Read the “Office Space, A Company’s Frontier: The Corporate Decision to Buy or Lease” (attached below) case study and answer the questions below. Please submit your write-up and excel workbook with your discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis to Canvas on or before Wednesday, April 13th, 2022, at 5:29 pm eastern standard time. Groups of no more than 5 or 6 are allowed (free to choose your own groups). This assignment is graded for completeness (answering all the questions), effective write-up (clear and free of grammatical errors), and thoughtfulness of your answers (demonstrate knowledge and critical thinking). See the case study rubric for additional information, including guidelines and grading criteria.

Business Assumptions:

• Assume that Drechtal receives approval of their first oncology drug, Trianoline.
• Equity is limited. Whatever equity Drechtal will need to purchase its headquarters could alternatively be invested in its core business, should it not purchase its headquarters.
• Every dollar Drechtal invests in its core business generates cash flow equal to 9.132% of the investment. At the same time, the investment’s value grows by 2% annually. (This means that the cash flow generated by new investment is also growing at 2%.)
• The depreciable life of all new pharmaceutical investments is 10 years.
• In Switzerland, both the corporate tax rate and the capital gains tax rate are 18% (both price appreciation and depreciation recapture).
• Drechtal’s CFO is confident that given its current capital structure (approximately 57% debt), its required return on equity (for its core business) is 22%.
• Drechtal can borrow in the Swiss bond market at 2% up to a 10-year maturity, with annual coupons on the bonds and no amortization. Should Drechtal invest in its core business, it will initially borrow at time 0 in the Swiss bond market so that its initial capital structure is unchanged. Drechtal will not adjust its debt holdings going forward.

Lease-Buy Assumptions:

• Office tenants in Basel sign 10-year NNN leases, with a 5% step-up in rent in Year 5.
• A single-tenant A-quality office building with a long lease typically incurs capital expenditures equal to roughly 16% of NOI.
• The new building under construction will be of much greater quality than neighboring buildings, and will therefore likely attract tenants with rents roughly 20% above the current “prime” level for the neighborhood.
• Total expenses (operating + vacancy/credit) of a new Swiss office building are 34% of gross rent if the building is professionally managed. Expenses incurred by corporate owners are typically 10% higher. This can be calculated not as 44% of the rent, but rather (1 + 10%)*(34%*gross rent).
• Property sales brokers charge a 3% commission upon sale.
• Swiss commercial property valuation in Basel is approximately 80% structure and 20% land. The depreciable life of Swiss property is 20 years. You may not depreciate land in Switzerland.

Part 1. Renew Current Leases, Move and Consolidate, or Buy New HQ?

Based on the information provided in the case study and DCF analysis for each option, do you recommend for Drechtal to (1) continue leasing as-needed and renew their current leases, (2) move and consolidate employees in leased space, or (3) acquire their own corporate headquarters?

• Discuss your rationale based on considerations, for example, with regard to the long-term strategy, operational needs of the firm, and property market conditions.
• Discuss strategic considerations with regard to the financing options.
• Discuss any relevant financial considerations raised by DCF analysis for each option. For the DCF, use the information provided in the case study and conduct analysis on an after-tax basis (Assume a 10-year holding period where any property purchased is sold at the end of 10-years).

Part 2. Evaluate the Opportunity Cost With Respect to the Core Business

Work through sensitivity analysis that considers different rates of return on investments and growth for the core business. How is your answer in Part 1 impacted by potential changes in Drechtal’s core business? (Hint: what happens when you adjust the dividend rate and annual growth rate on Drechtal’s investment in their core business?)

• Chapter 4: Resource-Based View and SWOT Analysis
• Chapter 7: Competing in International Markets

Then read this case

• Go Global or No

Now prepare your write-up based on the following requirements: Your write-up must contain 5 sections: 

1. Summary
   • In one paragraph describe the company and its industry. 
2. Your analysis
   • In one or two paragraphs explain DataClear’s strategic resources. You need to use the Resource-Based View (RBV) (Chapter 4).
     • Three resources, at least one must be a strategic resource.
   • In one paragraph, summarize the primary results of the SWOT analysis for DataClear (Chapter 4).
3. Your recommendation
   • In one or two paragraphs, make a recommendation on whether or not DataClear should expand internationally.
     • How would you recommend Dataclear to mitigate the risks associated with your recommendation?
     • Explain your reasoning with a VRIS, SWOT, and the criteria we discussed in chapter 7 such as Access to New Customers, Lowering Costs, Risk Diversification.
   • Make a thoughtful argument about which international mode of entry you think will be the most appropriate for DataClear if it chose to expand internationally.
     • Market Entry Options are Exporting, Wholly Owned Subsidiary (greenfield venture or acquisition), Franchising, Licensing, Joint Ventures, and Strategic Alliances.
4. Appendix
   • Use the RBV VRIO checklist to justify the competitive advantage of each resource. 
     • Watch this video to learn how to fill out the checklist.
   • Use the SWOT table and Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
5. References
   • Please cite the external resources only. Citation of The Textbook, Videos in D2L, the Case Study itself, or extra files attached to the case is not required.

Best Practices in Completing Writing Assignments

There are three sets of criteria on which students are graded. Earning the highest number of points within each section of the writing assignments requires following these best practices:

Content (50%)

• Content that relates to the required/recommended course material is accurate.
• Questions are thoroughly answered, and content is appropriate for the topic of inquiry.
• Content that indicates knowledge gained and potential for knowledge/skills to influence future thoughts/behavior is adequately linked to course materials (including any material brought into the course by a student). When required, citations are provided.
• To support your argument, you need to cite at least two directly relevant and reputable external sources
  • The Textbook, Videos in D2L, the Case Study itself, or extra files attached to the case do not count as external resources.
  • Use a standard reference format. Do not simply copy and paste website addresses (although those should be included if appropriate).
  • For sources, consult business media (Wall Street Journal), academic journals (Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business, etc.), and practitioner journals (Forbes). Your sources should be articles from academic, peer-reviewed journals. (If you are not sure what keywords or combination of keywords to use, ask; Google Scholar will be helpful.)

Reflection (30%)

• Answers indicate a high level of reflection and insight on the topic.
• Critical thinking is evident.
• A strong desire to reflect on topics is evident.

Organization & Mechanics (20%)

• Writing is fluent and lively.
• All answers are presented in a professional manner: using appropriate grammar, sentence structure, and spelling.
• All ideas/thoughts are well communicated. Answers to all questions are concise/to the point.
• Engages in a high-quality Internet search (when applicable).
• You must follow the MLA Formatting.
  • Anything other than MLA formatting will NOT be graded.
• You MUST use a heading for each section.
• Under no circumstances, should the write-up (excluding the Appendix) exceed FIVE pages.
  • The Appendix does not count against the page limit. You can use the appendix to provide additional details on frameworks used in your analysis. So, for example, if you wanted to incorporate the national cultural dimension comparison chart or cite outside resources, you are encouraged to do so as an appendix to your main submission which will not count against the page limit.

Professional Paper “Go big or go home”

All of you aspire to advance in your career or you would not be investing in your professional development by working towards an MBA. This paper is meant to get you “thinking bigger” about making a serious professional contribution to your company or industry. In order to make big vertical moves, you must think like an entrepreneur. Start building your professional portfolio if you are just starting, or add to it by thinking outside the box. Consider top leaders across a variety of industries, not only are they excellent at what they do, but also, they are willing to take risks and be entrepreneurial. They are true outliers. Humans typically revert to “average” because it is a comfortable state. You are already on your way; however, I encourage you to use this paper project as a starting point to stretch yourself a little beyond your comfort zone. Use this “requirement” and thinking time involved to consider how you might make a bigger impact.

Pick an operations or supply chain area that interests you and consider how you can contribute by solving a problem or coming up with an innovation for a product, process or service by applying OM/OR/SCM techniques. There are a ton of methods that can be considered regardless of the industry you’re in. You may also consider ways that typical OM/OR/SCM solution methods could be applied in an unconventional way. For a theoretical example, the transportation method is meant to solve for shortest distances or lowest costs between supply and demand centers. This method can be formulated as a specialized linear programming problem and can be applied to solve scheduling problems among others. For a practical example, another semester I had a police officer in the course. He in particular did not think anything in operations applied to his situation. However, after a short conversation about viewing who or what your customer is through various lenses, he was able to suggest a major improvement to the booking process by developing a flowchart and analyzing the bottlenecks. There are many other examples. Please feel free to use me as a resource. Once you have a topic/problem to solve/innovation to deploy, I am happy to consult with you on potential solution methods or tools you might develop if you need suggestions.

Max of 25 pages you may add appendices for additional data, charts, graphs etc. Any additional material should be clearly addressed within your paper and referenced accordingly. The most pertinent data/charts/graphs should be summarized and included in the appropriate section within the text. Remember to cite sources. Key paper components should include (you may include additional or sub-sections relevant to your work):

• Title page.
• Table of contents.
• Introduction – Main issues, what are you doing, why are you doing it, key outcomes/learnings (in other words, how does this work contribute by solving a problem or innovating in your field).
• Background/Problem Statement – Go into a more detail describing your topic, a good time to bring in other context (i.e. current vs ideal, yours vs. competitor or industry standard, political, cultural, economic, regulatory landscape) relevant to set the stage for your paper.
• Methods – Explain your methods and any data used for analysis, in other words, describe your decision making process to solve the problem with the solution methods or topic tools you have chosen.
• Analysis and Results – Explain your analysis, what are your results or expected results.
• Recommendations and Conclusions – discuss your results and contributions/potential contributions.

*This is a technical writing piece, think of this project in terms of writing a proposal or report that would (or could) be submitted to implement your ideas to your appropriate audience.

Recruiting supports an organization’s short-, mid-, and long-term  human capital needs. It can be a very easy and straightforward process,  depending on the region, market, and the field of work. In some fields,  prospective employees are readily accessible, and the organization will  have the ability to select among a broad group of well-qualified  candidates. In other fields, generating potential applicants will be  very hard as they are not present, or if they are present, the  competition among businesses in the market will be a challenge.

The nature of work is so very different from job-to-job and  organizational role to organizational role. Each is important and makes  valuable but very different organizational contributions. The field of  HR studies the nature of work to attract and select the best applicants,  and HR professionals follow SHRM’s behavioral competencies to support  their decision making and, in this assessment’s scenario, to find a  successful resolution to a hiring challenge.

Introduction

Scenario

For this assessment, assume you are an HR professional working as an  HR business partner for one of the most prestigious nonprofit  scientific research centers in the United States. The center is large  enough to have its own office of general counsel. Recently, one of the  assistant general counsels departed for a job at the White House. The  general counsel wants the finest and most talented attorney candidates  who are practicing in the field of research in a nonprofit setting. You  have announced the open position and have had 807 applicants. You chose a  group of 12 candidates, all of whom were turned down by the supervisor  (hiring manager). The general counsel’s office demanded to see all  applicant resumes, and your HR director agreed. After they reviewed all  the resumes, they said none were good enough. However, they provided no  additional information to you about their preferred applicant  qualifications. 

Your Challenge

While you are the HR business partner to the general counsel, you  have many other organizational clients, each with their own needs and  expectations, and therefore a limited amount of time to give to this  particular client. Given that you have failed to select appropriate  candidates, you consider spending some money from your very tight budget  to hire a recruiting firm, but that is not a guarantee of success. You  are considering the following three options: 1) recommending to the  hiring manager that she reconsider the 12 candidates you selected, 2)  asking her to allow you to re-announce, possibly with some changes to  the position vacancy announcement, or 3) going to the outside  (expensive) recruiting firm in spite of your budget constraints. The  option you recommend should offer the greatest return to the  organization and its employees.

Instructions

Prepare a 3–4-page plan that states your recommended course of action. Along with your recommendation, include the following: 

• Analyze how your proposed HR solution to an HR challenge contributes to organizational goals and strategies.     
  • Weigh the barriers the business partner will face with each of the three options.
  • Include the internal implications, if any, to reconsider the 12 candidates and how that could be done.
  • Consider the passage of time against the need for another  attorney in the office as well as the impact of cost if you choose to go  to an external organization.
• Describe key factors you considered in the formulation of a proposed HR solution.     
  • Include the ethical considerations for recruiting and hiring in this scenario.
  • Integrate material from your references that offer a theory-based relationship to inform ethical considerations.
• Explain the role of the HR practitioner in advancing a proposed HR solution.     
  • Briefly explain your role to influence the eventual outcome. Consider aspects of leadership, negotiation, and consultation.
• Discuss the application of any SHRM behavioral competencies to the process of solving an HR challenge.     
  • Which competencies are most directly applicable to a successful resolution of this challenge and why?

Step 1: Navigate to Trello.com (Links to an external site.), sign-up for a free account, and then watch the following video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3F3l3psqXY (Links to an external site.)

Minimize Video. This is a quick overview video of how to use Trello, by Trello. It includes details on how to share your Trello board with others, though note that you do not need to do that for this assignment. The purpose of this video is to highlight the basic features and functionality of Trello so that you are well equipped to complete step 2.

Step 2: Plan out the remainder of the assignments/tasks for this class and this semester using a Trello board (Weeks 10-16). I know that everyone organizes themselves in different ways, so you have full autonomy to decide what you want to name your Trello board, as well as your card/column headings, and other details, though your submission (which will be a screenshot of your Trello board) must contain the following at a minimum:

1. The readings from the syllabus (if you scroll to the bottom of the course syllabus, you’ll see that I’ve built a calendar out, where I list what it is that needs to be done on a weekly basis). As an example, on Week 10, I specify to read both Chapter 10 and Chapter 11. This should be included somewhere on your Trello board as a task, along with all of the subsequent readings that are listed on the syllabus.
2. The graded deliverables due from the syllabus. There is a column in the “Course Calendar” section of the syllabus that says “Graded Deliverables Due”. These items need to be on your Trello board (there are 10 items from Week 10-16 that should be included from that column).
3. Due dates for both the readings and graded deliverables. When adding your readings and graded deliverables as tasks, please be sure to add due dates by clicking on the task in Trello, and by then clicking on the “Dates” area. Here you can add dates (the video shows how to do this as well).
4. Some form of indicating that you are “Done” with a task. This can be a card/column titled “Done”, where you put everything that you’ve finished. If you come up with another creative way to indicate that something is done, that is fine too. If something is “Done”, I also expect to see it in the “Done” section, which again, you have full autonomy on defining what that looks like.

Please note that there is an incredible amount of flexibility with this assignment and that I am just looking for the items that I note above. If I do not specify a setting, you do not need to worry about it, though I encourage you to explore the various features and functionalities of the platform so that you can get the most out of it, and potentially use it as a tool to help with time management this semester, and in others as well :-). You are also free to add other things to your Trello board, though please make it clear what is specific to ISM3011 (you can use labels in Trello to do this).

What do I need to submit?

It’s easy-peasy. A screenshot of your Trello board that shows all of the items listed in step 2. That’s all! Please be sure that your screenshot covers everything, and if you need to submit multiple screenshots to make everything fit, that’s fine too (just submit multiple screenshots at once in your submission).