Executive Report

Executive Report Guideline Choose one topic among the three below and write a three-page executive report for a chief executive officer, who is either your supervisor or your consulting client. Topic 1: Business Value and Big Data Mr. Carl Williams who is a CEO at IVK has been reading several news and magazine articles on business analytics and big data, which have fascinated him. He became convinced that the big data and its analytics will provide an enormous opportunity for improving IVK’s competitiveness. However, he does not have much knowledge on the topic, such that he doesn’t confirm how to utilize big data and business analytics into the company. Therefore, Mr. Williams consults you to (1) briefly explain the current status of the big data which make him convinced the significant impacts of big data and (2) how to utilize the big data for improving IVK’s competitiveness. Your report also includes the recommendation(s) for how the IVK transforms big data into the insights and further actions to increase the business value of the IVK. Specifically, Mr. Carl Williams needs to see very specific strategic plan for big data utilization to immediately implement it to the IVK. Topic 2: Challenges for Local Hotel Management Mr. Richard Johnson is the CEO of Best Value Inn (3 stars and medium size hotel) located in Asheville, NC. In these days, he has faced challenges in his local hotel business caused by newly emerging sharing economy platform like Airbnb. Mr. Johnson has observed that the profits of Best Value Inn and the number of reservations have been both kept decreasing for last few months. Hence, Mr. Johnson decides to consult you on the Best Value Inn’s strategies competing on the sharing economy platform (i.e., Airbnb). Your report briefly analyzes the current market (or industry) environments (e.g., analyzing the impact of the sharing economy platform in the hotel industry). Then, your report should provide specific suggestions on how to compete with newly emerging sharing economy platforms. Since this is a practical report, your report should offer very specific strategies which may immediately apply to the Best Value Inn. Topic 3: Data Breach Strategies for Target On December 19, 2013, Target, the second-largest retailer in the United States, announced a breach involving the theft of data from over 40 million credit and debit cards used to make purchases in its U.S. stores between November 27 and December 18. After the data breach, Mr. Brian Cornell, the current CEO of Target, consults you on proactive and reactive strategies for a data breach. Your report will be circulated to and read by a team of senior executives. Your report should include the brief analysis of the data breach occurred in 2013. Then, your report should propose specific directions or suggestions on both (1) proactive strategy to prevent a potential data breach and (2) reactive strategy to effectively respond the unexpected data breach event. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTION (Read every instruction very carefully) • Due date: Submit your report to MyCourses by Friday, October 20th, 11:55 PM EST. • Use of tables and/or figures is highly recommended. • There are many resources, templates, and examples of the executive report (or executive summary) in the Internet. You may explore and refer them. • It is strongly recommended to search and use reference articles (e.g., readings, news, magazines, etc.) on your own in addition to the readings posted in MyCourses. • Length and Format: Your report should be no longer than three pages including figures and tables. Title page and references are not included in the page limit. The instructor will not read and grade beyond the second page. Your report should be formatted in 11-point, Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman, single or 1.15 spacing, and 1-inch margin in all four sides. A report that violates any of these formatting requirements will not be graded (i.e., your submission can be graded zero). • Your report should be written professionally. Be careful with typos and unstructured sentences. Make sure that your writing is as organized and polished as possible. • The instructor will provide feedback before the due date. To seek feedback, a student needs to submit a draft no later than one week before the due date. • Late submission is not allowed. Don’t wait until the last minute. • Plagiarism: Plagiarizing other work without citation in any circumstance will be reported to the University immediately as an academic misconduct. Also, your submission will be graded zero.