Consider the following scenario:A pair of siblings grew up in a household where their parents ran a successful catering business, and the siblings both decided to follow their parents’ example as they became adults. The brother started his own pastry shop and the sister opened her own sports bar. While the siblings shared many values and lessons learned from their parents, they had different ideas about certain aspects of how to run a business; marketing was by far the most contrasting viewpoint. The brother wanted nothing to do with marketing and thought the sign out front and the quality of his pastries was all he needed. The sister felt strongly about marketing her restaurant in her community and invested time to use a digital marketing platform that worked best for her. Although the brother struggled with sales and bringing in new customers for years, he was able to keep his business running. His sister, however, experienced an enormous amount of success in the same time period and was able to open two other locations.Although this scenario may not represent the results of using a centralized digital marketing platform for all businesses, it highlights the ways in which employing these marketing tools and methods can benefit companies. Just because a business owner may ignore these aspects, as the brother did, that does not mean the business is certain to fail. But, by using a digital marketing platform, business owners can take more intentional steps to growth and profitability.In this Discussion, you will identify a digital marketing platform and discuss the potential benefits or drawbacks for its use by business owners.To prepare for this Discussion:Review this week’s Learning Resources and identify at least one digital marketing platform that you would use or recommend.Review the Academic Writing Expectations for 2000/3000-Level Courses, provided in this week’s Learning Resources.By Day 3Post a description of and link to the digital marketing platform that you identified. In 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs), provide an analysis of a digital marketing platform that addresses the following:Describe why you would use or recommend this platform, as well as its benefits and drawbacks.Describe what types of businesses or other organizations you think could most benefit from using this platform.Explain at least one strategy or action that businesses and organizations can incorporate from this platform to increase the success of their marketing.To support your response, be sure to reference at least one properly cited scholarly source.

You have been asked to consult with the Best Buy marketing team. They are specifically looking for recommendations as to specific promotional activities you would recommend to encourage consumers who currently use independent installers to switch to Geek Squad. To aid you in formulating your recommendations, you should consider past and present consumer purchasing patterns; conduct an environmental scan for Geek Squad using each of the five environmental forces (social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory); and identify key trends likely to influence Geek Squad in the near future.

Operations management is the core of any business. It is the management function that coordinates all the activities in relation to product/service reliability, quality, efficiencies, delivery, and meeting customers' expectations.By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:Competency 1: Assess the role of operations management within organizations.Explain how operations management improvements support an organization's strategy.Explain how a service bundle relates to the initial purpose of a company.Identify operations management decisions for an organization.Competency 2: Apply the tools and technology used in operations management.Develop recommended changes for an organization's operations management function.Competency MapUse this online tool to track your performance and progress through your course.ContextToday's global economy has forced companies to focus on how they deliver their product or service to their customers. Companies must now continuously evaluate better ways to reduce cost, improve quality, and give the customer more than was expected.Operations management is an integral part of this process because it focuses on the transformation of needed inputs to desired outputs. This transformation includes office, production, manufacturing, and vendors or suppliers, as well as other things that affect the company's ability to deliver superior quality products.SHOW LESSOperations management includes the use of the facilities, equipment, materials, technology, and, most importantly, the employees. These operational activities are designed relative to sustainability concerns. Understanding operations management will allow you to see the flow of the product or service.A product or a service starts with design. A key component of the design process is to determine whether a product or service can be offered at a price point that will produce a profit for a company. A key consideration in design is any cost or environmental impact affecting sustainability concerns.Another aspect of operations management is that companies must strive to improve the work environment for their employees and enhance sustainability concerns. People are a company's most important resource, and managers must take care of their employees in order to grow and maintain industry leadership.Our fast-paced economy has shortened the product life cycle, by forcing companies to update more often in order to serve their customers and stay ahead of the competition. One tool used by many companies to help maintain an advantage is the flow chart. This tool allows companies to diagram out all the processes needed to deliver their products. The flow chart diagram gives the visual flow of the work down to the simplest step in the process. It allows management to constantly review processes to see where bottlenecks occur and to help determine how they can improve the process.Some of the best practices used by companies that lead in their industries include:Breakeven analysis.Benchmarking.Reverse engineering.Concurrent engineering.Questions to ConsiderTo deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.What are some characteristics of operations management decisions?Select one operations management decision. Is this decision tactical or strategic? Why?ResourcesSuggested ResourcesThe following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.Library ResourcesThe following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:Aswathappa, K., & Shridhara Bhat, K. (2009). Production and operations management. Mumbai, IN: Global Media.Plenert, G. J. (2002). International operations management. Copenhagen, DNK: Copenhagen Business School.Course Library GuideA Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the BUS-FP4014 Operations Management for Competitive Advantage Library Guide to help direct your research.Bookstore ResourcesThe resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise, these materials are available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2016). Operations management: An integrated approach (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Chapter 1, "Introduction to Operations Management."Chapter 2, "Operations Strategy and Competitiveness."Chapter 3, "Product Design and Process Selection."Chapter 11, "Work System Design."Assessment InstructionsScenarioConsider the operations management aspects of the organization in the following scenario:Madero Bank is a regional U.S. bank. Madero Bank's managers decided on a business strategy emphasizing customer service, rather than on some other dimension such as customer financials (providing higher interest rates on savings accounts, lower interest rates on loan, and so forth). To help the bank implement that customer service strategy, they conducted a survey of their customers, and found that the customers would like the bank to be open for more hours. As a result, Madero Bank decided to remain open until 7:00 P.M. on Fridays, and to be open from 9:00 A. M. to 4:00 P. M. on Saturdays.The expanded hours have presented challenges for Madero Bank's operations management team, in staffing an adequate number of tellers to cover those additional hours without customers having to wait in long lines. Madero Bank's managers are also considering additional approaches to support their customer service strategy, including the following:Providing additional hours of telephone customer support (which would involve securing additional telephone lines, customer support representatives, and telephone and computer equipment).Advancing the bank's online banking functionality (including a redesigned Web site and the development of an app on each of the leading mobile platforms).Redesigning the physical layout of the bank to better utilize high-contact areas (areas with significant customer traffic) and low-contact areas (areas with little or no customer traffic).Offering service bundles for the bank's largest personal and business banking customers, such as a predefined set of accounts, services, and reduced fees for platinum-level customers.Operations Management ProposalUsing the scenario above, create a proposal in which you provide answers to the following questions:How should operations management and associated improvements support Madero Bank's strategy?How might service bundles be utilized in support of this strategy? How do they relate to the initial purpose of the bank?What are some of the key operations management decisions to be made at Madero Bank?What operations management changes would you recommend, and why? (These changes could be related to hours, facilities, equipment, and personnel.)