BMGT 485 - 2 Page Email - Due Thurs

Weekly Brainstorming Projects Easy Chairs Training Program The Leaders of Easy Chairs (EC), Dwight Rickenbacker and Ike Omar, have decided that they want to customize their management training program to fit the company both stateside, abroad and online. They have tasked your group, BMGT 485 Class Consulting Firm, to create a program that features the top ten skills they believe an Easy Chairs manager should possess in a contemporary business arena. Rickenbacker and Omar are confident that if their managers have these skills the company will profit immensely.

Dwight, who is guiding this project, has given you a course outline, the list of skills, and course material he believes will enhance the managerial candidates in their training. He has also given you some of the most common examples of the skill in action so that he can see those candidates that apply the skill well and those who need improvement. He wants your firm to develop the best answers to these scenarios and present them to him for evaluation. This way he can determine if the candidates are a good fit for EC and where he can help them to improve going forward.

Dwight envisions the program class to work as follows:

Each week the firm will be given a small project, case study or activity to complete that relates to one of the skills he deems important to company success. The firm, and you as a member, will brainstorm the activity answer discussing as a team the best way the manager can employ the skill to complete the activity. By 11:59 on Tuesday ET of each week, you will each submit a final post with an attachment that summarizes the best answer you have concluded from your evaluation of the team discussion and the course material provided by Dwight. In addition to the skill activities, the firm has created two quizzes for additional individual assessments. The team leader of the firm has decided that the firm's best use of time would be for him/her to create the quizzes for you to take. (As a plus this will also help the team leader to know BMGT485 staff’s managerial skill set better.)

Quiz 1 is taken in Week 2 - Communication Quiz Quiz 2 is taken in Week 4 - SWOT Quiz

To help the firm better Dwight has supplied a corporate history of Easy Chairs.

Company History

Dwight Rickenbacker and Ike Omar were two American Army Veterans who wanted to make a difference for their fellow wounded veterans. They decided that they wanted to make semi- customized wheelchairs. After researching the idea, the two vets agreed that they were going to do something unique with the wheelchairs. Dwight and Ike decided to make the wheelchairs with 3-D printing with easily replaceable parts so repairs could be done by someone with basic mechanical skills. They also agreed that they would only hire veterans as employees.

Dwight and Ike started their business, EC's five years ago in Birmingham, Alabama. Since then, the business has grown exponentially. Last year gross sales were over $7 million and was projected that the business will reach $9 million by the end of next year.

A significant part of Easy Chairs' success has been through Internet sales. The company website is geared to the American market. The average cost of a non-motorized chair is $59.00, half of the cost of a simple product found at Walmart. The battery-operated models average between $500 and $600, almost a quarter of the traditionally produced models. Prices for parts for the chairs are varied but the most expensive part is the battery for the mobile units, which is priced at one-fifteenth the price of an average battery. The company can customize colors, add oxygen container carriers and other features that improve the wheelchair-bound person’s life for minimal cost because their computer program allows the chair to be designed to each person’s specifications before manufacturing. Last year, Rickenbacker decided to sell their products overseas both via the internet and through licensed distributors. Currently, they have agreements with distributors in Japan and South Korea. They hope to expand more abroad and are considering adding manufacturing operations abroad as well.