Q BA 330.04 Assignment #8: Business Report & PPT Presentation Group Project Your final assignment is a group project. Each project group will compose a business report and PPT presentation based on one of the scenarios described below. In each of the situations, you are asked to conduct research (in trade publications and magazines, industry reports, academic articles, library databases or on the Internet) to help you recommend a change in company policy or procedure or to develop employee benefits. We will be reviewing Chapters 9 & 10 as a guide for this assignment with additional supplemental instructions. • The research component of this assignment is critical to support your recommendations. You will be researching other companies to discover best practices or business plans that have been successful for the business scenario you choose. • You will work in groups to conduct the research, write the report and to create the PPT presentations. The written report is to be 5-7 pages. The PPT slide deck will be ~10-15 slides. • The report and presentation slide deck are due by the due date in Canvas. • The requirements of the Presentation portion of the assignment will be provided in separate instructions. • Depending on the course section modality (traditional in person, synchronous or asynchronous) each final project group PPT presentation will be conducted either in person (traditional), in a Zoom class meeting (synchronous) or a recorded presentation (asynchronous). Project Groups To begin the assignment: Your team will base your company on an existing company which will provide the “backdrop” for the written report. This is not as important as deciding on the scenario you will choose and beginning the research. Define these aspects of your organization: • Company Name • Size • Employee profile demographics (describe employee population ie: job categories) • Location • Product or Service • Customer profile demographics (describe your typical customers) • Goals Include the above details in your report. Once the company has been selected, you will want to get quickly and efficiently into the research. Develop a strategy for dividing up the research that must be done among your team members, and schedule meetings to disseminate and discuss the information gathered. Keep in mind that this is a business report that recommends a specific course of action. It is very important that you develop a logical and clear method of analyzing the problem and that your analysis lead to a precisely stated recommendation. In your report, be sure you clearly state your recommendation. Explain the reasoning behind your recommendation, using specific information from your research and your analysis. Use the following questions related to developing recommendations to guide you in selecting information for your report: 1. What is your recommendation? 2. Who is your audience? 3. What information does the audience need? 4. Why will your recommendations work? 5. How could they be implemented? 6. Any risks or drawbacks? How are they addressed? Assignment requirements: • The formal report is single-spaced and formatted with 1-inch margins and 12-point font. • 5-7 pages with graphical elements inserted and follow APA format. This is from the Introduction to the Recommendation section. • Title page, Executive Summary, Table of Contents, Reference page and Appendices are not included in this count. • Include a title page, a table of contents, an executive summary (10% of total count ~ 1 page in length), and an introduction paragraph that explains the issue, body paragraphs with supporting evidence for your report or proposal, a conclusion that summarizes your recommendations, reference and appendix sections. • Provide at least five sources to support the claims and/or recommendations in your report, and submit a works cited page in APA format along with your report. • Include 2 of these 3: Graph, table, infographic or other visual element. The basic structure of the report proposal is: 1. Title Page 2. Executive Summary 3. Table of Contents 4. Introduction 5. Discussion 6. Conclusion 7. Recommendation 8. References 9. Appendices *There is no cover letter/memo required. Highlights of the assignment 1. 5-7 page formal business recommendation report with PPT presentation deck (90 pts. report + 30pts. PPT presentation = 120 points) 2. Each team member will be assigned a section of the report which they will individually write. This portion will be graded as part of a Discussion board assignment as well as included in the group final project grade. The team members will mutually decide on who will write each section. The Discussion section is the largest and could be shared with the Introduction writer and Conclusion writer. The group will need to delineate where each writer begins and ends. The italicized sections below are eligible for individual writing. 1. Title Page 2. Executive Summary 3. Table of Contents 4. Introduction 5. Discussion 6. Conclusion 7. Recommendation 8. References 9. Appendices • Due to the Pandemic being a recent and ongoing event, use your discretion as to how you want to weave that context into the scenario. Treat the Pandemic at this point as a factor to the extent it is appropriate. There may not be enough good information to contribute to your discussion and could complicate the story you want to tell. It is not a requirement that you focus on the Pandemic as a factor. BUSINESS SCENARIOS 1) Company productivity – Company productivity is suffering because employees are being forced to take days off to care for their children either when they are sick, or because of inadequate childcare arrangements. The CEO believes that it may be in the company’s best interests to establish a company-run childcare center on-site at all company locations, or to enter into a joint venture with a reputable childcare company that would open a company childcare site nearby. You have been selected to investigate companies that have successful childcare partnerships/on-site ventures to analyze. Once you have compared the childcare arrangements of at least two of these companies, make recommendations to senior leadership for the childcare solution that would best fit your company’s structure and needs. (Useful resource: https://www.fastcompany.com/3062792/patagonias-ceo-explains-how-to-make-onsite-child-care-pay-for-itself; Working Mother magazine www.workingwoman.com; Fortune magazine) 2) Code of Ethics - While your company may have a code of ethics, expressed in newsletters and memos, your board of directors has been impressed by Lockheed Martin’s online code of ethics, with its key virtues. The CEO would like to develop a similar one to fit your corporation’s needs and goals, and he has selected you to do some research on corporate ethics codes. You are to present a report to them on your findings, and to make recommendations for your company’s ethics code. You need to find at several other company’s code of ethics for comparative purposes and present your findings to senior leadership. 3) Talent Incentives - Your company is struggling to recruit and retain top workers in today’s competitive labor market. The Vice President for Human Resources, after reading an issue of Fortune that presented the latest “best company” award winners, believes that the incentives and rewards offered by top companies may be the remedy for his recruitment and retention headache. He wants you to write a report that summarizes and prioritizes some of the talent incentives that seem most appropriate to your company and your employees. Make recommendations for those that you think your company could most usefully incorporate. (Resource: www.containerstore.com; Fortune magazine’s “best company” issue.) 4) Advertising Campaign – The CEP wants you to evaluate your advertising campaign, but you're not sure where to begin. You decide it would be best to start by analyzing the approaches of companies similar to yours. What works, what doesn't? Are there trends that you're not aware of? Make recommendations to your boss based on what you learn is working for other companies including your competitors. 5) IPO - Your job is to oversee the portfolio of stocks and bonds your company maintains for investment purposes. After much consideration, you believe it is time for your company, which is currently private, to “go public.” Offering shares of stock to the public would provide an excellent way to raise capital, which could then be invested in research and development. Conduct research to learn what it takes for a company to make an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. What steps must be followed? How would your company start the process? What legal matters must be considered? How is initial stock price determined? How long will it take? Present your findings and recommendation to company owners. Grant Thornton: Changes to Talent Incentives BY: CHEALSEY JONES, AMAR KRIJESTORAC, ERIKA GIBSON, ALI DAKROUB, & TYLER OSBORNE 1