Serrano, Alyssa Marielle R.

Case Study 1: The Energy Drain

It’s 6:00 AM on Monday. The alarm blares, jolting you out of bed. You shuffle
down to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. A few gulps and . . . ahhh. Your eyes
start to open and the fog begins to clear. 10:30 AM, time for the weekly staff
meeting. “I feel so groggy,” you think. “I gotta have something to keep me awake
through this one.” You pour yourself another cup of coffee and head for the
conference room. Noon, and you’re chatting with your colleagues at a quick lunch
break. Someone refers to an article in the newspaper about fashion models’
fitness routines. “Honest, it said that those high-priced runway models have to
really watch it on caffeine. The way they keep their energy up is daily exer- cise
and lots of sleep . . . ‘Beauty sleep,’ I’ll bet!” Comments fly about who has time for
daily exercise, getting paid to work out, and so on.

3:30 PM, you’re feeling the mid-afternoon energy slump. You head to the
crowded coffee cart to get another cup. “I really ought to cut down on this stuff,”
you comment to your friend in line. He nods. “I’m a five-cup-a-day guy, myself,” he
confesses. “I just can’t give it up.”

1. What’s the problem in this story?

The problem in the story is how office workers become dependent on
coffee to boost their energy to become productive and finish the job for the
day, and with office workers and runway models who both need to maintain
their energy for their work, they have different ways to cope up with their
unsteady energy level. Runway models do exercises and sleep more, while
office workers who have a full scheduled week, drink coffee everyday and at
times they feel the need to take a cup, this is concerning for office workers
who have multiple intakes of coffee in a day, as it can lead to serious health
complications in the future.

2. What are the three or four most important variables in the case?
The three most important variables in the case is the energy level of
the office worker, their workload and their coffee intake. These three
variables are the main things that affect the problem.
3. What is the behavior of those variables over time? Graph them in the
space below.

The graph above shows the behavior of the three important variables
which are the energy level, workload, and coffee intake. With the graph you
can observe the behavior and relationship each variable has with each
other.

4. What do you observe about the behavior of the variables? For example,
do any of them increase or decrease steadily over time? Are there dramatic
changes (sudden upswings or plunges)? Do any of the variables seem to go
through a cycle, as indicated by up-and-down patterns? Do any of them
hold steady?
The workload of the office employee is steady as it becomes the basis
for the needed energy level of the office worker to proceed with his job on
that day. With the energy level, it follows the flow of the coffee intake which
has sudden upswings when there is intake and plunges when the effect of
the coffee wears off.

5. Do you observe any relationships among the behavior patterns of the

variables? If so, what? For example, does one variable seem to rise or fall,
followed by another variable’s rising or falling?
Energy level is directly proportional to the direction of the coffee
intake, which then shows that the energy of the office worker is dependent
on his coffee intake. And without coffee there’s a possibility that the office
worker may fail to be productive and finish his job.
Case Study 2: The Audio-Electronic RollerCoaster

AudioMax Corporation was on its way up. During the mid-1980s, the
company enjoyed rapid growth and rising revenues. A manufacturer of special
audio-electronics products, AudioMax served a growing core of clients who were
willing to pay a higher price for better sounding, better quality innovations.
AudioMax’s products were well received because experts said they really did
sound better. Initially AudioMax focused on maintaining a high degree of technical
innovation, and this strategy generated a steady stream of new products.

Unfortunately, problems associated with AudioMax’s subsequent rapid

growth soon led the company into financial trouble. The company’s CEO, Diane
Schuster, had promised the investment banking community that immediately after
going public in 1990 the company would beef up its man- management team.
However, Schuster didn’t bring in new people from the out- side until 1991. When
she finally added experienced management talent who could improve AudioMax’s
corporate strategizing, Schuster found it increasingly difficult to keep the company
focused on R&D. Corporate expenses exploded, and productivity plummeted.

Meanwhile, the company began losing market strength, partly owing to its
resistance to introducing models with simple cosmetic changes. Because the
company was not introducing enough new products to keep customers interested,
its dealer base began to deteriorate. In 1994, AudioMax had only 230 dealers, half
as many as in1990. Net income skidded sharply after 1991, followed by a heavy
sales slump in early 1993 (Figure 3.4, “AudioMax’s Income Slide”).

AudioMax’s problems persisted. The company cut costs by laying off one-
third of the workforce, but when sales rebounded, it could not rebuild staff fast
enough to meet the new demand.

During the second half of 1994, AudioMax tried to get back on track by
developing and releasing 18 new products. But as these new product lines were
developed, the core products became even more dated.

During 1995, AudioMax saw net income rebound and sales increase over
1994. This time the CEO hoped the quality improvements would make a lasting
difference. But the continuing cycle of ups and downs that followed AudioMax’s
rapid growth suggest an uncertain future for the company.

1. What was the long-standing, chronic problem facing AudioMax Corp.?

 AudioMax Corp. is facing a long-standing problem of having low sales
and a slow-moving phase in releasing new products and new versions of
previous products. These problems are caused by the lack of employees
after going public, which then affected the company’s research and
development department, where product improvement and new product
releases come from.

2. What two variables fed the initial steady growth in demand from
AudioMax’s customers?
The two variables that gave a huge impact to the steady growth of
demand from AudioMax’s customers are the release of new products and its
quality. As customers are willing to pay for AudioMax’s products for its great
quality, they also focus on what’s new or the new products that they can buy.

3. Once AudioMax went public, what variable limited its ability to continue
handling the growth in demand?
After going public, AudioMax failed to meet the customers' growth in
demand as there were limited employees working. The number of
employees was the variable that limited the company to match the demand
as well as to release new products that can eboost more sales and attract
new customers.

4. In the space below, graph the behavior over time of the two variables
you identified in Question 2 and the one from Question 3. Then, add the
behavior over time of two more variables: “Demand” and “Ability to meet
customers’ needs.”
 The graph above shows the variables that affect the performance of
AudioMax Corp. The graph shows the relationship between variables and how
they affect each other.

5. What do you observe about the behavior of the variables over time?
Looking at the graph, I can see that customer’s demand follows the
movement of the company’s release of new products, and with the release
of new products the quality also follows. The quality of the products, the
release of new products, and the service quality continues to plunge and
rise.

6. What relationships do you observe among the variables?

It is also visible that the service quality or the ability of the company to
meet the needs of the customers struggles to rise even though there’s a rise
in releases of new products where quality is improved and the demand also
follows. It shows that the service quality is affected by the limited number of
employees that carries out the job for the company to work effectively and
efficiently.
Case Study 3: Observe your community, select a community problem.

1. Type your home address.

Kingsville Hills subd. Antipolo City, Rizal

2. Common or priority community problem.

Since early of 2020 our community just like the rest of the country is
struggling to fight against Covid-19, keeping every community member safe.
It was also a struggle to adjust and implement safety measures to ensure
everyone is healthy.

3. Identify a given behavior on your chosen problem

It continues to rise until the second month of 2021. And then started to
go down until up to recently, hopefully it goes all the way down with the
availability of vaccines.

4. Draw a BOTG. Time is March 15 2020 to March 15 2021

https://covid19stats.ph/stats/by-location/antipolo