More companies are adopting the concept of , which carefully integrates and coordinates the company's many communication channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its brands.

Goals that are overly ambitious can discourage employees and decrease motivation, yet the idea of stretch goals is proposed as a way to get people fired up and motivated. as a manager, how might you decide where to draw the line between a “good” stretch goal and a “bad” one that is unrealistic?

Nichols inc. manufactures remote controls. currently the company uses a plantminuswide rate for allocating manufacturing overhead. the plant manager is considering switchingminusover to abc costing system and has asked the accounting department to identify the primary production activities and their cost drivers which are as follows: activities cost driver allocation rate material handling number of parts $5 per part assembly labor hours $20 per hour inspection time at inspection station $10 per minute the current traditional cost method allocates overhead based on direct manufacturing labor hours using a rate of $20 per labor hour. what are the indirect manufacturing costs per remote control assuming an method is used and a batch of 10 remote controls are produced? the batch requires 100 parts, 5 direct manufacturing labor hours, and 3 minutes of inspection time.

Richardson hired j.c. flood company, a plumbing contractor, to correct a stoppage in the sewer line of her house. the plumbing company's 'snake' device, used to clear the line leading to the main sewer, became caught in the underground line. to release it, the company excavated a portion of the sewer line in richardson's backyard. in the process, the company discovered numerous leaks in a rusty, defective water pipe that ran parallel with the sewer line. to meet public regulations, the water pipe, of a type no longer approved for such service, had to be replaced either then or later, when the yard would have to be excavated again. the plumbing company proceeded to repair the water pipe. though richardson inspected the company's work daily and did not express any objection to the extra work involved in replacing the water pipe, she refused to pay any part of the total bill after the company completed the entire operation. j.c. flood company then sued richardson for the costs of labor and material it had furnished. (c) for what, if anything, should richardson be liable? explain."