Hudsons Bay Company was founded in 1670 and is Canadas oldest corporation. It currently is headquartered in
Question:
Hudson’s Bay Company was founded in 1670 and is Canada’s oldest corporation. It currently is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company operates online and retail stores throughout Canada and the United States under the banners of Hudson's Bay, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5TH, Find @ Lord & Taylor, Home Outfitters, Galeria Kaufhof, Galeria INNO, and Sportarena.
The company operates in a highly competitive industry sector and as a result, their business model has changed multiple times since their inception in 1670. More recently, in 2020, shareholders overwhelmingly voted to take the firm private so as to undertake key strategic initiatives.
Background:
https://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/how-the-hudsons-bay-company-shaped-canadas-history-and-itsborders/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/hbc-350-years-history-1.5569656
https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2016/06/13/hudsons-bay-companys-transformation-leads-to-fastgrowth/?sh=422fd8af6d82
Current News:
https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2021/08/hudsons-bay-shifting-canadian-department-store-model-byseparating-physical-stores-and-online-business/
https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/were-not-neiman-marcus-hudsons-bay-says-it-plans-to-bearound-for-another-350-years-despite-recent-troubles
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/hudson-s-bay-splitting-stores-from-online-marketplace-to-create-twobusinesses-1.5544453
You will apply the course concepts and tools utilized in the first six units of this course to complete this case lab Step 1: Read the news on (links) the Hudson’s Bay Company. * You may use additional sources to complete this assignment. However, they much be quality sources (i.e., from a credible news source - not Wikipedia or someone’s blog or opinion) You must ensure that you correctly cite these additional sources. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.
Step 2: Answer the following four questions and relate your answers to your readings:
QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED IN THIS DELIVERABLE:
Please refer to the readings linked above:
Students are to answer all 4 questions as part of this assignment.
- In your own words, summarize Hudson’s Bays’ current situation based on your readings outlined above. Be detailed and specific and utilize course concepts and tools discussed to date. Be sure to identify the who, what, where, why and how of the scenario. (15 marks)
- A) Complete an external assessment of Hudson’s Bay by incorporating the current information given in the linked articles above (35 marks). In your discussion you should also:
- B) Identify which tool would be best utilized to complete an adequate external audit of Hudson’s Bay and explain why you have chosen this one over the others.
- C) Utilize this tool to complete the external audit.
- A) Complete an internal assessment of Hudson’s Bay by incorporating the current information given in the linked articles above (35 marks) In your discussion you should also:
- B) Identify which tool would be best utilized to complete an adequate internal assessment of Hudson’s Bay and explain why you have chosen this one over the others.
- C) Utilize this tool to complete the internal audit. (SWAP ANALYSIS OR OTHER AUDITING TOOL)
- Provide an overall summary of your key findings/learnings (15 marks).
Total Marks = 100 (Please note that marks will be deducted if the presentation, grammar, spelling, and correct citations are not presented as per below).
Weighting: 12.5% of final grade
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Clearly number your answers and answer all questions in grammatical correct sentences with no spelling errors (you will lose marks if it is not).
- Include the questions and answers (and number of marks question is worth) in your report but erase the instructions I have given here.
- Cite the articles and any textbook references using MLA citation (additional external sources are not required for this assignment) (2 marks will be deducted for not doing this; 1 mark for not citing correctly).
- No plagiarism
- This assignment must be done individually. Do not share your work with anyone – this is considered plagiarism. All assignments will be run through SafeAssign.
- You may use additional sources to complete this assignment. However, they much be quality sources (i.e., from a credible news source - not Wikipedia or someone’s blog or opinion) You must ensure that you correctly cite these additional sources. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.
GRADING FOR THE ASSIGNMENT:
Key topics | Main areas to be included | Possible Marks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Summary of current situation. Discussion should identify the who, what, when, where and why (where possible). | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
External Assessment discussion should be detailed, identify which tools is best used for an external assessment and the provide a rationale. Discussion should also present a summary of the analysis from the use of tool. | 35 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Internal Assessment discussion should be detailed, identify which tools is best used for an external assessment and the provide a rationale. Discussion should also present a summary of the analysis from the use of tool. | 35 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Summarize key findings/learnings | 15 |
BOLT BLADES LTD.
Bolt Blades Ltd. (BBL) is a manufacturer of blades used in industrial equipment. The
manufacturing process starts with compressing and cutting large pieces of steel, called “blanks,” into rough-cut blades that BBL calls “Part No. 101.” Part No. 101 is then ground and polished, and the polished blades are cut into the shapes required for customers’ orders. The blades must pass strict tolerance requirements. Part No. 101 is an essential part of all of BBL’s finished products. Although BBL has a reputation in the market for producing high-quality blades, the finished products are generic, so BBL competes mostly on price and on-time delivery.
Today is April 1, 2018. You, CPA, are the finance manager at BBL, and the general manager has
called a meeting with you and the managers from engineering, production, and purchasing.
The general manager begins the meeting: “BBL’s production variances have been reaching
alarming levels.”
The production manager responds: “Machine 1, which produces Part No. 101, is causing all the
difficulties. Machine 1 uses old technology, vibrates loudly and stops often during the production process, causing blades to break. To slow the vibration and reduce pressure, we added gaskets to the machine but the improvement did not last long. The broken blades need to be removed from the machine, which increases labour hours and wastes direct materials – the blanks. I have scheduled our most experienced technicians on Machine 1 but have had little success.”
The purchasing manager adds: “In an attempt to solve this issue, I obtained extra-thin blanks from a new vendor, which were used for the entire first quarter of 2018. These blanks are more fragile than the regular blanks used by BBL.”
The general manager turns to you: “I want you to review the historical variance report (Appendix I) and the production activity data from the first quarter of 2018 (Appendix II), explain the main causes of the unfavourable variances in previous years, and determine whether the variances have improved in the first quarter of 2018 with the use of the extra-thin blanks.”
The engineering manager mentions: “I am not sure that the use of extra-thin blanks will be a
saving in the long term because we may have more product returns. There are many suppliers
that produce parts equivalent to Part No. 101. I inspected the quality of blades produced by ACE Inc. (ACE) and find them comparable to Part No. 101, but I do not know whether purchasing from ACE would be financially beneficial to BBL (Appendix III).”
Business Statistics for Contemporary Decision Making
ISBN: 978-0470910184
6th Edition
Authors: Ken Black