Assignment Task:

On November 10, 2014, Sawsane Wazzan was at home debating a very critical operational decision. Wazzan was the executive dietitian, founder, and co-owner of the Diet Center (DC) in Lebanon, a leading Lebanese family business dedicated to nutritional health. She had just finished a long discussion via Skype with Mazen Jabri, the sales manager of Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing (SAP) for the Middle East and North Africa region. SAP was a multinational provider of enterprise application software for business management. Jabri had ended the comprehensive consultation by strongly advising Wazzan to implement his company’s software, which was an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. After struggling for many years with unconsolidated operations, untimely financial data, and a mostly unsatisfying bottom line, Wazzan found Jabri’s proposal very attractive. 
Wazzan was thoroughly convinced of the need to purchase and implement an ERP system; however, many pending questions made the decision difficult. Was it the right time to make such a large investment given Lebanon’s unstable political situation and poor economic conditions? Would the benefits exceed the costs? How long and challenging would the transition period be? Would DC survive the unavoidable resistance to this major change? What were other indirect associated costs? How would DC finance the investment? 


LEBANON 
Located in the Middle East, Lebanon was a very small country. With an area of only 10,452 square kilometers, Lebanon bordered the Mediterranean Sea, Syria, and Israel. 
By 2014, most of the estimated 5 million inhabitants of the country lived on or near the coast, in and around the capital city Beirut. Based on the 2011 census, urban dwellers accounted for 87.2 percent of Lebanon’s total population. The 25–54 age group made up the largest segment of the population, at 42.4 percent, followed by children up to age 14 (22.1 percent) and young adults aged 15–24 (17.5 percent). In the largest group (25–54), females outnumbered males by a ratio of 1.07 to 1 (i.e., 906,795 females to 844,217 males).1 Most of the population was fluent in Arabic, with a literacy rate of 89.6 percent. French and English were also widely spoken; many people spoke all three languages. 

Brief History 
For 400 years, Lebanon was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Lebanon fell under the authority of France after the empire’s collapse following World War I, when France was granted a mandate for both Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon achieved independence from France in 1943. Since that time, Lebanon had experienced social and political instability due to ongoing conflicts between various religious sects and political factions. The country endured a civil war from 1975 to 1990, resulting in approximately 120,000 casualties. 
The country’s small size and lack of stable basic infrastructure made internal business development difficult. Ongoing post-war conflict also kept Lebanon in an unstable state. The country suffered various major national setbacks, including the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in February 2005, an Israeli invasion in July 2006, a large influx of political refugees from the Syrian conflict in 2011, and the economic crisis of 2012. All of these incidents further hindered opportunity and weakened the country’s infrastructure by increasing the price of utilities and the general cost of living. 


Macroeconomic Overview 
Lebanon had a free-market economy and a strong laissez-faire commercial tradition. The Lebanese economy was service-oriented, with banking and tourism as the main growth sectors. In 2015, the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) was low, estimated at US$85.73 billion,2 with a real growth rate of 2 percent and a per capita GDP of $18,500. Political unrest slowed economic growth from an average of 8 percent to 1–2 percent between 2011 and 2014. In late 2014, the inflation rate was at 1.85 percent, compared to 6.4 percent in 2012 and 5.1 percent in 2011. Lebanon was ranked 187th by the World Health Organization’s inflation index that same year.3 
Obesity and Health Awareness 
Between the years 1997 and 2008, the obesity rate in Lebanon increased from 7.3 percent to 10.9 percent for children and adolescents (6–19 years), and from 17.4 percent to 28.2 percent for adults (20 years and older) due to sedentary lifestyles and increasing demand for fast food, which mushroomed in Lebanon after the civil war. By 2008, the obesity rate was 27.4 percent and it continued to grow. Obesity was the underlying factor in many chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as high blood pressure.4 
Although Lebanon’s urban population was fashion, health, and beauty conscious, focus on health and dietary issues was hampered by the country’s civil unrest. Health awareness began to increase around 2000 through national television programs that engaged viewers by discussing relevant topics and the growing access to the Internet, which reached 1 million users by 201.

This assignment requires you to write a 2000 word report. In this report, you must analyze a case study provided to you.

You need to address the questions provided below and submit your responses.  You are expected to use the information in the case study as well as do research around issues identified in the case study. To support your responses you need to refer to the provided case study as well as identify 5 more external cases that are dated no older than 3 years. The above mentioned 5 external cases should refer to real-life companies and demonstrate the issues you address in your response to questions below, related to the provided case study.

Your report should include:

1. brief introduction identifying common issues in the provided case study.

2. responses to questions for the case study

3. conclusion summarising solutions to the common issues in the case studies

A note on plagiarism:   You should aim to paraphrase sources where possible, writing the report in your own words and including Harvard format citations. Your report must be submitted to Turnitin. The similarity index must not exceed twenty percent.

Reports can be submitted multiple times in the lead up to the deadline. A copy of all of your uploaded and similarity index is also kept. On the first submission, similarity results appear in minutes. Subsequent submission results can take 24 hours to generate. Do not leave submission to the last minute.

The Diet Center: The SAP ERP Decision

  1. Evaluate the firm’s growth strategy, mission, and vision in relation to its SAP ERP decision
  2. Assess the need and role of an appropriate ERP system in the operations of the firm
  3. Evaluate the costs and benefits of implementing an ERP system.
  4. Assess the effect of an ERP system on the various activities within the firm
  5. Discuss the future of the firm by analyzing the potential impact of the SAP ERP system on the operation and financial results.

Your response needs to refer to benefits as well as risks and challenges related to each of the questions.

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  • Posted on : February 13th, 2019

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