Instructions for Group Project Feasibility Study - Based on Selected Concepts from Managerial Accounting

1: Starting Your Own "Taco Stand"

Objective

The objective of this project is to offer you the opportunity to apply the concepts that you have learned in your managerial accounting class. You will select a simple product/service and develop a brief feasibility analysis. The analysis at a minimum will include a costing analysis, daily/weekly/monthly budgets for 1 year, a break-even analysis.

The Scenario

You just inherited some money, $100,000 to be exact. Your great-grandma willed this money to you, under one condition - in her lifetime she was a very successful entrepreneur - that you may only use the money to start your own small business.

Deliverable and Interim Milestones

The deliverable will be a 3-5+ page paper and additional Excel analysis.
The paper will be double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and 10-12 point font. Tables and graphs in the body of the paper should be included where appropriate. Other tables and graphs not included in the body of the paper should be attached as appendices or exhibits. Other paper format and content requirements are listed below.

Suggested Milestones (schedule accordingly)

1. Selection Product / Write Outline. A very very very simple product. The analysis is around the development of the product not a "real" business.
2. Data Gathering: Cost your Product/Service*
3. Complete a (monthly) cash budget for the first year and then four subsequent annual budgets.
4. Complete a Break-Even Analysis based on budget above
5. Complete Write-Up
6. Deliverables prepared and submitted - due date is June 12th, submitted through AT&S. Late projects are subject to a penalty.

* You must be able to determine what is the cost per unit (variable and fixed costs per unit)
** You must first estimate your demand for your product/service based on your expected target customer base.

Paper Format
The paper should include the following sections:

Financial Analysis Project
Title Page (cover sheet) and Table of Contents

Section 1: Executive Summary (1 page summarizing your findings and highlights). This is the "cliff notes" version of your project. Usually executives don't have the time or patience to read in detail, they only want to read one page that shows what was its purpose, the result and the main support points for the project. Other important observations may be included. This part of the paper is usually done LAST.

Section 2: General Information
Industry/Market Information (description)
Customer Information (description of your target customer population)
Competitor Information (description of your current and potential competitors)
Product/Service Information (description of your service/product)

Sections 3-5: Technical Analysis
Section 3*: Cost Analysis (variable and fixed costs, per unit cost, based on your estimated production per month or year).
Section 4*: Budgets (monthly cash budget for 1 year, then 4 yearly budgets).
Section 5*: Break-Even Analysis

*Sections can be as short as 1 page or as long as needed. Note that for sections 3-5, you should include the results of your analysis (from your excel work) in the body of your paper. Do not "dump" all your excel calculations into these sections. Be selective and format the information in such a way that your reader can easily understand the information you are presenting. Use the formats as provided in the chapters in the book as guidance.

Section 6*: Conclusion and Self-Reflection (1/2 to 1 pg, your thoughts on completing this project). Each team member includes a minimum of 1/2 page self-reflection on his/her experience with: 1) the work assigned and completed in the team project 2) the content and learning from the project 3) the team dynamics
Appendices/Exhibits - include any additional data you may wish to present here.
Honor Code

You are required to abide by the Foothill College Honor Code. Therefore, plagiarism is prohibited. Additionally, the work you turn in should be exclusively yours or your group's. Guidance may be requested from outside sources, but the write-up and the analysis should be no one else's. Follow the usual annotation and bibliography guidelines. For help, go to the link above.

Grading Criteria

1. First and foremost, absolutely no copying and pasting of anyone else's work from anywhere, including from the web. You will earn a failing grade on the paper and possibly the course if a significant portion (10%+) of your paper is plagiarized.

2. Quality of Analysis (50%): You should use the formulas, formats, table samples, etc. in your textbook to guide your work*.
* All your computations should be presented as an exhibit/attachment to the paper. All calculations should be explained (not in the cell formulas). Use excel.

3. Quality of Writing (30%): This is not an English class, but I still look for decent presentation on the paper -- I am not looking for literary type of writing. Since this is a business class, I expect concise and clear writing, in other words, get to the point and move on.

4. Presentation and Delivery (20%): You should include all the sections discussed in the Paper Format section above. I will deduct for missing parts. Make sure to include headings for each section. Use of bullet points, lists, tables highly recommended. Also, make sure to package your project professionally.

Submission: Your project will have two components, a written component submitted either in Word or a pdf document and an Excel component. In your paper, you may reference sections of your Excel document, but you still need to write up the analysis.
If you choose you may complete the project using Google Docs. If you do opt to use google-docs exclusively, you will then copy and paste the shared links for both of your deliverables for this project into in ATS.
Comment on Group Collaboration: You should have between 3-4 students per group. I suggest that each member of the group "own" a part of the project or a task. Someone in the group should be assigned the role of monitor or lead in whichever way the group wants to define it. That person should be the one keeping the rest of the group on task and on time. One group member will submit the paper on behalf of the group.
Only one submission needed per team, credit given to the names in the cover/title sheet of the paper or excel files - taking into consideration the contribution score (refer to the "free rider problem" below for more detail on contribution scores).
About the "Free-Rider" Problem

In most university-level business programs, team project work is part of every single class. Our classes at Foothill are no exception. In our class, there a team project is required, as you already know.

There are several reasons for including this requirement. Probably the most important to us is the requirement to expose our students to the dynamics of working in teams. These dynamics are what drive the creativity of many American companies, in that they foster diversity in thought, which, in turn, drives innovation in all phases of the business process.

Unfortunately team project work is not without its drawbacks. Especially in an academic environment, such as ours in this class, the issue of the "free rider" exists often enough to discuss it. This issue is when a team member is not contributing his/her fair share of work on a team project.

Here is further reading on what is the "free rider problem," which will help you understand what I am referring to. This challenge will be part of your work life here in this class and well beyond it. As business professionals, you will learn to deal with it professionally and effectively.

http://www.gametheory.net/dictionary/FreeRiderProblem.html
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-rider/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_rider_problem

Hopefully, team members will wish to collaborate and participate fully on the team naturally, contributing to the good of the team recognizing that the good of the team also supports the good of the individual.

Usually, team members come together, and with positive and supportive encouragement, everyone will tend to collaborate and work well together. Sometimes, however, additional encouragement is needed.

Each team member must actively MANAGE expectations and communicate clearly on progress as related to his/her role and deliverable to the team. As mentioned elsewhere, I suggest each member owns a part of the paper/project or a task (s). The team should set the milestones and expectations for each member at each point in time as indicated in the timeline and roles/responsibilities.

Someone in the group should be assigned the role of monitor or lead, whichever way the group wants to define it. That person should be the one keeping the rest of the group on task and on time. One team member will submit the paper/project on behalf of the group. As with any professional business collaboration project, conflicts may arise, but your client or the recipient of your work should not be made aware of it. You should resolve conflicts as a team with plenty of time to take mitigating steps as necessary to deliver the paper/project on time.

Use me, your instructor, as a resource at any time and for any reason during the term. Use Private Messages.

CONTRIBUTION SCORES

If issue do arise, I suggest two more forceful modes of encouragement that teams can use to motivate members to be more collaborative. One of the ways to mitigate or at least to fairly assign credit for the work related to the team projects in this class - hopefully motivating fair contribution by all members in all teams - is as follows:

1. I will ask that the title/cover sheet for your paper includes all group members' names.

2. By each name in brackets [ ], include a "2", a "1", or a "0". The basic definition for each of these contribution scores are shown below.

Contribution Scores - General Definitions

Assign a "2" if a member's contribution is acceptable or at least to a level the team feels the member should receive the same score as what is eventually earned on the submission. I will assign 100% of the earned score on the team paper/project submitted. [100% is also the default if no contribution scores are included on the title page of your paper/project submission]

Assign a "1" if a member's contribution is substantially less than what is considered acceptable or fair by the team. If a "1" is assigned by a team member's name, you should also include the level of contribution (as a %), but limited to the following 2 options: 75% or 50%. If someone did not contribute at least 50% of what would be considered acceptable by the group, then assign a "0". See below.

* acceptable or fair does not necessarily equal amounts of time. It can also be the case that a team agrees that a special ability in a team member outweighs a lesser contribution in terms of time spent. This type of scenario should be agreed to in the initial team meeting.

Assign a "0" if a member's contribution is none or not enough to justify any credit. Assume any level of contribution below 50% acceptability falls in this category.

The second way that teams can motivate more collaborative behavior, is that teams have the ability to "fire" any team member for non collaboration/non productivity up to one week prior to the due date of the assignment. All team members (except the member in question) must agree that this is best for the team and must notify me and the team member via PM. Prior to any such notification, I expect that the team will give ample warning to any team member in jeopardy of being fired so that the member has a chance to improve.

In most cases, teams will be able to work and function properly with normal interactions and behaviors. The two methods I identified herein are for extreme cases where all other avenues of professionalism, civility and collaboration have been exhausted.