Assignment - The industry is the retail industry and narrow down my topic Costco.

Guidelines for the Research Project and Final Report

One of the exciting aspects of this course is the opportunity for students to pursue independent strategic research/analysis. The project involves independent research, analysis, report writing, and oral presentations.

Project -Students/groups will be assigned a specific industry. The task simply stated is to apply what you have learned about strategy, by researching the assigned industry and a student selected firm. The written industry and firm research report will then be sub-assigned. The receiving student/group will analyze the assigned industry and firm and submit a written report which contains as a minimum: a discussion of the generic strategy questions, specifically, the issues facing the firms competitiveness, the issue that must be solved first, an analysis of possible solutions to solve the problem, a recommendation to solve the problem and an implementation strategy.

Final Report: The final report will contain but is not limited to the following points:

Students must provide the reader a detailed analysis of the industry and the selected firm within that industry through a discussion of the generic strategy questions.

1. The analysis should yield strategic issues/problems that must be identified

2. Along with alternative courses of action thought to solve the stated issue/problem.

3. Recommended courses of action must then be discussed and

4. An implementation strategy devised to action the recommendation.

Information - The library is the students' best resource.  Consult the librarians early in the project.  They can be very helpful and instructive to you in your learning and your pursuit of information.   Assistance in locating, evaluating, and using information is the specialty of the library faculty.  Some valuable resources accessible from the library include:  Standard & Poor's Industry Studies, Moody Industry Association Reports, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and other publications.  Do not forget industry trade journal articles, company brochures, annual reports and other authoritative documents available in print and in electronic formats.  Conversations with firm officials are also a good source of information.  Documentation and citation of resources, regardless is required.

Report - The final report is due as stated in the syllabus and should consist of the following:

1.  Title page with Individual/Group name, instructor name, course name, and name of the industry and company discussed.

2. Executive Summary Analysis: The executive summary analysis should contain no more than 5 pages.

3. The body of the report. Should present detail information pertaining to the analysis of the firm and the environment in which the firm exists. There is no page limit on the body of the report nor exhibits and tables.  Exhibits should be inserted at the end of the report.  Sources for facts and beliefs should be carefully and properly referenced.

4. Evaluation criteria will include structure, style, substance, and creativity. (Standards for documentation as given in style manuals must be employed.)  Structure refers to the organization of the report and will consider such issues as the logical flow of ideas, appropriate use of subsections and paragraph construction.  Style refers to the correct and proper use of language, including grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and professional tone.  Substance refers to the use and documentation of facts, reasonable assumptions and implications, and analysis.

5. Please note: Note:  There are numerous sources of information and some data may not comport with other data.  Finally creativity refers to particularly interesting insights into the nature of the situation, analysis, recommendations and other less obvious items.