Reference no: EM131296544
Case - Harvard Cooperative Society
From his office window overlooking the main floor of the Harvard Cooperative Society, CEO Jerry Murphy can glance down and see customers shopping. They make their way through the narrow aisles of the crowded department store, picking up a sweatshirt here, trying on a baseball cap there, checking out the endless array of merchandise that bears the Harvard University insignia. Watching Murphy, you can well imagine the Co-op's founders, who started the store in 1882, peering through the tiny windowpanes to keep an eye on the shop floor. Was the Harvard Square store attracting steady traffic? Were the college students buying enough books and supplies for the Co-op to make a profit?
Back then, it was tough to answer those questions precisely. The owners had to watch and wait, relying only on their gut feelings to know how things were going from minute to minute. Now, more than a hundred years later, Murphy can tell you, down to the last stock-keeping unit, how he's doing at any given moment. His window on the business is the PC that sits on his desk. All day long it delivers up-to-the-minute, easy-to-read electronic reports on what's selling and what's not, which items are running low in inventory and which have fallen short of forecast. In a matter of seconds, the computer can report gross margins for any product or supplier, and Murphy can decide whether the margins are fat enough to justify keeping the supplier or product on board. "We were in the 1800s, and we had to move ahead," he says of the $55 million business.
Questions
1. What is a decision support system? What advantages does a decision support system have for a business like the Harvard Cooperative Society?
2. How would the decision support system of a business like the Harvard Cooperative Society differ from that of a major corporation?
3. Briefly outline the components of the Harvard Cooperative Society's decision support system.
Description of one actual capital project-product failure
: For your first topic in this conference I would like for you to briefly review either your personal experiences and/or the financial literature to identify and present a description of one actual capital project/product failure and the reasons attrib..
|
Conduct a needs assessment
: Describe how you would conduct a needs assessment. Include a list of questions you would ask AND to whom you would ask them. REMEMBER: You are trying to determine what training needs are.
|
Christian mission of grand canyon university
: Include information from the sources relating to the three pillars (servant leadership, ethics, and entrepreneurism), as well as a discussing how the pillars relate to the Christian mission of Grand Canyon University.
|
Working as unpaid intern at local brokerage firm
: Assume that you inherited some money. A friend of your is working as an unpaid intern at a local brokerage firm, and her boss is selling securities each of which calls for the following 4 payments: $50 at the end of each of the next 3 years, plus a p..
|
What is a decision support system
: What is a decision support system? What advantages does a decision support system have for a business like the Harvard Cooperative Society?
|
Describe necessary employee role-human resource strategies
: Describe Necessary Employee Roles and Human Resource Strategies.Describe Physical Evidence and Servicescape Requirements.Describe the Customer Role in service delivery.
|
What are the top three key decisions faced by joe
: What are the top three key decisions faced by Joe?- What are the key deliverables that an outside researcher should produce to help Joe with the key decisions?
|
What would be the effective annual rate of interest on loan
: You are thinking about buying a car, and a local bank is willing to lend you $20,000 to buy the car. Under the terms of the loan, it will be fully amortized over 5 years (60 months), and the nominal rate of interest will be 12 percent, with interest ..
|
The major stages of the marketing research process
: Briefly relate this situation to each of the major stages of the marketing research process.- Try to do a quick search to explore the question: "Are American consumer preferences the same all across the United States?"
|