Ethics and professional conduct in business DiscussionDiscussion 200 wordsLisa Deuel is a certified public accountant (CPA) and staff accountant for Bratz and Bratz, a local CPA firm. It had been the policy of the firm to provide a holiday bonus equal to two weeks' salary to all employees. The firm's new management team announced on November 15 that a bonus equal to only one week's salary would be made available to employees this year. Lisa thought that this policy was unfair because she and her coworkers planned on the full two-week bonus. The two-week bonus had been given for 10 straight years, so it seemed as though the firm had breached an implied commitment.Thus, Lisa decided that she would make up the lost bonus week by working an extra six hours of overtime per week over the next five weeks until the end of the year. Bratz and Bratz's policy is to pay overtime at 150% of the straight time. Lisa's supervisor was surprised to see overtime being reported since there is generally very little additional or unusual client service demands at the end of the calendar year. However, the overtime was not questioned, since firm employees are on the "honor system" in reporting their overtime.Discuss whether the firm is acting in an ethical manner by changing the bonus.Is Lisa behaving in an ethical manner?

RETAILING FINAL PROJECT GUIDELINES Prepare a paper and PowerPoint presentation about your retailer using the guidelines that follow. All papers and PowerPoint presentation are due as outlined on the syllabus, The presentations will follow the course syllabus so that this becomes a collaborative learning experience. In researching and preparing your paper, you should use a minimum of 5 sources of information. Develop a reference list of your sources and appropriately reference them throughout the paper as you present information from them.  Situation Analysis 1. Describe the current climate and situation that your retailer finds itself in as it attempts to compete. Describe what is occurring in the industry. Provide a brief overview of the retail sector in which the retailer operates. What environmental and economic factors are affecting the retailer? Describe competitive pressures, changing demographics and buying preferences, consumer behavior issues, image issues, etc. that affects this retailer and how they conduct business? How has the industry changed as a result of ecommerce and technology? 2. How has your retailer changed and evolved over time? What is your retailer’s primary business? What is their business model (how do they choose to operate)? What is their corporate strategy? What are their goals? What parts of their business are growing and generate the most revenue? How is your retailer seeking to increase revenue in the future?  3. Corporate Analysis – Who is the parent company of your retailer? What retailers are part of their portfolio? What is the parent company’s overall market strategy and how does this retailer fit into their overall strategy? 4. Competition  Who are the retailers’ competitors (both direct and indirect)? How does your retailer compare to these competitors in terms of its size, market dominance/share, sales, profitability, etc.?  What is your retailer’s competitive strength? How do they try to compete? Are there strategies that have not worked for them? What retailers have they identified as competitive threats? Why? Marketing Strategy 5. Retail Market Strategy  a. Target Audience – Who is their target audience? (describe demographically and psychographically, if possible) How does this compare to the competition? b. What image do they want to convey? How do they attempt to position themselves in the minds of consumers in the market? What is their current image in the industry and in the minds of consumers? Is this image working for them? How does this compare with the image of competitors? c. How do they make use of technology (web and ecommerce, supply chain management, information systems, etc.)? How has technology affected the way they conduct business? d. What is their global presence and strategy? What countries have they entered? How successful have they been expanding into these countries? What obstacles have they faced? e. What is their location strategy? Why have they chosen this strategy?  f. What is their approach to managing human resources? (if this info is available) g. Describe their merchandising strategy – how they buy, what they buy, breadth vs depth of merchandise, etc. How is it reflected in their financial strategy? h. What is their pricing strategy and how does this affect their profitability?  i. Describe their approach to advertising and sales promotions. Has it been effective for them? j. What challenges does your retailer face in terms of the retail strategy variables just described? Do some appear to be working better than others?  Financial Analysis 6. Conduct a financial analysis of your retailer and two to five of its top competitors. Include revenue growth, Gross Margin, Net Margin,  Inventory Turnover, projected sales etc. What does this analysis say about how your retailer operates and its profitability? What can your retailer do to improve its profitability?