1. Compare Wyatt's buffalo hunting to the approach used by the old timers? Wyatt’s buffalo hunting approach compared to the old timers was very different. First Wyatt thought that the old timers had some flaws in their buffalo hunting method. The old timers expected to kill 100 buffalos a day The old timers would use five wagons and 20 horses, while Wyatt used one wagon 4 animals for harness and one to ride. Wyatt hired an experienced skinner and he financed the hunt while the skinner would drive and cook, and Wyatt would help skin and butcher the animals. 2. What are the key elements of business success from an operations perspective? The key elements of business success that were used from an operations perspective that Wyatt portrayed were efficiency and effectiveness. 3. Relate these ideas, that is, the ideas of key elements of business success in question two (2) above, to Wyatt's approach. Wyatt was efficient in his costs. Instead of having an over abundance of wagons and animals, he stuck to what was necessary to use in order to get the job done. Wyatt hired one person that was capable of skinning the buffalo and then took it upon himself to learn how to skin and butcher the buffalo in order to keep costs down. He placed a system in which all hides and meats were kept the same. Wyatt was effective in his consistency. He may not have had the most hides, but his daily counts were well above the average daily counts. This is something that his customers can rely on. 4. Were the buffalo hunters irresponsible in killing off the great buffalo herds as they did? How did their activities impact the environment?
The buffalo hunters were irresponsible in killing off the great buffalo herds to an extent. Due to the inefficient way the old timers went about hunting the buffalo. Because the old timers hunted on horseback, the buffalo were more likely to stampede and therefore if an old timer shot at a buffalo and only wounded them it could be killed by the stampede. Also because the old timers were there to make a quick buck, they killed more buffalo then was necessary to survive, they killed more buffalo than necessary in order to make more money.