Jennifer and Pierre graduated from university as business majors in June 2015 and got the idea for LearnInMotion.com as a result of a project they worked on together in their entrepreneurship class during their last semester. The professor had divided the students into two- or three-person teams and asked them to “create a business plan for a high-tech company.” The idea the two came up with was LearnInMotion.com. The basic idea of the website was to list a vast array of web- based, CD-ROM-based, or textbook-based continuing education–type business courses for working people who wanted to take a course from the comfort of their own homes. Users could come to the website to find and then take a course in one of several ways. Some courses could be completed interactively online via the site; others were in a form that was downloadable directly to the user’s computer; others (which were either textbook or CD-ROM-based) could be ordered and delivered (in several major metropolitan areas) by independent contractor delivery people. Their business mission was “to provide work-related learning when, where, and how you need it.” Based on their research, they knew the market for work-related learning was booming. At the same time, professional development activities like these were increasingly Internet-based. Tens of thousands of online and offline training firms, universities, associations, and other content providers were trying to reach their target customers via the Internet. Jennifer and Pierre understandably thought they were in the right place at the right time.

Jennifer’s father had some unused loft space in Kanata, Ontario, and so with about $45 000 of accumulated savings, Jennifer and Pierre incorporated and were in business. They retained the services of an independent programmer and hired two people—a web designer to create the graphics for the site (which would then be programmed by the programmer) and a content manager whose job was to enter information onto the site as it came in from content providers. By the end of 2008, they also completed upgrading their business plan into a form they could show to prospective venture capitalists. They sent the first version to three Canadian venture capitalists. Then they waited.

And then they waited some more. They never heard back from the first three venture capitalists, so they sent their plan to five more. They still got no response. But Pierre and Jennifer pressed on. By day they called customers to get people to place ads on their site, to get content providers to list their available courses, and to get someone—anyone—to deliver textbook- and CD-ROM- based courses, as needed, across Canada. By May 2016 they had about 30 content providers offering courses and content through LearnInMotion.com. In the summer, they got their first serious nibble from a venture capital firm. They negotiated with this company through much of the summer, came to terms in the early fall, and closed the deal—getting just over $1 million in venture funding—in November 2016.

After a stunning total of $75 000 in legal fees (they had to pay both their firm’s and the venture capital firm’s lawyers to navigate the voluminous disclosure documents and agreements), they had just over $900 000 to spend. The funding, according to the business plan, was to go toward accomplishing five main goals: redesigning and expanding the website; hiring about seven more employees; moving to a larger office; designing and implementing a personal information manager (PIM)/calendar (users and content providers could use the calendar to interactively keep track of their personal and business schedules); and last but not least, driving up sales. LearnInMotion.com was off and running.

Questions

1. What is human resources management and does it have a role to play in this organization? If so, in what ways specifically?

2. What environmental influences will affect the role.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Ans1 Human resources is the topmost wealth of any nationentity or corporation or organizations etc I... View the full answer