General plastics corporation instituted a new absenteeism control policy that took effect the first day of june. it expects the new policy to result in a 25 percent reduction in absenteeism the first year. like the previous policy, the new program counts vacation days as absenteeism. on the first of september, the personnel director evaluated the results of the program for the first three months and was disappointed to find that absenteeism had dropped only half of 1 percent.
what is the likely problem?

a. employees are resisting control.
b. the indicator of success was inappropriate.
c. control is inappropriately focused.
d. the standard is not specific enough.
e. a reduction of 25 percent is too much to hope for.

Jameson manages a well-known cell phone company. this company has been voted as having the best cell-phone service. consumers appreciate the fact that they can call from almost anywhere in the world and the service still gets through. jameson knows that the company's product far surpasses that of the competition. one thing has been bothering him, though. in order to put so many resources into ensuring the best service, jameson has cut back on employees at the firm's customer call center. recently, consumers have begun complaining about long wait times when they call in with a problem or concern. although its cell phone service is still considered one of the best, customer satisfaction with the firm's customer service has plummeted. jameson does not understand why consumers are getting so upset. he believes the exceptional cell phone service more than makes up for long waiting periods and other issues with its customer service. "after all," he says, "they can't have it all. if i invest more in customer service, that means less investment on ensuring the quality of our product offering."refer to scenario. jameson has asked you, a marketing consultant, to give him advice. he cannot understand how a cell-phone company with the best product offering in the cell-phone service industry could get such low satisfaction ratings simply because the customer service is not up to par. you suggest that jameson has a narrowly defined view of the company's product offering. you tell jameson that successful marketers should define their products as what they

You are chairman of the board of a successful technology firm. there is a nominal federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, yet the effective tax rate of the typical corporation is about 12.6%. your firm has been clever with use of transfer pricing and keeping money abroad and has barely paid any taxes over the last 5 years; during this same time period, profits were $28 billion. one member of the board feels that it is un-american to use various accounting strategies in order to avoid paying taxes. others feel that these are legal loopholes and corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to minimize taxes. one board member quoted what the ceo of exxon once said: “i’m not a u.s. company and i don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the u.s.” what are the alternatives? what are your recommendations? why do you recommend this course of action?

Thomas kratzer is the purchasing manager for the headquarters of a large insurance company chain with a central inventory operation. thomas's fastest-moving inventory item has a demand of 6,000 units per year. the cost of each unit is $100, and the inventory carrying cost is $10 per unit per year. the average ordering cost is $30 per order. it takes about 5 days for an order to arrive, and the demand for 1 week is 120 units. (this is a corporate operation, and the are 250 working days per year.)a) what is the eoq? b) what is the average inventory if the eoq is used? c) what is the optimal number of orders per year? d) what is the optimal number of days in between any two orders? e) what is the annual cost of ordering and holding inventory? f) what is the total annual inventory cost, including cost of the 6,000 units?