Overview
1.
Choose a large company from the
Fortune 500 list. Using this list ensures that you will be able to find
plenty of information about the organization. There is a short video in Week 1
that may help you in making this choice.
Submit this choice during Week 1 – you will find a submission folder for
this under Activities -> Assignments on the D2L Home Page menu.
a.
A complete list of Fortune 500
companies can be found here: http://www.fortune.com/fortune500/list/
b.
Your company must be publicly
traded and they must be B2C (they must sell to consumers). The fastest way to
check this is to go to https://finance.yahoo.com/
and start typing your company’s name in the “Enter Symbol” search box in the
upper left. If your company has a ticker, then it is publicly traded.
c.
Your company must be B2C
(business to consumer). In other words, the end user of your company’s products
or services must be consumers, not other businesses, government agencies, etc.
2.
Do background research on your
company and the industry in which they participate. Based on this
research, identify symptoms of a problem, further analyze those symptoms in
order to identify root causes. Finally, use all of this information to
write a concise problem statement.
3.
Develop at least two proposed
solutions to your company’s problem. Use a Weighted Decision Matrix (covered in
the Week 6 video during the term) to evaluate your proposed solutions and make
a final recommendation. Perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis for your final
recommendation. Cost-Benefit analysis is covered in the course material;
you can watch the Cost Benefit Analysis video in Week 7 of the course.
4.
Clearly and specifically
describe how your recommended solution will be implemented and evaluated by the
company.
Format
- Include a cover page with your name, your
company, the term, and course name.
- Begin your
paper on a new page with an Executive Summary that is no more than 1 page
long. Brief instructions for writing an Executive Summary.
- Begin the
body of the paper on a new page. You must use the following main
sections for your final paper, with a heading (in Ariel Bold 14 point
font) for each of these sections:
- Situation
Analysis
- This
section explores the context and background of the problem solving
situation for your chosen company, and it should start on a new page
after the Executive Summary. This is the only section that
starts on a new page! This
is where you attempt to understand the organization’s goals,
mission/vision and key stakeholders, and it will guide the rest of your
problem-solving activity. This is
where you should include financial background information, a competitive
overview and a SWOT analysis.
Create relevant charts and graphs that will give the reader a
concise, yet complete, picture of what happening with the company at
this point in time.
- Problem
Analysis & Description
- Use
this section to explore the critical issues facing the organization and
ultimately define and describe a problem that will be your focus for the
remainder of the paper. In other
words, you will solve the problem identified and described in this
section in the following sections of the paper. Gather additional data to support
issues identified in the Situation Analysis, analyze that data, identify
key symptoms, prioritize these symptoms and find connections and
relationships between them, if any.
Symptoms are the indicators of the ultimate problem. They are the "gaps" talked
about in the course video. Provide a clear, focused problem
description by the end of the section.
Be specific. Include
numbers, if you can. Back it
up with data gathered during your research. Use some root cause analysis to ensure
that you aren’t mistaking symptoms for causes. Refer back to the Situation Analysis
section and note any new stakeholders and any conflicts with the
corporation’s mission and vision.
As I finish reading this section, I should have a clear idea of
the problem you are solving throughout the rest of the paper. If there is no single cause for your
problem, list the range of possible causes
- Solutions,
Evaluation & Recommendation
- Based on the
problem described in the previous section, develop at least two possible
solutions and describe them in as much
detail as possible given the constraints of the paper. This is the decision-making part of
the paper. Use a weighted-criteria decision matrix to evaluate the
solutions and make an informed recommendation. Use a Cost/Benefit Analysis
to show the Net Benefit of your final recommendation. By the end of this section you should
make a clear choice, and present a strong case for why you made that
choice. Convince the reader.
- Implementation
& Success Metrics
- To
the extent possible, prepare a brief discussion of how your solution can
be implemented.
§ Develop
a set of measures that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of your
solution in delivering proposed benefits.
Discuss when, how often, and how the solution should be evaluated.
- Your
analysis must make use of a 10-K, an industry profile, as well as a
variety of other relevant sources that help you take a strong position,
including data from your SWOT analysis. Don’t just rehash your SWOT
Analysis in the Situation Analysis. Write a narrative that
summarizes all of the relevant information needed for the reader to
understand how you got to your conclusions about the problem
identification. Imagine the reader knows nothing about this
company. Tell them enough so that the remainder of the paper makes
sense. This is a research paper, where you must support your claims
and conclusions with the sources uncovered during your research.
- The narrative body of your paper (excluding cover page, executive summary, graphics like
charts, tables and graphs, and reference list) must be between 10 and 15 pages of text using 12-point Times
Roman, with 1 inch margins (left, right, top and bottom), left
justified and double-spaced.
- Follow APA style for citations.
Additional Resources
Writing Help
The PSU writing center offers in-person
support only. If you are on campus, it may be a good resource for you. If you
are not at PSU, identify a friend, colleague, or family member who will be
willing to read your paper for sentence-level polish before you hand in your
final draft. I do not provide a sample or template paper because each paper
will be quite different depending on the problem and solutions that you are
writing about.
Grading
The term paper is 20 points of your final
grade. It is also required in order to pass the course. This means that if you
do everything else in the course perfectly and do not hand in a final paper,
you will not get 80% in the class - you will get an F.
Academic Integrity
You will be held to the highest standard for academic integrity with
this project. The material in Week 1 on properly using sources and citing
sources can help you understand the expectations, which are also explained in
the course content area. If your final project contains plagiarism then it is
at the instructor’s discretion to give you a 0 on the assignment, an F in the
course, and/or file an academic misconduct complaint. This course does use the TurnItIn tool to check for these issues in
your final submission.
Common pitfalls to avoid:
- Too
much focus on company history and background.
Avoid this pitfall by only including the information that your reader
needs in order to understand your problem and solution.
- Only
one proposed solution.
Avoid this pitfall by following the assignment instructions, which require
at least two alternative solutions to your problem.
- Your
paper doesn’t have a recommendation for one solution over another.
Avoid this pitfall by using your available evidence to analyze your
proposed solutions and state which one you think is the best choice for
your company, relying on the Decision Matrix for support.
- Your
paper doesn’t cover implementation and evaluation.
Avoid this pitfall by making sure to include a section where you use
specific terms to describe what will be involved in implementing your
recommended solution, and explain how your company will know whether the
solution is a success.
- Your
paper does not follow the precise physical format described above.
Rubric
|
Full
Credit
|
Partial Credit
|
No Credit
|
Causal
analysis, including support from background research, and problem statement
& description. (5 points)
|
You demonstrate the ability to construct a clear
and insightful problem statement using evidence from relevant contextual
factors.
|
You have
a problem statement that uses some evidence from relevant contextual factors,
but the problem statement is superficial or has some ambiguity between cause
and effect.
|
Your
problem statement is missing, is unclear, or does not use any evidence of
relevant contextual factors.
|
Research quality, synthesis
of a range of information, and effective use of evidence. (7 points)
|
Your project draws on a variety of relevant and
appropriate research to provide evidence for your claims. You use APA
citation style correctly, and effectively use both quotations and
paraphrasing to integrate information into your own text.
|
Your project draws on research but relies heavily
on just a few relevant sources. You use APA citation style with some errors,
and rely heavily on quotations or paraphrasing to support your position.
|
Your research is missing, or you haven’t made clear
to the reader which statements are supported by your research. Citations
depart significantly from APA style or are missing.
|
Evaluation
of alternative solutions, decision-making, and final conclusions – including
use of decision matrix and cost-benefit analysis. (4 points)
|
You use a
weighted decision matrix to evaluate
more than one solution.
Your
recommended solution demonstrates creativity and takes into consideration the
history of the problem, good reasoning, feasibility, and impact.
|
Your
proposed solution is adequate but may lack depth or may not consider the
history of the problem, good reasoning, feasibility, or impact. The reader
might not be persuaded by your recommendation based on the evidence
presented.
|
Your
proposed solution is missing or superficial. Evidence to support your
recommendation is missing or does not point to your conclusion.
|
Format,
grammar and spelling. (4 points)
|
You follow the required format, have the required
number of pages, write clearly and concisely, with few spelling and grammar
errors.
|
You have moderate amounts of grammar, spelling and
formatting errors.
|
You use extremely poor grammar throughout with many
spelling errors, didn’t follow the format requirements, and wrote less than
10 pages of text.
|
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