MBA

Enter answers into the appropriate dropbox for each question

Extensive outside reading is required for this assignment

Institutional Learning Goals and Objectives Associated with this Assignment

A. Academic Excellence – Knowledge

 Students demonstrate an awareness of the many perspectives that inform human experiences and understand the responsibilities of a global citizen in the modern world.

 Students demonstrate a general knowledge of ethical and moral issues as well as ones specific to their fields of study. (via Humanitarian relief assignment)

B. Catholic & Jesuit Mission & Identity (via the Humanitarian Relief Assignment)

 Students demonstrate a familiarity with dimensions of the Catholic and Jesuit intellectual traditions as they occur in literature, art, science and social teaching.

 In the Jesuit tradition, be intentional learners who can adapt to new environments, integrate knowledge, and continue learning throughout their lives.

 Use their gifts for the service of others and the benefit of society.

MBA Degree-Program Learning Goals and Objectives Associated with this Assignment

A. MBA graduates will understand global operations management and marketing concepts.

 Students will demonstrate a capacity to apply business knowledge in new and unfamiliar circumstances through a conceptual understanding of relevant disciplines.

B. MBA graduates will understand ethical frameworks in managerial decision-making and leadership

 Students are able to describe issues pertaining to social responsibility.

C. MBA graduates will understand how information technology supports business strategy and operations

 Students have the information literacy skills necessary to effectively research, locate, extract, structure and organize the information needed to assist in management planning, decision making and execution. (External readings)

Course-Specific Learning Objectives Associated with this Assignment

1. Demonstrated knowledge of basic global trade theories.

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2. Demonstrated knowledge of the role transportation infrastructure plays in fostering or hindering participation in global trade and humanitarian relief.

The Situation –

You Receive a Request for Logistics Help from Catholic Relief Services

Your company is a global logistics company that has been asked to provide

logistics support by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to provide humanitarian relief

supplies to the City of Ayod in Ayod County, State of Jonglei, Country of South

Sudan.

Assume you have recently read about the humanitarian needs of African countries, in particular South

Sudan. Catholic Relief Services and the World Food Programme (WFP) have just completed a ‘Rapid

Needs Assessment ‘of Ayod County, Jonglei State, South Sudan and provided you with a copy of the

report (the report is posted in the Content section for this assignment).

They have also provided you with the 2017 Humanitarian Needs Report and the 2017 Humanitarian

Response Plan by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) for

the situation in South Sudan (these documents are posted in the Content section for Task 1 of this

assignment).

Other reference sites and materials are also included for Task 1 to help you reflect on your message

discussed below.

Task 1: Your Reflection As a soon-to-be, MBA alumni of a leading Jesuit college you find it important to reflect on Catholic Social

Teaching and the allegory of the long spoons in addition your review of the size, complexity, and

potential dangers faced in humanitarian relief efforts to help the people in Ayod County.

From your reflection you conclude it is important for your company to get involved. As a first step you

need to draft a clear and compelling message that appeals to all 1,000 of your employees and your

Board of Directors that motivates them to support involvement by your company. This message needs to

reinforce the values of your company and their fit with CRS. It needs to be short, 250 words or less.

This task helps student learning on the Institutional Learning Goal of Academic Excellence – Knowledge,

the Institutional Learning Goal of Catholic & Jesuit Mission & Identity, and MBA Degree-Program

Learning Goal B.

Task 1 for this assignment: Compose your message and post it in the appropriate dropbox.

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Task 2 Before developing a plan for participating, you decide to make a list of the private sector practices that

could be of benefit to humanitarian relief efforts. As a reference for this effort you review the following

paper available through the Canisius College library (it is posted in the Content section for this

assignment) or you can access it through the Canisius College library.

Van Wassenhove, L. N. and Pedraza Martinez, A J. (2012), “Using OR to adapt supply chain management

best practices to humanitarian logistics”, International Transactions in Operational Research, Vol. 19, pp

307-322, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-3995.2010.00792.x

This task helps to support student learning on MBA Degree Program Learning Goal A.

Task 2: Based upon the research paper, describe and discuss one important private sector practice that

can be used in humanitarian relief. Post your answer in the appropriate dropbox.

Task 3 Developing a plan for participation starts with an assessment of the logistics infrastructure and

capabilities in South Sudan as well as access to Juba from the nearest ocean port than can unload the

food commodities you are bringing. Your textbook identifies the key dimensions of logistics

infrastructure, including telecommunications. Carefully read any detailed logistics assessments reports

and related materials available from the World Food Programme or United Nations. You will need to

search for this information yourself as part of this exercise. You will want to look closely at the Logistics

Clusters developed by the World Food Programme. The search for this information is an important part

of this exercise, plan on spending some time in the search process.

Discuss in detail the logistics options of how you will supply food to the city of Ayod, in the county of

Ayod in the State of Jonglei in the country of South Sudan from warehouses in Juba and how you will

reach Juba from the nearest ocean port you select to arrive at with your food relief commodities. You

cannot use airfreight, it is too expensive. Study the different reports to identify seasonal or closed roads,

rail lines that may not work, telecom that may not work and so on. A simple map does not tell the whole

story of what you and your team will face in the field.

This task of the assignment supports student learning of MBA Degree Program Learning Goal C and

Course-Specific Learning Objective 2.

Task 3: Describe in detail the transportation routes, modes of transportation (and distances if you can)

that you will take from the Port of Discharge (the ocean port where you expect to land relief products for

shipment inland) to the storage facilities in Juba. You must check if there are any access constraints on

any of the routes (there are access constraint maps). Your team will be responsible for delivering cereals

(HS07), sugars (HS17), and fertilizers (HS31) to the storage facilities nearest the area you are helping.

Make sure to specify if you are moving bulk freight or containerized freight and then specify the

appropriate type of equipment to handle this freight. (HS means Harmonized System code)

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Task 4 You need to identify the countries that will supply the cereals, sugars and fertilizers. This movement of

specific products in and out of specific countries is the cornerstone of international trade that is

discussed in your textbook. You should review the Heckscher-Ohlin Factor Endowment Theory from your

textbook for Task 4 and Task 5.

Go to the International Trade Centre website to bring this to life for our assignment. Go to the Statistics

Look-Up Tables and then select Trade by Commodity Statistics by country and product group: imports or

exports. This organization is joint venture between the United Nations and the World Trade

Organization. There are several screen shots later in this write-up that walk you through how to access

and use the look-up tables.

Screen Shots 1-7 displays how to access the bi-lateral trade statistics tables. As an example on how to

use these tables for our assignment we will use Ethiopia. Assume Ethiopia needs Cereals (HS code 10).

Use the trade table of country by product to identify the country Ethiopia imported most of their cereal

from in 2013, it is India. See Screen Shot 2 below:

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Screen Shot 1

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Screen Shot 2

So the first leg of this relief effort leg is to fill 20-ft ocean containers or equipment for moving bulk

commodities such as rail cars, in India with cereals and ship them to Ethiopia. Once they land at a Port of

Discharge (Djibouti), cereal shipments needs to make its way via inland transportation to their final

destination. In this case it is the city of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

The container, barges or rail cars are now emptied in warehouse storage facilities in Addis Ababa and

the relief effort is over. BUT all the different equipment is still in Ethiopia and needs to return its origins.

Because you are a private company the return leg to India needs revenue to defer the costs of

transportation on containerships. So you need to identify what Ethiopia exports to India. You can turn to

the bi-lateral trade statistics tables to identify what commodities Ethiopia exports to India (see Screen

Shot 3). Ethiopia exports edible vegetables to India (HS07)

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Screen Shot 3: Ethiopia’s Exports to India – Edible Vegetables HS07

So bi-lateral trade exists between Ethiopia and India. This means you can fill containers with cereals in

India and empty them in Ethiopia. Then you can fill your empty containers in Ethiopia with edible

vegetables and return them to India.

BUT… this may not always be true with all three products in the country you select. In some cases bi-

lateral trade may not exist with the country that supplied one of the commodities. BUT trade does exist

with another country that trades with the country you are trying to return your ocean containers to.

Remember you need to move your empty containers out of Ethiopia to get them back into your business

flow and generating revenue. So you may need to export to a different country that imports from the

country your containers are now sitting in empty.

Let’s continue with the Ethiopia example. Just assume Ethiopia does not export anything to India, but

Ethiopia does export to Belgium, who in turn exports to India. In this case in order to get your

containers back to India you need to fill them with coffee, tea, spices (HS09) in Ethiopia and deliver to

Belgium. Once in Belgium your containers are filled again but this time Pearls etc. (HS71) and sent to

India. This will returns your containers back to their origin.

In economic trade terms. India exports cereals to Ethiopia, these are counted as imports by Ethiopia.

Ethiopia exports Pearls etc. to Belgium, these are counted as imports by Belgium. Belgium exports

diamonds to India, India counts these as imports. See Screen Shots 4, 5 and 6 below:

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Screen Shot 4: Ethiopia’s exports of coffee/tea/spices to Belgium

Screen Shot 5: Belgium’s exports of HS71 Pearls etc. to India

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Screen Shot 6: Drill down of HS71 Exports from Belgium to India – Diamonds!

Task 4 helps student with MBA Degree Program Learning Goals A and C. It also helps with Course-

Specific Learning Goals 1 and 2.

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Screen Shot 7: Shipping Cereal from India to Ethiopia (Djibouti is port of discharge)

Task 4: Distance and Travel Times from the Source Country to the Port of Discharge

For each of the 3 commodities (cereals, sugars, and fertilizers) identify supplying countries and an ocean

port of export in that country. Identify the ocean port of discharge to unload at for inland transport to

the storage facility in Juba. Compute the distance and transit time between the foreign port of origin for

each commodity and the ocean Port of Discharge (the port where you will land the relief products). You

can use the Searates or a similar web site, see Screen Shot 7 below. There are a number of websites that

can provide this information so please feel free to explore different ones and use the one you like best.

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Task 5 Task 5: Commodities, Distances and Travel Times from Ocean Port used by Relief Country Back to Origin

Compute the distance and transit time to return your equipment from Juba, South Sudan all the way

back to each country where the commodities were sourced. The routes may be direct like the bi-lateral

trade between Ethiopia and India or they may be a multi-country, multi-commodity trade routes as in

the move from India to Ethiopia to Belgium and then back to India. Identify the commodities traded and

their HS codes.

Post your answer in the appropriate dropbox.

Good luck on this assignment. I hope you find it interesting and challenging.

Dr. Gessner

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