QUIZ 5 - The Office
- Landscape Practice Class
- Apr 27, 2020
- 6 min read
In-class Session 5 quiz - You Are The Boss !
26/02/2020
Q1. You are thinking of renting a space in an old factory building for your new practice. The rent is cheap and the space is really large, flexible but run-down, however you can do a great office design and it has lots of natural light. It’s a bit far from the MTR, about 25 minutes’ walk but there is lots of parking on the building lot. The letting agent doesn't know if there is good infrastructure such as fast internet connection, or what the safety codes are for an office. If you sign the Agreement right then they will give you a 10 year lease fixed at current rates, but they have other people queuing up to get the deal. You need to act fast. What should you do?
Select one:
a. Sign immediately. You love the space and it’s a great deal that will give your company a financial competitive edge for years with such low rates.
b. Say you will think about it and try to negotiate the same deal later if you still can
c. Sign the Agreement, knowing perhaps you will change your mind once you speak to your partner. The Agreement requires 3 months deposit up front and will be lost if you change your mind
d. Say you are not interested. The building will not meet your needs
e. Call your lawyer immediately and see what they say
Q2. You need to take out insurance* for yourself and your staff in you new office. But money is tight. Which insurances decisions should you make?
Professional indemnity insurance - against negligent actions of the firm
Employees Compensation insurance - employer’s liability for protection of staff in office and on site
Medical insurance - against staff becoming sickness & ill health
Third party insurance - public liability for protection of third parties
Buildings / buildings contents insurance.
Select one or more:
a. take out Building Content insurance
b. take out Employees Compensation insurance
c. take out Staff Medical insurance
d. take out Professional Indemnity insurance
e. take out Third Party insurance
f. Must take out all of the options. For each type of cover consider the need / period / excess / limitations / amount of cover then make decisions after you get quotes
Q3. The employment of staff (as opposed to consultants or contractors) radically changes the nature of a business and involves a business in a much greater degree of administration. Employment is primarily controlled by the Hong Kong Labour Department through application of the following legislation:
Employment Ordinance (Ch 57) – which addresses:
Employees' statutory rights and benefits (e.g. maternity leave, rest days, sickness allowance, statutory holidays, annual leave, etc.);
The keeping and maintenance of records; and
Enforcement of wage provisions.
Select one:
True
False
Q4. QA* is “the development and implementation of a system of management policies and working procedures (both general and specific) to ensure a consistently acceptable "quality of product” (in landscape practices the product = design / information / services). Conceptually, QA is “doing what you say you will do”.
Which of the following is correct?
Select one or more:
a. All staff have to follow a Quality Manual
b. All of the above
c. QA will help the design team deliver their drawings most efficiently.
d. Registered Landscape Consultants must have QA Certification
e. A practice would need to develop and implement a QA system for 6 to 12 months, before it can be certified.
f. Designated Quality Management staff oversee the implementation of compliance of the procedures
Q5. You ask your team if they are on schedule to meet the agreed deadline by the end of the week. They estimate they can't get it done by that time. What do you do?
Select one or more:
a. Show you are mad. Mention that they won't get their bonuses or keep their jobs if they can’t meet the deadline. Tell them to make sure they get it complete on time whatever it takes!
b. Call the Client and ask if you can postpone the deadline by a week.
c. Review the timesheets to check time expended to date on the project. See if the work has been resourced fully and if not then see if you can pull in other staff resources to meet the deadline
d. Review the timesheets to check time expended on the project to date. If there is insufficient hours left allocated to meet the deliverable then work out how to reduce the work needed by cutting corners
e. Realize you might have lost time and cost control of the project at a critical time. Discuss with the Directors the best course of action
Q6. Your team are working on 3 projects. Project A is complicated and running over time on designing a water feature. You have already used up all the time resources for the project. Project C has only just started and has lots of time available to it.
What do you do?
Select one:
a. Ask the team to finish Project A design but allocate the time to project C
b. Estimate how much more time is needed on Project A, inform the team to complete the work within that time and report to the Directors that the project is over budget
c. Tell the team to stop work on Project A as the time is all used up
d. Tell your team to mark all further work on their time-sheets only to Projects B and Project C.
Q7. Your best friend from college wants you to start a landscape design firm with her. Her father has lots of contacts and a project just waiting to start, it can’t fail! You want to write a business plan to work out if the company can grow but she thinks its a waste of time.
What should you do?
Select one:
a. Download an existing online Business Plan from another company template and use that if anyone asks for one.
b. Tell her that you can write the Business Plan yourself whist she can focus on getting the projects from her father's contacts
c. Ask her to explain to you how she thinks the company can work in terms of obtaining finance, managing the company, doing marketing. Discuss possibilities together and make some notes.
d. Agree to start the company and put off the Business Plan till a couple of year later once you need to expand
e. None of the above
Q8. Last year you and your partner secured a large project that required you to expand your staff to meet the workload. You also started looking for bigger offices expecting that more work would come in as a result. However the large project is coming to an end and all the anticipated extra work didn't arrive. What should you do now?
Select one or more:
a. Time to cut back staff. Carefully identify who you need to let go and give them notice
b. Revise the targets of the business plan based on consolidating the business in the current premises.
c. Wait till the big project is completed and see what might happen.
d. Offer redundancy packages to those staff who would like to leave first
e. Call your past Clients, understand what they see coming up in the future. Remind them how you can assist with their programs
f. Throw a big party for your clients and increase the time commitments to marketing and promotion.
g. Look at doing a competition to keep the staff busy
h. Time to cut back staff. Last in first out and give them notice
i. Review the expansion targets of the business plan. Update it and go to the bank to secure future funding if necessary
Q9. Which of the following statement is correct about the type of business?
a. Easy to obtain finance; unlimited liability; greater continuity; separate legal entity; easy to transfer shares; separate ownership and management; public disclosure required; simple documentation in set up and running; high running costs and administration
b. Easy to obtain finance; limited liability ; greater continuity; separate legal entity; easy to transfer shares; separate ownership and management; public disclosure required; simple documentation in set up and running; high running costs and administration
c. Easy set up; freedom of decision making; close relationship with clients; retains all profit; limited sources of finance; full workload and decision burden; unlimited personal liability; fully responsible for business losses
d. Easy to obtain finance, unlimited liability; greater continuity; separate legal entity; easy to transfer shares; separate ownership and management; public disclosure required; considerable documentation in set up and running; high running costs and admonition
e. Easy to set up; multiple source; shard workload and decision making; unlimited personal liability; partly responsible for business losses; not a separate legal person; agreement by one is binding on all
f. Easy to obtain finance; limited liability; greater continuity; separate legal entity; easy to transfer shares; separate ownership and management; public disclosure required; considerable documentation in set up; high running costs and administration
g. Easy set up; multiple sources of finance; shared workload and decision making, unlimited personal liability; fully responsible for business losses.
h. East set up; freedom of decision making; close relationship with clients; retains all profit; limited sources of finance; full workload and decision burden; unlimited personal liability; partly responsible for business losses; not a separate legal person
i. Easy to obtain finance; unlimited liability; multiple sources of finance; shared workload and decision making; unlimited personal liability; partly responsible for business losses; not a separate legal person; agreement by own is binding on all
Q10. Which type of business might be best for you to set up to do design work for a friend whilst in College?
Select one:
a. Charity
b. Sole Proprietor
c. Public Limited Company
d. Private Limited Company
e. Partnership
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