Project Milestone Assignment Guidelines

Overview: The final project for this course is the creation of an impact of governmental action on a business paper. For Milestone One, you will submit a topic selection short paper. Key to your success is providing the background to thoroughly address each of the critical elements. The business topic will be the same one that you created in your MBA 560: Marketing and Strategy course. If the idea has not yet faced some significant government impact, you will need to identify one or more government impacts that the business idea would be likely to face. See examples in the prompt.

Governments at all levels-federal, state, and municipal-exert a significant influence on business. The impacts of these influences may be negative, such as the imposition of costly regulations, or they may be positive, such as the provision of financial incentives for the creation of new jobs. Both negative and positive governmental actions present challenges for businesses: the impact of the action on the business's "bottom line," how public opinion will be influenced by the business's response to a particular action, and the ethical issues associated with each response, for example.

Prompt: Your short paper should identify and briefly describe the business that you propose to study and describe the government impact that it has faced or would be likely to confront. Make your case for why the business and government impact you select are appropriate subjects for the final project. If your instructor believes that your choice will not provide sufficient material for you to achieve success with the final project, you may have to select a different business and/or government impact.

Your macroeconomic evaluation should answer the following prompt: Select a business that has faced, or is facing, governmental action, and analyze the impact of this action on the business. Ideally, the business that you select will be the same one discussed in the business plan you created for MBA 560: Marketing and Strategy. If that company does not yet exist, you should choose one in the same area of focus that is facing a governmental action, regulatory issue, or political challenge, with instructor consultation and approval. This is important because the analysis you complete now should help inform your knowledge of potential situations or challenges facing your business product, service, or other idea from your business plan. While your area of focus may be different from the possible topics and situations listed here, these should still give you an idea of the type of situation for which to look.

Topic examples:

- The decision of LG Corporation to construct a new corporate headquarters on the Hudson River in New Jersey, in the face of environmental concerns

- The decision of Tesla Motors, Inc. to choose among competing incentive packages from local governments for the construction of the company's new Gigafactory

- The threat of Amazon.com to move its drone research development activities out of the United States unless the Federal Aviation Administration adopts a more favorable regulatory stance

- The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's decision to issue numerous citations to Ashley Furniture

- McDonald's Corporation and the decision by Seattle, Washington to increase the minimum wage in that city.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Topic Selection:

A. Business Profile: Provide a brief profile of the business and the industry it occupies, including the business's market share and competitors, as well as opportunities and threats facing the business and industry outside of the particular governmental action now facing the business.

B. Governmental Action: Analyze the potential governmental action or political challenge that will affect the business in this particular situation.