Week 7 Discussion

Welcome to Week 7 Discussions! Let's begin by discussing the difference between capital budgeting screening decisions and capital budgeting preference decisions.
According to the text screening decision are determined when solutions are measured against “preset hurdles” (pg. 628). For example there are certain predetermined phases that a solution would have to pass in regards to making a final decision. For budgets, their maybe certain profit goals or certain costs that need to be met in order for a company to move forward on either instituting a new product or cutting a product.
Preference decisions are made by measuring a solution to different alternative opportunities. I believe the decision is made from a team’s or individual’s preference after the solution has been challenged by each alternative opportunity.

How important is employee "buy-in" in a project? Please provide examples of projects that you have seen succeed and fail due to employee buy-in.
My company owns and develops the GRE which is now called the Revised General Test. It took 2 years for our company to revise the test along with many hours and sacrifices. The GRE is a test prospective graduate students seeking to get into schools who accept the test as a part of their admission’s process. The revised version was scheduled for a predetermined date but because it was not ready the powers that be (of my company) decided to continue the process of revision for the test. With that decision being made every department, manager, and employees had to cut down on their spending which caused the company (from what I believed to have happened) to begin re-evaluating its spending policies. Each department manager and employee did manage to cut back and cut expenditures and the company did end up saving money and also paying for the extra time and effort to revised and re-release the Revised GRE.

1.) Many companies have outsourced customer service/call centers. Locations where these services are now provided range from somewhere in the U.S. to foreign countries where wages are lower. What is your opinion on how quality has been, perhaps, compromised by this move?
The biggest difference in quality would be the language barriers. Currently at my job, the company that handles our technical questions and helpdesk issues outsource their helpdesk positions. I have on several occasions have been helped by individuals in which it was very challenging to understand what they were saying. There were times where I had to ask the individuals to repeat instructions that they were trying to give me and in some instances I would end the call nicely so that I could call again to see if I could get someone else.