Journal 2

W3tw1ns
Last week I have learned about the way that we should prepare simulations. It differed from
the way that we have done them in the previous term. Simulations for Understanding
Business classes should obviously focus on the business issues. We do not return to the
models used in the Fundamentals of Management because we have already discussed
them. We show the business models and problems. When we find something that we would
like to present in the simulation we have to answer the question “Will our work contribute
something to the class, give some learning to ourselves and our peers?”. If so we want the
class to be involved in the simulation.
We have mentioned the problem of the last mile issue. After hearing about it I was
interested in learning more, so I searched in EBSCO to find some articles in the topic. Last
mile term is used in the context of final leg of telecommunications, delivery the goods and
services to the customers. Now the meaning of that term slightly changed and it refers also
to the public transport. It doesn’t take us exactly where we need to go, when we go
somewhere by bus the bus stop doesn’t have to be near that place, or even driving by car
the parking spot isn’t available everywhere we go and walking isn’t always the quickest and
most “reasonable” way of transport. But coming back to its meaning in business, the
delivery of goods. In a product’s journey to the client from the warehouse shelf the last step
is called “last mile” of delivery. The point at which the package finally arrives at the buyers
door. That is the most expansive and often time consuming part of the delivery. Often the
problem increase with the decrease of the density of the population. In rural areas, delivery
points could be several kilometers apart from each other, with only two or three packages
being dropped.
Another problem that we have discussed is the process of recruitment. Looking at the
recruitment from two sides, the side of the recruiter and the person being recruited.
Companies have a step-by-step recruitment process and follow it while wanting to hire
somebody. This process has phases like; planning, recruitment, selection, evaluation and
control. The first stage of recruitment is planning. What applicants do we want to attract,
how many, with which characteristics, competences and how much are we likely to pay
them. Then we find the strategy of recruitment that we want to follow. One of them is
“make or buy” the question is do we want to train the worker in-company or invest in the
already skilled person. When we are left with more possible workers that we need or can
afford we have to do the selection. The last phase of recruitment process is the evaluation
and control.