• Based on your assigned readings, write a scholarly paper that contains: a) critical evaluation, b) comparative analysis, and c) discussion of the following subject areas:select 4 countries and give reasons for your choice; Identify the challenges facing these countries in the 21st century;Describe how these countries performed  during the recent global financial crisis;Give ethical perspectives of these countries relative to CSR;Explain the difference b/w these countries communication during international business negotiations;Identify what challenges and differences will MNCS encounter when developing a global strategy for each country? How will these strategies differ? and Provide a cultural comparative analysis of these countries relative to international business.

tanley Lynch Investment Group

The Stanley Lynch Investment Group is a large investment firm headquartered in New York. The firm has 12 major investment funds, each with analysts operating in a separate department. Along with knowledge of the financial markets and the businesses it analyzes, Stanley Lynch’s competitive advantage comes from its advanced and reliable computer systems. Thus an effective information technology (IT) division is a strategic necessity, and the company’s chief information officer (CIO) holds a key role at the firm.

When the company hired J. T. Kundra as a manager of technology, he learned that the IT division at Stanley Lynch consists of 68 employees, most of whom specialize in serving the needs of a particular fund. The IT employees serving a fund operate as a distinct group, each of them led by a manager who supervises several employees (five employees report to J. T.).

He also learned that each group sets up its own computer system to store information about its projects. The problems with that arrangement quickly became evident. As J. T. tried to direct his group’s work, he would ask for documentation of one program or another. Sometimes no one was sure where to find the documentation; it might turn out to be stored in an obscure place such as only on someone’s flash drive. Other times he would quickly get three different responses from three different people with three different versions of the documentation. And if he was interested in another group’s project or a software program used in another department, getting information was next to impossible. He lacked the authority to ask employees in another group to drop what they were doing in order to hunt down information he needed.

J. T. concluded that the entire IT division could serve the firm much better if all authorized people had easy access to the work that had already been done and the software that was available. The logical place to store that information was online. From experience at a previous company, he believed that the easiest way to compile the information would be to set up a shared web project called a wiki—an online document created through the collaboration of its users, who can look up or contribute information according to their knowledge and needs. The challenge would be how to get everyone to contribute, given that he had authority over so few of the IT workers.

J. T. started by working with his five employees to build a wiki offering basic information presented in a consistent format. Then he met with two higher-level managers who report to the CIO. He showed them the wiki and explained that fast access to information would improve the IT group’s quality and efficiency. He suggested that the managers require all the IT employees to put their documentation on the wiki, and he even persuaded them that this behavior should be measured for performance appraisals. This last tactic was especially significant because at an investment company, bonuses for meeting performance targets are a big part of employees’ compensation.

The IT employees quickly came to appreciate that the wiki would help them perform better. When they visited it, they could see from the original information that it would be useful. Adoption of the wiki was swift, and before long, the IT employees came to think of it as one of their most important software systems.

Questions:
1. Give an example of differentiation in Stanley Lynch’s orga-nization structure and an example of integration in this structure.
2. What role did authority play in the adoption of the wiki by the IT division at Stanley Lynch?
3. Describe how the IT division used coordination to achieve greater integration. 

Social networking Web sites create online communities of Internet users that eliminate barriers created by time, distance, and cultural differences. These sites allow people to interact with others online by sharing opinions, insights, information, interests, and experiences.  Members may use the site to interact with friends, family members, and colleagues they already know, but that they may also wish to develop new personal and professional relationships on the sites.

Social network advertising uses social networks to inform, promote, and communicate the benefits of products and services, and there are several advertising strategies.  Banner ads on social networks can either be displayed  to each visitor to the Web site or by using the information in user profiles, directed toward those members who would likely find the product most appealing.  People frequently make decisions based on input from their close group of friends and advertising and use an individual’s network of friends.  Company owned social networking web sites allow users to talk about new products, services, or improvements they would like to see and the company can implement customer-submitted ideas. Viral marketing is where users pass along a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth.

Many companies are using social media to advertise, collect information, or gather background on individuals. Do you think this is ethical?

Required work: 200 Words and 2 References in APA format

As identified in the UMUC Haircuts Case Study, there are at several areas where Myra’s business could use improvement, including:  Customer Scheduling, Employee Scheduling, Supply Management, Customer Information, and Marketing.  Over time, each of these will likely have an IT solution.  However, you know that if you could combine these into an enterprise system, you would be able to significantly improve the operations of UMUC Haircuts.  You begin your analysis by answering the following questions:

1. What opportunities are being missed when each little area (scheduling, supply management, marketing, and others) has its own “stove piped” data?  (Provide some examples.) 
2. What benefits will the UMUC Haircuts business realize if you implement an enterprise-wide system?  Identify how Myra as the manager will benefit from having additional information available. 
3. What types of decisions that she makes as the manager would be improved if she had all this information in one place? 
4. Would it make the most sense to start with a CRM, an SCM or an ERP system for UMUC Haircuts and why.  Keep in mind that additional systems and functionality could come later.