2nd Bac - Video on Change Management

Click on the link and watch the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yysOwXbzRA

Comment here what was the most interesting part of the video with the following format:

2nd "__"
Full name
Comment

This should be done by the end of class.

3rd Bac - Sales Trend

Sales Trend

Sales trend is a methodology to understand sales results which helps in understanding the trends of the market over a specific period of time. Sales results are an indicative of the sales patterns followed by the customer over a time period. The time period can be short, average or long. Sales trend can be analyzed by compiling the sales and employment over the time period against the financial reports.

Purpose of understanding sales trend:

• It compares the company against its peers and therefore analyses the relative position of the company in the industry

• The company can do better business by following the trend.

• Better understanding of the business facilitates the company to plan its short- and long-term marketing strategies.

• Customer retention (to keep having them as customers)

Sales trend is usually done by the process of customer segmentation. Customer segmentation is done on the basis of products, sales channels, geographic regions etc. Customer segmentation is done such that the customers in a particular segment have similar attributes. Usually customers with similar attributes have the same purchasing behavior.

A typical sales trend includes the following:

• Sales change from the last time period

• Customer segments with the highest growth rate

• Customer segments with the highest revenue

• Customer segments with exponential growth rate

• Sales forecast and so on

Classwork: Scan and send me the class copied to your notebook in a PDF file to my email: engteachermiken@gmail.com by the end of the class.

1st Bac - Value Added Tax

Value Added Tax VAT (IVA in Spanish)

It is a tax that is charged on the value of local transfers or imports of personal property, in all its stages of commercialization and on the value of the services rendered. 

Who has to pay?

-       All persons and companies that provide services and / or carry out transfers or imports of goods must pay Value Added Tax (VAT).

-       Those who have paid VAT may use it as a tax credit in the cases contemplated in the Internal Tax Regime Law.

-       Additionally, the persons and companies designated as withholding agents through current tax regulations, will withhold VAT in cases that warrant.

-       This tax is declared and paid monthly when transactions are taxed and / or when VAT is withheld, and semi-annually when transactions are taxed at 0%.

What should be paid on?

-       VAT must be paid on all local transfers or imports of goods and the provision of services.

-       For local transactions, the VAT tax base corresponds to the sale price of the goods or the value of the provision of the service, including other taxes, fees and other related expenses, less discounts and / or returns.

-       In the case of imports, the VAT tax base corresponds to the sum of the CIF value (Cost, insurance and freight) plus the taxes, duties, fees, charges and surcharges included in the import declaration.

Income Tax

The Income Tax is applied to those incomes obtained by natural persons, undivided successions and companies, whether national or foreign. The tax year runs from January 1 to December 31.

Who has to pay?

-       The Income Tax declaration is mandatory for all-natural persons, undivided successions and companies, national or foreign, domiciled or not in the country, according to the results of their economic activity; even when all of their incomes are made up of exempt income, except for:

o   Taxpayers domiciled abroad, who do not have a representative in the country and who exclusively have income subject to withholding tax.

o   Natural persons whose gross income during the fiscal year does not exceed the basic non-taxable fraction.

What should be paid on?

In order to calculate the Income Tax that a taxpayer must pay, the following must be considered: from all taxed income, the returns, discounts, costs, expenses and deductions, attributable to such income, will be subtracted. We call this result "tax base". 

For which the following definitions must be taken into consideration:

-       Taxed income - These are the income that will be considered for the payment of Income Tax.

-       Exempt income and exemptions - Are those income and activities that are not subject to the payment of this tax.

-       Deductions - In general, for the purpose of determining the taxable base subject to this tax, expenses incurred in order to obtain, maintain and improve income from an Ecuadorian source that are not exempt will be deducted.

Simplified Tax Regime (RISE in Spanish), 

It’s a voluntary registration regime, which replaces the payment of VAT and Income Tax through monthly fees and aims to improve the tax culture in the country.

Requirements:

-       Being a natural person.

-       Having no income greater than USD 60 thousand in the year, or if it is under a dependency relationship, the income for this concept does not exceed the basic fraction of the Income Tax levied at a rate of zero percent (0%) for each year.

-       Do not engage in any of the restricted activities.

-       Not have been a withholding agent for the last 3 years

Classwork: Scan and send me the class copied to your notebook in a PDF file to my email: engteachermiken@gmail.com by the end of the class.

2nd Bac - Change Management

Change Management

Is organizational change easy?

Change management can be defined as the process of continually renewing an organization’s direction, structure and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers. (Moran and Brightman, 2001)

Writers on change management agree on two key things. Firstly, that change affects all organizations, and secondly, that business is changing faster nowadays than in the past. The reasons for making changes are usually simple: to solve a problem or to improve results. So, it is important that business professionals understand the drivers of change and how to manage change at work. The difficult thing is how to make serious changes to a business in a successful way so that all the stakeholders are happy.

Many academic writers have looked at the reasons why people dislike and resist change. Rosabeth Kanter gave the following reasons why people often fight or try to stop change:

§  Loss of control – they have no choice about their future

§  Loss of face – they are afraid it will change the way people think about them

§  Loss of identity – some people use their work to define who they are

§  Loss of competence – they are good at their work now, but maybe not in the new situation

§  Personal uncertainty – they don’t know what is going to happen and they are worried

§  Surprise – they don’t know this is coming

§  More work – they think they will need to work more

§  Past events – previous changes affected them so they will not support new ideas

Another academic writer, Kurt Lewin wrote about the process of change in the 1940s and introduced a number of business ideas and models for understanding and analyzing change. He suggested that change should happen in three stages and compared it to taking something from a freezer, letting it thaw and changing it and then re-freezing it. The idea is that first you need to prepare carefully before making the change (unfreezing). When the people are ready, you can make the change. Then to make it effective you have to work hard to help people accept the change and think it is normal (re-freezing). 

Lewin’s process of change

 

So, what can a business leader do to deal with these problems and use this understanding of Lewin’s process of change? Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) created a list of ways to help to make change go well, both before starting and after finishing the change.

§  Avoid unnecessary change – if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

§  Communication and education – the need to explain and give reasons for the change.

§  Participation and involvement – the need to include all the staff and stakeholders in the decisions and activities.

§  Support and development – help people to make the change, for example, by giving training.

§  Negotiation and bargaining – to discuss the new arrangements with all the people involved and reach a new agreement.

§  Building coalitions and alliances – create teams or groups of people with a similar interest and with similar aims and objectives.

§  Making people agree without giving them a choice – forcing them to change.

Changes can affect the whole business so everyone must be involved. Many business leaders don’t think enough about change management and don’t make a plan. As a result, many changes fail because there is too much opposition from internal or external stakeholders in the business. So, it is very important to understand the issues around change management. You can then analyze the possible reactions from the stakeholders and create a plan where you decide how best to communicate and how to persuade people to understand and accept the change.

Classwork: Scan and send me the class copied to your notebook in a PDF file to my email: engteachermiken@gmail.com by the end of the class.

3rd Bac - Financial Plan

Financial Plan

A financial plan is a comprehensive statement of an individual's long-term objectives for security and well-being and a detailed savings and investing strategy for achieving those objectives. A financial plan may be created independently or with the help of a certified financial planner.

In either case, it begins with a thorough evaluation of the individual's current financial state and future expectations.

The Fundamentals of Financial Plans

Understanding the Financial Plan 

Whether you're going it alone or with a financial planner, the first step in the creation of a financial plan involves getting together a lot of bits of paper or, more likely these days, cutting and pasting numbers from various web-based accounts into a document or spreadsheet.

The following steps in creating a financial plan may, of course, be completed by an individual or a couple.

Calculating Net Worth 

You're about to learn your current net worth. List all of the following:

• Your assets: This may include a home and a car, some cash in the bank, money invested in a 401(k) plan, and anything else you own of value.
• Your liabilities: These may include credit card debt, student debt, an outstanding mortgage, and a car loan. In some cases, you may have access to a grace period or moratorium. 

Your total assets, minus your total liabilities, equals your current net worth.

Determining Cash Flow 

You can't create a financial plan without knowing where your money is going every month now. Documenting it will help you see how much you need every month for necessities, how much might be left for saving and investing, and even where you can cut back a little (or a lot).

One way to get this done is to skim through your checking account and credit card statements. Collectively, they should be a fairly complete history of your spending. If your expenses vary a lot seasonally, it's best to go through an entire year, count up all the expenditures in each category, and then divide by 12 to get an average monthly estimate of your spending. This way, you won't underestimate or overestimate what you spend on utilities, or forget to account for holiday gifts or a vacation.

The main elements of a financial plan include a retirement strategy, a risk management plan, a long-term investment plan, a tax reduction strategy, and an estate plan.

Document how much you've paid over a year in basic housing expenses like rent or mortgage payments, utilities, credit card interest, and even home furnishings. Add categories for food, clothing, transportation, medical insurance, and non-covered medical expenses. Document your real spending on entertainment, dining out, and vacation travel. Don't overlook cash withdrawals that may be used on sundries from shampoo to sodas.

As you look over your own financial records, your personal spending categories will stand out. You may have an expensive hobby or a pampered pet. Document the costs.

Once you add up all these numbers for a year and then divide by 12, you'll know exactly what your cash flow has been.

Considering Your Priorities 

The core of a financial plan is a person's clearly defined goals. They may include funding a college education for the children, buying a larger home, starting a business, retiring on time, or leaving a legacy.

No one can tell you how to prioritize these goals. However, a professional financial planner may be able to help you choose a detailed savings plan and specific investments that will help you tick them off, one by one.

Key Takeaways

• A financial plan documents an individual's long-term goals and creates a strategy for accomplishing them.
• The plan should be highly individualized to reflect the individual's personal and family situation, risk tolerance, and future expectations.

The plan starts with a calculation of the person's current net worth and cash flow.

Classwork: Scan and send me the class copied to your notebook in a PDF file to my email: engteachermiken@gmail.com by the end of the class.