Project Proposal - Plan - Update

Individual Project Assignment: Proposal, Plan, Live Update, and Report

Task

The individual project assignment is designed to simulate a consulting project. You will act as a consultant that is hired to diagnose and resolve a business problem for a real business (this business would be your “client”)

Assignment Instructions

Select a small (Canadian) business that has less than 200 employees.

There is a list of optional businesses you can choose from (under Moodle Week 5) or, you can choose a different business.

Research current issues relating to its management and strategy.

Identify issues or opportunities for the organization.

Analyze and summarize the issues that you find using business tools, concepts, or frameworks discussed in our course.

There are three parts to the individual project assignment as outlined below:

Your written Project Proposal must be submitted in the dropbox under Moodle Week 7 - Assignments.

The purpose of the individual project proposal & plan is to get clarity on what you need to accomplish, what business or organization you are analysing, the key issues / opportunities the business has, and the key dates for completion of your project tasks.

In your individual project proposal, please include at a minimum:

Name of the business or organization you are analyzing, including contact details (website, head office address), and your rationale for choosing that specific business or organization.

Two to three issues or opportunities that you have identified

What specific course topics / tools you plan to use to analyze the issues / opportunities.

Timeline for your work to be completed (this Project is assigned in Week 5 and due in Week 13 – how will you progress through the weeks to undertake your research, perform the analysis, and build your report)

I have provided a template for the individual project proposal on Moodle, Week 5 for you to use.

The individual project proposal will be graded out of 4 as follows:

Grading Criteria Individual Project Proposal

Your Written and Live in-Class Project Update is due Week 11. Upload your written update under Moodle Week 11 – Assignments. Present your Live Updatein Class, Week 11. Both your written and live update are required.

You will provide a short (3-5 minutes) update report during the live session.

In your update, please cover the overall progress on your project including:

The two to three issues / opportunities identified and how you plan to analyze each issue (the course tools / frameworks you will use)

Report sections you have completed so far

Overall % estimate of report complete and how/when you plan to complete the remainder of your report

Any key problems faced during the project, such as:

o Problems while researching the identified issues (e.g. no clear solutions found, goal conflicts between issue solutions – solving one problem may make the other one more severe)

You are welcome to use PPT slides, a document, or just speak to your project in this update, however, this update must be provided live in class Week 11 and you will be required to speak as part of the update.

Grading Criteria Live Project Update

Your report should be 2,500 – 3,500 words, including tables, figures, text, etc. Note: The title page, letter of transmittal, any appendices and reference page do not count towards the report word limit.

The report must be professionally written, well-organized, and include the following sections:

Letter of Transmittal (approx. 100 – 150 words)

Imagine you are a Consultant hired to analyze a company. Attach a brief letter at the front of your report thanking your client for giving you the opportunity to be of assistance analyzing their issues / opportunities and providing recommendations to them.

Title Page - include the name of the project, your name and student ID, the instructor's name, course number and section number, and date of submission for the report.

Table of Contents - be sure to list page numbers

Introduction (approx. 250 words)

Summarize the key points of your report. Explain the issues / opportunities your report is analysizng, and your recommendations. Place the Introduction immediately after the Table of Contents. This could also be referred to as an Executive Summary. Remember this is your chance to catch the attention of the business executives (i.e. CEO).

Background Information

Main Body - four sections of the main body as described below:

1.0 Company Description - Identification of Key Information about the Organization (approx. 250 words)

A brief overview of the organization, its objectives (if known), its product(s) or service(s), the key customer(s), key individuals in the organization (if known), relevant industry information, current situation, and any assumptions which help clarify the facts. Remember to reference your sources.

2.0 Key Issues / Opportunities at the Organizaton (approx. 500 words)

A clear, concise description of the key issues or opportunities affecting the organization. Limit yourself to 2 – 3 issues / opportunities.

Describe the issues / opportunities you are focusing on in your report;

How you identified the issues / opportunities (did you do a SWOT Analysis, or PEST Analysis, or Porters Five Forces?; did management point out a known problem?; do you work there and have observed an issue?, etc.); and,

Why you think these 2-3 issues / opportunities are important for thebusiness to address?

Remember to reference your sources

Identify and use topics, tools, concepts, frameworks from the course to analyze the issues / opportunities you identified in the organization.

As an example, you may find declining sales as a key issue in your business. Ask yourself what could be causing this using analysis and tools from our course. The reason for declining sales could be because of declining customer satisfaction which is caused by low employee moral and low motivation which could be caused by ‘unfair’ pay for employees (which you may have uncovered using Equity Theory of motivation). You will need to explain this in your report in writing but are welcome to use a chart, diagram, figure etc to support your analysis (see example below).

In your analysis, describe the tool/framework you are using and apply it to the issue you are analysing. This is a key part of the report where you heavily use course business tools, concepts, terminology, and frameworks.

Your analysis should consider any of the following business areas which may be relevant to the issues identified in Section 2.0 of your Report:

Be sure to use at least one relevant business management framework, tools, concepts in your analysis of each issue (e.g. if you have two issues, use and discuss two frameworks, if you have 3 issues, use and discuss three frameworks)

At the end of this section, summarize your analysis with an overall assessment statement concerning the viability of the organization.

4.0 Conclusion / Summary of Recommendations

Summarize your recommendations and explain the reasons for your recommendation to solve the business issues / opportunities you analyzed. Be sure that your solution addresses the key issues / opportunities in Section 2.0, and is logical based on your analysis in Section 3.0.

References - cite all reference materials used in your report in APA style. Include at least 5 high-quality references in the bibliography that you have used in your report.

Individual Project Report Format