For this discussion, you will introduce your course project topic by uploading a brief presentation.

The topic of the course project will be any species native to your area. The organism should come from one of the four major kingdoms (Protist, Fungus, Plant, or Animal) and be indigenous to the area in which you reside. The organism should not be a domesticated pet but rather a species that is native to the local area where you live. You should make sure to select a different species than your classmates – so include the name of your species in the title of your post.

1. Create a narrated PowerPoint presentation (or other multimedia program as approved by your instructor)
   • (2-3 slides) and upload it as a file attachment to your discussion post.
2. Your mini-presentation should include the following:

• Your name, date, class name and Instructor name
• Common and scientific names of the organism. If you need help writing a scientific name, check out this great resource from Chomchalow (2001): http://www.journal.au.edu/au_techno/2001/oct2001/howto.pdf
• Area of residence (city, state, country, etc.)
• Why you chose this organism

• NATIVE IN EITHER CHANIA, GREECE. MANAMA, BAHRAIN. OR HONOLULU HAWAII.

Must be in second person, Your thread must be 300–350 words. must have sources! When addressing each specific topic, integrate relevant ideas from the various course texts and materials. In your replies, extend the discussion by analyzing and building upon your classmates’ ideas. Threads and replies must demonstrate course-related knowledge and assertions be supported by references in current APA format. Use first person and single-spaced formatting and indent new paragraphs. Your threads and replies must be well written, well organized, and focused.

Davinishia Franklin

Discussion 1: Week 1

COLLAPSE

Measurement before Management

Richard Brusher works for a major global food & beverage management company. His corporation has decided that his talents, honed as head of strategy for the brand, need to be targeted towards the north-eastern sector of the United States. This region has sixty-four restaurants and is presently the corporation’s weakest performing region. Of particular concern to his boss is the ability of one of the competitors in the region to respond to market forces more readily, leaving the company at a major disadvantage. One competitor in particular always seems to have its finger on the pulse and adjusts its menu pricing perfectly to meet shifting demand seen in the region. It packages deals constantly to meet with high approval, and owners couldn’t be happier.

Having been burned from the many “if you buy it, they will come” computer solutions offered by many dot com vendors, management is skeptical of purchasing new systems. Fortunately, Richard has a history of solving problems with little increased spending due to his ability to manage and use information effectively. Management is in clear agreement that the company presently at a competitive disadvantage. Rather than react to every new offering a competing restaurant may introduce to the marketplace. Richard and his boss concur that the best strategy to compete is to better use information and to build a solid foundation of smart business practices blended with customer focuses services and quality food & beverage offerings. The following five goals have been established and will be used as the basis of measuring Richards performance over the next year:

• Increase revenue by 5%
• Increase customer covers by 6%
• Increase Guest Service Index (GSI) scores to 3.5 (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most satisfied and 1 being the least satisfied)
• Decrease food cost by 5%
• Reduce employee turnover by 15%

Current Systems

Luckily for Richard, each restaurant recently upgraded its technology applications portfolio. Currently each restaurant shares similar network infrastructure and common operating system. High-speed internet access is available at all properties on personal computers using Microsoft Windows Software, despite being upgraded, has not been standardized throughout the company. Among the sixty-four restaurants in Richards region, there are three different restaurant POS systems, and three different database architectures in use. Additionally, work processing, spreadsheets and other productivity software differ from property to property. Browser software is equally divided in the company between Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Current Procedures

Report compilation and dissemination requires each restaurant auditor to fax flash reports to the regional office where the numbers are entered manually into spreadsheets so that a consolidated report for the region can prepared. Comment cards, the sole measurement of the GSI scores, are mailed to the corporate office each week. The corporate office compiles the scores to create the GSI index and then mails a printed report to the regional office each month. The food and beverage director submits bi-weekly purchasing history and nightly sales data to the restaurant manager who compiles the data and emails a series of reports to the regional office. Each month, the regional office emails a series of summary financial and operating reports to the corporate office and each property in the region detailing actual performance versus budget and year-to-date-statistics. These reports are then reviewed by the general manager and become subject to discussion in manager meetings in each restaurant.

Richard has some great ideas for a new strategy, He knows that he has to be able to measure what he is about to manage. Our learning activity is based on that theme.

Learning Activity

• What are the key problems facing Richard and his organization as described in this scenario?
  • If you were in Richard’s shoes how might you go about addressing these challenges?
  • What would be your strategy and why?
  • Be sure to provide appropriate justification and a specific (i.e., detailed and measurable)action plan.
• Before any action is taken, what managerial measurements must be implemented for the company’s five goals, and how should these be implemented?
  • What procedural changes are required at each property and at the regional and corporate offices?
  • How should these changes be introduced, and who should lead the change effort?
• Would any of data required access restriction?
  • If so, who should have access, and to which data?
• Evaluate the technology applications portfolio and infrastructure for Richard’s company.
  • What are the strengths and limitations?
  • In what ways is technology being used effectively?
  • Where is there room for improvement?
  • What changes would you suggest and why?
• If you were to design a balanced scorecard approach for measuring and monitoring performance and the overall health of the organization for Richard’s company, how would you go about it?
  • Where would you start?
  • What issues might you face, and how would you overcome them?
  • What would your proposed balanced scorecard look like?

I have an essay for reference but I need it reworded.

Requirements: With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 many Americans felt that the issue of race had been “solved.” Yet the the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, both disagreed with this triumphalist rhetoric. There was indeed a much more intractable component of civil rights that went beyond legal inequality–social (or economic) inequality and its overlap with race in the United States. Write a paper in which you analyze how these two leaders defined Civil Rights after legal equality and voting had already been guaranteed. Why did they argue there was more to be done? In what ways were the two men in dialogue?

Think about what the authors’ agendas were and analyze the documents in the context of the early or later 1960s. Who or what were the authors in dialogue with? That is, who or what was the target of the piece? And how were the authors defining the relationship between freedom and what it means to be American? Remember, your argument can only be answered using the document you are analyzing. So you can NOT, for example, argue that MLK was right (that’s your opinion) or Betty Friedan’s argument led to a backlash (even if it did you can’t support that using her document). Therefore, the argument you make has to be supported using their words. Analyze THEIR arguments and what they meant, not external facts.

Quote the text to support your argument and don’t let those quotes speak for themselves, analyze what they mean and be explicit in showing how they support your argument(s). In other words, tie them back to your thesis.

Your paper should be about 4-5 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 point font.

I put the essay below along with two documents if you need them