...Jeff Shields New Venture Creation – DuVal Russell Simmons – Case Study 1) Early on, Simmons decided that he wanted to make his own way in the world. He wanted to live a fast-paced life and call his own shots. Even though he did not like school, he still enrolled at the City College of New York as a sociology major. 2) The target market that Simmons is trying to appeal to is that of urban teens and young adults. He understood that his target market valued authenticity and “keeping it real”. In his words, “You have to tell the truth. It endears you to the community. The people can smell the truth, and they’re a lot smarter than the people who put the records out.” 3) By growing up while being heavily influenced by hip hop music and culture, Simmons had a distinct advantage in reaching out to and understanding his target market.; as he is/was one of that target market. This is advantages for him because he can know and understand what artist and styles will make it big when it reaches the public due to his experience in hip hop music and culture. This can also be a limitation, because he may not have as much experience in other cultures and music styles, thereby limiting him strictly to hip hop and preventing him from spreading his musical venture. 4) Hold a charity basketball game in the New York City community that features appearances from professional athletes. The market research necessary to ensure that it would be a success would be researching...
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...Naheem Myles Professor Morelli Entrepreneurship & small business Spring 2014 Case Study: Extreme Entrepreneurship The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (EET) is the first and only nationwide entrepreneurship tour. Many small business development centers, economic development organizations, and schools have used the tour to bring together varied departments such as admissions, career planning, the business school and entrepreneurial centers on campus and in the local chamber of commerce. The combined effort helped to reach students, inspiring them to write down their goals and the steps to achieve them. Michel studied management and marketing and Sheena studied communications at NYU. While in high school Michael and his friend started their own web developing company which they sent in to the online search engines. The business started to take off and they were getting a lot of offers. Finally weeks later were hired to do their first project. Simmons and Newport’s confidence started to grow after every new commission they were making. . PWS was later rated the #1 youth-run web development company in the nation by Youngbiz Magazine. In order to further his knowledge and hone his skills, Michael took a course using a scholarship he won from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship to learn more about running a business. Michael has won three entrepreneur of the year awards from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Fleet, and the National Coalition for...
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...If I was a justice on the Supreme Court in Roper versus Simmons, I would have voted with a disagreement. Christopher Simmons stated that he wanted to kill someone. In a frightening and callous mind frame, Simmons discussed his plan to commit murder with two friends. He calculated how the burglary and murder would be executed and they getting away with it because they were minors. After one friend refused to participate, Simmons and the other friend entered the home of Shirley Crook. After reaching through an open window and unlocking the back door, Simmons turned on a hallway light awakening, Mrs. Crook. Simmons clearly knew that Mrs. Cook was home due to her response. In responding, he entered Mrs. Crook’s bedroom. Simmons recognized her from a previous car accident...
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...In the year of 2004, within the case of Roper V. Simmons it was led to believe a constitutional right had been violated. When Christopher Simmons had been sentenced to death for the murder of Donald P. Roper. The Missouri Court cited numerous laws that passed since 1989, that held national opinion which changed. Using the reasoning from the Atkins case, it was decided, 6-to-3, that it was not unconstitutional to execute minors, was no longer valid. Many appeals were made but, were not acknowledged by the court or its judges. Therefore Simmons was to remain in prison until it was decided whether or not his Fourteenth and Eighth Amendment were violated. It was a warm afternoon when Christopher Simmons knew exactly what he was getting himself...
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...Title: Roper V. Simmons Facts of the case: The respondent Simmons, at the age of 17, already had planned and committed a capital murder. When Simmons had already turned 18, he was sentenced to death. Although, when the court had already decided to execute Simmons, the court then held because due to the Eighth Amendment, through the Fourteenth Amendment, it is prohibited to execute a mentally retarded person. The Eighth Amendment says that excessive bail is not required, nor excessive fines imposed, and cruel or unusual punishments inflicted. Simmons decided to field a new petition for state postconviction relief, arguing that due to the Atkins’ reasoning that was established in the constitution do not approves the execution of a juvenile who...
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...Overview and Executive Summary This case analysis mainly focuses on Organizational behavior, Decision making, Organization’s culture, Diversity, Values, and Leadership behavior. Today relatively small differences in performance between companies, such as in the speed at which they can bring new products or services to market or in how they motivate their employee to find ways to reduce costs or improve performance, can combine to give one company a significant competitive advantage over another. Managers and companies that use proven management techniques in their decision making and actions increase their effectiveness over time. Companies and managers that are slower to implement new management techniques and practices find themselves at a growing competitive disadvantage that makes it even more difficult to catch up. This case is all about implementing new management techniques like empowering employees and engaging in adaptive organizational culture. Culture leads to predictable behaviors and attitudes that set one company apart from others. Strong agreement to the values, beliefs and norms that constitute culture results in strong relationship to behavior. When culture is well match to strategy, it become the most powerful strategy implementation tool available This case study mainly concentrates on the challenges faced by Simmons in implementing the change program. There is a resistance to change from both individuals and organization. On top of the resistance to change...
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...TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY Leasdille and Simmons Ltd is a small manufacturing company located in South London. The company makes sunglasses. The sunglasses are sold to supermarkets. The supermarkets then sell the sunglasses on to the general public as an own label item. The market for own label sunglasses is extremely competitive. There are many small producers like Leasdille and Simmons in the market who would love to have contracts with one of the major supermarket chains. Leasdille and Simmons have a contract to supply Tesco. However, their current contract is due to expire next year. Last week the Managing Director of Leasdille and Simmons met with Tesco’s chief sunglasses buyer in order to negotiate a new contract. At the end of a heated discussion Tesco announced that they would only re-new their contract with Leasdille and Simmons provided that they could get a price cut of 10% next year. Yesterday Meqele, the Managing Director met with Gemma, the Production Manager to discuss the implications of the new Tesco contract. “Look Gemma at present 60% of our turnover comes from Tesco. We might not like what they are offering but there are plenty of our competitors out there who would gladly accept Tesco’s new contract. Accepting a 10% price cut need not reduce our profits, so long as we can cut our costs by a similar amount. There’s no other solution, as Production Manager you have got to increase efficiency” Meqele went away from the meeting with an idea...
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...Organisational Behaviour is the study of what people think, feel and do in and around organisations. It looks at employee behaviour, decisions, perceptions and emotional responses. (McShane, Olekalns, & Travaglione, 2010) Case analysis The Case revolves around the professional lives of the three main employees of Simmons Laboratories. The so-called protagonist is a person by the name of Bob Knowlton, who is the lead on one of the projects at Simmons Labs. Bob reports to Dr Katherine, another important part of Simmons Labs. The third important person in this case is Elliot Haywood. He is a new recruit into Simmons Labs and at the outset, expresses interest in joining Bob’s team. Bob Knowlton: Bob is someone who has been with the Simmons Labs for about nine years when the case is prepared. He is shown to be someone who thinks like old school scientists who believe in the trial and error method. He tests rigorously before coming to any conclusions and is meticulous about the details. He does not hesitate spending time and poring over any analysis or decision. At the same time, even after being a nine year veteran, he still seems like someone who is still finding his foothold in the firm. However, he is not very open about his inner feelings and internally hurts. Elliot Haywood: Elliot comes across as a “Type A” personality. He was always in an urgent need to complete his work and did not care if in this process he was disturbing or annoying others. In the case it is mentioned how...
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...Leading Change at Simmons (A): The Challenges of Leadership in Managing Cultural Change in Large-Scale Organisations Introduction This case study examines the challenges of leadership and how they manage change in large-scale organisations. This particular case examines Simmons, a 130-year-old manufacturer and distributor of mattresses; it highlights the challenges faced by the newly employed CEO, Charlie Eitel, who has been hired by major shareholders, Fenway Partners to overhaul the organisation’s operation and initiate a turn-around in Simmons’ performance (Casciaro et al., 2005). Based on his experience at turning companies around to improve their operational and financial performances, Charlie Eitel introduced a number of changes on starting to work at Simmons, and his two main objectives were: “...to create a kind of company where everyone want to get up and come to work in the morning”, and “...to create the kind of company that other companies want to do business with.” Apart from change management, the case covers various management issues such as leadership, staff motivation, employee training, employee empowerment, team management, organisational change and adaptation, resistance to change, and organisational culture. All of these issues combine together to affect the performance of Simmons such that the organisation faced its toughest period ever since it was established. Another major challenge was the loss of three major customers due to bankruptcy, which make...
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...Nothing but Fruit’ by John Simmons ‘Innocent: Building a Brand from Nothing but Fruit’ reveals the great story behind one of the most loved brands, Innocent, the brand with its simple products – “fruit and nothing but fruit drinks”. Innocent’s story began with three college friends, Jon Wright, Adam Balon and Richard Reed, who insisted on having a business they could be proud of. Since the early days, they had a clear idea of the company’s objectives, namely, “to make fresh, healthy, natural drinks, to be Europe’s favorite little juice company”. They started the company from scratch and consciously built it into one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses in the food and beverage industry in 2005 with a plan to ‘keep everything natural’, a simple idea that tells it all (Simmons, 2008). The author of the book, John Simmons, is a brand consultant, a series editor for Great Brand Stories and a former director of Interbrand (Simmons, 2008). His book was written in the narrative style with a sense of humor making it easy and very enjoyable to read. Simmons mainly structured this book by following the five principles of the Innocent brand (Simmons, 2008). The book is divided into the following seven chapters: A Tasty Little Juice Company, Be Natural, Be Entrepreneurial, Be Generous, Be Commercial, Be Responsible and The Future’s Fruit. The information in this book was gained from a variety of sources from both inside and outside the company. Simmons interviewed the three founders...
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...Simmons Case Study In the year 2001, the Simmons Bedding Company was experiencing economic difficulties, which needed to be addressed for the company to maintain operation. Charlie Eitel, CEO of Simmons made the decision that the company had to make changes to its culture. A major change Charles Eitel contemplated was implementing the Great Game of Life (GGOL) program into the company. Introducing the GGOL program into the company will bring about positive changes to the company that will boost employee morale, employee performance, and subsequently improve the Simmons’ company. Simmons Background The Simmons Bedding Company is one of the biggest mattress and bed related products manufacturer in the United States. Simmons was founded in 1870, when Zalmon G. Simmons opened his first factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The company’s ability to mass produce beds since 1875 enabled the company to grow into one of the biggest companies in the United States (Casciaro & Edmonson, 2007). In the year 2001, The Simmons Company was facing hard times. It had lost three major customers, the US economy was suffering, and Simmons had to get rid of foam using for bed cushioning because it was bad inventory. In addition, Charles Eitel the CEO had discovered that there was friction between manufacturing plants and low morale throughout many of the company factories. Charles Eitel wanted to make significant changes to the culture of the Simmons Company. One of changes that has been debated is whether...
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...offenders as shown by various research studies. The process of maintaining public safety, successful integration of young offenders to the community, rehabilitation, skill development and treatment are the main goals of the juvenile system. As suggested by Howell, (2003), justice can never be served by forcing juveniles through a system never intended to process teenagers, moreover transfer laws have worsened the implications they intend to address. Juvenile justice system was essentially established because many teenagers were subjected to awful violations in adult jails and prisons hence resulting to the society as more hardened criminals. Placing young offenders in adult prisons heightens criminal behaviors after release according to the findings. There is well founded fear that several number of young offenders slated to be placed in adult jails are more likely to be assaulted ,commit suicide and raped. Juveniles are driven to desperation and abused regularly in adult prisons because they are not specific measures to protect the young offenders from the adult prisoners. My completes work Case summary Issue Roper v. Simmons’ main issue is whether the application of Death penalty on a person who committed murder at age 17 amounts to “Cruel and Unusual” sentence and thereby barred by the 8th and 14th Amendments (Dinkes, et al 2009) Facts The Supreme Court of the United States initiated a review of the case against Christopher Simmons to determine whether death penalty was...
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...Roper v. Simmons | March 4 2013 | Criminal Justice 245 | Mr. Cashdollar | Roper v. Simmons I. Introduction This paper will address the Roper v. Simmons 543 U.S551 (2005); it will specifically address the arrest, trial and the legal issues that arose. It will explain and identify the holdings of the lower courts and it will explain and identify the decision of the U.S Supreme Court. II. The Facts Christopher Simmons, who was seventeen years old, and two of his friends by the name of Charles Benjamin(fifteen years old) and John Tessmer (sixteen years old) had a detailed conversation about committing a murder. Christopher Simmons had a premeditated plan to which included, burglary (breaking and entering), robber and murder. Simmons wanted to bond and tie the victim and discard them off the bridge. Simmons convinced his two friends that they would not be convicted for these acts because they are still considered juveniles (under the age of eighteen). On September 9th at approximately 2 a.m. met up with each other to carry out Simmons plan to murder the victim. Tessmer, left the group after changing his mind, shortly after they met up. Simmons and Benjamin still decided to carry out the plan; they broke into the victim’s home by reaching through an open window and unlocking the back door. While they were in the Simmons turned on the hall light which woke up the owner. Shirley Crook asked “Who’s there?” Simmons followed the voice and went to her bedroom. Upon...
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...basic knowledge of financial reporting, economics and organizational behavior. Management accounting is a dynamic field and reflects many of the changes seen in business today. We will often use product-based companies to initially discuss a topic, and then expand our discussions to the service and not-for-profit sectors. Financial accounting is externally oriented and governed by fundamental concepts of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In contrast, managerial accounting is internally oriented. Managerial accounting is very context driven. Management accounting is more intuitively understandable than financial accounting. However, the material cannot be learned by ‘thinking’. You must work through the mini-cases, cases and problems, which are assigned for each class. The concepts and techniques must be used to see how they are developed and applied. Discussion in each class assumes you understand the material covered in prior sessions. Therefore, you must not allow yourself to fall behind. If you are not keeping up with the assignments, this was reflected in class discussion. Course preparation time for this course should be between 2 and 4 hours for each class session. Spending significantly more preparation time is usually ineffective. If you find yourself spending significantly more time preparing for class, contact me...
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...February 20, 2012 MEMORANDUM FROM: Graduate Student TO: Important Executive SUBJECT: The Case of Holy Medical Center Mr./Mrs. Executive, I am writing to you today to discuss the case of Holy Medical Center. In my review of this case a number of questions have come up that need to be addressed. Question 1 - Why did Dwane Hopkins fail as a clinic manager? Dwane Hopkins was hired to head Holy Doctors Medical Group. This new medical service organization (MSO) started out by bringing together six primary care physicians to form the initial part of this primary care network. However, it was hoped that in the long ran the practice would eventually support twenty more physicians. Their sponsor, Holy Medical Center, supplied the founding and income guarantee. Mr. Hopkins was hired at the time of hospital downsizing. He was someone the administration could spare to head this project. In addition, Mr. Hopkins had the backing of the COO who felt that Mr. Hopkins possessed good organizational skills. Unfortunately, Mr. Hopkins was never comfortable working with doctors and conflicts soon emerged over procedural and policy issues. In addition, Mr. Hopkins failed to provide the physicians with the feedback on the financial status of the practice. Mr. Hopkins was discharged from his managerial position because after eight months he has failed to make progress concerning both consolidation of the practice as well as physician recruitment. Question 2 - Was the hospital...
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