...Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon Books by Sidney Sheldon IF TOMORROW COMES MASTER OF THE GAME RAGE OF ANGELS BLOODLINE A STRANGER IN THE MIRROR THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT THE NAKED FACE WINDMILLS OF THE GODS THE SANDS OF TIME MEMORIES OF MIDNIGHT THE DOOMSDAY CONSPIRACY THE STARS SHINE DOWN NOTHING LASTS FOREVER MORNING, NOON & NIGHT SIDNEY SHELDON THE BEST LAID PLANS HurperCollinsPublishers This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and modems portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. HarperCollinsPuWisfiers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JU Published by HarperCollinsPuWisfcers 1997 135798642 First published in the USA by William Morrow & Co. ,997 Copyright 6 The Sidney Sheldon Family Limited Partnership 1997 The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 00 225660 6 ISBN 0 00 225662 2 (airport tpb) Set in Scala Printed and bound in Great Britain by Caledonian International Book Manufacturing Ltd, Glasgow All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopymg, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. This book is dedicated to you with my appreciation THE BEST LAID...
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...The Best Laid Incentive Plans Requirements • To analyse the case on the basis of conceptual frameworks discussed in the class. • Identify main problem, key issues, alternatives and solution/s for the problem identified. • The related concepts/frameworks should be explained in detail. Case Analysis Executive Summary The case presents an interesting concept of Organizational Behavior and Performance Measurement Systems. Hiram Phillips CFO and CAO of Rainbarrel Products introduced some changes and the company posted good results due to the same. Hiram felt that he had single-handedly turned the company's performance around. Some of the changes included cost cutting in budget, staff reductions by 10 %, introducing policies for customer care representatives, on time shipment policy etc. At the corporate executive council meeting, where the cost reductions and operating efficiencies were to be discussed and everything looked positive / rosy, until some questions were raised. Although Hiram’s numbers looked remarkable on paper, there were lots of things that Hiram was unaware of that were detrimental to the company as a whole. The main problem identified in the case is the shortcomings in the Performance Measurement Systems and the necessity to develop a PMS that meets both organizational and individual needs. Background facts In the case, “The Best Laid Incentive Plans”, the Chief Financial Officer of Rainbarrel Products, Hiram...
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...The Best Choice of Costing Plan Trident University Businesses must choose the most appropriate costing plan for their particular business by taking into account various aspects that are potentially impacted. For the cast of the Farm Financial Standards Council, certain allocations are considered in each department of the farming process in order to better manage financial aspects of the farm. Although some of these allocations may prove logical and assist in determining costing, some of the decisions may not be as beneficial in this case. This research will address those benefits as well as the potential drawbacks of such mentioned allocations, and if traditional cost accounting or activity based costing (ABC) would prove more relevant. ABC is being used in today’s businesses more often as it is an important aspect of manufacturing organizations, based on a “methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost objects” (Akyol, Tuncel, and Bayhan, 2005). So many factors go into the calculations of activity based costing, making it a more detailed form of financial management. The ABC system retrieves a total cost of a product, which is equal to the cost of materials, and also all of the activities combined to produce that product. Simply meaning, the ABC method is based around the organization utilizing all resources and linking the cost of those activities to the “outputs, such as products, customers, and services”...
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...second step is "Analyzing and Evaluating the Environments" which is the process to planning that allows the reality of the resources available within the work environment to become known so that the limitations become known as well. This step is very important and if one was to archive and create some form of database or collective data source on what is readily at hand that will and can be applied to the "plan" which could be physical resources needed for production, actual employee numbers, types of employees and their special skills, infrastructure in place and any aspect that may be possibly become an asset or liability. Simply knowing all surroundings and creating a proper catalog readily available for management and others of leadership would be a extremely useful resource in pushing forward towards a goal with correct knowledge of what the current values of any situation may be. The third step is "Identifying the Alternatives" which can be understood as Plan B or any other number of alternative plans in case everything does not go quite as planned and the current plan is...
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...MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS Choose the alternative that best completes the statement or answer the question. 1. The most important function of an accounting system is to: a. keep employees from embezzling funds. b. prepare accounting records. c. provide information from decision-making. d. Collect and record data. 2. The phases of an accounting system are: e. setting objectives, planning, analysis. f. identification, recording, analysis, reporting. g. evaluation, processing, output. h. none of the above. 3. The planning process for a business involves: i. setting objectives, long-term plans, and short-term plans. j. objectives and short-term plans. k. objectives and detailed budgets. l. long-term objectives, and long-term plans. 4. Control is best defined as: m. making the employees work harder. n. making the directors perform according to plan. o. giving orders. p. making events conform to plan. 5. Which of the following groups are users of financial information? q. Managers r. Lenders s. Owners t. All of the above 6. Four key qualitative characteristics of accounting information are: u. Understandability, identification, analysis and relevance. v. Control, planning, analysis and comparability. w. Relevance, reliability, comparability and understandability. x. Identification...
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...How to Create an Effective Change Management Plan Prosci's Change Management Toolkit is one of the most comprehensive guides for managers, project teams and consultants involved in change management. The toolkit includes detailed planning templates, readiness assessments and guidelines for building executive sponsorship and managing resistance. Templates include communication plans, training plans, sponsor roadmaps, coaching plans and resistance management plans. Based on research with more than 700 companies, The Change Management Toolkit is a leader’s guide that contains templates and guidelines to help you effectively employ change management and write a complete and professional change management plan. Assessment tools and implementation guidelines will help you implement an effective change management strategy.The Change Management Toolkit enables you to: * Manage the people side of change, not just the business side. * Develop a change management strategy for your project. * Create a communication plan. * Actively manage resistance to change. | Toolkit elements: * Change management overview - what is change management, why is it important, what can I do to manage change effectively * Assessments - tools for evaluating your change and your organization's readiness for change * Templates - critical document templates for planning and executing change management - provided on CD-ROM * Theories and perspectives - a practical discussion of change principles...
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...A Sales Plan Defined Our sales plan should be short, simple and to the point. It's basically our strategic and tactical plan for acquiring new business, growing our existing book of business and making and/or exceeding our sales quota within our sales territory. Typically, a healthy mix would include 75 percent of your sales quota from new business and 25 percent of your quota from add-on business from your existing customers. There are four basic parts of a sales plan: 1. New business acquisition strategies 2. New business acquisition tactics 3. Existing business growth strategies 4. Existing business growth tactics Before you start, you need to get a handle on some definitions: • Sales quota: This critical element of your plan sets the tempo of your efforts throughout the year and provides quarterly, monthly, weekly and even daily sub-goals for you to achieve. • Sales territory: Refers to the geographic area, list of named accounts or specific market niche you have been assigned to in which you are to sell your products, services and solutions. • Strategies: The plan necessary to accomplish your goal. • Tactics: The steps necessary to carry out the plan. New Business Acquisition Strategies and Tactics Include the following four strategies in your sales plan. Remember, these strategies are all designed to capture new customers and new market share. Important note: The strategies are numbered and the tactics are italicized. 1. Exceed my quota. • Send no less than...
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...mission and priorities. Strategic planning involves a structure or framework, a set of procedures (both formal and informal), and of course content. Beyond these basic elements, the underlying assumptions about strategic planning are that the future can be anticipated, forecasted, managed or even controlled, and that the best way to do so is to have a formal and integrated plan about it in place. The process of planning itself may turn out to be more important than the results, and that process requires, as Mintzberg suggests, both analysis and synthesis. Planning simply introduces a formal “discipline” for conducting long-term thinking about an institution, and for recognizing opportunities in and for minimizing risks from the external and internal environments. Among the hundreds available, perhaps the most well-know model of strategic planning has the SWOT (for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) appraisal of internal and external environments as its centerpiece. But whatever the model, following decades of research across hundreds of organizations, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of strategic planning is mixed at best. So, why plan? Again, the answer may lie in the process itself; like the ritual rain dance, planning improves the dancing, if not the weather. 2 But...
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...Boeing Manages to Plan March 22, 2011 Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. Boeing has more than 158,000 employees in over 70 countries, including the United States (Boeing.com). This company is known for its innovation and seems to constantly make plans to stay ahead of the competition. A portion of their mission statement includes “we will strive for continuous quality improvement in all that we do, so that we will rank among the world’s premier industrial firms in customer, employee, and community satisfaction” (Boeing.com). It is clear that this company relies heavily on its management staff and planning teams. It is common knowledge that Boeing consists of two business systems which are Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Defense, Space, and Security. The corporate functions that guide Boeing are Business Development and Strategy, Communications, Engineering, Operations and Technology, Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and the Office of Internal Governance. Each department has its own set of goals and objectives to evaluate and implement with the company’s overall mission in mind. The Business Development and Strategy team is an extension of the management, marketing, and research teams, they provide information and advice on the business goals. Shepard Hill is the head of Boeing’s large Business Development and Strategy team. His role includes “analyzing...
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...change and communicating it effectively ▪ monitoring the progress of the changes (sponsor/agent and targets) ▪ understanding the change (targets) ▪ identifying lack of infrastructures/staff/training to support changes ▪ setting achievable time frames and goals ▪ setting roles and responsibilities ▪ motivating people within the change ▪ increasing efficiency ▪ increasing transparency Issues to consider: “culture and behavior” ▪ Change begins before final aim is identified or sponsor identified (e.g. lost of contract) ▪ Emotional reactions to changes are difficult to plan and time should be given to manage those reactions effectively. Emotional reactions maybe caused by: 1. Company goal vs group goals or individual goals and reactions are not easy to plan 2. Effect of the change on the private sphere of individuals (e.g. relocation). Time should be given to adjust to the changes or appropriate financial support when applicable ▪ Diverse background/work conditions/culture require different planning and communication strategies ▪ Flexible and critical tasks of the change have to be identified, reviewed and changed when possible How to ensure a smooth transition ▪ Meet with senior staff involved in the change to discuss all aspects of it to try to ensure nothing is left unconsidered and therefore unplanned for. ▪ Ensure all individuals involved are...
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...Ethiopia has done its best to develop and attract new companies to establish in their country. In addition the government has created a plan that will help increase import, export and new trade agreements with other countries. However once companies have settle, they must have an exit strategy plan set in motion in case the business don’t succeed. Diversification is the best exit strategy that will suit Harley Davidson in its new venture. HD can gain vital knowledge from Ethiopia and apply it to produce much needed products that can help overcome the existing odds for the company. In addition the company can also diverse in expanding its business to other areas; diversification is suggested for the company in this specific country because the company and the products are new to the market and previous information shows that low cost products work in Ethiopia. Nonetheless Harley Davidson can gain profits in others sectors if develop. However if Harley Davidson decides that diversification is not the best exit strategy and they want to close the business and take its losses, Liquidation of Assets would be the exit strategy suggested instead; only if no debt is pending. This will allow the company to find a suitable buyer willing to buy all the products at a reasonable price, remember that HD products are worldwide known quality products that most men wish to have. Nonetheless in liquidation negotiations not much money is gained. Shutting down the company will be another option...
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...In today’s economy, keeping the morale of the sales force in a high gear is vital if a company is to achieve profitability. One of the factors that boost the morale and productivity of the sales force is a reward program that recognizes and addresses their needs. It is in the company`s best interest to keep the sales force motivated for higher sales revenue and elevated levels of financial growth. To assist in understanding the impact and role played by reward programs, General Motor`s compensation plan will be used as a guide in creating an effective workforce compensation program (Hay Group., 2001). An effective compensation program needs to incorporate the aspect of fairness .This means recognizing each employee`s worth and value contribution to the ultimate success of the company. The reward program needs to be impartial to all employees involved so that it can gain unfailing support from every member of the sales team. An unfair program will create conflict and division amongst employees and cause resentment and discontent amongst those who feel sidelined by the program (Clow & Baack, 2012). It will hinder the smooth running of operations as employees get involved in a battle to counter each other’s efforts thus leading to reduced levels of productivity. The vision and mission of the company should also be considered when hatching a reward program. It is only by aligning it to the core values of the company that it will attain sustainability. The rewards program will be...
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...delayed of productivity at the plant. So Bent suggested Although, a Scanlon plan had been good over a seven-year period and sales had fourfold, downturn hit the industry. Because, the plan had outlived it’s usefulness. The employees had become accustomed to the plant’s substantial bonuses stopped, so the workers responded with anger. Engstrom Auto Mirror plant had faced difficulties by the late 1990s. the management at that time was training to used technology to improved it’s production line. But the plant manager lacked the knowledge with technology necessary to find solution quickly and was unsuitable at working. On anther hand, Scanlon plan had outlived it’s usefulness because the employees had become accustomed the plan’s substantial bonuses. Therefore, Engstrom Auto Mirror plant was too small which makes it easier to accommodate the complexity of multiple plans. Money is important motivation to help workers to improve plant’s p products. But if plan don’t development the the workers might be don’t care about the quality and deliver products on time. According to Bent 2006 if the plan outlived its usefulness, the workers had become feel Engstrom Auto Mirror had redesigned it’s production lines to incorporate new technology. Also Bent organized atrip for a team workers to visit another plant that had implemented Scanlon. To find out the best way to implement the Scanlon plan’s. In 1999 was involvement of stuff for discussion...
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...CheckPoint: Incentive Plans Peggy Harrington HRM/240 J. Scott Lodge March 8, 2012 Axia College CheckPoint: Incentive Plans Companies utilize various incentive plans to acquire the best and most skilled employees. The incentive plans can be broken down into individual incentive plans and group incentive plans. Below are a few of the pros and cons for each type. Individual Incentive(s) Piecework Pros - Individuals receive a certain rate for each unit produced Computing rate of pay is simple Labor costs are more accurately predicted Cons - Not an effective motivator Quality may be lacking Standard Hour Plan Pros - Based on “standard time” for job completion, even if completed in less time Best for non-repetitive tasks and requiring varied skills Cons - Quality can suffer due to employees not taking enough time to do the job properly High equipment maintenance due to employees not exercising proper care of the equipment Bonuses/Spot Bonuses Pros - Not part of base pay Typically given at end of year Useful as a retention and motivational tool Cons - Hard to predict labor costs Employees may come to expect the bonus Merit Pay Pros - Based on performance Can be a motivator if increase is large enough Cons - May be perpetuated even if performance declines Employees see it as an entitlement ...
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...making deadlines/quotas because you make plan so that everything will settled down according before or after the scheduled time. Time management Developing time management skills is a journey that may begin with this Guide, but needs practice and other guidance along the way. One goal is to help yourself become aware of how you use your time as one resource in organizing, prioritizing, and succeeding in your studies in the context of competing activities of friends, work, family, etc. First: try our exercise in time management: How do you spend your time each day? Strategies on using time: These applications of time management have proven to be effective as good study habits. As we go through each strategy, jot down an idea of what each will look like for you: * Blocks of study time and breaks As your school term begins and your course schedule is set, develop and plan for, blocks of study time in a typical week. Blocks ideally are around 50 minutes, but perhaps you become restless after only 30 minutes? Some difficult material may require more frequent breaks. Shorten your study blocks if necessary-but don't forget to return to the task at hand! What you do during your break should give you an opportunity to have a snack, relax, or otherwise refresh or re-energize yourself. For example, place blocks of time when you are most productive: are you a morning person or a night owl? Jot down one best time block you can study. How long is it...
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