Describe what you believe the business problem is, making certain to describe its likely sources and magnitude.

Course Project
Each student will work independently (meaning, not as part of a group) to design and complete a project that involves solving/mitigating a real business problem or exploiting a business opportunity at work or in an internship or that addresses a more abstract business problem or business opportunity within an industry or a specific company. This project will consist of three phases: a) identification and definition of a business problem or opportunity, and preparation of a written project proposal; b) extensive research, data collection, analysis, evaluation, and recommendation development; c) preparation of a written project report and a video presentation of the report.
During its 2016 retreat, the College of Business faculty adopted the writing and citation style of the American Psychological Association (APA) for all written assignments. Therefore, all written submissions will be evaluated for compliance with APA style in addition to quality of thought and responsiveness to the assignment’s requirements.

Project Proposal (25 points) Submit via the Bb Assignments section
Each student will prepare a written proposal for the course project. The purpose of the proposal is to inform a business decision maker about a business problem/opportunity in sufficient detail for that decision maker to decide whether to deploy limited organizational resources to study the problem/opportunity you have identified and defined. The proposal must not be written as a persuasive document.
The proposal must be organized as follows.
Problem (or Opportunity)
In one, very precise, sentence, identify the business problem/opportunity.
If the business is for profit, the problem/opportunity must be defined in terms of profit. If the business is not for profit, the problem/opportunity must be defined in terms of donor/user-for-fee support. If the organization is a government, the problem/opportunity must be defined in terms of voter support.
Identifying a situation or a condition is not sufficient; you must make a specific connection to profit, donor support, or voter support.
Background
Provide context (using data; not opinion, anecdotal experiences, etc.) for the problem and to demonstrate your understanding of these elements. The business decision maker understands the company, industry, etc. but needs to know precisely how you understand them (In this course, I am the business decision maker).
Industry (or Company or Organization or Government)
Demonstrate your profound (deep) understanding about what the business really is and how it earns its profit.
Thesis
Describe what you believe the business problem is, making certain to describe its likely sources and magnitude.
Antithesis
Demonstrate your ability to manage your research bias by enumerating all the various ways in which your thesis might be wrong.
Methodology
Delineate the manner in which you propose to study the problem. In this course, it will be a comprehensive review, evaluation, and analysis of all the available published data/research directly and indirectly related to the business problem.
Deliverables
In this course, each student will deliver a comprehensive written project report and a 12-15 minute video presentation of that report.
To move forward to the next phase of the course project, each student must achieve a minimum score of 22.50. Each student who receives a score of less than 22.50, must meet with me during office hours to discuss the proposal before revising and resubmitting it (no grade penalty).

Last Completed Projects