Introduction to Business MGMT – 390
Class Project – Summer 2017
Semester Project– “Entrepreneurship – Leadership – Innovation”
Project Based Learning – Company Analysis Consulting Project
Disruptive By Nature “What is on the mind of CEO’s Today” and how are they fostering entrepreneurship, innovation and growth within their business?
You will select a company and follow that company for the entire semester and give 3 documentedreviews on business elements of that organization. Consider yourselfto be management consultant for that company and you will be evaluating their business transformation throughout the semester. Your company selection will remain the same for the semester and there will be 3 report submissions. ALSO, based on current activities of that company, you can step up and report on real time actions of this company and how it relates to their success or transformation. You “own” this company and you should do everything possible to keep up with their activity throughout the semester. You need to be creative and dig deep into this company and related their activities to the topics of the class. This will enable you to see how the class topics are implemented in a real organization.
One of the goals of many CEO’s today is to be “disruptive by nature” in order to accelerate growth of their organization. Even in big companies there has to be “entrepreneurship” in order to look to the future for growth. Leadership is needed at all levels to ensure that everyone in the company understands and drive for success. And “innovation” comes in many forms, as we have seen during the class. It can come from crowdsourcing or maybe from an outside company like IDEO or even from the clients. And we have also seen that companies are trying to establish a global business model in order to achieve long term success.
But who is making this model a reality? What companies are really demonstrating that they are reaching new levels of success by being “disruptive by nature”?
Your goal is to follow the actions one of these companies and examine how they have used this disruptive business model over the past few years to business a roadmap for the future. You will follow this company for the entire semester and build an analysis of the company as we move through the course. You will link their corporate actions to the topics of the class and will use the real life examples to illustrate their business transformation.
Reading Materials to gain additional insight for the project:
• IBM CEO Study – The Enterprise of the Future
• Customer Activated Enterprise
• Harvard Business Review – Six Ways To Sink A Growth Initiative
• Leading Through Connections
• The Business of Social Business
• Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain Companies for 2016
• Use the above consulting reports to gain insight on the issues facing C level executives today
These documents will give you insights in what issues you should evaluate for your company and how you should address key issues facing C Level executives today.
Project Details
Step 1: Startup Activities – Week 1
Select Company (list is at the end of this document)
Report Length 4 -6 pages per report
Step 2: Assignment Details
Week 3 Company Overview and historical perspective
Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility
Global Strategy to reach emerging markets
Vision, Mission and Goals of the corporation
Week 7 Business Structure and industry focus areas
(That means what type of business are they in , ie, B2B, B2C?)
(What industries do they serve? Retail, automotive, finance ?)
Management and Leadership Objectives
Methods used for business growth and expansion
Organization Model currently in place
Week 11 Company Summary
Top 5 Growth Opportunities
Top 5 Challenges Facing the Company
Products, Services, and Solutions offered to the market
Marketing and Go to Market Model
Use of digital technologies within the company
Your conclusions about their opportunity for success in the future
What is your company doing to foster “innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership”?
Items to be considered in your analysis process:
What has been “disruptive” for this company?
What is the public or client view of this change?
How do they define success?
How have they achieved results and what are they?
Definition of their business
Value proposition
Organizational structure (before and after)
Products / Offerings / Services
Marketing Strategy
Financial Aspects (required investments and planned return on investment ROI)
Target Market Segments
Competitive Analysis
Ethical Issues and Demonstrated Corporate Social Responsibility
Global Implications
Use of technology / social media
Lessons Learned
How did the company grow?
Alliances, Acquisitions, Product Development, Sales, Competition Failures……
You will be evaluated on the following:
Business analysis
Depth of content and analysis
Creativity
Correct grammar, writing skills, and professionalism of your report
All assignments should be a review of this company and what have they done to be disruptive and the results as related to the defined topics. You will have to “dig deep” and become very familiar with this company. You are expected to follow them on a weekly basis through press announcement, news updates, their corporate website, marketing campaigns, and other sources.
Suggested length of reports:
4 -6 pages per report