Module 4 – Strategic Management

Cost / Benefit Analysis

Total Benefits (Return) – The gain or loss of security in a particular period. The return consists of the income and the capital gains relative to investment. Total Investments – An asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future. In an economic sense, an investment is the purchase of goods that are not consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth. Discount Rate – The interest rate charged to commercial banks and other depository institutions for loans received from the Federal Reserve Bank’s discount window. Payback Period – The length of time required to recover the cost of an investment. The payback period of a given investment or project is an important determinant of whether to undertake the position or project, as longer payback periods are typically not desirable for investment positions. NPV – The difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows. NPV is used in capital budgeting to analyze the profitability of an investment or project. Discount ROI - Discount yield is a measure of a bond's percentage return. Discount yield is most frequently used to calculate the yield on short-term bonds and treasury bills sold at a discount. http://www.investopedia.com  

Vermont Teddy Bear: Case Study

Bob has now had time to interview the leadership team and hire additional staff to replace the members of his team that had resigned and moved on to other companies. As Bob’s team supported the current environment, he observed that users would call his team directly and request support or a special project that they needed to implement for their departments. He noticed that the IT staff would try to address the issues as users called in and that critical tasks that his team was assigned to would slip due to the lack of a formal change process. He also noticed that the IT environment contain a number of applications that the users had developed to fill a gap for solutions they needed but that the IT team did not have the bandwidth to develop. Now that you understand the importance of the Strategic Alignment between the IT department and the business, what process would you implement to address these issues? Please include any comments in the comment section of the course. 4 Portfolio Charter 4 Portfolio Strategic Plan 4PROJE~1 4 Three-Year Portfolio Roadmap