Question: Sharpening Your Communication Skills
As the newly hired manager of Campus Athletics, a shop featuring athletic wear bearing logos of colleges and universities, you are responsible for selecting the store's suppliers. Demand for merchandise with team logos and brands can be quite volatile. When a college team is hot, you've got to have merchandise. You know that selecting the right supplier is a task that requires careful consideration, so you have decided to host a series of selection interviews. Think about all the qualities you would want in a supplier, and develop a list of interview questions that will help you assess whether that supplier possesses those qualities.

Building Your Team Skills
Identify a company that has recently decided to offshore some part of its operations. (Search online news sources for "offshore outsourcing" or similar terms.) With the other members of your team, identify all the stakeholder groups that were or might be affected by this decision and speculate on the impact it had on each group. Weighing the effect on all the stakeholders, vote on whether this was a wise decision for the company. Be prepared to present your conclusions to the class.

Developing Your Research Skills
Seeking increased efficiency and productivity, a growing number of producers of goods and services are applying technology to improve the production process. Find an article in a business journal or newspaper that discusses how one company used computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), robots, or other technological innovations to refit or reorganize its production operations.

1. What problems led the company to rethink its production process? What kind of technology did it choose to address these problems? What goals did the company set for applying technology in this way?

2. Before adding the new technology, what did the company do to analyze its existing production process? What changes, if any, were made as a result of this analysis?

3. How did technology-enhanced production help the company achieve its goals for financial performance? For customer service? For growth or expansion?