operations managers must manage staffing requirements within budgetary constraints B u s i n e s s F i n a n c e

Managing operations includes a wide range of activities and responsibilities. Operations managers must manage staffing requirements within budgetary constraints, develop and implement operating standards and systems to provide effective support functions, and manage potential risk to avoid high-loss situations. Mastering the skills and activities related to the operations manager’s role will increase your value as a manager.

Instructions:

1. Research the retail industry to identify the industry’s best practices for analyzing operations. Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, logic, and objectivity of the sources you select. Analyze your research and synthesize your findings to complete each of the following instructions:
   1. Describe the major components in a typical business operating budget. Using this Sample P&L Statement as a reference, identify where each operating budget component would be included under a line item in the company’s P&L statement.
   2. Choose a competitor’s business in your area and assess the environmental conditions, operating standards, and support functions that are present in that business.
   3. Explain the best way to develop and utilize a staffing plan in your competitor’s business.
   4. Differentiate various types of loss and evaluate their potential impact on your competitor’s profitability.
   5. Identify two potential high-risk loss situations in your competitor’s business. Predict the possible legal implications of not addressing these situations.
   6. Make and defend at least two recommendations to avoid, or respond to, the high-risk loss situations you identified in part “e”.
2. Develop your answers and recommendations in a six-page (minimum) paper. The minimum length does not include the title page, abstract, reference page, or any additional pages containing charts, appendices, etc. A minimum of three outside research sources are required for this assignment.

Format Instructions: Your paper must be double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1” margins on all sides. It must consist of a title page, abstract, body of the paper, and a reference page. Level I, Level II, and Level III headings must be used in the body of the paper. An appendix (or appendices) must be included after the reference page. The appendix/appendices should contain materials to support your answers to the questions posed in this paper. Since outside sources are required on this assignment, APA style in-text citations must be included in the body of the paper.