Business Report for IBM Management Paper
ANSWER
Title Page: Include the publicly-traded company name, logo, date, class name, student name, and instructor name.
Table of Contents: List all the sections and sub-sections of your report with corresponding page numbers.
Executive Summary: Write a concise summary of your entire paper, highlighting key points. This should be done after completing all other sections.
Company History: Provide a brief overview of the company’s founding, major events in its history, and its current status.
Company Overview: Describe the company’s core business activities, revenue generation methods, industry, global presence, customer base, and headquarters.
Key Product Lines and Competition: Discuss 2-5 of the company’s most important product lines and their main competitors. Provide significant detail about each product line and its competition.
Marketing Analysis: Evaluate the company’s marketing strategy, covering both traditional methods (advertising, PR, promotions) and social media efforts. Include comparisons of social media metrics with competitors.
Marketing Research: Explain the survey you conducted related to your company. Detail your survey methodology, number of participants, and how you collected responses. Analyze interesting trends from survey results.
Financial Information: Create a stock chart comparing the company, competitors, and overall market for the past 5 years. Include a visual aid with profit and revenue data. Describe the stock chart and analyze trends.
Recent Events: Summarize two to three recent events involving the company and explain their impact. Provide in-text citations and references for these events.
Strategic Recommendations: Offer realistic, bold recommendations for changes or new initiatives the company’s CEO could undertake over the next 3 years. Ensure recommendations are based on research.
Works Cited or References: Use MLA or APA style for both in-text citations and a references page. Ensure proper citation for every source you’ve used in your report.
Appendix: Include a SWOT analysis sourced from MarketLine or another reliable source. Add a copy of your survey questionnaire. Provide captions indicating where you found the SWOT analysis.
Additional Tips:
- Choose a Publicly-Traded Company: Ensure your chosen company is publicly-traded, as this is necessary for the financial analysis section.
- Thorough Research: Use various sources like the company’s annual 10-K report, MarketLine Report, official website, news articles, and more to gather information.
- Cite Sources: Properly cite all your sources, both within the text and in the references section. Plagiarism can have serious consequences.
- Visual Aids: Incorporate relevant visual aids like charts, graphs, and tables to enhance your report’s clarity and impact.
- Proofreading: Edit and proofread your report carefully to ensure it’s free from grammar and spelling errors.
- Consult Resources: Make use of the “help” documents and guidelines provided by your instructor in Chapter 13 | Modules for specific aspects of the report.
- Incorporate Feedback: If possible, share drafts of your report with peers or instructors to get feedback before submitting the final version.
QUESTION
Description
The final project, which includes an individual paper and an individual, 5-minute verbal presentation, is an opportunity for you to take what you have learned this semester and apply it to a company you are interested in. To be clear, you need to choose a publicly-traded company to report on for this Business Report assignment.
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.
Please engage with Chapter 12 Research and Business Proposals and Planning for Business Reports, and Chapter 13 Completing Business Proposals, in your Cardon textbook, as preparation for every aspect of this written assignment.
Formatting
The paper should be double-spaced with 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins.
Paper Submission & Due Date
Please submit the final paper in our Canvas course shell, under Assignments | Business Report by the date specified on the syllabus.
Grading
Business Report—130 Points
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, and you must cite your sources. Your instructor will use Turnitin to check paper originality. This software is built into our Canvas shell. 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.
Approval
You must obtain an approval from me, for your choice of company, for this business report, before you start work on your Work Plan.
Paper Structure | Outline for Work Plan Assignment
Title Page– Include publicly-traded Company name, logo, date, class name, student name, and instructor name
Table of Contents
Executive Summary– 1-Page Max
Summarize your entire paper and make sure to include key points. Write after all sections are complete.
Company History– 1 Page
Likely this will take about a 1 page or more. Focus on the founding, major events in the company’s history and end with details about the company today.
Company Overview-1 page
A brief description of the publically-traded company. What does the company do? How do they generate revenue? What industry are they in? Where are they located—in the U.S. and/or globally? 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
Present and focus on the most important product lines at the company and the competitors for each. Do not include long lists but include, with significant detail, 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.
This should be based on your observations, go to their website, their social media marketing pages and maybe even search YouTube for the company’s commercials. You could also attempt to secure an interview with an employee of your chosen company
Marketing Research– 1 Page Conduct survey and analyze results.
You will choose your own survey topic that pertains to your company. Is the company rolling out a new product? Perhaps you create a 2-5 question survey around that. Think of a survey that works for your particular company. See the PDF, here under Chapter 13 | Modules about how to setup your survey with Surveymonkey. Write one paragraph about your survey methodology (Did you use an online survey or another way? 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 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 Table.
You will create a stock chart 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 here in Chapter 13 | Modules. 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 included in the caption below you are giving credit and mentioning where you found it. This section should start with the stock chart a few paragraphs describing it, then one or two visual aids with revenue and profit and include a few paragraphs describing the tends and maybe 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 in cite these both in-text and in the references or works cited page.
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.
Works Cited or References–
Use MLA or APA Style (6th edition Publication Manual) for a citations page at the end and in-text citations are required as well. Please utilize visual aids within the body of the report (stock analysis chart, revenue and profit tables, etc.) and ensure that you 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 6 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 where you secured this from.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The depth and scope of this report is required for all sections of Bus 32 at Santa Monica College.
I’ve added “help” documents for the different requirements and aspects of the report under Chapter 13 | Modules, just below The Business Report Assignment (this document). For example, there’s a “How to get to the MarketLine Report” for your company, and “How to find the Revenue and Profit” for your chosen company as well.
Don’t forget that you need to choose a public traded company so you can do the financial section with the stock chart. By choosing a publicly traded company, you’ll find it’s far easier to find the information you need for this section of the report. If you’re unsure if the company is traded publicly, do a Google search or navigate to Yahoo Finance, and see if the company name comes up there.