Business Studies may be defined as a combination of inter-related business subjects which lead to learning of basic knowledge and skills. It is a course in education that is designed to cover the basic elementary knowledge and skills in organizing business enterprises as well as general office administration.
A comparison of e-Government standards and practices used in the US versus those employed by other nations (EU, Canada, China)
Required Elements:
An introduction section that defines your topic, and describes why this issue is important. This section must include your Thesis Statement, which expresses the topic of your paper in the form of a one sentence statement.
A state of the art assessment/literature review of your topic. Examine the published works found in major academic and business publications (i.e., HBR, Sloan, Academy of Management Review, MISQ, ISR, Communications of the ACM). At lease half of your sources should be from high quality journals, industry reports, and books. Provide the reader of your report with a thorough understanding of the topic, current practices, competing technologies, management models, problems/issues raised by others, etc.
An analysis of the topic that draws on the material from class and from your reading. Your analysis should include as a minimum (necessary to receive a score of 85%) the following elements (alternative elements may be used with consent of the instructor):
An examination of implementation issues related to your topic
Additional elements germane to your topic. NOTE: To achieve a grade greater than 85%, papers must provide meaningful analysis beyond the basic requirements (a-e).
A conclusion section where you will provide a recommendation regarding the issue. Your recommendation must be supported by the material you found in your state of the art assessment and knowledge gained in the class.
Bibliography of all cited works.
Mechanics:
The Introduction / Proposal
This submission should be about 1-2 pages. The idea is to:
Identify your topic. Vagueness is NOT your friend. A vague topic ends when you run out of time, not when you’re finished.
Establish the topics importance (to an organization)
Identify any issues with the current state of how the topic is understood or applied
Thesis Statement for the paper. This is a single sentence that succinctly states what your paper will do or examine. This is not a laundry list of topics.
Provide references used (cited or supporting) as a separate sheet. These will roll into the final paper bibliography.
Full Paper
The final paper should be between 20 and 30 pages, double-spaced, and using 12pt Times Roman or Courier font. Use the APA guidelines for sections and citations. Place large graphics (screen shots, or charts that require more than half a page) in the Appendices. Do not leave large blank gaps in your paper. The cover page, appendices and the Bibliography do not count towards the overall page count.
Do I need to do the 1-2 page Introduction / Proposal first or I continue with the whole paper?
es I will only need 16 pages. You do not have to do anything with Canada at all. We have a group and basically that is someone else’s part.
Networking is a critical part of managing your career and like everything else related to your career, it must be done intentionally and strategically. Oftentimes we don’t consider networking until we need a new job and it is easy to appear desperate at that point. By building up your network before you actually need it, you are creating a safety net for yourself, minimizing the chances of needing to aggressively hit the job boards, and improving the odds of new opportunities actually finding you.
I have attached the paper guidelines, grading rubric, the case that you must read (pdf format), and the six ethical theories which you must choose ONE from. Please read very thoroughly the paper guidelines, grading rubric, case, and the six ethical theories to choose the best one out of the six. The paper is 8-12 pages with it being 1.5 spaced. This paper is worth a big part of my overall grade and I must do very well on it. If you have any questions let me know. Below I have given you what the professor sent to our class for more information…
Professor’s email to the class
I have attached the scoring rubric that I will use in grading your paper, and make sure you read it and cover all the issues in each section of the rubric. The rubric has 5 major grading areas that relate to the SUGGESTED subdivisions for your paper. You may combine various sections of the paper but I want headings so I can understand what you are doing and apply the rubric. Suggested, and only suggested subdivision headings are:
oDescription and explanation of the TS issue. A short explanation of the issue and its importance. For example, what were conditions like that caused Adam Smith to write the Wealth of Nations.
oHistory of the TS issue and why it is important. What is the importance of the issue today? Some of the issues don’t have a lot of history.
oArguments for and against the issue. What are the pros and cons of the issue from the two authors . More of a summary of the key points they make in their paper.
oYour recommendation based on your analysis. What would you recommend and why? This is your personal opinion supported by facts based on your reading and understanding of the two points of view.
oApplication of a selected theory or theories to the issue. Apply an ethical theory to your reasoning and recommendation..
oConclusion. Short summary of your paper. A couple of paragraphs describing what you learned and how it might influence your thinking.
Reading the editor’s comments before and after your issue should give you some insight and help you organize your paper and respond to the suggested points above.
.Instructions Read the scenario below. Then draft a 3–4 page business memorandum to Linda Hoff, Stanford’s CFO.In your memo, codify your findings and interpretations from the horizontal and vertical analyses and the level of alignment between the company’s fiscal management and its strategic direction. Include an Excel spreadsheet as an attachment to the memo. In this memo you will: 1. Review the year-over-year variances contained in the audited Stanford balance sheets and income statements, which are contained within the provided Week 5 Assignment Spreadsheet [XLSX] for fiscal years 2015 through 2018. You’ll be expected to pay particular attention to the negative variances (color coded in “red”) that you believe to be potentially the most impactful to Stanford. 2. Speculate as to the reasons for the negative variances. 3. Examine the common size balance sheets and income statements looking for abnormally low or high ratios based on what you know about the line item and what you observe in the data for the other fiscal years. 4. Look for patterns in the line items over time (2015 through 2018) and identify any unusual findings that may need to be examined further. 5. Make a judgement regarding the alignment of the organization’s fiscal management with its strategic direction of the firm. Fiscal management is based on your horizontal and vertical analyses. The strategic direction is based on the vision, mission, and strategic priorities of Stanford.
Purpose The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with financial statements, the need to align the financials with the strategic direction of the firm, and the process of performing a horizontal and vertical analysis of a company’s balance sheets and income statements.
The Scenario You’re a Healthcare Administration Fellow at the prestigious Stanford Healthcare. You have been rotating through the various departments over the past 9 months and now you have the honor of working under the mentorship of Linda Hoff, Chief Financial Officer. Stanford Medicine includes Stanford Healthcare, Stanford Children’s Hospital, and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. This organization uses an integrated approach to strategic planning, which incorporates jointly agreed upon strategic priorities from its various entities. It also ensures a high degree of congruency in strategic focus by each entity. Before outlining the strategic priorities for Stanford Medicine, it is important to take note that a firm’s directional strategy is comprised on three separate yet interwoven components: vision, mission, and goals (or, in this case, priorities). Armed with this knowledge, you have taken the necessary step and located and familiarized yourself with the vision, mission, and priorities of Stanford Medicine. Below is what you found. When examining a company’s financials, it is prudent to keep the directional strategy of the company in mind. After all, in order to advance many strategic priorities, which include fulfilling the mission and positioning the organization to achieve it vision for the future, it will require proper management of the firm’s scarce resources. Failure to properly manage the financial performance of the organization can compromise the company’s ability to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Our Vision Precision Health: Predict. Prevent. Cure. Precisely. We will heal humanity through science and compassion by leading the biomedical revolution in Precision Health.
Strategic Priorities A collaborative endeavor involving the entire community, the Stanford Medicine Integrated Strategic Planning process yielded a framework that is human centered and discovery led, focused on three overarching priorities for our enterprise. By enhancing our strengths and achieving our goals in these priority areas, we will amplify our preeminence and remain uniquely positioned to lead the biomedical revolution in Precision Health, ensuring our continued ability to guide health care through significant global changes.
Value Focused Provide a highly personalized patient experience. Ensure a seamless Stanford Medicine experience
Digitally Driven Amplify the impact of Stanford innovation globally. Deliver human-centered, high-tech, high-touch care and revolutionize biomedical discovery. Lead in population health and data science.
Uniquely Stanford Accelerate discovery in and knowledge of human biology. Discovered here, used everywhere: advance fundamental human knowledge, translational medicine, and global health. Ensure preeminence across all of our mission areas.
Variance Analyses Normally, managers are expected to examine positive and negative variances, and then speculate as to possible explanations for the observed variances. Following this initial assessment, managers would be expected to dig deeper into those variances of greatest concern to the organization in order to uncover the actual causes for the variances, and then implement necessary corrective actions. Digging into all variances would be costly and, quite frankly, a misuse of one’s time and energy. The CFO has asked you to conduct a variance analysis of the company’s consolidated balance sheets and income statements for fiscal years 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, which you began. You have determined the variances for each account (line item) captured in the financials. Now that this first step has been accomplished, the CFO would like for you to pay particular attention to the negative variances contained in the spreadsheet; and focus more specifically on those variances you believe to be potentially the most impactful to Stanford. Once you’ve completed your variance analysis over time, which is referred to as a horizontal analysis, you are ready to create a common size balance sheet and income statement of each of the 4 fiscal years (2015 through 2018). You prepared the common sized financials, which are captured in your spreadsheet. Now, it is time to perform a vertical and horizontal analysis of these common size financials. The common size balance sheet allows you to see each asset relative to total assets, as well as each liability and net asset (in the case of non-profit organizations) relative to total liabilities and net assets. In a common size income statement, each line item is expressed as a percentage of total revenue or sales. Common sizing balance sheets and income statements allows firms to compare against one another even though they may be of different sizes. It also allows a firm to benchmark its financial performance against comparative groups. In this case, there isn’t any comparative data to benchmark against; however, you can examine the ratios in each fiscal year and look to see if anything looks abnormally low or high based on what you know about the line item and what you observe in the data for the other fiscal years (vertical analysis). You can also look for patterns in the line items over time (2015 through 2018) and point out any unusual findings that may need to be examined further (horizontal analysis). In finance, it isn’t uncommon for the organization to establish interim goals and targets for certain line items in the financials. The firm can compare its actual performance against the established goals and targets.
Financial Management and Strategic Direction Once you’ve completed your horizontal and vertical analyses of the financial statements, you should be able to get a sense of how well management has managed the financial resources of the company in support of its strategic direction. In business, the strategic direction should be evident in its vision and mission statements and strategic priorities. The strategic priorities should help support the company’s mission, and the mission should help advance the firm’s vision for the future. Failure to effectively manage the company’s financial resources can seriously compromise the firm’s ability to fulfill its mission and subsequently the vision.
Business Memorandum to CFO Using the analysis that you performed on Stanford Healthcare and trends that you identified, write a business memorandum to the CFO.In your memo, codify your findings and interpretations, and make a judgment regarding the alignment of the organization’s fiscal management with its strategic direction of the firm. Attach your analysis in an Excel spreadsheet as an attachment to the memo.Your analysis and trends identified should take into account any feedback that you received from your professor and/or peers. Helpful hints: Negative variance is not always a bad thing. For example, you might see a slight increase in the operating costs; however, if you achieved a positive variance in the total operating revenue that outpaced the increase in operating costs, then that may be perceived as a positive outcome. Remember, you need to spend money to make money. We just want to make certain that operating costs/expenses don’t outpace the growth in operating revenues. Also keep in mind that some variances are useful in explaining other variances even if these variances are associated with different financial statements. For example, you may see an increase in operating costs, which is a negative variance, but an increase in current assets, which is a positive variance. Furthermore, you should look for patterns over time. This can reveal both positive and negative trends that may provide insight into the variances you discovered. For example, you may have noticed that a certain expense has continued growth over the past 3 years (negative variance); however, the rate of growth year-over-year has been declining. It could be that Stanford has implemented some cost cutting measures that are showing signs of working. The specific learning outcome associated with this assignment is: Audit financial statements and expenditures for alignment with organizational strategic priorities.
Couples who are unable to have children may seek treatment for infertility that can be quite expensive. Assisted reproductive technology can create many legal and ethical issues.
In 1,000-1,250 words, include major argument from the legal side and ethical side; explain why you agree or disagree with the arguments. Please consider the following issues:
