INSTRUCTIONS: ocus on the first-hand research and original critical analysis, supported by some secondary research based on published materials such as through SEC documents, online news archives, company websites, library, etc. The secondary/literature research should not exceed 20% of the paper and only sourced if it is essential to support the key points of your analysis.
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PREVIOUS PAPER INSTRUCTIONS (#377412559): Each student will study, analyze, and report on a company independently. Conduct the following research, and develop an analysis paper covering:
- Specify at least one, and no more than three operational capabilities the company must excel in to succeed. E.g. product quality, speed of delivery, customer service, competitive pricing, supply network, service flexibility, availability or dependability, etc. Do not be generic and list everything, focus on the business’ core competencies.
- How does the company attempt to excel at these capabilities against its competitors? How can it improve?
- Chart the current Value Stream Map of a key process (such as production, the customer communications or customer service, or order management cycle), analyze the opportunities for improvement. Chart the future state (and the ideal state if possible) of the Value Stream Map.
- Based on your research, how do the company’s operations strategy impact their marketing and business strategies, and provide competitive advantages or lead to disadvantages?
- Which areas do you think the company should focus on operationally in order to scale or grow? Propose a growth strategy operationally for 2020.
Research methods:
Focus on the first-hand research and original critical analysis, supported by some secondary research based on published materials such as through SEC documents, online news archives, company websites, NYU library, etc. The secondary/literature research should not exceed 20% of the paper and only sourced if it is essential to support the key points of your analysis.
The first-hand research can be conducted via interacting with the business as a customer (signing up for email newsletters or promotions, requesting catalogs, calling customer service to gather product information, requesting customer materials from the company, making a purchase, returning the goods or submitting a complaint, conducting a usability test, etc.), interviewing key employees, or observing the process as an employee.
Deliverable requirements:
Exhibits should be properly annotated, and clearly illustrate a key point in the paper. Exhibits should not exceed 4 pages.
Be analytical, not just descriptive. Be as objective as possible: how the company manages the customer experience – not if you personally like or do not like the brand, or if the website looks pleasing, etc.
The project should NOT focus on customer acquisition, direct-response campaigns, marketing strategies, etc. Instead, it should focus on the business processes and customer interactions or communications the company addresses to the prospects and customers, such as fulfilling an order or delivering a satisfactory experience. Extraneous material not related to the topics of the class will count negatively in the grading of the project. COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS ORDER: Research methods:
Focus on the first-hand research and original critical analysis, supported by some secondary research based on published materials such as through SEC documents, online news archives, company websites, library, etc. The secondary/literature research should not exceed 20% of the paper and only sourced if it is essential to support the key points of your analysis.
The first-hand research can be conducted via interacting with the business as a customer (signing up for email newsletters or promotions, requesting catalogs, calling customer service to gather product information, requesting customer materials from the company, making a purchase, returning the goods or submitting a complaint, conducting a usability test, etc.), interviewing key employees, or observing the process as an employee.