3. Complete the sentences by putting the verb into present simple, present continuous, future simple, future continuous or use the structure to be going to. The first sentence has been done for you.

1. We think they will probably open (open) an office in Moscow next month.

2. I'm busy on Wednesday morning as I __ (give) the presentation at a conference.

3. We__ (launch) the new product at the end of this year.

4. According to analysts, the economic situation __ (improve) next year.

5. The production line __ (not work) from 8 am to 11 am next weekend.

6. He __ (not work) tomorrow, so we can eat out somewhere.

7. What time __ the meeting __ (start)?

8. My team leader __ (come) to see us tomorrow. She __ (travel) by train and it __ (arrive) at 11.15.

9. If you need to contact Sue, she __ (stay) at the Marriott Hotel until Saturday.

10. If your application is successful, we __ (inform) you in writing.

Case Study 1

Read the case and discuss the following questions in groups. Come up with a solution to the problem.

1. What were the main mistakes made by the Marketing Manager?

2. Which marketing strategies do you think he employed to sell the 800 units?

3. What should he do to improve the situation?

4. Which are your solutions to the problems described in the text?

The Decision-Making Dimension of the Systems Approach to Management⁵

Okumkom Ltd. is a company that processes wood into furniture for export. It has six departments, namely Finance, Procurement, Quality Control, Production, Human Resource, Administration and Marketing. On the basis of a marketing research analysis, the Marketing Manager made a decision that the company should manufacture 3.500 units of sitting room furniture instead of the normal quantity of 2,500 for its European market. As a result of his technical mind in marketing intelligence issues, management accepted the suggestion from the Marketing Manager to produce the 3,500 units of sitting room furniture without any form of inter-departmental consultation. The other departmental managers were not happy that they were not consulted on the implementation of the Marketing Manager's decision which has the tendency of affecting the fortunes of the entire organization negatively. Their concerns were ignored by the Marketing Manager claiming that he was in control of the Marketing Department and had the prerogative right to make marketing decisions he deemed fit.

Since the availability of the 3,500 units of furniture was time bound, the Human Resource Manager was charged with the responsibility of hiring additional casual hands to augment the existing staff to produce the furniture on schedule. The Finance Manager was also directed to apply for an overdraft facility of $20,000 to enable the company procures the necessary inputs for the job. The Company's bank granted the facility which was given to the Procurement Manager to purchase all the required inputs to produce the 3,500 units of furniture. The inputs were given to the Production Manager, who in collaboration with the Quality Control Manager churned out the 3.500 units of the furniture on schedule.

All the units of furniture were ready on schedule since all the departmental managers played their respective roles in spite of the fact that they were not happy with the decision of their colleague Marketing Manager. The Marketing Manager was given the mandate to distribute and sell all the furniture in the European market. Regrettably, the Marketing Manager was able to sell 2,700 units of the furniture leaving a difference of 800 units. It became difficult for the Marketing Manager to dispose of the difference of 800 units. All the marketing strategies employed by the Marketing Manager to sell the 800 units proved futile. Disaster stared glaringly in the face of the company. Comments of 'We told you so' ostensibly directed at the Marketing Manager flowed from all angles. The Marketing Manager was full of remorse for a wrong decision which was likely to bring untold hardship to the company. He regretted refusing to subject the decision to increase production from 2,500 to 3,500 to comments and discussion with his departmental colleagues.

The following are some of the probable unavoidable costs that are likely to characterize the inability of the Marketing Manager to dispose of the unsold furniture on time:

a. Accumulation of interest on the overdraft facility of $20,000

b. Warehousing cost at the distribution center in Europe. The Company rented bonded warehouse.

c. Difficulty in meeting payment of wages and salaries for the staff including the additional casual hands that were employed.

d. Accumulation of some unpaid overhead expenses.

The Marketing Manager was given the option of doing everything possible to dispose of the 800 units of furniture or get fired.

Case Study 2

Read the text and discuss the following questions:

1. Discuss the consequences each management decision mentioned has now.

2. What other management decisions and findings that made the history can you remember? Which of them were the most revolutionary and radical ones that changed the world?

The Greatest Management Decisions that Made the History⁶

In the history of business and professional management a great range of decisions have been taken in the last one hundred years or so that brought forward great changes in the modern quality of life and our thinking practice.

Hanging on the Telephone: The management decision of Bell & Co. to stick to their invention despite odds

Alexander Graham Bell and his company's persistently hanged on their discovery of telephone. This business decision of sticking to the invented device whose functional properties were not at all satisfactory at that point of time and had been discouraged by the other big companies and from all social backgrounds, had been taken by the company to be the most popular device of communication for millions.

The decision of Bank of Italy to start the modern consumer banking

When an earthquake shook San Francisco in 1906, one of the founders of the bank, A. P. Gianni thought it to be a great business idea to deposit the gold and money of disaster-ravaged people in the vaults of the bank and by that way to spread the bank's service to the common people. In the following process, he convinced the working people the importance of savings and he also backed the Hollywood film business and other business houses with loans that further made the bank progress in its business. Within years, the bank had been renamed as the Bank of America.

Henry Ford's business decision to spread the production facilities and worker's base through lucrative remuneration

Henry Ford offered an astounding remuneration package to the workers in his automobile factories. He decided to pay $5 a day to the worker and at that time it was much above the industry rate of worker's remuneration. This decision supplied Ford the biggest number of workers for his mass production units and the decision paid Ford hugely through the astounding production of mass models of automobiles and a mass market for it.

The decision of Americas one of the most popular shopping catalogue producers to come up with their own chain store

Sears retail store is one of the largest retail stores in the American history that now became world-renowned Amazon store. For almost 30 years it had gone through many shifts in business. At the beginning of twentieth century it became one of the most popular consumer catalogue. It was in 1925, that the company first envisaged the tremendous potential of the retail business sector and founded its first chain store and within the middle of the previous century, it became the largest retail chain store brand in the country.

Merrill Lynch's 1929 investment decision to sell large amount of stocks

In 1929 the founder of the invest company Merrill Lynch, with the stock market in full swing to produce one of the most optimistic investment scenario, told his investors to sell their stocks. The decision was in a way unusual to many investors in the company. However, in the end it proved to be one of the shrewdest ideas to sale the stocks at that point of time, because of the prevailing high prices at that time. In the month of October when the country experienced one of the cruelest downfall of the stock market causing millions of investors losing huge sum of money, Merrill Lynch's decision proved to be decisive and wisest.

The decision of the Japanese industry to promote the 'Made in Japan' tag

In the 1950's Japan was as underdeveloped in industry and technology as any other country in the east. The country ravaged by the disastrous effects world war and the most haunting memory of atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was drastically searching for its own identity in every sphere of national interests. Japanese industrialists and businessmen in a meeting with the consultancy of an American statistician named Edward Deming decided to use the tag 'Made in Japan' in their produced goods, as many of the Japanese goods producers started to run their factory in America for the better salability of the tag mentioning their production origin to be in USA.