has profound implications; leadership is bound to face strong opposition to radical change. Also:

• Errors handling
• Needs more data entry flexibility.

What is the importance of IBP nowadays?

• Alignment and accountability. Instead of spending time and energy debating which plan to follow, all stakeholders agree on one plan—and understand their role in accomplishing the goals of that plan.
• Better decisions and actions. The structured process that comes from a well-built IBP approach enables companies to focus on making better-informed decisions and taking the best action based on those decisions.
• Increased visibility. IBP enables companies to incorporate insights from supply chain projections, financial projects, and strategic plans. And the more insights incorporated into projects, the better informed a company’s decisions will be, which, in turn, will be more likely to contribute to business goals like profitability and efficiency.

References:

• ·         Ali, R. (march 16, 2021) ORACLE NETSUIT. What Is Integrated Business Planning and Why Is It Important? https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/business-strategy/integrated-business-planning.shtml
• ·         Slimstock (december 11, 2021). IBP VS S&OP: ¿CUÁL ES LA DIFERENCIA? https://www.slimstock.com/cl/ibp-vs-sop-cual-es-la-diferencia/
• ·         Martin, M. (october 20, 2017) Conexión Esan. Planificación de la cadena de suministros: desde el S&OP hasta el IBP. https://www.esan.edu.pe/conexion/actualidad/2017/10/20/la-planificacion-de-la-cadena-de-suministros/
• ·         Barba, J. Anaplan. How to succeed at integrated business planning. https://www.anaplan.com/blog/succeed-integrated-business-planning/
• ·         SCMDOJO. (february 2021) S&OP Vs IBP – What is the Difference? https://www.scmdojo.com/sop-vs-ibp/
• ·         Gunn, L. SIX DEGREES. IBP - challenges and best practice. https://www.sixdegreesexecutive.com.au/blog/2014/10/ibp-challenges-and-best-practice

ASSIGNMENT 20. Business communication & technology

Ekateryna Calderón Hernández                                                                                        NUA: 391880

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & COMMUNICATION

 

What is Managing information withing and outside the organization?

Businesses face many challenges in handling new technologies, managing their information for better productivity and communications with the media.

Managing information outside the organization means how to deal with the news media, how to create tools for managing corporate news and how to control public company crisis.

 

What is the importance of it?

The role of new technology in bussines communications is very vast because they help and support the businessmen to save time, money and spade work while having better acces to information and enhacing communication, and it cuts down costs because it’s really practical.

 

What are the new technologies that companies have to manage for communications purposes?

New technologies such as email, voice mail, internet, groupware, CD-ROM, databases, teleconferences, faxed and telexes help managing information inside and outside of an organization.

 

Describe the role of technological discoveries throughout history.

In the 19th century the telegraph and telephone marked the beginning of the rapid growth of IT

In 1960s companies became attracted to computer technology to handle data processing, computers used by this companies were huge mainframes and programming had to be done from scratch because there was no package software and computer programmers were often people with no expertise.

By 1970s more people had computer terminals and some softwares were developed, however computers were expensive.

In the 1980s the transformation of telecommunications occurred with the development of fiber optics, local area networks, and satellite technology facilitated the growth of IT. Organizations now had laptop computers, desktop publishing capabilities, electronic spreadsheets and word processing programs to gather, store and communicate information.

 

What is the importance of technologies in the globalized business world?

They improve communication and drive growth and improve operations because they help everyone to be efficient

 

Describe the use of the technologies in the communication field.

• Internet: Is la large group of computer networks and connects individuals and information throughout the world.
• Databases: libraries and catalogs where you can search for anything specific.
• Online information services: serves two basic purposes, communicating and obtaining information
• Commercial online information services: private information services are another means for accessing business info and general news, stocks, financial markets, travel, publications, etc.
• Graphic design softwares: visual communication with images and colors
• Email: it's for messages that need to be sent really fast and can distribute memos, reports or documents and it's relatively inexpensive.
• Fax machine: reads and transmits documents (text or pictures) to another fax machine and prints said document.
• Telecommuting: allows individuals to work form their homes.
• Cellular phones: cellular radios that transmit messages over airways
• Electronic meetings: teleconferences and videoconferences allow several people at different locations to communicate electronically.

 

 

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of Electronic Communication?

• Send messages that are related to business matters
• Don't send junk mail
• Be prudent when responding to emails and read carefully before sending
• Avoid sending sensitive information

 

How have the Information & communication technologies changed the structure of business organizations?

• Thanks to telecommuting and videoconferences it's no necessary for co-workers to be in the same location
• Technology can boost profits because it costs less for people to produce and distribute messages and making a company more competitive
• But those that don't have emails or faxes tend to be left out of the communication flow
• They can increase the pressure to perform

 

What are the legal and Ethical implications of the use of technologies? Explain the in detail.

It's our responsibility to ensure that the information we handle is used to enhance the dignity of mankind because technology threatens our privacy like when bosses micromanage their employees or when they read personal emails.

That's why the FIP (Fair Information Principles) are core values that practice the protection of privacy and in the workplace individuals have rights of access, inspection, review and amendment.

For example there must not be use of personal information other than which it was gathered and consented and managers of systems can be held accountable and liable if any damage is done because many forms claim they have the right to monitor their employees but the Electronic communications Privacy Act (ECPA) favors employees.

ASSIGNMENT 18: Test your knowledge

 1. Who is your target market?

If I had a bussines it would be a hair care line of shampoos, conditioners and treatments for all kinds of hair made out of natural ingredients.

2. How does your product or service satisfy the needs of your potential customers?

Offering a natural alternative to commercial hair care products that are often harmful and generic.

3. Which company has the biggest market share in your industry?

In the hair care industry brands like L'Oreal Paris and Garnier dominate the market.

4. How long do you usually run an advertising campaing for?

I would run it for approximately 1 month before the line's release on social media with a lot of adverts and infographics with information about my products and after that a sale so people buy more and after that email and viral marketing and also the recommendations from potential customers.

5. Is there tough competitionin your industry? How do you stand out?

Yes, there's a lot of commercial  brands selling these type of products. I would differentiate my company because my products would be handmade and "holistic" with no damaging chemical formulations.

6. What methods do you use to raise brand awareness?

The packaging and logo would be of high quality so the consumers recognize me as a luxury brand.

ASSIGNMENT 17: MARKETING

Ekateryna Calderón Hernández                                                                                                          NUA: 391880

Task 1 Marketing

What is the definition of Marketing?

Marketing refers to any actions a company takes to attract an audience to the company's product or services through high-quality messaging.

The process of identifying, anticipating (predicting) and satisfying customer needs profitably

• ·         Identifying – finding out by using marketing research about current products, the possibility of new products, and current markets and new markets
• ·         Anticipating (predicting) – analysing the data collected and determine what might happen in these markets and how the products might be suited or changed, adapted or updated
• ·         Satisfying customer needs – making sure the person, business or government are happy with what they are buying, will not complain and will be happy to buy again
• ·         Profitably – adding value to the product so when sold, the price of the product is greater than cost of production.

 

What is understood as Market in business?

Your audience and potential customers. is defined as the sum total of all the buyers and sellers in the area or region under consideration and the place where thet can meet to exchange goods or services

 

What is the purpose of Marketing?

The purpose of marketing is to generate revenue for a brand, company, or organization by capturing the attention of the target market. It aims to establish the product value, strengthen brand loyalty, and ultimately increase sales.

Marketing professionals and teams achieve this through the execution of strategic digital activities that drive traffic, qualified leads, and sales, in direct collaboration with their sales team.

Also to research and analyze your consumers all the time, conducting focus groups, sending out surveys, studying online shopping habits, and asking one underlying question: "Where, when, and how does our consumer want to communicate with our business?"

 

Why is Marketing important?

Marketing is really important because once you've developed a product or service and you've done the branding and packaging and it's all ready to go marketing is what you need to do to get in front of your potential customer

It's a very big investment because You have be everywhere your customer is to maximize your sales and customer base and expand your business

If people don't know your products exist or if they don't know the things about your product that makes it great then they're not going to want to form a relationship with the company or won't want to purchase from you.

 

What are the different types of Marketing? Define them in detail.

·         Social Media Marketing:  is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. In apps like Facebook, Twitter and newer, emerging platforms like TikTok.

·         Email Marketing: Email marketing is sending commercial emails to a list of contacts who have given their express permission to receive email communications from you.

·         Relationship marketing: This type of marketing is basically focused on customer building. Enhancing existing relationships with customers and improving customer loyalty.

·         Word of mouth: It totally relies on what impression you leave on people. It is traditionally the most important type of marketing strategy. 

·         Cause marketing: Cause marketing links the services and products of a company to a social cause or issue.

·         Content Marketing: Content marketing refers to any form of marketing that involves the creation, publication, and distribution of free content online.

·         Search Engine Optimization: is the process of optimizing a website for visibility on search engines. The goal of employing this method is to create awareness and get potential customers to find and visit one’s website.

·         Influencer Marketing: A company looking to promote its products or services reach out to an influencer in their industry or niche and find a mutually beneficial way to promote their offering to the influencer’s vast audience.

·         Brand Marketing:Brand marketing is a marketing move by brands to shape its public perception and to connect with its target audience.

·         Affiliate Marketing: An affiliate helps promote the product of a brand on whatever online channel they see fit. is an effective method as the publisher will do everything possible to market a brand’s products to consumers for the commission they stand to get.

·         Promotional Marketing: is a business marketing strategy designed to stimulate a customer to take action towards a buying decision.

• ·         Contests
• ·         Coupons or discount
• ·         Sampling

·         Print Media: Getting published in print media, such as newspapers, magazines, or trade publications, gives you both visibility and credibility by establishing you as an expert on your topic

·         Advertisements: TV and radio advertising are both now available on a local scale for smaller businesses. 

·         Promotional Materials: You can have a variety of cost-effective promotional materials to leave with prospects to make it easier to stay top-of-mind and for them to find your contact info.

• ·         Business card
• ·         Postcards, pamphlets, leaflets
• ·         Brochures
• ·         Branded products, tools, or items: like calendars or pens, 

·         Community Involvement: Community involvement is a good visibility tactic for a business and it benefits the community as well.

 

What are the aspects a marketer needs to consider nowadays?

In overall being tech savvy, with social media and digital marketing is essential that a marketer knows how to create interesting and persuasive content and not just banners, slide decks or memes but videos as well and make sure they're available in many channels like emails, blogs, ebooks, etc. also to know the importance that paid search engines provide and how to track and analyze data.

 

What are the differences between Marketing in the past and Marketing in the 21st century?

It's completely evolved and changed, before if a company was having financial problems the first department from where they would cut costs were the training and marketing budget whereas now days businesses recognize the value of marketing because without it there aren't many sales because people don't know or are aware about their products.

10 years ago marketing used to be about television and radio adverts and printed press in newspapers magazines or banners and outdoor advertising but now we've got digital marketing and social media, viral marketing, peer to peer marketing, ond on Instagram you influencers can boost a company’s revenue also paid search engine marketing and email marketing like spam.

ASSIGNMENT 15. QUALITY MANAGEMENT

                                                    Task 1 Quality Management. 

1.    What is Quality Management?

Is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks that must be accomplished to maintain a desired level of excellence.

It is also referred to as Total Quality Management (TQM) that at its core it’s a business philosophy that champions the idea that the long-term success of a company comes from customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2.    What is the objective of Quality Management?

Ensuring that all the organization’s stakeholders work together in the determination of a quality policy, the creation and implementation of quality planning and assurance, and quality control and quality improvement. All that with the purpose of upgrading a company’s processes, products, services, and culture to achieve the long-term success that stems from customer satisfaction.

 

3.    Which are the key components of Quality management? Describe in detail each one.

• ·         Quality Control: the process of inspecting and examining products to guarantee that they meet the required quality standards.

  Inspecting the line of production in order to  spot and identify defective outputs (the products) that do not meet the required standards before they reach the customers through sampling and checking methods.

It usually needs sampling, which is a process used to make statistical analysis where a predetermined number of observations are taken from a larger population and can be very costly.

• ·         Quality Assurence: is the processes of determining whether the production quality meets specified requirements of the customers. The aim is to design a way a product is produced in such manner that the chances outputs come out defective are minimized.

It’s achieved by improving the production process because quality must be built into the product itself

 

4.    Describe what Quality Management involves. (process)

• Implementing Quality Planning: The process of quality planning can be driven by: customer requirements, applicable standards and regulations, business goals, manufacturing method, employee key responsibility área, etc.
• Performing Quality Assurance: ISO 9000 defines as it "part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled."
• Undertaking Quality Control: the process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production
• Initiating Quality Improvement: an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes.

5.    What does “Quality Improvement Methods” refer to? Explain in detail.

The changes that need to be executed so to improve the overall quality, they comprise three components: product improvement, process improvement, and people-based improvement. There are numerous methods of quality management and techniques that can be utilized such as Kaizen for example.

 

6.    What are the Quality Management principle that the International Standard for Quality Management adopt? Write a description of each.

The International Standard for Quality management (ISO 9001:2015) is defined as the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system that organizations use to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements.

The principles are:

1.    1. Customer focus: The top priority of any business should always be to satisfy the customer.
2.    Leadership: A company is only as good as the vision and competence of its manager. And good leadership ensures the well-being of the company, its customers, and workers.
3.    Staff motivation: if staff are not involved and interested in the company, it is difficult for it to be sustainable, so employees must be incentivized and motivated
4.    Process management: A desired result is achieved more efficiently when the activities and related resources are managed as a process.
5.    Objectivity in decisions: Decisions are based on the analysis of data and information
6.    Continuous improvement with ISO 9001 certification: Continuous improvement of the general performance of companies should be a permanent objective.
7.    Alliance with suppliers: Companies with ISO 9001 certification must maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with suppliers

 

7.    What are the benefits of Quality Management?

• ·         Sub-standard output, products that don't meet the quality expectations, can be identified before they reach the customers.
• ·         Reduces disruption to production
• ·         Enacts a consistent standard to qualify, and that is a concise set of prioritized statements that measure the condition of a product
• ·         Customer satisfaction
• ·         Customers continue to purchase form our business
• ·         Customer recommendations and
• ·         Higher customer loyalty
• ·         Lower marketing costs due to good references.
• ·         Quality can make a business stand out from the competition
• ·         Markets are highly competitive and customers know and demand more than ever so it's important as business's to establish a high quality brand reputation

 

References:

• ·         WHAT IS ISO 9001:2015 – QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS? https://asq.org/quality-resources/iso-9001
• ·         Barone, A. (july 28, 2020). Investopedia. Quality Management. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quality-management.asp
• ·         CFI. Quality Management. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/quality-management/
• ·         SciLife. Quality Management Process. https://www.scilife.io/glossary/quality-management-process
• ·         ASQ. WHAT IS A QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (QMS)? https://asq.org/quality-resources/quality-management-system