Business Finance

Drone Delivery Case Study

You are an intern at a manufacturing facility. Your boss, the production manager, has seen consumer surveys supporting drone delivery of small packages. She thinks there may be an opportunity for the company to begin manufacturing package delivery drones. She would like your help in preparing a judgmental forecast.

The production manager has a list of 200 leaders of package delivery companies and large online retailers that could purchase drones. Your assignment is below.

• Develop a 10-question survey using www.surveymonkey.com. You will find some help on the Survey Monkey website with developing survey questions. Theoretically, you would be asked to send the survey to the 200 leaders, and their responses would help create a forecast of the potential for entering the business of manufacturing package delivery drones. (Do not actually send your survey to any business leaders.)
• Write a two-page business report to the production manager. Start by providing the link to the survey you created. Then, explain in detail why you included the questions you did and how they will help with the forecast. Suggest at least two other sources of opinions that can also contribute to the forecast.

Be creative as far as the format of the report is concerned; however, make certain to include a title page and reference page in addition to your two pages of content. Use at least one outside source, and make certain that your references are formatted in APA style.

Note: The scenario in this case study has been developed for this course and is not a real situation.

Business Finance

Case Study

Imagine working in an organization where employee morale is low, turnover is high, and the costs of hiring are astronomical.

If that were the case, you’d imagine the employer would go to great lengths to find, attract, and retain quality employees. Couple this goal with the reality of the economic picture—you simply cannot afford to provide expensive benefits for employees who may leave you for a different employer offering an extra $1,000 in salary or benefits. Knowing that 41 percent of all employees have no loyalty to their employers and will move on if a better offer comes adds to the dilemma. These issues clearly are a concern for organizations like Genentech or Zappos. But they don’t fret over them. That’s because they have found that treating employees with respect, and giving them such things as bonuses, rewards for longevity, onsite child care, lunches, and sending employees home with prepared dinners really works. Genentech is a California company that “develops and produces drugs that cure diseases,” according to the company website. The company celebrated its thirteenth year on Fortune’s “Best Places to work” list in 2011, also receiving “Best Places to Work” honors from Working Mother, LGBT Equality, and Computerworld. The reasons for this recognition are the important work that they do and the strong company culture that values equality and communication. Any discussion of how great it is to work at Genentech always circles back to the benefits that show a real respect for employees. In addition to traditional benefits like retirement and healthcare, they provide family-friendly perks such as unlimited sick leave, personal concierge service, flexible work scheduling, childcare, nursing mother’s rooms, onsite nurses, adoption assistance, and company sponsored family events. The list of innovative benefits goes on to include unusual benefits like pet insurance, free snacks, and paid six week sabbaticals every six years! Zappos, the online shoe retailer, offers perks that match their fun-loving culture like pajama parties, nap rooms, regular happy hours, and a full-time life coach. Have these benefits worked for Genentech and Zappos? If you translate longevity to morale and loyalty, you’d say they have. Both boast low turnover rates and high employee ratings for workplace satisfaction.

Questions:

1. Describe the importance of employee benefits as a strategic component of fulfilling the goals of HRM at Genentech and Zappos?

2. Explain how Genentech and Zappos use employee benefits as a motivating tool?

3. Do you believe the incentive benefits such as those offered at Genentech and Zappos can be used in other organizations? Why or why not?

Regulations:

Student must apply Harvard Referencing Style within their reports.

A mark of zero will be given for any submission that includes copying from other resource without referencing it.

Answer for etch question should be in not less than 200 words. All students are encouraged to use their own words.

Plagiarism in case of more than 20% will get zero grades.