Wednesday, November 14, 2018

IA05

Kip Soteres is a change communications expert with over 15 years of experience in technology, bank, and health care industries. He has won the Gold Quill and Silver Anvil Awards from the International Association of Business and the Public Relations Society of America for change communications targeting large employee populations. He focuses on simplified messages that inspire leaders to lead more effectively and on internal communications. He believes that better communications support successful change by maintaining employee trust and making change more clear, actionable, and measurable.

His website is www.soteresconsulting.com

In his lecture he talked about the Formal Communication Flows. In the book it talks about how there are three directions that communication flows which are downward, upward, and lateral. Downward communication flows from higher organizational levels to lower levels. Upward communication flows from lower to higher levels and Lateral communications flows across the organizations among personal on the same level. He also talked about the required skills which he believes are to engage with people you are speaking to, listen and observe the audience, and capture the audience’s attention. The book believes the required skill are e-mail, presentations with visuals, Technical reports, Formal reports, Memos/Correspondence, and presentations without visuals. He also talked about the barriers to communication. The two barriers that the books talks about are Functional Barriers and Cultural Barriers. This lecture connects to business news about how Communication Determines the Success of Your Business. This news article talks about how a company had trouble communicating with one another with ended in the company failing. In the article the changed the name of the company to protect those involved.

An article the sort of relates to this lecture is Effective Managers Say the Same Thing Twice (or More). This article talks about the research that shows that when a manager repeats themselves the employees will end up doing what the manager wants them to do. Professor Neeley says “We know that the effective managers repeated themselves at least once, and we often observed managers who sent three or four redundant communications. We saw some clear patterns with regard to who did this and how. For example, we divided our managers into two types: those with formal power and those without it. We found that those without power planned their redundant communications and that frequently very little time passed between their first message and their second.” This connects with the lecture because one of the things that Mr. Sorteres talked about is to get your point across sometimes you do have to repeat yourself. 


Neeley, T., & Leonardi, P. (2011). Effective managers say the same thing twice (or 
more). Harvard Business Review, 89(5), 38–39. Retrieved from 
http://ezproxy.chatham.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=21548418&site=eds-live&scope=site

Karen Collins. (2017). Exploring Business. Boston, MA: FlatWorld

IA04

On September 25, Chatham University held an Accounting and Information Systems Networking Mixer. At this mixer they had leaders in the area of robotic initiatives, such as, robotic auditing and the use of artificial intelligence. There were three panelist who were, Tom Bartos, Jim Marino, and Dan Desko. Tom Bartos is the CFO of Cognistx, which is an artificial intelligence firm. Jim Mario is a technology manager and Dan Desko is responsible for leading a team of IT audit, security and risk professionals as Schneider Downs.


At this event the talked about a couple of things from the book. They talked about MIS, artificial intelligence and also some accounting. In the book, MIS, management information systems, extracts data from a database to compile reports, such as sales analyses, inventory-level reports, and financial statements, to help managers make routine decisions. Artificial Intelligence is the science of developing computer systems that can mimic human behavior. Also, at this event the talked a little bit about accounting. In the book, accounting is defined as the process of measuring and summarizing business activities, interpreting financial information, and communicating the results to management and other decisions makers. There are two major fields that accountants work in which are Management and Financial. One thing that connects to this lecture that I have learned from the news is how firms, like Morgan Stanley, are using artificial intelligence to manage clients’ money. They are testing the waters to see how artificial intelligence can help consumers manager their money and plan for retirement.

In the Wall Street Journal article, Artificial Intelligence Faces Age-Old IT Challenge: Data Standardization, it talks about how artificial intelligence has the potential to transform a large company’s information technology infrastructure. Artificial intelligence can do things from automating mundane and repetitive IT tasks to predicting capacity and outages to identifying security. For those AI algorithms to work properly, there needs to be a standardized way of formatting the data that makes up an enterprise’s back-end infrastructure. Bob Friday, the co-founder and chief technology officer at Mist Systems say “AI starts with data, and if the data is lousy, you’re not going to make any great AI.” The data the comes out of various, routers, load balancers and other devices that applications depend on various based on vendors providing the equipment. Enterprises can make the most use if AI if the volumes of data that comes from the various elements within a network are formatted the same way no matter the origin. This connects to the lecture because they too also talked about the data that it takes to make AI better.

Castellanos, S. (2018, October 23). Artificial Intelligence Faces Age-Old IT Challenge: Data
Standardization. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2018/10/23/artificial-intelligence-faces-age-old-it-challenge-data-standardization/?guid=BL-CIOB-14537&mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=12&dsk=y

Karen Collins. (2017). Exploring Business. Boston, MA: FlatWorld

IA03

Personal Business Plan

My mission is to take the knowledge and skills that I have acquired through college and apply them to my future career in the Accounting industry.

Business Environment

The industry that I will be competing in is the Accounting industry. There is a high demand for accountants right now since the economy is growing. New laws and financial regulations will lead to economic demand in accounting careers. New positions will be created to ensure accurate and legitimate accounting practices in private, governmental, and public sectors. Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) which is talked about in the textbook was designed to encourage ethical corporate behavior and to discourage fraud and forms of corporate wrongdoing. This is why companies have a higher demand for accountants. Companies looking for highly skilled accounting and finance professionals continue to face a shortage of job candidates. In public accounting, hiring remains strong. Candidates with experience in tax and audit are in particular demand, and salaries are increasing. Some firms have started to introduce job-sharingand flexible work arrangements to attract top talent. Companies are providing employees with flextimewhich is when companies allow employees to designate starting and quitting times. The median salaries are $69,350 based off of O*NET.

Entrepreneurship and Strategy

One of the challenges that I envision with “promoting” and “selling” Product Me is that there are many people selling the same thing so I have to find something what will make Product Me unique. I need to figure out my promotion mixwhich is the means by which I communicate with customers which are the people that are willing to hiring me as an accountant. Personal selling would probably be the best type of communication since it is one-on-one communication with customers or potential customers just like an interview. Another strategy would be publicity. I would do this by trying to get mentioned in news media for something important that I did for a company that I am working for which will get my name around. A potential strategy that I would consider, starting out, as an “entrepreneur” is trying to find someone who is willing to take a risk on me, almost like an investor, so then I can work my way up to the position that I was to have.

Management

Planningis setting goals and determine the best way to achieve them. So, my plan/goal is to get my dream job as an accountant and the best way to achieve that is to get the skills I need from college and training and to possibly get a CPA and Masters. Organizingis allocating the resources needed to achieve the plan. I would find a mentor which could help me network with different people so then I could get the job that I want and also taking the right classes at college. Internships are also a big resource. Directing is providing focus. To do this I would have a democratic leadership stylewhich seeks input from subordinates but still having authority to make the final decision. Lasting for controlling I would just measure the performance based on how close I am to my dream job. I would manage Employee me by using clear communication and holding employee me accountable for goals that are set. I would motivate myself by rewards when I complete a goal that I have set to reach my main goal. Also getting my dream job is motivation. To get into the right profession I would internship at different types of companies, so I could figure out which type of accounting is right for me. I would also use networking to find different opportunities for me. I would work well with teams by clear communication and making sure everyone is doing a fair amount of work. Also, to work well with teams Peter Drunker said “The first secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you work with so that you can make use of their strengths.” That is from his article Manage Oneself.

Marketing

One way that I would promote Product Me would be my networking with people in the industry. My potential customers are any accounting firm that have job openings and also any companies that need an accountant or auditor. My marketing mixis, the product is me, the price is the salary that I would get from the company, the place is where I will be living at that time and promotingwould be networking. I would design and develop Product Me so that it is an innovative offering that would attract potential customers by getting my Master and CPA which would make me more valuable. I would apply digital marketingusing LinkedIn to connect with people in the work industry. 

Accounting and Finance
Balance sheet
For the Month of October 2022
Assets
Cash – Job                                                                                                      1,500
Total Assets                                                                                                    1,500

Liabilities
Accounts Payable                                                                                               500   
            
Equity
Owners’ Equity                                                                                               1,000
Total Liability and Equity                                                                               1,500

I plan on investing some money into the stock market but save some of my money that I get from my job. To create a financial plan, I would first have to evaluate my current financial situation. To evaluate my situation, I need to know my net worthwhich the difference between my assets and liabilities. The next step is to set short-term, intermediate-term and long-term financial goals. The third step is to develop abudgetand use it to evaluate Financial Performance. In the third step you need to figure out the variance which is the difference between the actual amount and the budgeted amount.

Information Systems and Operations

Some information systems that I would consider using would be management information systemwhich extracts data from a database to compile reports, such as sales analyses and financial statements to help managers make routine decisions. Also, decision support systemwould help because it is an interactive system that collects, displays, and integrates data from multiple sources to help managers make nonroutine decisions. And lastly executive information systemswhich provides ready access to strategic information that’s customized to their needs and presented in a convenient format. All these information systems will help me collect the information that I need to optimize my productivity and operational efficiency.




Half, R. (2017). 2017 Salary Guide Accounting and Finance. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from 
13-2011.01 - Accountants. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2018, from 
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-2011.01
Drucker, P. F. (2005). Managing Oneself. Harvard Business Review, 83(1), 100–109. Retrieved from