INTEGRATIVE CHALLENGE MBA 4270 - SECTION 1 Winter 2007 M/W 12:00 to 1:50 pm
Gordon E. Von Stroh, Ph.D.
Daniels College of Business University of Denver
MBA 4270
Integrative Challenge Course Outline
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Syllabus Proposal Development Professionalism for the IC Project Sample Proposal Project and Report Outline Evaluation Forms a. Field Study Team Evaluation Form b. Presentation Evaluation Form c. Report Evaluation Form d. Peer Performance Appraisal e. Group Presentation Evaluation
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MBA 4270, Section 1 Integrative Challenge Winter 2007 M/W 12:00 – 1:50 pm
PROFESSOR: OFFICE: PHONE: FAX: EMAIL: OFFICE HOURS:
Gordon Von Stroh Daniels College of Business 303-871-3435 303-871-2294 gvonstro@du.edu 10:00 to 11:00 and 4:00 to 5:00 Mondays/Wednesdays Before and also after class and by appointment
Course Description A practical application of key business and managerial knowledge, skills, and competencies designed to integrate all graduate program elements and provide students with a distinctive advantage in career development.
Course Objectives This course will: 1. Integrate the various disciplines from the MBA program into a business entity opportunity/solution. Integrate the Daniels College of Business mission, themes and other concepts/theories/techniques and apply them in the business environment. Develop effective team and leadership skills. Facilitate the transition from the educational to the business environment. Increase self-awareness of personal, managerial, and business philosophies. Increase understanding of the major issues affecting a business enterprise. Provide opportunities to articulate ideas in a professional setting. Provide exposure to a business setting and possible employment opportunities.
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Course Methodology This course is a site-based practicum experience (field study) whereby students will gain an in-depth perspective of managerial and strategic processes within an organization. Students will participate in four person teams with which they will be involved throughout the course. Each team will be assigned to a business organization. During the course students will also attend workshops covering professionalism, proposal writing, and project management. These seminars are designed to help teams prepare a proposal and complete the assigned project. The project will culminate with a presentation and a written report. Project assignments are expected to be strategic in nature, that is, they should focus on issues that significantly impact the long-term direction of the business. Projects will emphasize the integration of issues from a multiple discipline/function perspective. The students will be required to utilize appropriate discipline knowledge and managerial skills to address a business opportunity or problem. Linkages between the external and internal environment will be stressed. Topics may include a new product or technology development; restructuring, relocating, expansion or downsizing; acquisitions, mergers or joint ventures; and other relevant issues. The final report should include detailed implementation plan for the business. Written reports and presentations will be evaluated by faculty team-advisors and business representatives.
Course Structure A. Pre-registration Activities 1. Course Administration and Business Participation Requirements Prior to the course, the faculty advisor will develop a roster of businesses that students can work with for their site-based projects. This does not involve students directly, unless they have submitted their own recommendation for consideration. Student requests must be in writing and the businesses must meet minimum requirements. These requirements include: Selected financial disclosure by the business; Access to selected official business documents; Consent from the business to allow a team of students to conduct on-site research; Active participation on the part of the top management of the business (or division) in providing access to key personnel/information; and Overall support of the project by the organization.
2. Faculty Advisors The faculty advisor will conduct scheduled class meetings, attend practice presentations and final presentations, and meet with each team as necessary. The advisor’s primary role is to provide guidance regarding data collection, analysis, report generation and client interactions.
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3. Team Formation Teams of four will be formed and assigned to a business. A conscious effort will be made to form heterogeneous teams so that students are not grouped by major or nationality. Students may request a team or specific business project provided the request is in writing and contains (1) a compelling reason for the request and (2) evidence of heterogeneity. Requests will be granted at the discretion of the faculty advisors. Team composition will not be altered after the beginning of the quarter, and students are not permitted to change their group assignment. B. Course Activities 1. Core Curriculum Assumptions External analysis. It is expected that students understand issues of product/market positioning; industry typologies; generic strategies; critical factors for success; economic, social political, ethical, regulatory/legal, technological, and competitive constraints affecting a business's decisions; inter-state and internal trade barriers; buyer-seller relationships; marketing and distribution networks; and corporate financial planning and reporting. Students will be required to collect information about (a) their assigned business, (b) the industry in which their business operates, (c) competitors, (d) existing and potential consumers, and (e) other relevant topics. Internal Analysis. It is expected that students understand issues of resource allocation; organizational culture and politics; quality and total quality management; innovation and creativity; diversity; ethics; functional skills and reporting mechanisms; human resources planning; logistics and operations management; accounting and financial management. It is expected that students have been exposed to managerial processes and corporate culture/diversity issues and to issues of operational processes, control mechanisms, and coordination issues primarily in the core MBA and advanced business management courses. Students are expected to understand what information they need from their business and how to use it in formulating and implementing a viable report. 2. Workshops A Proposal Development workshop will occur during the first few sessions to assist the team in writing a proposal to present to their client. Other discussions/workshops will cover material as it relates to the projects. 3. Interface with Client Organization Students are expected to conduct visits to their client in a professional manner and present a favorable image of The Daniels College of Business. It is imperative that students keep scheduled appointments and dress professionally.
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Course Requirements A. Proposal
Each team will prepare a proposal for approval by (a) the organization and (b) the course instructor. B. Written Reports
Each team will produce a cohesive, comprehensive written report that will consist of the following: A brief description of the client, its activities, mission statement, and stated goals and objectives. Analysis of critical and potential environmental factors that affect the client’s ability to remain (or become) competitive. Analysis of critical and potential internal skills and constraints that affect the client’s ability to attain management's goals and objectives. Recommended course of action--this is the team's recommendation for the client over the long (one to five years) term, with supporting rationale. In other words, the team must be able to defend its recommendations as congruent with the client's mission statement and strategic goals and objectives, feasible, and cost effective (and, in most cases, profitable, as shown by pro-forma statements). Implementation plan -- this is a detailed plan for implementing the recommendations, which includes the reallocation of resources, roles that the different managers and departments (or divisions) will play, a time-line for execution of each stage of the plan, and feedback and evaluation mechanisms. Reports will be evaluated both on content (quality and depth of analysis, soundness of plan, feasibility of implementation) and style (organization, clarity, grammar and sentence structure, spelling). Each report should contain a minimum of five major concepts from various courses in the Daniels graduate programs. In addition, each team should develop a press release that can be used by the client organization and DCB to promote the organization and the efforts of students in the Daniels College of Business.
C. Presentations Each team will conduct a practice presentation of its plan for the faculty advisors and students. This rehearsal must represent the quality of the presentation to be seen by the client. All class members must attend the practice presentations. A final presentation will be made to the client.
D. Evaluation of Teamwork The project analysis is an integral part of the class. All members of the class will be required to participate in a project. All members of a group will receive the same grade unless, through the
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peer evaluation, it is revealed that one member of the group did not contribute their portion of the work agreed upon. It is up to the group to make sure each member participates fully. If a member does not participate and the group has tried to deal with that person, the group has the right to come to the professor in charge of that group and work out an appropriate solution. This could mean that each person is responsible for one particular section of the paper, or the team member could be excluded from the team and from the project and therefore the grade. If this situation arises, members of the group must meet with the faculty supervisor no later than the fifth week of the class or earlier (the earlier the better). If it is determined that the person has not made an appropriate contribution he/she will have to complete another project alone, with NO LOAD REDUCTION OR EXTENSION OF TIME.
Peer evaluations must be turned in after the final presentation, but within six hours after such. Each team member should turn in their evaluations separately. If they are not turned in within six hours, students will loose that portion of their grade.
If one individual is having problems with the group, it is their responsibility to discuss the problem with the faculty supervisor. It is the intent of the course that all class members participate with a group. Individual projects are not encouraged because you must learn to succeed while working within a group. The message here is: MAKE IT WORK!!! Each team member will complete a Peer Performance Evaluation at the end of the course. It should be done after the client presentation and turned in within eight hours of such. E. Grading Course grades will be determined by evaluation of the following components. Written report and press release Faculty evaluations Consideration of client’s evaluation 40%
Copy of final written report and press release must be submitted to the instructor twenty-four hours prior to final presentation to client.
Proposal and final outlines Proposal development and presentation Completeness and value of outlines, schedules Presentation Faculty evaluation Consideration of client’s evaluation
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10%
20%
Attendance and participation Team meetings with instructor Class meetings Practice presentations Peer evaluations F. Additional Information
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10%
Course Grading. Grades can vary from ‘A” for exceptional performance to ‘F’ for failing. Prior Notification. If you know that you will be late or absent or not prepared for a particular class period, please contact the professor ahead of time via voice mail, e-mail, or in person. Prior notification is much appreciated. Presentation dates are critical and attendance is expected! Intellectual Honesty. It is the intent of the Daniels College of Business to operate in an atmosphere of intellectual honesty and behavior that would set the highest standards in the business community. (Please see our Handbook for details). Violations of our standards of honesty and of professional behavior may result in an ‘F’ in this course and a recommendation for dismissal from the Graduate School. Case and Project Presentations and Write-ups. Project and case write ups and presentations authored by other students or faculty in this or other sections, current or past, are not to be used in preparing your work. The reason for this prohibition is that it is very difficult to identify for each quarter new projects and/or cases to meet specific learning objectives. This is particularly true for situations requiring integrative cases. Therefore, to be fair to all those involved, current or past project and case write ups and presentations are strictly off limits. Such an infraction is considered to be a violation of our standards of honesty and professional behavior and may result in an ‘F’ in this course and a recommendation of dismissal from the Graduate School. If the client requests you to obtain primary data and other companies are contacted, you must state that you are working for the client in addition to informing them that you are a student in Daniels. Academic Honesty When Working in Teams. When working in a team on an assignment, it is perfectly acceptable to share confidential information with your fellow team members. However, unless the instructor specifies otherwise, it is not acceptable to share this confidential information with those outside your team. Such an infraction is considered to be a violation of our standards of honesty and professional behavior and may result in an ‘F’ in this course and a recommendation for dismissal from the Graduate School. Assumptions. The students will have completed their core MBA work prior to commencing this capstone course. The Integrative Challenge course serves as a bridge from the educational environment to the business environment. The cooperating organization is making a strong commitment to the project success and to the educational experience of the respective student group through attendance at meetings, providing
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information, giving feedback to students, paying for certain project expenses, and so forth. MBA 4270, Section 1 Integrative Challenge Winter 2007 M/W 12:00 to 1:50 pm Gordon Von Stroh WEEK 1 DATE January 3 DAY W TOPIC Course overview, client project assignments
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January 8 January 11 January 15 January 17 January 22 January 24 January 29 January 31 February 5 February 7 February 12 February 14 February 19 February 21 February 26 February 28 March 5 March 7 March 12
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Proposal Workshop/Meetings with client, team meeting Meetings with client, team meeting/instructor Martin Luther King University holiday Proposal, Preliminary outline and presentation to class Meeting with team Meetings with client, team meeting Final project outline due-presentation to class Meetings with client, team meeting Meeting with instructor/team meeting Meeting with client/team Meeting with class Meeting with team Meeting with instructor Meeting with team Practice presentations* Practice presentations* Presentation to clients Presentation to clients Presentation to clients
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Practice presentations are given to the entire class. Attendance and full participation by all students is required at all presentations. Please note that this is a part of your course grade. Course Protocol:
Please note quarter calendar dates for adding and dropping courses, the scheduled final exam time, and 8
for other related decisions. Refer to the university schedule for key dates that may affect your academic efforts at DU. Respect and dignity are paramount in the class. This concern for others should be a basic element with everyone. This includes comments made to others, how you listen to what others say, and an overall commitment to help others succeed. Students should extensively utilize resources available to them through the Business Section of Penrose Library, Daniels College of Business faculty, Internet sources, project experts and other related sources. Reading outside material will help you immensely as you do your course project. Ms. Esther Gil is the business librarian in Penrose for all Daniels students. She will be most happy to assist you. For email communications, you must use your DU email account. We will email you at your DU account. You are responsible for any information we provide in these communications. If you call the instructor and would like a return call, make sure that you use a local area code (303 or 720) for return calls. Daniels College of Business policy states that “No food is allowed in the classroom at any time. You may bring in only bottled water.” You are expected to be professionally courteous during class time. Please do not disrupt other students and their learning in any way. For example, please set your communication devices to silent or vibrate. Phone calls during class are not acceptable class protocol, are not consistent with professional demeanor and show disrespect to your colleagues. Likewise, computers should be on and be used only when asked by the instructor. You should not use class time to return emails, browse the WEB, or do assignments for other classes. Therefore, do not use class time to respond to emails, and other personal communications. Such shows a lack of respect for your colleagues. DCB Academic Integrity Code: The Code of Academic Integrity of the Daniels College of Business is binding on all students, staff, faculty, and administrators. The Code recognizes that the Daniels College’s culture is anchored in two linked concepts, the learning community and the just community. Our learning community seeks to foster a healthy spirit of competition and cooperation and recognizes that one complements the other…[T]he just community…work[s] in concert to develop humanity in the individuals and to preserve and nurture the culture of the community.
At the core of our community are certain bedrock principles. The Code…is the written expression of those shared ethical norms, standards and principles…[A]ll assume the obligation to protect the community and to not tolerate conduct which is inimical to the goals of the community. Deeply shared virtues that serve as guideposts for right action are prudence, trust, honesty, integrity, beneficence, civility, dependability and tolerance.
The full text of the Code provides guidance for its administration, reporting suspected violations, rights, hearings, appeals, etc. The full text of the code can be found at: http://www.dcb.du.edu/community/students/code/.htm The course is based on your using: 1. 2. 3. Your knowledge and experience, Your ability to relate to others and to understand how to lead and manage, And your ability to understand and conceptualize what it takes to produce an outstanding product/service or process to serve customers for sustained success.
Please discuss any of these topics with your instructor. If you have any concerns about the class, your efforts in the class or whatever the topic might be, Please visit with the instructor and every effort will be made for your experience to be a successful one for all. 9