Only four (4) pages
Due Wednesday 8pm

Task and/or Project:

Prepare a “Summary” of your discussion with your boss the following days.  You may want to include what type of questions that you might want clarified by him.  NOW, SO NO ONE REALLY KNOWS WHICH DIRECTION THE DISCUSSION MAY TAKE:  Prepare two pages with the discussion that you are going to retire.  What are going to be your comments, rationization, and why.  Then, prepare page three and four with a discussion that includes the statement you have read and reviewed your “packet” and have decided that you want to continue for the remaining 5 years of your contract and the discussion should evolve around what type of environment is the next 5 years going to be.  Also, some thoughts need to be stated as to exactly what is expected of this “restructuring” and “downsizing” plan.   Do not repeat any of the above Case situation statements or facts/circumstances within the minimum 4 pages of your statement.

Deduction of points will result if these statements/facts/circumstances are repeated within the minimum or complete text of pages for this assignment.  To emphasize a twice made statement:  “Tell me something that I do not know.”
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You are a Senior V.P. , General Manager and Corporate Officer of 5 operational entities and two organizations which are legal entities (wholly owned subsidiaries of the parent company). These organizations are generating over $3 Billion dollars in operational revenue (10%) of the total revenue for the parent company and approximately 11% of the operational profit of the parent company.  You have an office in the “Ivy Tower” at Corporate headquarters, (Chicago) (as well as an additional office in Dallas and one in Frankrupt, Germany) and have operational oversight for over 5000 employees worldwide.  You have five junior Corporate Officers reporting to you. 

On Tuesday you attend a rare and exceptional, and without a lot of prior notice Corporate Officers conference at the Corporate headquarters.  All of the 267 Corporate Officers were in attendance.  You had heard that a major announcement was “in the making” and knew that it was related to a “White paper” that had been pressented to the Board of Directors summarizing the economic forecast for the next five years (1999-2004) and more specifically the projections for our industry within this same time period.  You know, because of your attendance at the meeting (as you had presented your product/service projections for the next 5 years) that the “White paper” indicates that the company “is going to hit the wall” as far as growth and the company’s capacity will be greatly underutilized going forward.  There was a large amount of dicussion of needing to take pro-active action before the company would be forced to “downscale” its operations.  Part of this situation was due to technology enhancement.  The company had loaded the communcations companies in the United States with third generation equipment.  Thus, the communications companies were not interested in the new fourth generation enhancements as Europe due to they had not yet obtained their return on investment and probably would not be for the next 4 to 7 years.  However, in Europe, the company had built manufacturing sites and introduced fourth generation equipment which was presently being “rolled out.”  However, the company’s competitive advantage has been eroded by major manufacturers in Europe (they had forgone the first and second generation of equipment and began their offerings with the third generation.  This had been very benefitical to the company over the last ten years but now the situation was presenting a different environment and climate.) Market share was not as great as it had been in the past and for that matter was beginning to reflect erosion.  The Board had cleared the room other than only members of the Board.  Therefore, the only operational individuals in the final part of the meeting had been the CEO, President and the CFO.  The CFO is your mentor but even he could not discuss the outcome of the meeting other than to remark that a major announcement would be forthcoming that would have major implications on everyone within the company. 

At the Tuesday meeting, the CEO announced, that the company would have to develop a huge reduction in capacity and size plan and each of the Corporate Officers would be involved in this development. But the biggest announcement was the Board of Directors had voted an early retirement program for its Corpoate officers.  Since the company would be reducing its scope and breath to a large extend, it was apparent that the company had too many Corporate Officers.  So as everyone exited the meeting a folder for each Corporate Officer filled with papers which outline the scope and extent of the early retirement which include parameters as to whether you were eligible.  You had not opened the enevolpe and simply placed it in your bag as you were about to begin a “marthorn” trip to Western Europe after meeting with your two major customer the next day in New York. 

The next day you met with the two major customers in New York.  They confirmed your projections for the next 5 years.  Although it was not an enjoyable meeting; they were still commited to the company for their future equipment needs.  Afterwards, you, your wife and the two men and their wifes attended a play in New York.  The evening went late as the group had a late dinner afterward.  Early the next morning your wife departed for the airport to return to Dallas; which was the primary residence, although one was kept in Chicago.  You had left a little earlier to fly to London to meet a major customer for a late lunch.  After the lunch meeting you flew to Paris to have an early dinner with another major customer.  Then, immediately flew to Brussels to meet a third major customer for drinks.  The three European customers vertified that they were good for their “backlog” and future orders for fourth generation equipment from the company.  You finally make it to bed around 11:00pm Belgium time.

The next morning with the wake up call, you had to take a few seconds to remember exactly where you were (and it did not have anything to do with the late drinks as you had only had one).  The car picks you up for the flight and the driver indicates that the flight is scheduled to be on time and has some fresh brewed coffee.  You are not hungry but know that the flight will be serving breakfast.  During breakfast about an hour into the flight you begin evaluating life and your current situaiton and status.  You know that lately you have been having thoughts that normally indicates that one has “burned out.”  Also, recently a granddaughter has been borned and you begin remembering how much time had not been spend with your two boys as they were growing up.  Both boys have completed their unviersity degrees, (one has completed an MBA), one is married, both own their own homes and both are well established in very good companies and appear to have rewarding careers ahead for them.  You also begin thinking about your relationship with your wife; specifically how she has never questioned your drive and pre-occupation with your career.  Oh, a few times, the two of you had a few thoughts about retirement but not anything of substance.  Economically life had been great and from that standpoint had enjoyed the benefits that came with the status.  After a few more thoughts reflecting on the past and trying to visionize the future, you reach for the bag and opened the envelope.

As you read the contents you note that the individual has to have had 10 years as a Corporate Officer (you meet this criteria) and be at least 50 years of age.  You especially note the dates which are being offered as you are 49 but will turn 50 within this period of the offering. What especially gets your attention is the dollar amount as an incentive to retire; but what is most appealing is that the company will “bridge” both your Officer pension and your employee pension to age 55.  (The company has a mandatory retirement for Corporate Officer upon reaching the age of 55 unless the person as obtained a “C” in their title as in Chief Financial Officer.) In effect this means that if you take early retirement prior to age 55 under this new offering your Corpoate Officer pension trust will be amended so that annunity payments begin at 50 and likewise with the basic employee pension plan.

You prepare a “plus and minus” sheet of retiring and begin a second page of emotional and mental issues to be discussed with your wife; and a third page of ideas of what life might be if retirment is taken and a fourth page of a pro-forma income and expenses including the input of the pensions.  You work on this the rest of the flight as it is a 8 hour flight from Brussels to Dallas.

Upon landing and exiting the plane, you lean over and “kiss” the skin of the plane and pat it stating “It has been a nice ride.”  The flight attendent remarks, “Well, thank you Mr. Basham.”  (She does not have a clue as to the meaning of your remarks).  You call your wife and suggest that the two of you go to dinner; and she states “oh, why don’t I just make us something here.” You state we need to go out as we are going to discuss retirement.”  She replies, ” I guess I had better put on a nice dress.”

You also called your boss, an Executive V.P. and schedule a meeting with him tomorrow at 10:00am.  You then call your administrative assistant in Dallas and ask her to make a reservation on the first flight to Chicago from Dallas for tomorrow morning.  

You will identify a specific evidence-based practice proposal topic for this project. You work at mental health hospital. The project topic can be a clinical practice problem, an organizational issue, a quality improvement suggestion, a leadership initiative, or an educational need appropriate in a mental health hospital. Examples of the integration of community health, leadership, and an Evidenced Based Practice can be found on the “Educational and Community-Based Programs” (Mental Health and Mental Disorders) page of the Healthy People 2020 website.

Write a 500-750 word description of your proposed project topic. Make sure to include the following:

1. The problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need that will be the focus of the project
2. The setting or context in which the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need can be observed.
3. A description providing a high level of detail regarding the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need.
4. Impact of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need on the work environment, the quality of care provided by staff, and patient outcomes.
5. Significance of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need and its implications to nursing.
6. A proposed solution to the identified project topic

You are required to retrieve and assess a minimum of 8 peer-reviewed articles CINAHL AND PUBMED ONLY.

Of course we can laugh when our parents and grandparents (or even we) reflect on the “good ol’ days” when life was simple and children played in the yard, made fun out of anything they could find, and spent minimal time in front of the “boob tube” and even less playing video games. But even if television, the media, film, computers/internet, and video games aren’t necessarily bad for children and teens, give some thought to what they are missing out on by spending so much time with these everyday “outlets.” What might they be doing instead and what might those other activities do for their mental, emotional, and physical health? Have we lost touch with human interaction/communication on some level? Have we come so far that it is too late to get some of that back?
Write 1 page essay with two sources

please answer those questions according the book.

• 1. Ch.9 – Using the security market line, answer the following questions:
  • If the risk free rate is 6% and the return on the market portfolio is 11.4%, what return would an investor expect on a security with a beta of 1.35?
  • If the potential investor observes that the stock is yielding 14.5% in the current market, is this stock overpriced or underpriced? Explain.
  • Given your answer in (b), what should happen to the price of the stock and why?
• 2. Ch.9 – If a security value is a function of the information give in problem 1 and all the participants in the market have access to the same information, why is it that stock prices fluctuate so many times each day?
• 3. Ch.9 – What are the 5 simple ideas conveyed by the CAPM?
• 4. Ch. 10 – Explain the principle of arbitrage? If markets are truly efficient, should arbitrage be possible? Why?
• 5. Ch.11 – Explain the 3 forms of market efficiency with respect to the concept of information transfer.
• 6. Ch.11 – What is the difference between technical analysis and fundamental analysis? What if the merit of each if markets are truly efficient?
• 7. Ch.11 – From the articles you have read and written on, do you feel that markets are truly efficient and in which form?
• 8. Ch.12 – Explain the concept of behavioral finance. How does relate to market efficiency?
• 9. Ch.14 – Bonds are issued by the Treasury, corporations, and municipalities. What are some common characteristics of these bonds and what are their differences? (risk, taxes, purpose for issue, how they are repaid)
• 10.Ch.14 – You have a bond that was issued 13 years ago with a coupon rate of 4.5% that is selling today in the open market for 85.34 per $100 of value. What can you say about the present YTM of this bond? What does this indicate has happened to market interest rates since they were issued? If this bond is callable next year, what could potentially happen if you are a holder of this bond?
• 11. Ch.14 – Explain how credit risk would effect a bond’s rating and ultimately the bond’s market price. How would the following affect the credit risk of a bond and why:
  • The bond has a sinking fund
  • The bond is subordinated to other debt
  • The bond is secured by collateral
• 12. Ch.17 – Explain the challenges of investment in foreign companies. Be sure to mention their economy, political climate and exchange rate.
• 13. Ch.17 – Your text lists 6 macro variables that might effect your investments performance. Choose one and explain in detail how it could impact the outcome of you investment.
• 14. Ch.17 – The Federal Reserve is the major influencing body of monetary policy. Suppose the Fed wishing to encourage economic growth by increasing the money supply. How could this positively or negatively influence your investment in a company? Is this effect different for cyclical vs. defensive companies?

Management FOCUS: NAFTA’s Tomato Wars

Summary

The opening case explores the conflict between U.S. and Mexican tomato producers. With the support of U.S. growers, the United States signed an agreement under NAFTA to establish a price floor on the price of tomatoes. However, U.S. growers later realized that the deal did not offer the protection from Mexican growers that they had anticipated. This led to lobbying for changes to the agreement―lobbying that was met with strong opposition from U.S. tomato companies that have operations in Mexico that would be negatively affected by the proposed changes to the agreement, and also from U.S. companies that supply Mexican growers.

QUESTION 1: Do you agree with the price floor policy for tomatoes that was initially established under NAFTA? Should the deal have been changed? Who benefits from this type of policy? Who is harmed?

QUESTION 2: Explore the long-term implications of the both the original price floor agreement and the more recent agreement to raise the price floor. Do U.S. tomato producers really benefit from these agreements? Why or why not? What other approaches could have been used to help U.S. tomato growers?