MGT 496
Small Business Analysis and Strategy
Course Calendar
Due Dates
The following schedule has several due dates and each due date has a separate grading deduction for late assigments. The reason for these deductions is that this class focuses on the consulting relationship; these relationships are contingent on trust between the client and consultant. A sure way to lose clients' trust is to miss due dates so we'll stricly adhere to the due dates in the schedule as a way to reinforce the importance of trust and timeliness.
There may be times you must miss class and project deadlines for good reasons, even for reasons beyond your control. This is no different than holding a job with a consulting firm. Still, missed consulting deadlines can impact clients strategically and financially. Clients are much more interested in results than excuses even when the excuse is justified. Thus, to further reinforce the importance of timeliness and trust, grading deductions for late assignments apply regardless of the reason. The key to managing these contingencies is to work ahead; don't wait until near the due date to complete assignments.
Client Signatures
Several of the assignments require the signatures of clients and students. However, your team may designate one or a few individuals to obtain your client's signature and you need not be present for every document signing. Because it's fraudulent to claim a client signed a document when that client did not sign the document, such fradulence will automatically result in an F for the course for all team members. Thus, if you have any suspicion about the validity of a client's signature, report it to me immediately. Reporting falsified documents to me as soon as suspected will be the only reason a team member does not fail the course.
This may sound harsh but please keep in mind that, as mentioned above, this course focuses on the small business consulting relationship. Trust is essential; therefore, violations of trust must be discouraged through policies such as this one.
Schedule
Thursday, Jan. 24
Session 1: Introduction
(1) Course overview
(2) Explanation of session 2 assignments
This session presents and overview of the course.
Deliverables
(1) Students post their biographical sketches (bios) on Blackboard as soon as possible but no later than Friday, Jan. 25. You'll find a section of the Blackboard discussion board set up to accept your bio. Post your bio directly in the discussion board rather than posting an attachment.
Bio outlines should use the following headings:
- First and last name
- Academic major (and minor if applicable)
- Professional expertise
- Personal interests
- Why would a team want you as a team member?
- What do you want from your team members?
- Name, address, and telephone number of each
organization
- Name, e-mail address, and telephone number of the potential contact person(s) within each organization
There is a 2% final course grade reduction for missing the bio due date of Friday, Jan. 25 and an additional 2% final course grade reduction for failing to turn in the potential client list (due at the beginning of session 2 on January 30).
Thursday, January 31
Session 2: Organizing
The goal for tonight is to organize into tentative teams. Expect this session to be mass chaos as we move through at least the first two stages of team formation: forming and storming. Some teams may advance into the preliminariy part of the norming stage but if you do, expect some setbacks. Eventually we want to get to the performing stage, but this will take us a short while.
Deliverables
(1) Potential client list (two copies due at the beginning of class: one for the instructor and one for your team)
(2) Bio (due this past Friday, Jan. 25 on Blackboard); students should have looked over other students bios before class to create a mental "short list" of who they want to talk to during the class session for possible team membership.
(3) Elevator pitch (presented during class). Each student gives a 1 minute pitch about the type of team member the student is and the type of team member the student is looking for.Each student will do a brief presentation highlighing his or her background and functional expertise (finance, law, HR, operations, etc). Elevator pitches are limited to 60 seconds. For the audience, this is the time to see your potential team members in action.
After this chaos, we'll begin to split into teams. One last thing is due before you leave class:
(4) Based on the elevator pitches and bios, students will form teams of 5 or fewer individuals. The list of team members is due at the end of class before you leave
There is a 2% final course grade reduction for failing to turn in the potential client list at the beginning of class.
Thursday, February 7
Session 3: Prospect Refinement
Deliverables
(1) Client short list (due at the end of class)
(2) Action plan for initial contact (due at the end of class)
Details
This session has two purposes. Last week we worked on forming teams. This week your team is likely still at the storming stage and we want to advance beyond this to norming. To accomplish this, teams will refine their potential client lists to the most promising prospects and develop an action plan for initial contact. The goal is to leave the session with a work agenda for the coming week including who does what. You must turn in this written work agenda before you leave class.
Grading
There's a 2% final course grade reduction for all team members if a team doesn't turn in the coming week's work agenda by the end of class. There's also a 2% final course grade reduction for students who don't participate (absent, arrive to class late, leave early, disappear for long periods, etc.).
Thursday, February 14
Session 4: The Big Picture of Small Business Strategy
Deliverables
(1) Summary of prior week's client contact (due as a memo to Scott and presented to the class)
(2) Agenda for the coming week (due at the end of class)
(3) Read Chapter 1: Getting Started
Details
This session is primarily devoted to lecture and discussion of chapter 1 where we'll consider the basics of small business strategy.
At the beginning of class, each team will turn in a brief, four-column summary of the prior week's contacts. Column 1 lists the organization contacted, column 2 lists the name and title of the person contacted, column 3 lists the outcomes of the contact, and column 4 lists the name(s) of the student(s) who personally made the contact.
Near the end of the session, teams will meet to develop an agenda for the coming week based on the prior week's contacts. These written agendas must be given to Scott prior to leaving class for the evening to avoid a 2% final course grade reduction.
Thursday, February 21
Session 5: Franchises
Deliverables
(1) Identification of final client (due at beginning of class)
(2) Rough draft of letter of intent (due at the end of class)
(3) Read Chapter 2: Franchises and Buyouts
Details
This session will continue the prior week's lecture and discussion of small business strategy. We'll examine how entrepreneurs may (or may not) want to accelerate getting into business by buying a franchise (see Chapter 2). We'll discuss some pros and cons of this keeping in mind chapter 3's external industry and internal company analyses. Our goal is to begin to find ways to help your consulting client exploit competencies using pricing power if the market will bear it.
Team's must have their final client identified by this session. Turn in your final client contact information at the beginning of class. Teams will then brainstorm ideas for the client consulting project during the latter part of the class. The goal is to have the pieces necessary to develop a letter of intent that will be due the following session. A rough draft of your team's letter of intent must be turned in prior to leaving class. There's a 2% reduction in the final course grade for students who leave (or didn't attend) prior to turning in their letter of intent draft. Your client and each team member must sign off on the letter of intent in the coming week.
Please see next week's deliverables for more details on preparing your letter of intent.
Thursday, February 28
Session 6: Business Plans
Deliverables
(1) Letter of intent signed by client and by each team member. The letter of intent must explicitly lay out what your team will do for the client. "We will improve your business" is not explicit. "We will perform quantitative marketing research using a standardized, validated marketing research instrument with a sample of 250 respondents" is much closer to what we mean by explicit. Nonexplicit letters of intent have a 5% deduction in all team members' final course grade. Be sure to take this step seriously—it's incredibly important.
(2) Read Chapter 3: The Business Plan
Details
This session focuses on a discussion of business plans as explained in chapter 3 of your text. There are two major types of business plans: a summary plan (shown in Appendix A) and a comprehensive plan. You'll eventually write both types. Tonight's session will give you the basic foundations.
We'll also discuss managing client expectations concerning time lines and project outcomes. By the end of the session, teams should have a tentative time line for completion of the responsibilities outlined in their letter of intent. The rough draft of your timeline must be turned in to Scott by the end of the session. A timeline signed by your client and team members must be turned in next week.
There's a 2% reduction in the final course grade for failure to turn in a proposed time line by the end of the class.
To help you plan your team, notice that your individual summary business plan is due two weeks from tonight.
Thursday, March 6
Session 7: Test 1 (Chapters 1-3)
Deliverables
(1) Time line signed by your client and each team member
(2) Completion of test 1 (chapters 1-3) at the beginning of class
(3) Peer evaluation 1
Details
The signed letter of intent must be turned in at the beginning of class to avoid a 2% final course grade deduction. Each team member's final course grade decreases 1% for each day the letter of intent is late (including weekends and holidays).
We'll have three peer evaluations throughout the semester. The cumulative impact of the three peer evaluations has the potential to raise or lower your final course grade by up to 15%. Tonight's session is the first of the three peer evaluations.
The 1-5 Likert-style peer evaluation is completed by each team member. Final course grades are adjusted up or down depending on peer evaluation scores. To adjust the scores, I'll calculate the mean and standard deviation using peer evaluations from both course sections I teach this semester. Students with peer evaluations more than 1 standard deviation above the mean receive a 5% bonus added to their final course grade. Students with peer evaluations more than one standard deviation below the mean receive a 5% deduction applied to their final course grade.
March 10-14: Spring Break
Thursday, March 20
Session 8: Individual Summary Business Plan Presentations
Deliverables
(1) Written individual summary business plan due at the beginning of class
(2) 90-second elevator pitch of your individual summary business plan
(3) Team evaluation of individual summary business plans begins toward the end of class
Details
Individual summary business plans that are not turned in at the beginning of class have a 20% grade deduction from the individual summary business plan if turned in by the following week. Late business plans are not eligible for selection for the team business plan and therefore forfeit the potential 10% addition to the final course grade. Individual summary busines plans turned in after one week do not receive credit.
Thursday, March 27
Session 9: The Financial Plan, Part 1
Deliverables
(1) Progress report for team consulting project
(2) Final selection of the individual summary business plan
(3) Read Chapter 4: The Financial Plan, Part 1
Details
We'll start the session by discussing chapter 4 concerning financial statements for small businesses. After our discussion, teams will make a 3-5 minute progress report of what they've accomplished so far in the team consulting project. Students who are absent when a presentation is due may choose to (1) take a 5% deduction applied to the individual student's final team consulting report grade or (2) make up the absence by turning in a 5-page single-spaced paper analyzing the strategy of a small firm. Make-up papers must use the five-part strategy framework presented in the article: "Are you sure you have a strategy?" 2001. Donald C. Hambrick and James W. Fredrickson. Academy of Management Executive. November, pages 48-59. The article is available online from the WKU library. Students choosing this option are responsible for getting the article from the library. The paper is due on one week after the absence. Papers may not be turned in past this; after one week, the 5% deduction option will automatically apply.
At the end of class, teams must turn the name of the winning individual summary business plan the team will use as the basis for their team comprehensive business plan. The winner selected from each team receives an automatic increase of 10% added to his or her final course grade.
Thursday, April 3
Session 10: The Financial Plan, Part 2
Deliverables
(1) Read Chapter 5: The Financial Plan, Part 2
Details
Tonight's topic continues the previous week's discussion of the financial plan. We'll consider various ways entrepreneurs can raise funding for new ventures and for expansion of established ventures.
Thursday, April 10
Session 10: Test 2 (Chapters 4-5) and Managing Risk
Deliverables
(1) Test 2 (Chaters 4-5)
(2) Peer evaluation 2
(3) Progress report statement from consulting client (Due at the beginning of class)
(4) Read Chapter 6: Managing Risk
Details
The 1-5 Likert-style peer evaluation is completed by each team member. Final course grades are adjusted up or down depending on peer evaluation scores. To adjust the scores, I'll calculate the mean and standard deviation using peer evaluations from both course sections I teach this semester. Students with peer evaluations more than 1 standard deviation above the mean receive a 5% bonus added to their final course grade. Students with peer evaluations more than one standard deviation below the mean receive a 5% deduction applied to their final course grade.
Tonight's topic addresses how small businesses manage risk.
Team's turn in a progress report signed by all team members and the consulting client. The progress report statement is a summary showing the progress to date of activities contained in the consulting letter of intent and the timeline developed earlier in the semester. There is a 5% final course grade deduction for progress report statements that are up to one week late. The final course grade decreases by 5% for each subsequent week the statement is late.
Thursday, April 17
Session 12: Test 3 (Chapter 6)
Deliverables
(1) Team comprehensive business plans due at beginning of class
Details
Each team's comprehensive business plan is due at the beginning of class. There's a 10% per day deduction applied to the comprehensive business plan grade if your team needs to turn in its business plan after the start of class. This class session allows time for your team to prepare the final presentation due next week.
Thursday, April 24
Session 13: Test 3 Comprehensive Business Plan Presentations
Deliverables
(1) Team comprehensive business plan final presentation (due at the beginning of class)
(2) Final written consulting report signed by all team members and the client (due at the beginning of class)
Details
Test 3 will be given at the beginning of class then teams will give a final 8-12 minute comprehensive business plan presentation based on the business plan turned in the previous week. The formal presentation will be followed by a 5-10-minute question and answer period. All team members must contribute substantially for the highest credit. Team members who contribute most during the presentation will receive higher grades comprehensive business plan grades than team members who contribute less. Grades will be the same for all team members if team members contribute a similar amount to the presentation. Presentation contributions include defending the plan during the question and answer period. Don't underestimate the difficulty of the questions you may face—remember that I'll have the past week to study your team's business plan and come up with questions.
There is a 3% per day reduction in the final course grade for late consulting reports.
Thursday, May 1
Session 14: Consulting Project Completion
Deliverables
(1) Signed statement from consulting client
(2) Consulting project presentations
(3) Peer review 3
Details
A written statement signed by the consulting client and all team members is due at the beginning of class. The statement should (a) indicate that the client received a professional copy of the final consulting report and (b) express the level of the client's approval and satisfaction with the team's consulting report. As noted in the previous week's details, each team should have given their client the final copy of the consulting report at least one week ago. This allows the client time to review the report prior to signing off on it. Because this is the last class session, signed statements from the consulting client will not be accepted after tonight's class ends. Therefore, there is a 12% deduction in the final course grade for team's failing to turn in the statement during tonight's class.
Team's give a formal 10-15 minute presentation of the consulting report in this evening's class followed by a 5-10 minute question and answer session. As with the comprehensive business plan presenation, team member contributing more receive higher grades than those contributing less.