Thursday, October 31, 2019

Stop the Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Stop the Massacre - Essay Example Palestinians only get to hear of the data regarding their fellow citizens who have passed due to the conflict. However, the reporting is also compromised by media houses that are rooting for a western perspective, which has labeled Palestinians as terrorists yet the majority of Gaza residents are peace-loving citizens and have no arms that threaten Israel’s peace and tranquillity. The Israel army claims that it is undertaking surgical strikes aimed at only killing Hamas fighters (Yaakov 1). However, the grim reality on the ground paints a different picture. Most of the dead are innocent civilians who include children, women and the elderly. The support of the western nations for the conflict points at the eroded moral values of the strongest nations, which ought to stand for the enforcement of human rights. The above story paints a bleak future for Gaza’s residents who have become used to the torrential blasts of Israel mortar. This is a story about the contrast in the lives of Israelis and Palestinians. On the onset of the operation dubbed protective edge, Israelis, in amusement, watched from cinemas and cliffs facing Gaza as their army bombarded Gaza from the air leading to the death of innocent people (Yaakov 1). The Israelis, whom the army claims to be protecting, were celebrating as it pounded and destroyed the lives of Palestinians. This was in contrast to the picture painted by Israel’s media, which claimed that its citizens live under the constant threats of rockets. The war against Gaza was based on a false premise publicized by the Western-backed media so that world can turn a blind eye on the atrocities that are occurring during the military incursion into Gaza. The result of this war is the creation of a modern-day concentration camp and the death of even the unborn babies in the wombs of Palestine’s women. Palestinians cannot leave Gaza since they will be exposed to attacks.  

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Business mangament Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business mangament - Essay Example The underlying objective is to meet client demand with the desired tastes and preferences. Resource utilization is a critical aspect to monitor in operations management. The operations management purvey herein can take a number of forms, with the most commonly employed being strategic, tactical and/or operational. Activities that characterize each of the three depend on the operational decisions reached at an individual organization level. This is done by evaluating and assessment the market, customer base and the industry trends. The aim is to strike a long lasting relationship between stakeholders, so that the operational aspects of the firm are effective and efficient prior to the firm’s product and/or service line. The focus of operations management is primarily rooted in fundamental players in the business environment. These players highly influence the functionality and success of firms’ business aspects. Operations management focuses on the customers, suppliers, shareholders, employees and the society (Kumar, 2006, p.153). Customers are the main driving factor in the market. This is because they create market demand, prompting supply of products and services. In the case of shareholders, organizational welfare consequently influences shareholder wealth. The employee aspect of operations management accounts for working conditions at the workplace. Through corporate social responsibility, operations management integrates the society into the firm’s operations. This is done to ensure that business activities by a firm do not affect the society negatively. Based on the interests and the focus of operations management, five specific objectives are pursed. These are: quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost (Khanna, 2007, p.382). Quality addresses product and/or service specifications conformity. In other words, the quality of

Sunday, October 27, 2019

The Unethical Business Practices Of Shell Commerce Essay

The Unethical Business Practices Of Shell Commerce Essay Unethical practices by organizations are frequently increasing as the pressure to compete and succeed compels them to ignore the ethical and moral aspects of their practices and decision-making. In order to maximize value for its shareholders and gain profitability, Shell ended up bribing the Nigerian officials to  make it easier to import their goods and equipment, in order to avoid customs duties, extend contracts and lower tax etc. Therefore this report investigates and scrutinizes Shells unethical practices in context to its the moral code of ethics and recommends Shell to be more ethical in their practice. 1.3 Introduction As globalization increases many organizations indulge in unethical practices to achieve growth and profit maximization. Consequently, the examples of such companies include LOreal, Nike, Wal-Mart, Shell etc. Shell, is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. They have their headquarters situated in Hague, the Netherlands.  The parent company of the Shell group is Royal Dutch Shell plc, which is incorporated in England and Wales. Shells operated in more than 90 countries and has an approximate of 93000 employees. Their production mainly consists of forty eight percent of natural gas and around 3.3million barrels of gas and oil is produced per day. Shell has established forty three service stations worldwide. According to a survey conducted in 2010, theyve sold an estimated 145 billion litres of fuel. The Company has two main streams, upstream which explores for and extracts crude oil and natural gas and Downstream which refines supplies, trades and ships crude worldwi de, manufactures and markets a range of products, and produces petrochemicals for industrial customers. According to their financial report of 2010, with the capital invested of $30.6 billion and $1 billion in Investment in research and development, they had an income of $20.5billion with revenue of $368.1 billion (Shell, 2010). 1.4 Historical Background Shell was born during days of the oil boom and started out in the shadow of John D. Rockefellers Standard oil monopoly. Royal Dutch/Shell was the result of a merger in 1907 between the British-based Shell Transport and Trading Company, which pioneered the use of seagoing oil tankers and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, which made its fortune developing new oil fields in Borneo and Sumatra. Marcus Samuel was an enterprising fellow who decided to greet ships returning to England from India, Japan, Africa, and the Middle East and offer to buy any trinkets and curious that sailors had collected abroad. In the 1890s, the French Rothchild family decided to go into business exploiting the oil fields opening up in Baku in Russia. Needing a partner to help them transport and sell the oil, they turned to Marcus Samuel the younger. After a brief trip to the Caucasus, Marcus Samuel decided that the only way to take on the near monopoly grip that Standard Oil held was to radically reduce oil tr ansportation costs. During that time kerosene was transported in crates of tin containers. Loading the fuel into these relatively small containers, crating them, and loading them onto ship as time consuming, expensive and inefficient, Samuel argued. It would be much preferable to just pipe the oil into a tanker ship. In 1907, Sir Marcus Samuel and Henri Deterding merged the Shell Transport and Trading Company with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company to create Royal Dutch/Shell. The company is owned forty percent by the Shell Transport and Trading Company and sixty percent by the Royal Dutch Petroleum (History of Business, 2010). In the 1980s, Shell sought to grow through acquisition. It bought out the remaining 30% shareholding in Shell Oil in 1985 to consolidate its American operations. The 1980s saw the development of offshore exploration projects, which were in much more challenging conditions than had previously been attempted.  The 1990s Shell saw the technology of biomass fuels and Gas to Liquids make giant leaps forward.  Shell was criticized over the Brent Spar episode in 1995, which centered on its plans to dispose of the storage platform. The Group learned that public opinion had become much more sensitive to environmental issues. In the next decade, the Group worked much harder to open a dialogue with interested parties regarding its environmental impact and to develop good relations with the communities affected by its work. Another problem to hit the Group arose from its presence in the Nigerian region of Ogoniland. The tribal minority in the Ogoni were aggrieved with the Nigerian government because they felt denied a proper share of federal revenues from the oil, and what they saw as other fundamental human rights. Their champion was the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. The oil companies were targeted as collaborators with the corrupt government. Shell was accused of environmental despoliation. The story achieved international notoriety when Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues were sentenced to death by hanging for their activities. Shell has since strived to follow a policy of demonstrating its community of interests and reciprocal good feeling with both the governments and the local populaces it deals with. The 1990s were notable for Shell for the development of the LNG gas business. Improved transportation and rising demand made this area of the Groups activities increasingly important and are expected to continue to do so in the first decades of the twenty-first century (Shell, 2010). 1.5 Report Preview This report examines various unethical practices of Shell. Firstly, it investigates upon the historical background of Shell. Moreover, we have related Shells immoral issues to the ethical theories. Along with these principles we also suggest some recommendations which could be reasonably essential for Shell to operate in a better and efficient manner. Finally, the report concludes with importance on ethics, corporate social responsibility and with our suggestion on its unethical action. 2.0 Shells Unethical practices: In 2010, Shell was accused of bribery practice with Nigerian officials in order to gain profit. Shell bribed Nigerian officials to make it easier for them to import goods and equipment, get lower taxes and avoid the customs. Shell said that it paid 2 million U.S Dollars to its Nigerian Workers in its deep water Bonga Project. Shell actually knew that part of the money will go to Nigerian officials whom will make shell avoid the customs process. This will give shell an obvious competitive advantage in the market. Shell actually gained $14million profit from this bribery of the Bonga project. Shell will pay $48.1 million dollars in order to settle probes by the U.S Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. In January 2004, fraudulent overstatement of proven hydrocarbon reserves by Shell in Form F20 returns filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission(John Donovan,2007). Shell has given misleading and wrong statements about its reserves. It paid a $120 million fine for this claims settlement. One of the famous unethical practices by Shell was causing the high levels of pollution in Nigeria.40% of shells oil spills worldwide was in Nigeria. The oil spill also caused water contamination. It caused oil pollution in the Ogoniland region for the past 40 years or so. The pipelines were built in front of the peoples houses and in their farmlands. They suffered oil leaks through the pipelines. This has totally destroyed the environment over there. It killed the aquatic life; killing many fishes. Also enveloped the land with oil. This has been really devastating for the Ogoni people, economically and healthy, since their economy depends mainly on fishing and farming. People suffered respiratory diseases such as bronchial asthma; and cancer. Lots of vegetation is dying, especially Mangrove swamps, due to wastes of oil in the Niger River. The reason Shell has been successful in doing these unethical practices in Nigeria is because they used to bribe the Nigerian officials frequently to ease the process. Royal Dutch Shell Blames oil spills on sabotage to its equipment ( Chima Williams,2009). This explains how rude and unethically they take responsibility for their awful actions. According to the Covalence ethical ranking in 2008, saw Shell in the 510 position out of 541 multinational companies. Covalence s ethical quotation system is a reputation index based on quantifying qualitative data and It is a barometer of how multinationals are perceived in the ethical field(John Donovan 2009). The covalence ethical ranking is based on important issues such as Human rights policy, Waste Management, Labor standards and product social utility. A research done by Management and Excellence in 2005 sees Shell as the number 1 most ethical oil company in the world. But by the end of 2011, Shells position is expected to deteriorate much due to the bribery scandal it suffered for the last few months. 2.1 Conoco Phillips: Conoco Phillips is a Non-government owned American oil and Gas Corporation. Its the 3rd largest of the oil majors worldwide. It works in all different aspects in oil and natural gas industry such as Midstream, Petrochemicals, and Refining and Marketing. The company was formed as a result of a merger between Conoco and Philips in 2002. Its major competitors are Shell, British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil. Conoco Philips is one of the few Oil companies that suffer unethical issues. According to Conoco Philips, Our mission is to do more than to deliver energy. It has a long term commitment to achieve the top ethical standards and create a culture that encourages honesty and responsibility in everything they do. Conoco Philips values the importance of corporate transparency and ethics as they are a major drive for consumers and stakeholders confidence. A proof of ConocoPhillipss environmental concern is that it spent $80 million dollars to develop new technologies for unconventional and alt ernative energy sources. ConocoPhillips is a member of the U.S Climate Action Partnership, which is a group of businesses, major corporations and environmental organization with a goal to pressure the U.S Government to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. ConocoPhillips spent around $150 million dollars 2007 on research and development of alternative energy sources and new technologies- which is almost a 50% increase compared to the $80 million dollar spent in 2006. 2.2 Shell vs. ConocoPhillips Shell is the 2nd biggest company in the world in terms of revenue, which makes it more profitable than ConocoPhillips (16th). Actually, after the recent bribery issues about Shell, its position will eventually drop in the next few years. They will suffer from employee turnover, loss of company reputation and lots of other disadvantages which will not enable them to be more profitable like before. Whilst for ConocoPhillips, its very predictable that this company will get closer to Shell in terms of revenue and why not surpass it, due to its ethical practices! Thats why Shell should have good ethical policies like that of ConocoPhillips and actually adapt this policy and not violate it. 3.0 Recommendations and Facts: 3.1 Recommendations First of all if Shell wants to get back its reputation after the Nigeria bribery incident, they have to change their vision, not the written vision statement, in fact they have to change their insight toward the business they are doing and try to change their practices in a way that help and satisfy people instead of hurting them. They should keep in mind that business is not about gaining profit from whatever way, rather it is about gaining profit from providing services in a way that satisfies customers and if they act ethically eventually they will gain enough profit as they have satisfied people behind their back who support the company (Tempo, 2005). Shell should be considered guilty in this case and be fined for their unethical business practice. Furthermore, Nigerian government should be accountable and responsible for their action as well. The amount of fine that usually determined by courts should be either used for research purposes or as financial aid to help people around the globe. If they do so, Shell will force to do something that they escaped from and try to improve their instruments and facilities by doing research and development instead of trying to gain profit without thinking about safety and effects of their action on stakeholders (Tempo, 2005). More strict rules and regulations regarding the bribery issue and control of governments over their companies can lead to termination of bribery in long term. If Shell maintains a strict No Bribe policy, in long term bribe takers wont ask for it anymore. Then even if they fail in their business they wont blame themselves for paying bribes and they will know that there was something wrong with their facilities and services. 3.2 Facts The main reason that shell wanted to bribe Nigerian government was that they wanted to pay less taxes and easier import of their needed equipment, which eventually leads to higher profit. Thus they only looked for profit and to reach that, they choose bribery as an unethical practice. They shouldnt do that because even if we dont consider bribery as an unethical practice it was illegal and against law in Nigeria, however we know that bribery is an unethical practice indeed. The next thing is that bribery encourages corruption, and this action hurts the poor the most as they have to pay for something which is free and they get into trouble for paying the amount, because they cannot afford it. When a large company like Shell practices, in this case bribery, which is defiantly unethical, this act will spread to the whole society and affect the society in large (Tempo, 2005). Moreover when you start paying bribe for the first time it leads to demand for more bribes and work as a kind of temptation. So it is better never start it. Aid agencies trying to provide free services for those who need help and it is not morally accepted and expected from officials to try to make money from those services that supposed to be free. We believe and agree that Shell did something which is morally wrong and ethical person wont advocate it, but there is a positive point in shells case. Shell accepted that they did and unethical and wrong action and admitted their mistake, they also agreed to pay $48m in criminal and civil fines. However shell had to admit their mistake but still we can consider it as a positive movement from shell and we can hope that Shell try to be an ethical company from now onwards, stop their unethical business practices and try to gain profit while following ethical business practices (Temp,2005). 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, we all agree that bribery is an unethical business practice and it is not expected from large company such as Shell to practice such actions. It is not only the case that Shell paid bribe, the most important thing is that such actions, eventually leads to corruption of society which all of us believe to be destructive. Shell can follow Conoco Phillips and invest in research and development and try to improve its facilities, and by doing this they might earn less profit in the short term but they can be proud of themselves by being an ethical company and gaining more profit than their competitors in the long term as they will have new technologies and facilities in future because they invest in research and development today. Shell Should be accountable for what they did and be responsible for their unethical behavior and try to stop such acts in future if they want to build their reputation again as people and stakeholders wont trust Shell as long as they continue bein g unethical. However if Shell really wants to be changed and get back its reputation they can do it by clarifying their vision among themselves and act ethically.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Heart of Darkness as Social Protest Essays -- Heart Darkness essays

Heart of Darkness as Social Protest Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is an intriguing and extremely disturbing portrayal of man's surrender to his carnal nature when all external trappings of "civilization" are removed. This novel excellently portrays the shameful ways in which the Europeans exploited the Africans: physically, socially, economically, and spiritually. Throughout the nineteenth century, Europeans treated their African counterparts savagely. They were beaten, driven from their homes, and enslaved. Heart of Darkness is no exception. In the first section of the novel, Marlow is disgusted by the condition of the Africans at the First Station. His encounter with the chain gang sickens him to the point where he is forced to wait for them to pass. He even takes a separate path to avoid encountering them again. While avoiding the chain gang, Marlow stumbles upon the object of their work-"a vast artificial hole...the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine." Apparently, to keep them occupied and thus "out of trouble," the natives are forced to do meaningless, pointless exercises. Marlow is shocked by this total subjugation of the Africans and the completely pointless work which they are forced to perform. Prior to 1807, the Europeans directly enslaved the Africans. After 1807, Britain, and eventually most European countries, banned the slave trade. However, this did not stop the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, whose members Marlow described as "reckless without hardihood, gree... ...heads of the natives he killed, those "heads on the stakes" with their faces turned toward the house, to show his complete and total dominance over their lives. After this, the natives could not but help view him with a supernatural aura. He also forced anyone approaching him to crawl on all fours and grovel at his feet. This, coupled with the fact that he did not allow very many people to see him, reinforced his god-like authority. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the Europeans shamelessly exploited the Africans. Conrad, who had been to Africa, makes no effort to gloss over the gross abuses of power of the Europeans and their inhumane treatment of the natives. Taken in this light, Heart of Darkness serves as an excellent novel of social protest.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

New Hire Communication Essay

The purpose of this message is to let others know about the company culture, process and procedures, as well as general information on the company for new hires. The general audience for the message will be consumers, competitors, perspective and new employees. Channels of communication will include pamphlets, a company website, email to current customers, employment agencies, and also a memo to new employees. The message to our audience will start as simple as an explanation of our company’s culture. We want the audience to know that we are customer focused with a friendly atmosphere where customers always feel welcome and excited to visit. We are employee owned with a low turnover rate and we promote from within the company. We have a management in training program where those who express interest in management can learn every job we have in the company. Our company is a metal recycling company whose process is buying metals, excluding precious metals, processing the metals, and the final product will be sold to larger recycling companies for a profit. We ensure that the metals are in the cleanest form to sell for the largest amount of profit. This process can include shredding of material, crushing of cars, removing plastics and trash, sorting of different metals, and packaging of materials to ship out. The process does not just include a buyer and a processer. It also includes managers to oversee the cleaning process, employees to package material, a cashier to pay customers, and office workers to perform everyday office functions. In order to keep costs at a minimum, there are as few employees as possible, but enough that employees do not get overwhelmed. Procedures are explained in detail when an employee starts the job. The line of communication is very open. We have an open door policy to ensure that employees are encouraged to give their input on how procedures can be changed in order to make the work more productive and make both customers and employees satisfied. Our management does not stay in an office all day, rather th ey are in the yard and warehouse running machinery, cleaning material themselves, and even unloading customers. They are always involved  with the workload of the day to ensure that employees feel that management is involved and working just hard as other employees. As stated earlier, our company is employee owned which gives us a large advantage when it comes to benefits. We offer to all full time employees some of the greatest benefits you will find in any company in Tulsa. Not only do we offer health and dental insurance, paid vacation, personal time off, and 401k, we also have an employee stock ownership program and profit sharing. We are self-insured with our health insurance and offer our own medical clinic with zero co-pays. You are 100 % vested in your 401k when you sign up and we contribute half of what you contribute, up to 6%. Our company has been in business for 70 plus years and we continue to grow. It is only in your best interest to be employed by a company who has withstood a bad economy and continues to prosper. Our customers have been coming to us for generations and will continue to be this way for decades to come. We have the culture and mission to withstand the test of time and we hope you love us as much as we do.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Sample Cscp Questions

Module: 1 Question 1 All of the following are key components of the definition of supply chain management, EXCEPT: A. monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value B. synchronizing of supply and demand C. building a competitive infrastructure D. selecting suppliers Question 2 Which of the following is a key supply chain process? A. forecast B. source C. benchmark D. analyze Question 3 Supply chains create value by: A. increasing profitability and return to shareholders B. providing multiple variants of products for customers C. making transaction processing more efficientD. developing more accurate forecasts Question 4 Which of the following is not an â€Å"entity† of a supply chain? A. producer B. supplier C. customer D. manager Question 5 Which of the following describes the typical flow of cash in a supply chain? A. customer to producer to supplier B. producer to customer to supplier C. supplier to producer to customer D. customer to supplie r to producer Question 6 Suppliers provide all of the following to a supply chain, EXCEPT: A. materials B. energy C. services D. demand Question 7 All of the following describe a supply chain flow, EXCEPT: A. he flow of physical materials and services from supplier to other entities B. the flow of cash upstream to raw material suppliers C. the flow of information within a supply chain D. the flow of employees from one department to another Question 8 Reverse supply chain is employed for the following reasons, EXCEPT: A. repairs B. disposal C. recycling D. quality control Question 9 Tier 2 suppliers: A. provide materials or services to suppliers of the producer B. provide lower quality raw materials C. serve only as a back-up to Tier 1 suppliers D. supply raw materials to the secondary products of a company Question 10Which of the following best describes the term lateral supply chain? A. processes are no longer performed internally and become dependent on outsourced collaborations B . the supply chain grows incrementally C. a supply chain that is applicable in various industries D. a supply chain that holds significant centralized control of processes Module: 2 Question 1 What condition describes the magnification of demand fluctuations up the supply chain? A. bullwhip effect B. demand variability C. exponential smoothing D. square root rule Question 2 Each of the terms below are sources of demand variability, EXCEPT: A. ompetition B. seasonality C. life cycle trends D. manufacturing delays Question 3 What is one cause of the bullwhip effect? A. lead times B. seasonality C. weather D. quality control Question 4 Each of the following is an approach to avoiding multiple forecasts, EXCEPT: A. information sharing B. system integration C. vendor-managed inventory (VMI) D. transactional processing Question 5 What is one way to reduce the contribution of lead time to the bullwhip effect? A. reducing order batch size B. time management C. prioritization D. cost reducti on Question 6 Which of the following is true about forecasting?A. It should be done once a year B. It should be conducted by the supply chain leadership C. It is more accurate for groups than for individual items D. It is better to under-forecast rather than over-forecast Question 7 Independent demand is best defined by: A. demand for the finished product B. demand forecast of an unbiased third party provider C. demand that is based on actual orders D. demand for manufacturing raw materials Question 8 When do corporations employ qualitative forecasting? A. When products are low value B. When products are at the end of life stage C. For new product introductions D.When reliable historical sales data is available Question 9 Intrinsic forecasting focuses on: A. data about demand for the product itself B. variables that affect the demand of the product C. leveraging the collective experience possessed by employees D. the inherent value of the product to the customer Question 10 Which of the following is true about naive forecasting? A. assumes the demand will be consistent from one period to the next B. makes educational guesses on demand for a new product C. request input from employees outside of the supply chain D. it is an error prone forecast Module: 3 Question 1Customer relationship management (CRM) is best described as: A. a focus on managing long term supplier relationships B. a marketing philosophy based on putting the customer first C. managing customers to promote your products D. transactional guidelines when dealing with customers Question 2 One general goal of supplier relationship management (SRM) is: A. ensure mutual profitability while meeting customer needs B. manage supplier costs C. build relationships with as many suppliers as possible D. improve negotiation process Question 3 What impact has the focus on CRM and SRM had on business mindset? A. lower costs B. reater integration C. shorter cycle times D. focus on bottom-line results Question 4 What is a key reason for the move to greater integration with suppliers? A. consolidation of the industry B. technology transfer C. improved relationships D. reduce complexity Question 5 All of the following are typical requirements when implementing CRM and SRM EXCEPT: A. new job definitions B. new organization structure C. new corporate vision D. new technology platform Question 6 Independent organizations that cooperate based on mutual values and act as a single entity is called a: A. lateral organization B. integrated supply chain C. ean supply chain D. virtual organization Question 7 What role has technology played in CRM? A. It has made it easier for business to gather information on customer buying habits B. It has spawned new software companies C. It has changed the roles of participants D. It has reduced the complexity of the supply chain Question 8 Technology has played all of the following roles in SRM, EXCEPT: A. Systems can show current status of operations B. Suppliers can communicate with customers in real time C. Transactional processes can be automated D. Security enhancements now effectively segregate enterprise business processes Question 9Based on the APICS definition of SRM, a firm will implement this philosophy with: A. all tier 1 type suppliers B. a selected group of suppliers C. all suppliers D. a few suppliers who are deemed indispensable Question 10 A firm that has a customer first marketing philosophy practices: A. CRM B. TPM C. SRM D. CTM Module: 4 Question 1 Which one is NOT among the three largest companies presently providing ERP software: A. SAP B. Oracle C. Microsoft D. Sybase Question 2 All of the following are key characteristics of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems EXCEPT: A. odularized business applications B. common data source C. seamless integration enabling the flow of information throughout the firm D. normalized application structure Question 3 All of the following are key to maximizing the ROI of an ERP syst em EXCEPT: A. hiring skilled employees and providing adequate training B. system monitoring and constraint improvement C. early global launch D. business process mapping Question 4 The MOST significant characteristic of leadership in determining the value realized by an ERP system is: A. competence B. vision C. intelligence D. analytical strength Question 5A successful deployment of a fully integrated ERP system is a characteristic of a: A. Stage 1, functional focused supply chain B. Stage 2, internally integrated supply chain C. Stage 3, externally integrated supply chain D. Stage 4, cross-enterprise collaboration and optimized supply chain Question 6 What provides the foundation for a supply chain to move to Stage 3 and ultimately Stage 4 of supply chain development? A. MPS B. ERP C. DRP D. MRP Question 7 The ERP software design shift from proprietary, closed applications to web-based modules: A. increased user training requirements B. increased costs C. eased system implementatio nD. eased system integration with legacy and 3rd party systems Question 8 When selecting an ERP system, it is important to ensure the business model implicit in the system is: A. based on the industry standard B. robust C. aligned with your business model D. scalable Question 9 What percentage of your required functionality should you expect in an industry leading ERP system off-the-shelf product: A. 50% B. 70% C. 80% D. 90% Question 10 What is MOST likely to increase if an off-the-shelf ERP system lacks at least 80% of your required functionality? A. training costs B. consulting costs C. license costs D. hardware costs