Discussion 1 - Select a company and its primary competitor within one of the following industries:

• Home Improvement.
• Electronics.
• Consumer Goods.

Research available information on the company and the competition using their Web sites and other resources, including information on the current marketing mix (product, place, price, and promotion).

Complete and submit a case and comparative analysis of the two companies. This analysis should include a summary of the business, significant marketing issues, and recommendations about how they can improve their marketing program.

A specific recommended approach to analyzing this case is to:

Review the material and data available.

Conduct a SWOT Analysis (Strengths and Weaknesses being internal to the enterprise in the case, and Opportunities and Threats being external to the enterprise in the case).

Identify the most significant problems or issues (including those potentially related to weaknesses and threats).

Identify potential solutions to the problems or issues, and offer any recommendations.

Compare the marketing strategies of the two companies-which company is more effective overall and why?

Discussion 2 - For this discussion you are to develop ten interview questions. Five questions are for a candidate interviewing for a human resources position and five are for a candidate interviewing for a position in your fictional declared area. Your questions will be used to help the interviewer discover talents of the interviewee. Keep these guidelines in mind as you develop your questions:

• Do not submit any question that is not related to work. For example, "What do you like to do outside of work?"
• Do not ask close-ended questions. A close-ended question is one which can be answered in a single word. For example, "Do you like to work in teams?" This type of question is easily answered with a "yes" or "no." An improvement to this could be "Could you describe a time when you were part of a team?"
• Do not ask typical surface-level questions. For example, "Please tell me some of your strengths or weaknesses."

Follow these steps to complete your post for this discussion activity:

• Create a list of the interview questions (10 total) that you developed for both human resources (5 questions) and your declared functional area (5 questions).
• Explain why you selected each question and what you hope to uncover with these questions during the hiring process. After receiving feedback from your peers and the instructor, use the feedback to revise your interview questions. Then you will complete section 2.0 Interview Questions in both of your SAW's (Human Resources and your Declared Functional Area.) You will not submit your SAW's for grading in this unit. However, with assistance from this discussion, you will continue to work on your SAW's.

After receiving feedback from your peers and the instructor, use the feedback to revise your interview questions. You do not need to repost your questions on the discussion board. However, with assistance from this discussion, you will continue to work on your SAW's.

Complete section 2.0 Interview Questions in both of your SAW's (Human Resources and your Declared Functional Area). You will not submit your SAW's for grading in this unit.

Discussion 3 - In addition to the functional area you selected to manage, you are also responsible for managing the human resources function. Exhibit 7-1 on page 184 of your text introduces the key components of an organization's human resource management process. It represents eight activities (the gold boxes) that, if properly executed, will staff an organization with competent, high-performing employees.

Select and discuss two of the activities presented. Why do you find them to be important?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your fellow learners and respond to two. Pose questions that will advance the conversation and express interest in what the learners have shared. In addition, try to select learners who have not already had feedback.

Direct a response each toward learners who selected at least one perspective different from yours and at least one perspective same as yours.

Compare and contrast their posts with yours. Use the following guidelines to create your responses:

• How did their posts influence your thinking?
• What suggestions can you make to strengthen their posts?
• How did their posts aid in your understanding of the topic?