Make sure to provide scholarly and educational material and work that is engaging and substantive.
A substantive reply includes at least 150 words (PER THREAD) analyzing the thread as well as adding to the research and concepts put forth in that thread. The goal is to create meaningful discussion. To simply restate the idea already put forth or to concur with the first reply is not adding substantial discussion. That is why it is good to do additional outside research.
Thread #1 – Read & Reply
DEFINITION
A mission statement is “a written declaration of an organization’s core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time. Properly crafted mission statements (1) serve as filters to separate what is important from what is not, (2) clearly state which markets will be served and how, and (3) communicate a sense of intended direction to the entire organization” (http://www.businessdictionary/definition/mission-statement.html).
SUMMARY
In her article, “When You Fear Your Company Has Forgotten Its Principles”, Sue Shellenbarger discusses the importance of speaking up when it seems like the organization you are with is going against its mission statement and principles. According to Shaellenbarger, companies often inflate their mission statements in an attempt to inspire and encourage a feel good environment, and this can backfire. In a pursuit to fulfill the mission, people will often go against organizational principles to get there, in a sense making the mission statement itself null and void.
Shellenbarger discusses several examples of situations in which employees spoke up and questioned the organization. When this happen, employees do put their jobs at risk, face ridicule, and are often seen as disloyal. She offers advice on how to approach your organization in a positive manner. For instance, keep any of your arguments calm and civil, have respect for other opinions, and acknowledge any flaws in your opinion. She always suggests framing your opinion as something that is positive and will benefit everyone.
DISCUSSION
Mission statements do attract employees. If someone sees that an organization’s mission statement and principles are in line with their own, this will greatly increase the likelihood that they will accept a position with that organization.
As with everything in business, Christians should approach and state their concerns in a calm and positive way, but they should definitely approach. On average, a person spends forty hours a week at their place of employment. If the organization’s principles are out of line with their mission statement, that can be very discouraging and stressful to the individual who was drawn to the organization by the mission.
THREAD 2#
Nestle
In today’s extremely competitive business environment, companies have to be well equipped with necessary strategies and plans on how to stay successful and at the top of the game. Regardless if a business is small, large, or even global, its internal and external environments are constantly changing, and managers must plan and strategies accordingly to accommodate and compensate for those changes. One strategy that will be greatly beneficial for any type of business is digital forecasting. During forecasting, managers and top leaders become aware of their weaknesses and through implementing better effective controls they can overcome these weaknesses with proper forecasting steps.
One company that has successfully updated its forecasting strategies to meet future demands is Nestle. The article How Demand-Driven Forecasting paid off for Nestle by Freddie Pierce, discusses how through help from: “innovator and expert in sales forecasting Charles Chase has helped Nestlé improve its forecast accuracy and make multi-million dollar reductions in their inventory by removing human judgement and enabling the predicting of future demand through ‘demand shaping” (www.supplychaindigital.com). Mr. Chase created technology that senses demand signals verses trend and seasonality, which instantly informs a business of what demand signals are actually influencing consumers’ purchasing of products up and down a scale. This program allows Nestle to use ‘what if’ scenarios and measure the effect of advertising and price. Nestle’s goal was to have the ability to: “sense demand signals associated with sales promotions, price, advertising, in-store merchandising and economic factors to better understand what things influence consumers to buy their products”(www.supplychaindigital.com). Once this measurement was done mathematically, their next step was to use this information to run ‘what-if’ scenarios to shape future demand.
All in all, Nestle’s decision to update its forecasting on a digital platform has paid off. According to the article: “Today, 80 percent of the Nestlé’s forecasts are driven right out of the solution with no human judgement at all … They were eventually able to take out anywhere between 14- 20 percent of their inventory safety stock, reduce it and still meet consumer demand with this improved forecasting capability” (www.supplychaindigital.com).
Reference
