Briefly explain the reasons for selecting your target country from the four analysed. What were the strengths and weaknesses of each and why will your selected market give you the best chance of success?
CR086_BUSM4385_A2_finance Template
Requirements: 1 template
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
SEMESTER TWO 2023
ASSIGNMENT PART TWO – NOTES AND RUBRICS
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT CAREFULLY.
These assessment guidelines form part of the marking rubric. Groups will be expected to incorporate them into their assignment submissions.
ASSIGNMENT STAGE TWO, Briefing week 7 beginning 4 Sep
In this assignment, groups will select one of the four country situation analyses completed by group members in Assignment One and create an implementation plan for that market to be presented in week 12. Please note that this assignment takes the form of a Simulated Work Integration Assessment. The companies featured are not aware that they are being researched or a plan formulated for them and you should NOT approach them for help or support of any kind.
Milestone Assessment 15% (individual), Week 10 beginning 25 Sep
Students will individually complete one of four templates which together form the basis of the implementation plan. These must be completed and emailed to your teacher by 8AM on Monday September 25th at 8AM. Your teacher will assess these and send you the feedback rubric by the end of week 11. Students may use this feedback in their presentation to help explain the rationale behind the completed templates. Marking rubrics for each template are available below.
Assignment Presentation 20% (group), during week 12 beginning 9 Oct
Each group will discuss their business plan through a group presentation which must not exceed 15 minutes (followed by questions from the class and the teacher). Groups must pre-submit their slides but are not required to produce a document. Students should take equal part in the presentation and group appearance, demeanour and professionalism will be assessed against the standard required of a real group delivering a real business plan to colleagues or other business people in a formal business situation.
The presentation should demonstrate evidence of rehearsal, should be clear and easy to listen to and whilst notes or prompt cards are permitted, group members should present to the class and not simply read their notes or the presentation slides. Presentations that take longer than 15 minutes will lose marks. Remember too that groups will be faced with questions from the rest of the class and the teacher and how well these are handled may be reflected in your mark. The marking rubric can be found below.
Finally, groups may use any form of visual aid (slides, videos, music, commentary) or handouts that will support the presentation and copies of written material should be handed or sent to the teacher together with slides in advance of the presentation. Note that students who do not participate will not gain any marks and there will be no later opportunity to present. In accordance with university policy, marks will be deducted if slides are submitted late, group members are not ready to present at their allocated time or are missing. PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR ON-LINE CLASSES, YOUR PRESENTATION WILL BE ON-LINE AND CAMERAS MUST BE USED. FAILURE TO USE YOUR CAMERA WILL RESULT IN SEVERE REDUCTION IN INDIVIDUAL MARKS. PRESENTATIONS WILL BE HELD DURING NORMAL LECTURE TIMES AND WILL BE HELD IN-SCHOOL IF YOUR CLASS HAS BEEN IN-SCHOOL.
The presentation should include the following:
PRESENTATION CONTENT
Rationale
Briefly explain the reasons for selecting your target country from the four analysed. What were the strengths and weaknesses of each and why will your selected market give you the best chance of success?
Objectives
Your financial template will identify your first-year financial targets with notes on how these have been calculated. In the presentation explain the strategy which has
resulted in these and add a summary and explanation of your second and third year targets (income, direct (variable) costs, gross profit, fixed Costs,
net profit).
Strategies
Create a Marketing Mix to explain how you intend to achieve your objectives.
Product: Describe the range of products or services to be offered by your host-country business. Explain why this range has been selected.
Price: What are the specific price ranges (in host country currency) which you are going to charge for your products/services? How have you decided on these? Are they reflected in your Financial Template?
Place (Distribution): How will your products or services be distributed – through a retail facility, on-line, pre-order and pick-up etc? Will you need a storage and delivery infrastructure? Has the cost of this been included in your Financial Template?
Promotion: Your Communications Template will have identified your principal market segments – most businesses will have between two and four. Identify why these segments are the most important to the business and comment on the rationale behind the communication mix you have selected on the template. Have the costs of this been reflected in your Financial Template?
People: Your Human Resources template will have described your proposed staff complement, a profile of those who should fill the vacancies, and how they will be recruited and trained. Please comment on why you have chosen this approach to staffing and why it is appropriate to your host country business. Have the salaries, recruitment and training costs been reflected in your Financial Template? Include a structure chart.
Process: Describe any special processes required either by customers to access your products and services or by the company to distribute them.
Physical Evidence: What are the tangible aspects of your service for example, decoration, atmosphere, ambience, displays, uniforms etc, that form part of the business brand?
Implementation & Control
Your A3 Planning Document should use charts and diagrams to explain the implementation and launch plan. This should include key dates and activities involved in setting up and launching the business together with control mechanisms and risk issues. Comment on these in the presentation and describe the reasons behind your plan. Include details of how you will monitor the progress of the business, what risks you might face and your plans to manage these.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Management of the assignment
It is suggested that groups appoint from their members a ‘Marketing Director’ who will lead on the completion of the Communication Template, a ‘Finance Director’ who will lead on the completion of the Financial Template and on the second and third year financial targets, a ‘Human Resources Director’ to lead the completion of the HR Template and a ‘Planning Director’ or ‘CEO’ (group leader) who will create the A3 Visual Management Template.
Keep it simple and manageable
Groups should start by identifying their financial & market objectives. These should be modest and realistic to keep the assignment as simple and straightforward as possible. Create a small, manageable business designed to give your company a first-year foothold in your new market. This is in any case, what a real business would do until it becomes established.
Templates
Hard and soft copies of the templates are provided in the ‘Assessment Guides, Samples and Question List’ module of Canvas – you can adapt them to the needs of your business and your recommended implementation plan. Details of how to submit these this will be provided later.
Communications Mix template (from Marketing Principles)
At the top of the template identify the objectives associated with your communication mix. What do you intend to achieve through its implementation? In the grey boxes below, clearly identify the segments you will be targeting. The soft copy template on Canvas allows for up to four of these but you can adapt the template if you have more or fewer target segments. Then specify the media you will use to communicate with them (for example which newspapers or radio shows and what specific PR and/or Sales Promotion, Selling or Digital activity) as well as approximate costs. These costs will then transfer to the Financial Template. You do not have to use all the options listed in the template, but you will be assessed on how well you have identified those that will be appropriate to your business and its targeted segments.
Human Resources Template (from Human Resources Management)
You can adapt the numbers and types of staff to be recruited according to the needs of the business. The template asks for short notes on the job roles, salary ranges and recruitment processes as well as a structure chart. Identify the origin of the staff you will use (HCN, PCN, TCN), the recruitment and training costs and total salaries all in host country currency for later transfer to the Financial Template. The structure chart should illustrate the reporting lines both within the host country business and the reporting link to the home country executive.
Financial Template (from Finance in Organisations and Society)
This has been configured as a simple Profit and Loss budget template and should be completed in host country currency once the objectives, marketing and HR templates have been considered. You can adapt the soft copy to suit the needs of the business, for example, leasing and human resource costs might be either direct or indirect costs according to your recommendations.
It is very important to complete the ‘notes’ section with detailed explanations about how you have calculated the figures you have used in the income and expenditure section. You must complete notes for each corresponding line of income and expenditure, and you will lose marks if you do not provide enough information in this section. It must be clear to your assessor exactly how you have computed the income and cost items. The soft copy includes the formulas which will calculate the key figures for you as well as ratios of costs-to-income. You will need to calculate the break-even point for your business. Create a graph similar to that at the bottom of the template to find this. There is also a video in the ‘Assessment Guides, Samples and Question List’ module on Canvas that will help with this.
A3 Plan (from Visual Management for Business)
This is designed as a simple planning tool to focus the group’s activities on the key issues required. Remember that the A3 should enable anyone to see the key elements of the Implementation and Control plan on one sheet of A3 paper. This can only be achieved through the use of appropriate diagrams and graphics (not pictures, too much text or photographs).
SUGGESTED SCHEDULE
Week 7
Group meets after the briefing to read through the four External Environmental Analyses and decide which country offers the best chance of success for the business. The group decides which students will create which part of the assignment including looking through the templates and deciding who will complete which. Set target dates in week 9 for draft templates to be completed. Set up a Google Docs to receive these contributions which everyone can check and access.
Week 9
Review the draft templates at a team meeting and ensure they all work together with costs identified on the Communications and HR templates carried forward to the Financial Template. You will lose marks if there are assumptions in one of these that do not match with the other templates or the explanations in the report document. If there is evidence at this stage that some group members have not adhered to the deadlines or are not contributing equally to the project, inform your teacher immediately.
Week 10
Read through these notes as a group and ensure that everything necessary to get good marks has been included on your templates. These will now be sent to your teacher in preparation for the feedback rubrics being available at the end of week 11.
Week 11
Meet to discuss the template feedback and how this can be incorporated into your presentation. Decide how your visuals will be designed and who will create them. Think about hand-outs, videos, sample products and anything else that might be incorporated into your presentation. Check that references are in the correct format and are referred to on the final slide. Plan a rehearsal schedule so that you can plan your time – if the group over-runs, you will lose marks – and have practiced your parts so that group members don’t have to rely on notes.
Week 12
Make sure your material is submitted to your teacher according to the deadline and in advance of the presentation date together with the HE Assignment Cover Sheet and your Peer Reviews.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MISSING THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE WILL RESULT IN PENALTIES AS PER STANDARD UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS. SEE THE COURSE GUIDE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
ASSIGNMENT TWO; INDIVIDUAL MILESTONE ASSESSMENT, A3 TEMPLATE, 15%
ASSIGNMENT TWO; INDIVIDUAL MILESTONE ASSESSMENT, FINANCIAL TEMPLATE, 15%
ASSIGNMENT TWO; INDIVIDUAL MILESTONE ASSESSMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES TEMPLATE, 15%
ASSIGNMENT TWO; INDIVIDUAL MILESTONE ASSESSMENT, COMMUNICATIONS TEMPLATE, 15%
ASSIGNMENT TWO; IMPLEMENTATION, Group presentation, WEEK 12 Available marks: 20%
SEMESTER 2, 2023 Class: ________ Group Leader___________ Lecturer__________________ Awarded marks_____
Student names: _________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE READ ACCOMPANYING NOTES FOR DETAILS OF WHAT IS REQUIRED TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE THESE SECTIONS
Assessor: ________________________________ Date:_____________________
EXPLANATION OF MARK AWARDED
Excellent
Unequivocal understanding of topic/theory. Answers all its parts comprehensively and accurately. Focuses particularly well on crucial points/issues.
Very good
Good understanding of topic/theory. Answers all parts/aspects of question.
Good
Sufficient understanding of topic/shows some understanding of theory; answers most parts of question; lacks comprehensiveness; may feature minor inaccuracies.
Fair
Borderline understanding of topic; may not have answered all the issues which the question raises; lack comprehensiveness; may feature some inaccuracies.
Poor
No demonstrated understanding of topic/theory; few issues raised by the question have been answered; many inaccuracies; much irrelevant material.
Missing
Did not answer a topic.
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