Purpose
The purpose of the Final Project is to analyze company management practices and their impact on the overall operation, success or failures of that company.
Instructions
For your final project, you will assume the role of a management consultant who is an expert in improving business performance. In a previous module, you selected one of the companies/their case study listed below to study and analyze. Consider choosing a company that you may use a product or service from, you know a family member who works there, or you want to better understand the company. You will need to obtain an understanding of the business (electronic fact search, annual reports, discussions with friends/family, etc.). From the information available, you should have explored various management practices, organizational structure, and leadership style attributes to help answer the question "How does the business operate and how is it managed on a day-to-day basis?"
- Staples
- IKEA
- Nike
- GE
- Space X
- Boeing
You will now need to construct a traditional business case study built around the following rubric elements.
- Executive Summary
- Provide a general overview of the company, what it is known for, its success to date, and any challenges it has faced to date. This is a summation of all of the information gathered in the categories below.
- Company Demographics (factors and questions to consider in your analysis)
- History, type of industry, products & services, general market share, employment levels, and any partnerships.
- What is the company known for?
- Does the company have any problems with ethics or general responsibilities to their shareholders?
- Planning (factors and questions to consider in your analysis)
- What are the vision, mission, and goals of the company?
- Explain the overall strategy of the company and why they have chosen the products and services they are involved in?
- How are decisions made?
- Organizing (factors and questions to consider in your analysis)
- How is the company's organization structured?
- How is innovation and change part of the company's culture?
- What is the general style of management within the company?
- Leading (factors and questions to consider in your analysis)
- What is the type of leadership and culture within the company?
- What are the key components of the company’s communication strategy both inside and outside?
- Is the company supportive of a team-driven environment?
- Controlling (factors and questions to consider in your analysis)
- Performance measurement, general operating principles, feedback, and performance adjustment methods
- How does the company operate regularly?
- Final Recommendations or Observations
- What did you learn about the company's general management, operations, and leadership?
- If the company is currently working through tough problems what are they and do you have a suggestion to improve the overall situation?
- Are there any specific management practices they should consider to improve the overall operation, market impact, or customer satisfaction?
Final Project Details
- Minimum of 1,000 words
- APA Format
- The paper should reflect the style and professionalism of a standard business case analysis
- Establish a structure that mirrors the above sections
- You must use a minimum of 5 peer reviewed sources. Blog sites are not reputable sources and should not be used for this project.
- All references should be documented in APA citation(references should not be counted in the overall word count).