Disclaimer: I make no profit from my writing and do not own the Star Trek franchise or the canon characters.
Nebula Galactic, Ivanov Imports and T'Mardis appear by permission of Starquilter57
ECON 721
Applied Socioeconomic Principles
Distance Education Division
Starfleet Academy
Course Description:
Student will complete an independent research project culminating in a paper to be submitted for publication in the Starfleet Institute Review.
Time limit: Student will have 1 year from the date of first consultation with faculty adviser.
Jim stared at the note. Pike was on his case again, and since the subtle reminders and nudges had not worked he had resorted to an old trick.
To: Captain James T. Kirk (Commanding Officer NCC-1701)
From: Admiral Christopher Pike
Subject: Continuing Education
1 Jim, I'm tired of beating up on you on the importance of continuing education
2 Based on the critical success of your last project "Trade-routes, Sail and Strategy" I've taken the liberty of signing you up for Econ 721
a. The good news is that you get along really well with your faculty adviser – me.
b. The bad news is that you only have six months to complete this.
3 I would suggest a study of Logistics as a function of management structure and technology.
4 Looking forward to hearing your ideas on the subject
What really annoyed Jim, was that he had brought this on himself. When you got right down to it, the research for "Trade Routes, Sail and Strategy" had been fun, and it really had helped people start thinking like pirates.
There was nothing else going on at the moment. Outside of his one shift a day on the bridge and the usual reports, he was getting bored with the current survey mission. He really did need a project to so that he wouldn't go nuts.
What could he come up with to a) keep Adm. Pike happy; b) Research out here in the left hind end of space. Hm, Spock was always calling him a cowboy because of the way he jumped into situations on instinct. Cowboys, cavalry, forts, the sutler's store. Sutler's store – that's it. Why was it that everywhere Starfleet built a base, Nebula Galactic put in a mega store? There had to be something there. That wasn't all; Ambassador Selek had gotten married to that innkeeper not that long ago, what was her name? T'Mardis! Wait wasn't she also running some sort of import export service too?
Jim thought to himself that this might just be a workable idea. He would need to do a preliminary search of the literature and historical precedents. He would also need to ask Selek for a favor that might get interesting. If he could get Spock to look over his work before it went to Pike that would improve the odds of it being publishable material.
He looked at the timer in the top right corner of his PADD – time to go to work. He grabbed a couple of apples and headed to the bridge for Alpha shift.
Throughout Alpha shift, he continued to jot down his thoughts on his PADD. Little of real interest was happening on the Bridge as they continued the sweep through this planetary system.
By the end of the shift he had a rough outline of the work that he needed to do as well as a short todo list, primarily people that he wanted to talk to about various elements of the paper.
Outline:
Commonalities between NG and older stores
Successful (Why?)
Sears Roebuck
Wal-mart
IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance)
Unsuccessful (Why not)
Woolworth
W. T. Grant
Montgomery Wards
Technology
Postal Shipping
Rail transport to customer
Truck transport to store
Packaging for delivery to stores
Sears Early innovator in processing
Wal-mart was known to have driven processing time for truck load lots to less than 30 minutes in their processing centers.
Literally a truck full of a single item is unloaded, and all material distributed for shipping to stores on individual pallets of mixed goods.
Warp Speed Transport
Customer is king
Sutlers supplied things that army supply system did not, could not (legal issues, alcohol) or would not (adverse impact on primary mission, cloth, yard goods).
Forts were places of commerce and exchange
Hudson's Bay
Fur Trade Rendezvous (Green River)
Starbases are located in places with tactical, and or strategic importance.
Starbase crews had needs not met by Starfleet Supply Corps.
Peripheral traders worked outwards from starbases meeting needs in outlying systems
Cyrano Jones –
Ivanov Imports
How did management of large organizations like NG and smaller operations like Ivanov select goods for trade?
See if NG was willing to explain their location philosophy
See if T'Mardis was willing to talk about her business model
Examine research data with an eye to seeking patterns from Sun Tzu or Boyd.
Did the individual organizations tend to lose focus over time
Did they fail to react properly to their "tactical" situation?
Did the company have a top to bottom focus?
Management Philosophy
Centralized
Decentralized
Mixed
To Do:
Talk w/ Adm. Pike
Note to self don't grumble about this assignment, much.
Write up the notes into a paper
Contact Ambassador Selek
Contact Ambassador Selek's wife.
After signing the log turning over the watch, Jim headed to his Stateroom. It was time for his weekly (if nothing else is happening) subspace chat with Admiral Pike. He thought to himself, that Pike wasn't going to be a bit surprised that he already had an outline for this project.