Objective: The most important exercise of the semester will be a group project that will consist of no less than two and no more than four group members. For those who submitted group members, your request will be honored. For those who have not, groups will be organized for you. The groupings will be final. The project will consist of three exercises. They are as follow:

1. Do research on a business scenario which I will provide below. You will develop a proposal based on the business situation described and provide a position on the project such as go, no go. Buy, don't buy. Expand or contract. You will collectively outline and then write a five page paper supporting your position. You will support your position with business instinct and knowledge, a numerical analysis of the costs, income, risks, profitability and market growth. This can apply to anything from clothing lines to research and development to starting a chain store or business. The document will be prepared in Word and include references, footnotes, a table of contents and an Appendix. You will format the paper with the features available in Word.

2. The numerical analysis in Part 1 must use spreadsheet analysis of values. As referenced above, they must be based on numbers, and include at least five categories of value, like sales, cost, profit etc. The values must be provided in realistic units for the case. The timeframe for the analysis will include five discrete years, or four quarters of a business year. Expanding of these timeframes will result in extra credit. The information must be presented in spreadsheet form and as a figure/chart. The figure/chart will be included in the body of the document text and will not be included as part of the text of the report. You can also reference the back-up Excel data in the Appendix of your document. You will include figures that will support your analysis. You will also use figure numbers and descriptions, drawing, chart and picture captions. Try to use borders around your inserted pictures, charts and spreadsheets.

3. You will also provide me PowerPoint presentation using all the best practices for a PowerPoint and convey what your topic was, provide a succinct summary of the key points, observations and conclusions, figures and drawings. Each team member will participate in the presentation as well as the research, analysis of the issues, findings, writing, drawing and presentation. All team members will try to help. Team members are expected to help each other and participate. The PowerPoint should be 15 slides in length. Use some multimedia but use Smart Art developed charts and presentation.

4. Develop ideas. Key concepts. Analyze, evaluate, conclude and advise. You have three scenarios to use as options. They are as follow:

Business Opportunity 1: You want to start a sizeable business that will be a player in the social media or applet marketplace. You will have a line of credit of $10 million and need to organize a start-up team, do market research, develop and test the product, hire the staff for the first stage and go further into the production, sales and support stages. Describe

a. the activities your team and company will be involved in, the issues, start up, production and support costs and ultimate profitability.

b. Business Opportunity 2: You have just inherited a medium sized travel agency which has been losing money up to 25% of the operations cost. There is a staff of 100 persons. You will have to lay-off some staff. You also have one competing company In the region and you need to develop a sales and marketing program to return your business to a profit of 10% of gross sales and 5% after taxes. You wish to invest in more efficient computer and other technology. Describe your plans to accomplish your mission. Provide details and cost projections.

c. Clothing Distribution Firm: You have been invited to join a new fashion distribution outlet that will obtain knock- off pricing for well-made dresses and outerwear that will be manufactured in China the Philippines. You will need to visit each country and the plants and make decisions on what will be cloths for next year's marketplace. How will you determine the market needs, the number of product offerings, units of sale and US and Canadian markets. Devise your product, marketing and sales plan, operations and distribution plan. Provide a projection of sales over the next four quarters and provide the product categories including specific lines of fashion product. Develop a profitability scenario.

2. Each of these scenarios are guidelines. You can vary your approach but maintain the central ideas of what is asked of you. I will get some samples of documents that can help you and bring them to class. You can start with your groups I finalize them. This will require a fair amount of collaboration. It is best that you try to set up a group among yourselves so that on campus students can work on this in the dorms etc. if that helps. This will involve a serious effort in the classroom. This is a major part of your grade and is an integrative experience pulling together what you have learned thus far in the class.