Category: Questions

Select and analyze a marketing challenge faced by a company

Instructions:

Individual Consulting Project Paper

For this individual assignment, each student will select and analyze a marketing challenge faced by his or her company. Each student is responsible for analyzing the situation, conducting all necessary research (both internally and externally), and preparing a written marketing plan.

Individual Consulting Project Contents 

Executive Summary

• Summary of plan’s goals and recommendations 

• End by clearly stating the problem that will be addressed in the plan. 

Current Situation and Trends/Performance Review

• Environmental Analysis. Discuss market situation and macro-environmental situation. 

• For existing products, how has this product performed in the past? 

• List specific competitors and describe their marketing strategies. 

• End this section with 2 or 3 issues that comprise the main/basic questions which must be addressed in the plan.

Key Issues

• SWOT (Strength, Weakness, opportunity, Threat) Analysis on your company. The SWOT should be more than a table listing words or phrases. Ideas should be expounded on for clarity. 

Objectives

• List Objectives (about 3 to 5). 

• Make the objectives “SMART” (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound).

• Consider what you would like the company to accomplish regarding sales revenue, sales growth, market share, consumer awareness, distribution, average price, new customers, repeat customers, customer satisfaction

Marketing Strategy

• Which targeting strategy will you use? Provide justification. (see Chapter 7) 

• Which business strategy will you use? Provide justification. (see Chapter 9) 

• What is your positioning statement? (see Chapter 8) 

Action Plans

• Who is your target market? 

• Develop a marketing mix strategy with respect to product, price, promotion, and place to achieve proposed objectives. 

Controls

• How will the plan’s progress be monitored? 

• How often will you monitor it? 

Contingency Plans

• What could happen to “throw a wrench” in your plans? 

• What is your “plan B”?

Diverse Population

Overview:

The resources/reference links above in Lesson 5 provides an overview of various diverse populations that are vulnerable, most commonly have healthcare disparities. 

Diverse populations, who are in an interlocking intersectionality system, are among the most vulnerable or disadvantaged. Intersectionality refers to a sociological theory that outlines how an individual or population may face overlapping, interlocking systems of various social stratification, such as class, race, sexual orientation, age, income, disability, and gender, do not exist separately from each other, but are interwoven together.

Part I Assignment Instructions:

This assignment (Diverse Population Assignment) is Part I and (Diverse Population Project) is Part II (in next lesson). 

In the “first part” of the assignment, all that you need to do is to answer the following four questions. 

You can copy the questions and paste them into a Word document. You will use this information in the Part II of this assignment. 

1) Select and list one of the vulnerable/diverse populations for further review. It is best to select a population that is one you would like to learn more about. 

2) Briefly describe (one paragraph) where you would find the vulnerable/diverse population selected above are they in individual States, U.S., or Global, etc.

3) Briefly explain (one paragraph) why the diverse groups are vulnerable and have disparities and why the disparities matters

4) Briefly describe (two or more paragraphs) if the vulnerable/diverse population face overlapping or interlocking systems with various social stratification, such as class, race, sexual orientation, age, income, disability, and gender, etc.

Chapter 13, Case Study 13.1 – Connect2

Please read the case and:

1. Identify the communications problems that you can spot in this case.

2. Provide your recommendations for how communications should have been handled in this case.

3. You may want to consider the above factors (“How to write a case study”) when you are preparing your case answers as an aid to organizing your information if you find it helpful.

How to Write a Case Study

You have to think like a practicing manager if you want to analyze a case successfully. As part of your analysis, it is necessary, but not sufficient to answer the following questions in enough depth to show that you have performed more than a superficial reading of the case’s content, and subsequently applied relevant theory.

1. What is the issue being presented or analyzed in the case? Focus on the main issue in the case if more than one topic is presented. Use your judgment to decide on which issue is the one that is potentially most costly to an organization if left unresolved. There are more kinds of cost to be considered than economic costs. Do not neglect them in your analysis.

2. Where did the issue take place? Consider this because you need to take into account cultural and environmental considerations that may differ from those of the United States, in your analysis.

3. When did the issue take place? There may be historic and environmental considerations different from those of the United States, which should be taken into account in your analysis.

4. Who was affected by the issues? In other words, who are the stakeholders inside and outside of the organization that need to be considered when formulating an analysis, and possible response to the situation?

5. Why did the issue occur? This may involve conjecture on your part. It is all right to speculate; just identify your speculation as such. In an empirical case, causal factors may be identified as such.

6. How would you, as a manager, apply the insights gained from the case to improve an (your) organization’s operations?

Chapter 14, Research Report 14.1 – Effect of group participation on resistance to change

The Coch and French (1948) article is a foundation article, so it should be possible to find something more recent than this article. The point of the exercise is to find another article dealing with participation and resistance to change. If that is not possible, find another article dealing resistance to change.

To that end it may be helpful to:

1. Use the library databases to search on “participation” and “resistance to change” as well as the authors names to find related articles.

2. Use Research report 14.1 to generate search terms, as previously suggested. The narrative and results sections have useful phrases that can be used for a literature search.

3. You do not want to merely summarize the article. You want to indicate whether the article you found is consistent or inconsistent with the Cochand French (1948) findings. Then you want to discuss what these results, as a whole (both articles together), mean to leaders and managers in terms of being able to deal with resistance to change.

Southwest Airlines case study analysis

The case study analysis allows you to apply your knowledge to the real world. Your goal is to identify the major problem confronting the subject company and provide a strategic solution for the problem. You will need to collect data and interpret it. You must also isolate the critical issues that the company faces. Remember that in the words of Lord Kelvin, “anything that cannot be expressed in numbers represents knowledge that is of a poor and uncertain kind.”
After identifying the critical issues you can generate alternatives to address the company’s competitive situation. Evaluating these alternatives allows an organization to select one course of action. With a course of action defined the strategic manager can then provide a plan for implementation. This is what you are to do on the case study. Always refer to these instructions and the rubric for the critical points to cover.
The format for the case study should be as follows:

1. Cover page,
2. One-page, single spaced Executive Summary for the case as noted below. This is a summary
   of your analysis, which is described in full in the appendices. Thus, the executive summary must be done after you finish the appendices. This one-page report must use headings and subheadings as indicated in the following format description to identify the critical issues. Begin with your understanding of the situation in a problem statement. Follow this with a concise presentation of your analysis and the alternatives you see. Recommend one course of action and support that recommendation with facts and other information, such as competitor’s moves. The last item presents a brief plan for implementation.
3. Seven appendices, including: Appendix 1 with a few bullet points encapsulating your understanding of the problem(s) facing the company and identifying which is the main problem, with more detail than what is in the first section of the executive summary; Appendix 2 identifying at least one opportunity or threat in each of the five STEEP areas of the macro environment (please include a table as shown in Wurthmann (2020) Table I); Appendix 3 stating whether each of the Porter’s Five forces (bargaining power of buyers & suppliers, threat of new entry and substitutes, and rivalry among competitors) is strong, moderate, or weak and why (please include a table as shown in Wurthmann (2020) Table II, showing an analysis of at least one factor determining the strength/weakness of each of the five forces); Appendix 4 including the financial analysis as described below in these instructions; Appendix 5 identifying at least 3 strengths and 3 weakness in the company
   (please include a table as shown in Wurthmann (2020) Table III) ; Appendix 6 identifying at least one different alternative strand of a strategy for the company at each of the four intersections, i.e. the strength/opportunity, strength/threat, weakness/opportunity, or weakness/threat intersections (please include a table as shown in Wurthmann (2020) Table IV); and Appendix 7 identifying which one of the four alternatives from appendix 6 you are recommending for the company and a brief explanation for why this is your chosen alternative (explain how the recommendation complements and integrates into the existing strategy and enhances the prospects of the company, include information on how to implement the recommendation, see the guidance provided in the penultimate section of Wurthmann (2020).
   You are to use standard APA citations to identify the sources of the information in the appendices. You can also include any relevant tables, charts, graphs, etc. Please be concise. Remember, in management you must get your thoughts across quickly if you expect your work to be read. Long reports generally wind up in a stack awaiting reading at some future date (which never comes).
   Executive Summary Format (1 page in length):
   The Executive Summary is a concise summary of the most important points made in the seven appendices. The Executive Summary should be written from the perspective of an outside consultant, writing to the Board of Directors of the firm. It notes the essential points from the appendices and must have the following sections:
4. Problem Statement: State the main problem facing the firm (or industry) in one, succinct sentence (summarize Appendix 1).
5. Analysis: Summarize the main findings of your analysis (summarize Appendices 2-5). You may use bullet points, bold, italics – any means to convey and highlight the key factors you have determined based on your analysis. Don’t simply repeat items from Appendices 2-
6. Instead, summarize the major findings.
7. Alternatives: State briefly (a bullet point each) 4 alternative courses of action that could be implemented. Here you can simply repeat the alternatives from Appendix 6, but omit the strength/opportunity, strength/threat, weakness/opportunity, or weakness/threat that each strategic alternative addresses.
8. Recommendation: Choose one course of action and support your choice. Here you should summarize the key points of Appendix 7.
9. Implementation: Briefly present how the plan would be implemented, summarizing the implementation-related information from Appendix 7. This tests the viability of the choice. For example, your plan would demonstrate that the company has the people, financial resources and time to implement your recommendation.
   Additional Formatting information for Executive Summary:
    Single-space
    One inch all margins

 Use bullet points, lists, or other means to convey information briefly. Further explanation can be found in the Appendices.
 Use the 5 headings identified above to organize the material in an easy to read and understandable manner that highlights the essential points of your analysis.
 Do not include a summary or overview of the firm in your report. The Board of Directors are knowledgeable and need no background presented.
Remember that cases are graded per the rubric. The Case Study rubric can be found in the Tab “Rubric” and should be added at the end of your submission.
Case Study Preparation
The preparation of the case in this course is different than the cases you have written in the past. It will require substantial investigation into the case company’s strategies, competitive positions and actions, problems being faced, the company financials, ratios and trends. The case study is about a real company’s current position in the industry, the external competitive environment, the current strategies being used, and recommendations for strategies the company should use going forward. The case should identify the main problem faced by the company, using the strategic management tools highlighted in the text and a quantitative analysis. You then generate realistic solutions, evaluate and select one, and then provide recommendations and the timeline to implement your recommendations. Remember that you are working to understand the company’s current strategy and future direction that offers a solution to the problem of meeting the company’s shareholder requirements. Again, remember that you are fulfilling the requirements of the rubric for the case.
By analogy, in the BSG you have a set of prescribed goals to attain and a set of reports issued weekly to assist you in understanding how your company is doing relative to the competition and giving you an opportunity to revise your operational plans for the next period. However, in the case you have to look at a company’s performance over the past few years and understand how the performance is changing and identify underlying problems. You are to identify trends in performance, problem areas, and how the company is performing using all of the tools that you have learned throughout your MBA program. Remember that you are working to meet or exceed the shareholder expectations.
The perspective for your executive summary and appendices should be directed to the company’s Board of Directors (BoD). Remember that the BoD is familiar with the company’s history, its management structure and the strategies deployed in the past. Recycling old history about the formation of the company, its previous management, etc. will not be looked upon favorably by the BOD (or your instructor). Remember that your case study must be brought up to date with the most current 10K report, financial information, and other facts (i.e. through early-2022). Get at the critical issues and report on them. Remember that in business, situations do not come with a set of questions. The questions sometimes have to be generated and then researched to find solutions to those questions. Success in the case is important to your final grade in that the case constitutes 15% of your course grade.
Additional information about the Case

The case is an individual, not a team, case. The case will build on previous work in the course and MBA program and will include:

1. Analyzing the external environment (Chapter 3)
2. Analyzing the internal environment (Chapter 4, along with a few more considerations from the later chapters).
3. Comprehensive examination of the financial situation of the company (Chapter 4)
4. Consideration of competitive and other strategy choices (Chapters 5 & 6), competing internationally (Chapter 7) and diversification (Chapter 8).
   With your knowledge of these later chapters, your strategic recommendation for the company should be more sophisticated than simply choosing one of the basic five generic business strategies. Use the material in Chapters 6 -8 to develop strategic solutions that can involve global expansion, mergers and acquisitions, alliances, backward or forward integration, etc.
   For the financial analysis:
   Using the financial information posted in canvas, present one or more ratios to represent each of the four areas of financial analysis:
   Profitability
   Liquidity
   Leverage
   Activity
   Then, provide a minimum 1⁄2 page discussion of the company’s financial situation, using ratios to evaluate the company’s profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity.
   Of course, most of these ratios are meaningless by themselves; they only have meaning as a comparison. You must therefore compare the company’s ratios to one or more of three choices:
5. Where the company is now versus where it has been over time,
6. A significant rival’s ratios
7. (Optional) The industry averages for the ratios,
   The ratios and financial information should be placed in Appendix 4. An example template for displaying the data for an example financial analysis is provided after the rubric. The most significant part of the financial analysis is your discussion and interpretation of the financial data. The financial analysis should be a significant part of your internal analysis – and some of your financial findings could appear in Appendix 5 as strengths or weaknesses of the company.
   Remember, you are a consultant hired by the executive leadership of the company. Based on your analysis, you recommend to the company’s leadership what they should do strategically. Then, support your strategic recommendation. Why is it the best solution to the significant problem you have

MOVIE A BEAUTIFUL MIND
Watch the movie and then please include the following sections titles in your paper:

Analysis of Movie:
Write a very brief summary of the movie. Give clear evidence that you watched it.
Signs/Symptoms:
Write a description of how the psychological disorder and/or the therapy was portrayed.
Assessment and DSM-5 Diagnosis:
Describe how you would assess the disorder (what assessment tools), and discuss the criteria for diagnosis based on what diagnosis you would choose from the DSM-5 to assign to the client in the movie.
Evidence-Based Practice Plan of Care:
Research and include evidence-based practice related to the disorder/therapy portrayed. Include a minimum of one peer-reviewed article. What therapy modality would you choose as the plan of care for the client?
Summary of Movie Analysis in Correlation to DSM-5 Criteria:
Write a critical analysis of how accurate or inaccurate you found the portrayal of the disorder/therapy. Show evidence of your knowledge of the psychological disorder/mental illness or the type of therapy (that is, include information from class or the textbook).
Guidelines

Telepsychiatry

How is this practiced in your state?
What legal aspects surround telepsychiatry in your state of clinical practice?
Give an example in the form of a research article that shows this practice is evidence based. (Share link to article and discussing findings in a short paragraph)
Do you see a role for your future practice?

The current foster care system is not preparing children for an adult life and to become sustainable adults, who are able to live and contribute to the modern society. As soon as they reach the age of 18 they have no place to live, no hopes for college, or ability to obtain a job or profession, which would allow them to have their own place to live, and the ability to survive in current society. This way these children would never become a productive members of society.

Assessment 1: Presentation – A Critical Analysis of a Business Corporation
1.This is an individual presentation (no group work). 
2.Student is required to produce a PowerPoint Presentation on a chosen organisation (a business corporation) that identifies and justifies methods and theories to improve the business and implement economic strategies for the company using Micro and Macro Environment frameworks (PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces). 
3.Student needs to apply other theories and concepts from Macroeconomics to various activities of the company in question.
4.The presentation should exhibit a balance of text and images, graphs etc. Presentation should consist a minimum of 10 slides displaying a standardized layout that includes slide numbers, a consistent slide design, uniform font sizes, relevant charts and diagrams. 
5.Student should employ appropriate nomenclature and terminologies throughout and include referencing and citations in line with the Harvard Referencing System. 
6.Presentation should be delivered with appropriate visual details and in a confident and coherent manner. 
7.You will present your work to your peers during week 8 prior to submission for grading/feedback according to deadline given above.

ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
Assessment 1:
PowerPoint Presentation – A Critical Analysis of a Business Corporation
Choose a business corporation that you can investigate to look into its business environment with application of PESTLE Analysis and Porter’s Five Forces frameworks.
a.Describe the company: history and an overview (i.e. size relevant sales graphs/charts, global locations, products/services summary and imagery, the business sector and Internal/External stakeholders).
b.Analyse trends within the sector and emerging developments. 
c.Discuss the extent of the company’s success in dealing with environmental issues in the 21st century. 
d.Analyse two areas of impact within the Microeconomic environment and describe the associated impact your case study. 
e.Analyse a key competitor (company profile, company overview) and explain why the company is a competitor (compare at least one of the product ranges and prices, provide details of the market segment/target market). 
f.Explore’ the organization’s existing competitors to create a section of Porters five forces Vertical or Horizontal competition with justification 
g.Define all the elements of the PESTLE and explain the impact of each element of PESTLE on the chosen company. 
h.Critically analyse two strategies could assist the company during each stage in the Business Cycles
i.Present a topical News story and suggest its impact on your company.

Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
1.This is an individual assignment.
2.Student is required to produce a Microeconomics and Macroeconomics essay that identifies the application of theory of Business and Economic. 
3.Your essay should include; clarity of argument; depth of research and use of appropriate nomenclature and terminologies throughout with referencing and citations in line with the Harvard Referencing System.
4.Student should explore the Microeconomics and Macroeconomics theories and their application. 
5.The submission should include (headings, sub headings etc.). 
6.Hand written work should not be submitted however, diagrams and other pictures are permissible. Essay to be produced within a Microsoft Office Word document.
7.Evidence should be collected from secondary sources (Scholarly research available through the library).
8. Choose one topic within the 1500 words i.e. a Macroeconomics a critical review of Globalisation v’s protectionism. 
9.Debate up to four topics within the 1500 words i.e. Microeconomics a review of the theory of International strategy (covering consumer needs competition etc.) 
10.You are permitted to choose an alternative topic but must ensure that the topic chosen has been preapproved by the module tutor.