This document contains the revised script for a final presentation proposing a new first-year business course at Nichols College called BEETHOVEN. The presentation includes 20 slides covering an introduction to the course, its objectives, benefits, solutions to identified problems, stakeholder analysis, implementation plan, budget, and projected outcomes. Key points of the proposed course include building foundational business and finance skills, enhancing teamwork and leadership abilities through a simulation, and addressing gaps in students' personal finance knowledge to improve retention and job placement rates.

1. FINAL PRESENTATION REVISED SCRIPT
SLIDE 1:(BEETHOVEN) Introduction
• A new course at Nichols College (BEETHOVEN)
• Team Triumph
• Each member introduces themselves ( BEETHOVEN, JEFF,TIM)
• “The conception of our idea” (JEFF)
• Decided to do something different that we felt was missing here at Nichols
• Made a course instead of a tradition
• We saw a need for a course based on our needs as students
SLIDE 2:(BEETHOVEN) Course At a Glance
• Is 1styear business course
• Helps student growth by solidifying foundation of finance & business skills &
knowledge necessary for future course & careers
• Builds an understanding of personal money management for college years & future
• BizCafe business simulation enhances team work, leadership, inter-personal, & public
speaking skills while at the same time applying the learned financial and business
knowledge
• The knowledge & experience this course has to offer will be vital in student
development & will allow a greater opportunity for success
• Touches upon basics of core business fields: FINANCE, MGMT, HRM, &
GENERAL BUS
• Gives 1st year students a taste of the “Nichols Experience”
SLIDE 3: (JEFF) Key Highlights
• (Read Highlights)

2. SLIDE 4: (ALL) The Problem
• Students are expected to know basic finance principles (BEETHOVEN)
• The fact is, most students don’t have this knowledge
• Can be very hard for students who struggle with math
• (Beethoven tell math story)
• Most students don’t have a strong grasp on personal finance(writing checks, balancing a
checkbook, budgeting, saving, etc…) (JEFF)
• (Jeff tell business story)
• Students are expected to be able to effectively publically speak, work effectively in
groups with other students, & be able to lead a team (TIM)
• These can be extremely overwhelming if no prior experience
• Public speaking especially, can strike a huge amount of fear & anxiety in students
with little experience
SLIDE 5: (TIM) Loss of Competitive Edge
• Umass Amherst: Isenberg School of Business has a course that address these needs
• (Tim Story about brother) Brother went to Isenberg & was surprised Nichols did
not have a course like this
• BUS-MGMT “Personal Finance for Business Leaders
• Teaches critical personal finance skills vital in life for financial stability and
success
• Helps improve career, personal life, & leadership
• Other Schools: Boston University, Western New England College, & Gordon
• These courses focus on the three main concepts of our course (finance, personal $
mgmt, & business skills)

3. SLIDE 6: (ALL) Solution
• Our course is designed to address these needs & fills the vital knowledge gap
(BEETHOVEN)
• Helps students prepare for the future courses
• Builds a strong foundation of skills & knowledge in finance, business, & personal $
mgmt (JEFF)
• Experience is vital for developing (TIM)
• Early experience in career=greater opportunity for success
• Career-focused concepts help students envision a brighter future
SLIDE 7: (JEFF) Nature of the Change
• Our change is a first order change
• It is relatively small which makes it a 1st order change
• It is an incremental change in daily activities carried out by Nichols College
SLIDE 8: (BEETHOVEN) Force FieldAnalysis
• Student Interest= Most important
• They are the bottom line
Positive Driving forces
• Increases Competitive edge job
• Can lead to higher retention & job placement rates
Negative Restraining Forces
• Low Interest breaks us
• Opposition from stakeholders due to FEAR of failure
How to Overcome Restraining Forces
• Prove we have high student interest (SURVEYS)

4. • Prove the practicality of the course to the curriculum
Directly aligned with Nichols core values
SLIDE 9: (TIM) StakeholderAnalysis
• Curriculum Committee (CC): ultimately decides if idea passes upon review
• The CC holds the most power, they decide if a new course is approved/rejected
• Students: their interest directly affects implementation & consolidation
• They carry huge amount of power & make or break the idea
• Professor Westerling (Associate Dean of Business): decides practicality of course after
receiving approved proposal
• Since this is a BUSINESS course it has to be approved by her
• Bill Boffi’s Office: retention/placements rates are crucial to college
• if course can increase, then critical in winning their favor
SLIDE 10: (JEFF) StakeholderCalculatedDecisionPower
• The CC holds the most power
• Ultimately they accept or reject the course
• Students also make break us
• Their interest is our bottom line
• Westerling is needed for approval because it is a business course
• Carries significant decision power
• Bill Boffi carries influence in the decision as well
• Prove that our course will improve rates
• Our course will do so by giving a preview of the “Nichols Experience”

5. SLIDE 11: (BEETHOVEN) Reasonsfor Resistance
• If students are not interested this idea cannot even leave the runway
• Through surveys we can prove the interest is high & eliminate resistance
• This course idea has failed to take flight in the past so this fear is not irrational
• Course is very practical to the current curriculum (explained in more detail next
slide)
• Trouble in finding a professor willing to teach
• We actually have a professor willing to teach it currently: Professor Flemming
SLIDE 12: (TIM) Practicality
• NICHOLS MISSION- “Within a supportive community, Nichols College transforms
today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders through a dynamic, career-focused business and
professional education.”
• Directly aligned with course objectives
• This course helps prepare students for future finance and business courses by developing
a core understanding of the subject
• Gives a preview to the “Nichols Experience”
• Course Initiatives: Career Focus, Interactive Classroom, Public Speaking,
Teamwork, Leadership
SLIDE 13: (BEETHOVEN) Programs to Overcome Resistance
• Social Media
• Use twitter to promote the idea to students
• Very effective channel of communication
• Info Session at the Fels Student Center with free food & drinks
• All faculty & students are encourage to attend & we can really get our point across to
stakeholders by doing this & possibly raising interest

6. • We will be posting an advertisement for the course in the school newsletter the Bison
Beat
• We will post flyers & brochures around various locations on campus (Fels, Davis,
Academy, Lombard, Dormitories, & the Library) to promote our course idea
• We will also conduct several surveys for students & faculty asking a variety of simple
questions (Would you be interested in the course?) to get a general idea of the interest
levels
• This will help convince stakeholders to approve if positive results
SLIDE 14: (JEFF) Survey Results
• 4 out of 7 said they lack an understanding of basic finance
• Identifies the PROBLEM
• 7 out of 7 said they would take this course
• Proves there is a high student interest
• In the past when a similar course idea was proposed, there was not enough student
interest
• This is a small sample size, but a good start
• Future surveys with a larger sample size could prove furthermore there is student
interest to back this idea
• If the students want it, give it to them
SLIDE 15: (TIM) The 9 Step Plan: Steps 1-3
• We developed a simple 9 Step Plan to implement our idea
• A timeline will also be provided after the step slides to show how long the
implementation will take
• (Read Steps 1-3)

7. SLIDE 16: (JEFF) 9 Step Plan: Steps 4-6
• (Read Steps 4-6)
SLIDE 17: (BEETHOVEN) 9 Step Plan: Steps 7-9
• (Read Steps 7-9)
• If all goes according to planned then our course will appear on next fall’s course catalog
• Total implementation time: 23-48 days
• Some steps require more to implement and also have a degree of variance caused by any
errors or delays
• We provided as accurate of a timeline as possible
SLIDE 18: (TIM) CommunicationsStrategy
• Our emphasis to stakeholders: our course’s objective are closely aligned with Nichol’s
vision and core objectives
• Promotional programs in place
• Spread the word to students to build interest
• MAIN GOAL: Gain stakeholder & student approval to help implement
SLIDE 19: (BEETHOVEN) Budget
• As we had earlier discussed, we have provided a detailed budget
• It is low impact & low cost to & funding for our idea is only needed to cover the
promotional costs
• $100 is needed to provide food & drinks at for students & faculty at our info session in
Fels
• $50 will be needed for supplies necessary
 This covers the cost of color ink for the brochures & flyers

8. SLIDE 20: (JEFF) Financial Resources
• Besides costs for promotions, there is no other funding required
• Since our idea is a course, the college already accounts for a set number of courses each
year, & if this makes the course catalog it is cover by Nichols
• This leads into a huge selling point for our idea, the actual costs we have are very
minimal
• The only other cost the idea could possibly run into is if an adjunct professor is needed to
teach the course
• Around $3000 per course
SLIDE 21: (TIM) Gap Analysis
• This is our Gap Analysis pre-implementation & post-implementation (which is a
projection our group came up with)
 It displays Student Interest in red
 Retention Rate in yellow
 Job Placement in Purple
 The scale on the y-axis represents each factor as percentage out of 100
• This will give us a better idea of what prospects our course has to offer to the college
• With successful promotion of our idea we project that student interest will start at 55%
 Which will be enough to make the course a reality
 Then after students experience with the course themselves, we project they will
enjoy the experience & share this with other students & attract more attention,
jumping the interest level up to 85%
• The current retention rate of Nichols College Freshman is 63%
 Our course is designed to greatly improve retention & we project that after our
course is implemented it will jump to 82%

9.  The rationale behind this is, by offering students a course that introduces them to
what they will encounter over the next four years, it could potentially increase
because students know what Nichols has to offer
• The current job placement rate of graduating Nichols College Seniors six months prior to
graduation is an impressive 93%
 A main objective of our course is to improve placement rates by solidifying
essential business skills that will be called upon in students future careers
 This will raise the rate to 95% because employers will see how prepared Nichols
students are for the working world
 Nichols already has the great reputation for building career focused professionals
& this will further prepare students, increasing the school reputation even more
• These projections can be tested and further evaluated after utilizing our created
assessment methods, which leads us into our next slide
SLIDE 22: (BEETHOVEN) AssessmentMethods
• Our first assessment method to gauge the success of our course will be a student survey
conducted after the course has been completed
 This will help get a sense of student interest level, retention, & practicality of the
course
 This can be later be graphed as an actual projection which will help consolidate
the plan afterwards, but this will be discussed more in the next slide
• Another Assessment we have put in place is direct feedback from students from
mandatory SRI’s & and a provided supplement giving more in-depth feedback
• Through these assessments we can accurate look at the progress of our course, if our
projections prove to be right, then this course could be a vital addition to the Nichols
College Curriculum
SLIDE 23: (JEFF) Consolidation
• If our assessment results prove positive then it will consolidate our course into the
curriculum & it could provide to a great resource to first year students both in their
academic & professional careers
• The assessments will also point out any weaknesses or flaws within our course, these
will then be improved upon in order to improve the overall success of course & of the
students involved

10. • If students take the course & enjoy their experience, they will share this with other
students, making them more likely to sign up next semester, in turn increasing the student
interest level of the course itself
• After the course has established itself in the curriculum, it only has room to improve
even further to provide Nichols students with a practical career focused education
• This leads to greater potential success of Nichols students and as a whole promoting
Nichols great reputation as an organization even further
SLIDE 24: (ALL) QUESTIONS