1. Consider you work for a medium sized organization. Your supervisor has asked you to determine a way of measuring the productivity of your department or work unit. What measures you would use, and how would you measure the metrics?

2. Asher, your manager is proposing a new technological process which may reduce cost per unit of production in longer term. However, this proposal has been considered without a cost-benefit analysis. Explain why you must suggest her to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before proceeding?

3. Simon is a manager in local retail shop where he supervises a team of 8 employees. For the past couple of months the sales figure showed a declining trend and for that head office has requested Simon to review the matter and existing strategy. Simon finds 'innovation' is the only way to achieve growth and stay competitive. Now, he would like to make the workplace more creative, interesting and engaging. Discuss the factors Simon should be considering in order to encourage innovation in workplace?

4. What is strategic planning? Discuss the importance of SWOT analysis in strategic planning process.

5. Why continuous improvement and quality policy are an essential part of doing business? How important is the impact of culture in relation to this?

Short essay question

Consider your company is taking an innovation initiative and the general manager has selected you to make a basic workout of the plan. This could be a new product design, a new workplace policy or a new service delivery to be implemented in market. What would be your approach?

Do you decide to take a project management methodology or simply a change management style to support the initiative? Make a short essay describing your role on innovation and continuous improvement.