Business Environmental Analysis Part III 4. Give your team’s recommendation on how to respond to the opportunities and threats (no response may be valid if you can justify it) In section entails external forces that affect the operations of the company by providing opportunities and threats. Opportunities are positive chances created by external factors that a company can utilize and earn a competitive advantage while threats are negative conditions created by external forces that can affect the companies operation. For Nike Company, there are several environmental forces that will affect the company either positively or negatively. In order to analyze the macro-environmental factors that will affect Nike Company, PESTEL analysis will be used; thus the factors to be analyzed will be; political factors, economic factors, social factors, technological factors, environmental factors, legal factors and ethical factors (Okoye 2017). 9.Make a go/no go decision if the firm should pursue this international opportunity and why Political factors involves the degree to which a government intervenes in the economy and this can include; government policies, political stability or instability in foreign markets, tax policy, foreign trade policy environmental laws, labor laws and trade restrictions among others. Secondly, economic Factors are factors have a significant impact on how a firm does business and also determines the profitability and includes; economic growth, exchange rates, inflation and interest rates among others. Thirdly are social factors which involve beliefs and attitudes of population and includes population growth, age distribution, career attitudes among others. The fourth aspect is Technological factors which affect marketing and management by deriving new ways of production and distribution of goods and services and also new ways of accessing and communicating with target markets. Environmental factors are also important due to factors such as carbon footprint targets set by governments, scarcity of raw materials and operating business as an ethical and Sustainale Company. Also, there are legal issues which include advertising standards, product labeling and product safety, consumes rights and laws among others. Finally, ethical factors which involves issues such as fair trade, slavery acts and child labor among others Opportunities · Opportunities that exist for Nice Company includes; · Political stability in most countries they perat in · Lack of trade restrictions · Many people believes that they are among the top in the market hence people have positive attitude towards their products · Many football cubs are continuously being formed hence providing continuous market expansion. · Many young people are currently opting to shift their careers to sports. · Increased advancement in digital marketing technologies · Advancement in online purchases Threats · Political instability in other countries · Broad economic uncertainty. · High ...

1. Business Environmental Analysis
Part III
4. Give your team’s recommendation on how to respond to the
opportunities and threats (no response may be valid if you can
justify it)
In section entails external forces that affect the operations of
the company by providing opportunities and threats.
Opportunities are positive chances created by external factors
that a company can utilize and earn a competitive advantage
while threats are negative conditions created by external forces
that can affect the companies operation. For Nike Company,
there are several environmental forces that will affect the
company either positively or negatively. In order to analyze the
macro-environmental factors that will affect Nike Company,
PESTEL analysis will be used; thus the factors to be analyzed
will be; political factors, economic factors, social factors,
technological factors, environmental factors, legal factors and
ethical factors (Okoye 2017).
9.Make a go/no go decision if the firm should pursue this
international opportunity and why
Political factors involves the degree to which a government
intervenes in the economy and this can include; government
policies, political stability or instability in foreign markets, tax
policy, foreign trade policy environmental laws, labor laws and
trade restrictions among others. Secondly, economic Factors are
factors have a significant impact on how a firm does business
and also determines the profitability and includes; economic
growth, exchange rates, inflation and interest rates among
others. Thirdly are social factors which involve beliefs and
attitudes of population and includes population growth, age
distribution, career attitudes among others. The fourth aspect is
Technological factors which affect marketing and management
by deriving new ways of production and distribution of goods

2. and services and also new ways of accessing and communicating
with target markets. Environmental factors are also important
due to factors such as carbon footprint targets set by
governments, scarcity of raw materials and operating business
as an ethical and Sustainale Company. Also, there are legal
issues which include advertising standards, product labeling and
product safety, consumes rights and laws among others. Finally,
ethical factors which involves issues such as fair trade, slavery
acts and child labor among others
Opportunities
· Opportunities that exist for Nice Company includes;
· Political stability in most countries they perat in
· Lack of trade restrictions
· Many people believes that they are among the top in the
market hence people have positive attitude towards their
products
· Many football cubs are continuously being formed hence
providing continuous market expansion.
· Many young people are currently opting to shift their careers
to sports.
· Increased advancement in digital marketing technologies
· Advancement in online purchases
Threats
· Political instability in other countries
· Broad economic uncertainty.
· High taxes and interest rates
· Continued inflation
· Increased competition
· Continued fraud in online business
Advancement in technology will enhance marketing activities
which can effectively be done virtually through social media,
websites and other digital marketing platforms ina cost-
effective manner. Also, political stability in most countries will
enhance business operations and business safety.

3. 10. Conduct any additional research to fill gaps and missing
information from your prior analyses or as instructed via formal
and informal feedback
Increased competition in the markets will negatively affect the
company’s operations and market share hence there is need to
orc on ways to outcompete other competitors. Also, continued
inflation is making business unpredictable and sourcing of
inputs increasingly getting expensive and additionally making
people shift their preferences. It is therefore recommended that
the company should appropriately address these threats in order
to be viable and also avoid losing their share of market to the
competitors. In order to achieve this company should fully
utilize their opportunities to overcome threats.
The company should therefore pursue this opportunity since the
business environment still has more opportunities that can be
utilized well mace the company be the best in the market
However, it is important to conduct continuous market research
and analysis on consumer trends and competitors behavior and
adjust accordingly.
References
Onyshchenko, S., Maslii, O., & Ivanyuk, B. (2019, October).
The Impact of External Threats to the Economic Security of
the Business. In 2019 7th International Conference on
Modeling, Development and Strategic Management of
Economic System (MDSMES 2019) (pp. 156-160). Atlantis
Press.
Okoye, S. I. (2017). Strategies to minimize the effects of
information security threats on business performance.

4. 2
Business Environmental Analysis
Part III
5. Identify a city in a foreign country that provides an
opportunity for the company to expand internationally.
Shenzhen, China
6. Conduct a PESTELE analysis for this city.
P – Political: From a political point of view, Shenzhen, and
overall China, has a complex political scene. Despite being a
large economy with international ties, the current government
and legal framework is very different from typical Western
economic powers. The Communist Party of China is the ruling
political party, and although the country is part of a relatively
stable political environment, the lack of political freedom is an
area of major concern. With regards to government regulations,
there are formal and informal rules that are highly regarded by
everyone and all firms must comply with these in order to be in
good standing. Norms and regulations are taken very seriously
and the smallest issue could bring serious trouble. In fact, the
political power is probably the most unsettled force in China.
There are also some legal issues that will be furtherly discussed
in the next sections of the PESTELE analysis that relate to the
political party in power. The main concern regards the e-
commerce. In China, e-commerce is still at an early stage with
regards to drafting legislation in this matter. Topics that are
still not fully regulated include intellectual property, rights
protection, and tax, while elements like privacy, consumer
rights, and validation of electronic contracts completely lack
supporting regulations. Although the government has recently
been working on addressing some of these issues, the
administration is still behind on these matters. (Clark, 2019).
E – Economical: In the course of the past few years, China’s
economy experienced significant growth. Looking at the GDP in
Shenzhen from 2015, which was 1,750.3 billion yuan ($270

5. billion) and its current GDP of 2,779,448,100,000.00 yuan
($429 billion), we can observe that the city GDP almost doubled
in 5 years (The World Bank, 2021). The main factors that affect
the economy and that support the prediction of a promising
future for it include: high rate of savings, abundant labor with
lower costs compared to western countries, export business still
in the growth stage, and urban development that also still has a
lot of potential for growth.
That being said, there are some worrying trends that might
affect this impressive growth rate. The first one is the high
property prices, the price per square foot in Shenzhen is
US$783. To have a term of comparison, I searched property
prices in New York City, which is one of the most expensive
cities in the US, and the price per square foot there is $541.
This shows that the real estate market in Shenzhen is likely
overheating (Liu, 2021). The second factor of concern regards
the increased interest rates of the People’s Bank of China.
Moreover, the reserve requirement for commercial banks has
also increased and the central bank recommendation to bank is
impose limits on home purchases and overall, lend less (Cattlin,
2021). These shows that the administration is also trying to
slow China’s growth rate down.
S – Social: Similarly to the political scene, the social scene also
has some enrooted aspects that are fundamental to the culture.
For example, family size and other social behaviors often
impact how decisions are taken. Moreover, social factors such
as the lifestyles, education, and religion play a major role when
doing business in cities like Shenzhe n. The culture is funded on
a specific set of beliefs. Among the most important values, the
following are crucial to know in order to do business with the
locals: importance of the family, hierarchical structure of social
life, cultivation of morality, and emphasis on hard work. Also,
the Chinese society is collectivist, meaning that the wellbeing
of the community or of the family is privileged over one’s
wellbeing (ChineseHighlight, 2021).

6. T – Technological: One noticeable factor with regards to the
technological environment is the internet usage of Chinese
people. There are almost 450 million internet users in China,
which is a very promising factor for the growth of online
shopping and e-commerce. However, the lack of stable online
payment methods in China and barely negligible credit card
penetration is a factor that is preventing the growth and
development of online marketing.
Besides e-commerce, China actually views innovation in science
and technology as one of the pillars for the future of the
country. In fact, the country launched a ‘mass entrepreneurship
and innovation’ program in 2015, which aims at spreading
entrepreneurship in the country by moving from a labor-
intensive work environment to an innovation-driven one.
Shenzhen is also considered “China’s Silicon Valley” given that
is home to many tech giants. The city in fact invested more than
64 billion yuan (HK$80.46 billion) in research and development
(Huifeng, 2018).
E – Environment: The environment is probably one of the
weakest spots for China and especially for large cities, like
Shenzhen. The rapid development it underwent had severe
impacts on the environment. The industrial waste led to high
levels of water and air pollution, deforestation, and climate
change. The Chinese government has taken a number of
initiatives to address the environmental concerns, but the
current state is still critical. Shenzhen, being a big city, is
polluted. However, among other big cities in China is one of the
best ones with only moderate levels of pollution (The World Air
Quality Index project, 2021). Besides the concern for the
environment itself, it is worth considering that sooner or later
stricter restrictions will be put on companies and factories with
regards to waste, which might impact earnings and future
growth rates.
L- Legal: There are many laws that regulate business and
employment in China, such as those regulated in the PRC
Labour Law 1995, the PRC Labour Contract Law 2007, and

7. other administrative regulations. The Catalogue of Industries
for Guiding Foreign Investment regulates Foreign Direct
Investment in China and divides types of businesses into four
categories: encouraged, restricted, prohibited, and permitted.
Nike, similarly to all clothing companies, is permitted.
However, it needs to comply with investment restrictions, such
as a mandatory shared ownership that allows for partial Chinese
control. The majority of foreign businesses are, in fact, subject
to FDI restrictions that can be addressed through setting a joint
venture, absolute or relative Chinese control, or other minimum
domestic shareholding conditions (Practical Law China, 2017).
Overall, China and larger cities like Shenzhen have become
increasingly integrated with other parts of the world. Although
it is not easy to manage business with China, it is a growing
market with a lot of potential.
7. Identify and explain one opportunity and one threat from the
foreign business environment.
An opportunity identified in the Shenzhen market is the rising
income level that will be able to support private consumption.
The average salary in Shenzhen is now around $49,000, which
is similar to an average salary in the US (AverageSalarySurvey,
2021). Overall, the growing market is promising and the
economic environment future forecast is optimistic.
The biggest threat instead is the legal environment and the strict
regulations that promote China’s control over FDIs. Considering
that the government acts in this interest, investors might find
themselves in an increasingly strict legal environment that can
affect the return on their investments and hinder growth and
development.
8. Give your team’s recommendation on how to respond to the
opportunity and threat.
Given the space for growth that a city like Shenzhen shows to
have at the moment, I would tackle this market as soon as
possible and take advantage of the momentum. Nike is already
present in Shenzhen with a few stores that generate a high level
of revenue, but due to the size of the city which has a

8. population of 12.5 million citizens, there is still space for
growth (MacroTrends, 2021).
With regards to the threat, I would formulate a plan with the
help of local and international lawyers in order to safeguard as
much as possible of the ownership of the foreign branch of the
company and forecast any potential future issue to be ready to
assess them. Cooperating with trustworthy local professional is
very important since they not only will be knowledgeable about
local laws, but their cultural background and experience will
provide useful insights when redacting a business plan in a
foreign country.
References
AverageSalarySurvey. (2021). Shenzhen: Average Salary
Survey 2021. Shenzhen | Average Salary Survey 2021.
https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/shenzhen-china.
Cattlin, R. (2021, April 28). People's Bank of China and
Chinese interest rates explained.
https://www.cityindex.co.uk/market-analysis/peoples-bank-of-
china-and-chinese-interest-rates-
explained/#:~:text=The%20Chinese%20interest%20rate%20refe
rs,over%20recovery%20from%20the%20pandemic.).
ChineseHighlight. (2021). Chinese Culture. Chinese Culture,
Customs and Traditions in China.
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/.
Clark, E. (2019, January 9). China's new e-commerce law: A
step in the right direction. China's new e-commerce law: A step
in the right direction - China.org.cn.
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2019-
01/09/content_74355741.htm#:~:text=On%20January%201%2C

9. %202019%2C%20China's,e%2Dcommerce%20law%20took%20e
ffect.&text=Under%20the%20new%20law%2C%20operators,co
nditions%20or%20fees%20on%20merchants.
He Huifeng. (2018, December 12). Top 5 tech giants who shape
Shenzhen, 'China's Silicon Valley'. South China Morning Post.
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/enterprises/article/1
765430/top-5-tech-giants-who-shape-shenzhen-chinas-silicon.
Liu, P. (2021, April 12). What can HK$6 million buy in
Shenzhen's sizzling property market? South China Morning
Post. https://www.scmp.com/business/china-
business/article/3129077/shenzhen-property-how-home-prices-
chinese-tech-hub-compare.
MacroTrends. (2021). Shenzhen, China Metro Area Population
1950-2021. MacroTrends.
https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/20667/shenzhen/population
Practical Law China. (2017, January 12). Foreign investment
catalogue: the debut of nationwide negative list in China.
Practical Law UK Signon.
https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/w-009-
1430?transitionType=Default&contextData=%28sc.Default%29
&firstPage=true#co_pageContainer.
The World Air Quality Index project. (2021). Air Pollution in
Shenzhen: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map. aqicn.org.
https://aqicn.org/map/shenzhen/.
The World Bank. (2021). GDP (current US$) - China. The
World Bank.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locati
ons=CN.
1
Project Guidelines for

10. Business Environmental
Analysis
A component of BUS 302: Foundations of Business
Environment
Aaron McDonald, course instructor
Assistant Professor, College of Business Administration,
California State University San Marcos
Introduction
All organizations must function within the context of their
environments. What works and is successful under
one set of environmental conditions may be a disaster when
there are changes in one or more components of
the environment. Therefore, environmental conditions present
great opportunities and threats to
organizations. As a practicing manager, analyst, or consultant,
you will often be asked to prepare and present
an analysis of a business situation that is dependent on changes
and developments in the business
environment. Furthermore, refining your informational literacy,
mastering analytical skills and developing
strategic thinking will enrich your career toolkit and position
you for success in your professional pursuits.
Project Objectives
The purpose of this project is to conduct in-depth research and
analysis of the business environment for a U.S.
based company of your choosing. Your goal is to evaluate
environmental opportunities and threats for the
business. Additionally, you will choose a city not in the United

11. States that presents an opportunity for
expansion for the business. By completing this project you will
improve your ability to locate and select high
quality business information and learn how to apply relevant
analytical tools to improve your understanding of
a company, its industry, and the key issues that affect its future
potential. Further, you will improve your
ability to work collaboratively. Finally, you will refine your
ability to think strategically in business situations.
Important considerations
The project is completed in teams of about five individuals. The
project is divided in several parts that lead to a
final paper at the end of the semester.
The estimated time to complete the project at a satisfactory
level is over 50 hours. Starting early and
managing the project with consistency throughout the semester
are key to a successful experience.
Detailed guidelines for each component of the project are
offered on the following pages.
2
Part 1: Project scope & issue analysis
Estimated time to complete: 3–5 hours
Due: Feb 17, 2021
Percentage of Total Project Grade: 5%
Goals:
- Identify shared business interests among the team and define

12. the scope of your project
- Develop a deeper understanding of what variables are involved
- Identify reliable sources of data that will inform your research
and start scanning relevant publications
Steps:
- Explore the professional interests, objectives, and intellectual
curiosities of each team member. Each
team member should contribute to this discussion.
- Find common interests or areas of shared curiosities that could
benefit from a semester-long team
research and analysis.
- The scope of your project may be defined in terms of, general
societal trends, industries or industry
issues (e.g., competitive dynamics, industry restructuring, etc.),
problems that have not been solved,
but have a business application, etc.
- In the process of completing this part, the team should conduct
at least one in-person meeting with all
team members present and at least one video conference
meeting
- During the first meeting, all team members should agree on
the technological platforms that will be
used for project work (e.g., file sharing, document drafting,
communication, etc.)
- Do not hesitate to consult with the instructor in this process.
- The scope of the project may be adjusted throughout the
semester, but not fundamentally changed.
- The team may discuss companies of interest at this point, but

13. this is not the objective of the first part.
Furthermore, teams should avoid choosing a company to
research at this point.
What to deliver
- An essay of about one page, authored by the entire team. The
write-up will describe the scope of the
report and should contain an analysis of issues or symptoms
(time horizon: past to present) and a
statement of problem(s) that need(s) to be resolved (time
horizon: present to future).
- Team contract. Refer to the template at the end of this
document for an example of a team contract.
You may use that one, modify it, or create your own.
3
Part 2: Company research
Estimated time to complete: ~20 hours
Due: April 7, 2021
Percentage of Total Project Grade: 25%
Goals:
- Locate an existing public corporation that operates within the
scope identified by your team and
analyze their strategic approach and position.

14. Steps:
1. Select a publicly traded corporation that your team believes
has potential within an industry as regards
the scope identified in Part 1. Company selection is subject to
instructor approval.
2. Explore the corporate website. How is it laid out? What are
your first impressions of the company?
Where is the company headquartered? Write down their HQ
address info. Become familiar with the
location of the important information you will be searching
throughout your project (e.g., investor
relations and other sections).
3. Identify the company’s mission, vision, and goals, and write
them down. How clear are their mission
and vision? Are they well communicated?
4. Become acquainted with the company’s products and services
and draw up the company’s corporate
structure. How diversified are they?
5. Define the company’s strategic business units
6. Identify the company’s critical value-creating activities
7. Explore the international reach of the company. What is their
global footprint? How many countries?
How much revenue do they derive from domestic vs. foreign
markets?
8. Search for and read about your target company, from other
online business news sources: has the
company been in the news recently? Summarize the general
issues about this company from the

15. news?
9. Consult major databases available on campus along with high
quality business publications to learn
about the company
10. Identify and define the industry the company obtains most
of their revenues from. Analyze the
dynamics of this industry and the company’s competitive
position relative to the five forces. What are
the industry’s driving forces and what is their impact?
11. Identify and define the company’s major growth
industry/ies. Analyze the company’s competitive
position in the industry/ies relative to the five forces.
12. Conduct a competitor analysis from the perspective of your
target company. Determine direct
competitors and potential competitors. How does the company
compete?
What to deliver
Interim report 2: A written report which addresses the topics
outlined in the steps above. If you are unable to
find useful information for any area, explain your methods and
efforts. Any worksheets used may be
appended to your report. You may use this time to prepare data
visualizations to be used in the final report
(i.e., tables, figures, etc.). Also provide a list of references for
all information found (APA format), with proper
referencing and citations in the text of your report. Any tables,
figures, or other exhibits should contain
information about the source of the data. There is no page limit.
Part 3: Strategic diagnostics – Final report

16. 4
Estimated time to complete: ~25 hours
Due: May 12, 2021
Percentage of Total Project Grade: 60%
Goals:
- Analyze the company’s business environment using the
PESTEL model.
- Identify opportunities and threats based on environmental
conditions.
- Identify one foreign city that presents an opportunity for the
company to expand.
- Analyze the foreign city’s business environment using the
PESTEL model and explain why this
environment provides an opportunity?
- Submit a comprehensive professional final report.
Steps:
1. Complete an environmental analysis for the company using
the PESTEL model. Explain how each
component in the model affects the company.
2. Conduct a SWOT analysis on how the company fits with its
business environment
3. From the SWOT analysis, identify and explain two
opportunities and two threats from the business

17. environment.
4. Give your team’s recommendation on how to respond to the
opportunities and threats (no response
may be valid if you can justify it).
5. Identify a city in a foreign country that provides an
opportunity for the company to expand
internationally.
6. Conduct a PESTEL analysis for this city.
7. Identify and explain one opportuni ty and one threat from the
foreign business environment.
8. Give your team’s recommendation on how to respond to the
opportunity and threat.
9. Make a go/no go decision if the firm should pursue this
international opportunity and why
10. Conduct any additional research to fill gaps and missing
information from your prior analyses or as
instructed via formal and informal feedback
What to deliver
Your final report should reflect all the work of your team, from
the beginning of the semester. It should read
as one document, not a collection of disparate papers. Teams
are free to use any content from the interim
reports in the final report — interim reports are to be treated as
early drafts of the final report.
Format: Projects should employ a business report format.
Consider how this report may be useful in your
career someday and write it for a broader audience. I discourage
reports addressed to an audience of one: the
course instructor. The report could fit in your job market

18. portfolio, along with other applied, experiential, or
immersive projects you have completed as a business student
(e.g., client-based work, senior experience,
etc.).
All reports should have an executive summary of approximately
1 page. The text narrative should be
structured using headings and subheadings, for readability.
Although references should be formatted using
APA style, the structure and appearance of the report should not
follow the APA guidelines. If figures or tables
are used, you may insert them in the body, or at the end as
appendix. I encourage you to develop visuals to
synthesize complex information. Explore corporate white papers
as examples of applicable formatting styles.
Formatting should be double spaced and size 12 Times New
Roman font.
5
Suggested page length is around 15 pages, not counting the
executive summary, references, and appendices.
There is no penalty for paper lengths above or below 15 pages.
Each paper is graded on the quality of research
and analyses relative to the scope of the problem tackled. The
process of carefully curating what content to
include in the final report will help you develop superior
business analysis and writing skills. (i.e., work to avoid
the everything but the kitchen sink problem).
All reports should contain the following elements, in whatever
order you decide to include them:

19. 1. Executive summary
2. Statement of project scope or problem, and issue analysis
3. Firm strategic approach and position (part 2)
4. Firm Environmental Analysis
a. Firm general environment /PESTEL
b. Opportunities and threats
c. Recommended response to opportunities and threats
5. Foreign opportunity environmental analysis
a. Foreign city general environment /PESTEL
b. Opportunities and threats
c. Recommended response to opportunities and threats
d. Recommendation on go/no go to pursue this foreign
opportunity
6
Part 4: Peer evaluations
Estimated time to complete: variable
Due: May 12
Percentage of Total Project Grade: 10%
Goal: Improve your team’s performance through constructive
and developmental feedback.
Steps:
- Keep notes on your team’s dynamics throughout the semester.

20. Items to include are: professionalism,
timeliness, quality of work completed, etc.
- Compile your information in a report to the instructor (form
will be provided)
- Two reports are due from each individual team member.
Evaluative, positive and constructive
feedback are all welcome. Your report is protected by
confidentiality, between you and the course
instructor.
What to deliver
Peer evaluation forms will be provided to you. Fill those out
and submit to instructor.
7
Project & Team Management
Best practices
As suggested by teams that have met or exceeded expectations
in the past:
- Get to know each other as individuals and professionals. It’s
typical to underestimate the role played
by individual personalities in a professional project. Getting to
know each other allows you all to
anticipate how your strengths and weaknesses will affect the
team dynamics along the way.

21. - Decide on the tech platform(s) that everyone is comfortable
with. The typical needs of this project are,
communication, manuscript development, and file sharing. You
will need to share files as your
manuscript evolves, as well as create a repository of your
research findings, in order to avoid overlap.
Platforms such as Dropbox, Google Docs, Slack, Zoom can be
incredibly helpful in dealing with the
difficulty of planning in-person meetings. The university
provides you with licenses for a number of
enterprise platforms — take advantage of those and do let
instructor know if you have questions or
require any assistance.
- Develop a routine of convening either physically (not this
semester) or virtually, once a week as a
group, starting in week two through the end of the semester.
Additional meetings will probably be
added during the busy periods, but the once/week meeting is
paramount.
- Evaluate the work to be done, create a task plan, and r evise as
needed during each meeting.
- Use advance deadlines to ensure sufficient time is allowed for
contingencies. High performers typically
allow for 3+ days ahead of a deadline for interim reports and 7+
days for final report.
- Discuss disciplinary issues as soon as they occur. Early signs
of work imbalances will almost always lead
to uneven contributions in the final project. There is no
substitute to mediating issues right away,
instead of waiting until a conflict develops. If you notice
potential for a ‘freeloader problem’ to develop
in your team, please contact me as soon as possible. At times,

22. these are just miscommunications that
can be easily fixed. Do not wait until the final project is due to
let me know that there is a team
performance issue.
- Do something on this project every week. You cannot throw
together a good report during the week
before the deadline.
- Related to the above, use the project as an application for
everything you learn in class, during lectures
and case studies.
Policies regarding team restructuring and personnel changes
- Teams should use conflict resolution policies agreed upon in
the team contract to mitigate any issues.
The instructor should be notified when conflict resolution
procedures are triggered. Teams may invite
instructor to mediate any team issues.
- Hiring and firing: In exceptional circumstances, teams may
restructure partially or completely at any
time before the end of the semester.
- Individuals may seek employment with another team at any
point in the semester. Teams should agree
on termination details, including last day of contribution for
each departing member. Hiring teams
should discuss an explicit proposal of compensation for past
performance, upon hiring a new member.
- All personnel changes and details thereof must be
communicated with the instructor in a timely
manner.

23. 8
Project management template
Students who completed this project in the past note that an
unexpected amount of time was spent administratively
(planning, scheduling,
organizing, communicating, etc.), in addition to the more
typical work of researching, writing, etc. Estimations of time to
complete are on a per-
team basis. Past students of this class have been surveyed
regarding their time spent on the project. Actual time spent on
this work will differ from
team to team, depending on commitment and skill level. Be sure
to give yourselves as much time as needed to achieve the
objectives of your team.
Feel free to use the table below and expand your team’s own
project management approach.
WEEK
# Ref Objective Deliverable Due 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15
1 Form teams -
2 Negotiate team agreement Team contract 10-Feb X
3 1A Decide project scope One-page essay 10-Feb X

24. 4 Master research tools and strategies Attend library workshop
10-Feb X
5 1B Draft external analyses Interim report 1 24-Feb X
6 2 Draft company research Interim report 2 19-Mar X
7 6 Evaluate team performance Peer evaluation 19-Mar
X
8 Gain feedback for final project Attend capstone workshop
23-Mar X
9 3 Communicate your findings in writing Final report 22-Apr
X
10 4 Communicate your findings verbally Final presentation 27-
Apr–6May X
11 5 Provide a value-added review Present friendly review 27-
Apr–6May
12 6 Evaluate team performance Peer evaluation 6-May
X
Legend: ‘X’ = due | [ ] = written work | [ ] = presentation
9
Team Contract Template

25. Due: Feb 17
Team Name: ______________________________
These are the terms of group conduct and cooperation that we
agree on as a team.
Participation: We agree to....
Communication: We agree to...
Meetings: We agree to....
Conduct: We agree to...
Conflict: We agree to...
Deadlines: We agree to...
Decisions: We agree to make decisions using a
(unanimity)(majority rules)(autocratic)(other) process.

26. Team Member’s Name Signature
…