Business Report
Business 32
Overview
The final project, which includes an individual paper and a group presentation, is an opportunity
for you to take what you have learned this semester and apply it to a company you are interested
in. It is critical to edit your work and use the Business Tutoring Center to produce a final draft
that is of business professional level writing quality.
Formatting
The paper should be double-spaced and use 12-point Times New Roman font with 1 inch
margins.
Paper Submission & Due Date
Please submit the final paper in Canvas by November 28, 2017
Grading
Business Report 200 Points, plus 95 more for research
Content, Writing Mechanics, and Formatting are all critical for this paper. You will need to spend
time researching, writing and revising to be successful.
Academic Integrity
As a member of the SMC community we are all committed to the SMC Honor Code, upholding
an environment conducive to learning characterized by academic integrity. All content and
sections of the paper should be your original work. You can use quotes and are required to do
outside research which you much cite your sources. Your instructor will use Turnitin to check
paper originality. There will be consequences if any sections of the paper are plagiarized.
Make sure you are paraphrasing properly by taking an idea and putting it in your own words
concisely. Also, make sure to cite appropriately using APA or MLA style.
Paper Structure
Title Page- Include Company name, logo, date, class name, student name, and instructor name
Table of Contents
Executive Summary-1-1.5 Pages Max
Summarize your entire paper and focuses on key points. Write after all sections are complete.
Suggested format: Short Intro Paragraph, History and Overview Paragraph, Key Product Lines
and Competition Paragraph, Marketing Analysis Paragraph, Financial Information Paragraph and
Key Strategic Recommendation Paragraph.
Company History- 1.5 Pages
Focus on the founding, 3-5 defining events in the company’s history and end with details about
the company today.
Company Overview-1 page
A brief description of the company. What does the company do? How do they make money?
What industry are they in? Where is it located? Where and who are their customers?
Write this section as if you are describing your company to someone who is not familiar with it.
Key Product Lines and Competition- 1-2 Pages
Focus on the most important product lines and competitors. Do not include long lists but include
details on the main 2-5 product lines and competitors.
Marketing Analysis-1 Page
Describe and evaluate the company’s marketing strategy. You should cover both traditional
marketing (advertising, PR, promotions) and social media marketing. Include an evaluation of
the company’s social media efforts. Also, include comparisons of number of followers/likes with
competing companies in a table and discuss in the body of the text.
Include your own observations, by visiting their website, social media marketing pages and
maybe even search YouTube for the company’s commercials.
Marketing Research- 1 Page Conduct survey and analyze results.
See the PDF in Canvas Files about how to setup your survey with Surveymonkey. Write
one paragraph about your survey methodology (Did you use an online survey or another way?
Who filled our your survey? How many people filled out your survey? How did you get people
to fill out your survey? What types of questions did you choose?)
Then write another few paragraphs analyzing interesting trends from only a few of your
questions and try to explain why you see those trends in the survey results.
Financial Information- 2 Pages including Stock Chart and Revenue & Profit Visual Aid.
You will create a stock chart using Google Finance analyzing the company, competitors and the
overall market for the last 5 years. Also, you will create a chart/visual aid with profit and revenue
for the last 5 years.
See PDF with guiding questions on how to setup the stock chart in Canvas Files. Also, the visual
aid with profit and revenue you can create one or use one that you find online. It can also be
two separate visual aids. Make sure to include a caption below to give credit if you are are not
creating your own.
This section should start with the stock chart, a few paragraphs describing the trends and an
explain what is driving the trends. Then one or two visual aids with revenue and profit and
include a few paragraphs describing the tends and what is driving the trends.
-Take a screenshot of the stock chart you create in Google Finance and write a paragraph
describing and analyzing the chart. Use the following questions to guide your analysis:
Is your company’s stock performing better or worse than the overall market (use your index that
your chose)?
How is it doing compared to competitors?
Overall, has it been going up or down or flat over the last five years?
For the profit and revenue chart and stock chart talk about trends (going up, down, or flat) and
explain why.
Recent Events- 1 Page
Briefly describe two to three recent events where your company was in the news and describe
how they affected the company. Make sure to have both in-text citations and citations in the
references or works cited page.
Three Strategic Recommendations- 1 Page
If you were the CEO of this company, what changes or new initiatives would you take on over
the next 3 years. Be bold but realistic with your ideas here. Should be written after other sections
are completed to incorporate what you have learned in researching and writing the paper.
This should be written in the third person since this is a formal report.
Key Strategic Recommendation- 1 Page
Choose your strongest strategic recommendation from the three you generated in the previous
section and justify why this is the best option. Also, provide more details about the strategy and
how it would benefit the company.
Works Cited or References-
Use MLA or APA style for a citations page at the end and use in-text citations as well. You will
visual aids within the body of the report (stock analysis chart, revenue and profit tables) and
ensure to provide your source beneath the visual aid. You should reference the company’s annual
10-K report and MarketLine Report. There should be references in every section and you are
required to have a minimum of 8 sources.
Appendix- Two items should be included: SWOT Analysis from MarketLine or another source
and a copy of your survey questionnaire.
No explanation is necessary. Just the screenshots or images. Make sure in a caption below the
SWOT Analysis to include a citation.
