OPERATIONS RESEARCH MINI CASE STUDY

Answer all the questions in need of a solution.

MINI CASE 1: Doing “good” but not doing the “right thing”
1. Natoy and Emma are spouses and partners in a business called “Segalanya
Bendera”. They made and sold a variety of national flags in various shapes.
About 40% of their total revenues came from a single wholesale retailer, GM
Kuala Lumpur, the largest wholesale plaza in Malaysia. When Natoy and Emma
started their company, their son’s classmate’s father was a senior buyer at GM.
The buyer, Vincenzo, encouraged Natoy and Emma to submit a bid to GM and
helped the couple establish the relationship that led to subsequent recurring
sales and the retailer. Vincenzo’s wife, Shakira was the head of the school’s
PIBG and in charge of fundraising. Without Vincenzo’s asking, Natoy and Emma
started contributing significant sums of money to the PIBG. Vincenzo never
discourages them from contributing. In a cost cutting move, Vincenzo was laid off
from GM and his place, Caloy became the buyer who interacted with Natoy and
Emma. Caloy hinted to them that there were other vendors willing to supply flags
at a lower price but that if they would contribute to the rebuilding of his (Caloy)
community’s softball park, they would continue to sell their product at GM.

QUESTION
1. Did Natoy and Emma act ethically to the School’s PIBG? Justify your answer.
2. If they agree to pay for the community park in exchange for the business from
alloy, would Natoy and Emma have acted ethically?
3. Contributing to a PIBG and donating to build a community park are civic
actions. Could Natoy and Emma NOT be considered good actions because
they indicate social responsibility?

MINI CASE 2: Protecting your intellectual property.

Uling, Tummy and Bonsai were childhood friends who had always talked about
starting Business together after college graduation. Tummy had the financial
background and Startup capital to contribute and Uling and Bonsai had the
technical knowledge they believed they would give them the competitive
advantage needed to become an Industry leader.
During their early college years, Uling and Bonsai developed a new and
innovative way to manufacture computer components. When they shared their
idea to Tummy, he was able to draw up a detailed business plan to present to
potential investors when the three were ready to launch their venture. They had
been very careful not to disclose anything about their innovative idea to other
colleagues or any of their friends and were anxious to get started.
After selecting the company name “Millennium Components” the three friends
come to you for advice in intellectual property rights.
QUESTIONS:
1. To protect their innovative process for manufacturing computer components
from unauthorized use, which type of intellectual property should the three
should apply for?
Identify the office to which they should apply and outline the steps involved in
the process.
2. Should they consider protecting or registering their company name? which
intellectual property would cover this concern? Could they use the name
without registering it?
3. Since the primary weapon to protect intellectual property is the legal system,
what would you advise them to do if they have to protect intellectual property
sometime in the future by threatening a lawsuit?