Students will be able to:
- Appraise various objectives and economic data needed for an industry analysis.
- Investigate the economic data in order to determine the competitive environment of an industry.
- Determine opportunities and risks within the economic analysis.
- Critique the economic decision-making process of organizations within an industry for alignment with the VBM.
Introduction
Understanding Step Three in PBL
Now that you know what question you need answered, have a good idea of the economic landscape, and have the essential data and information to address the question, you can move forward. As mentioned last week, a business problem can be tackled in several ways. Profits, for example, can be increased either by increasing revenue per unit, decreasing cost per unit, or a combination of the two.
Feel free to think outside the box. Economic analysis offers some solutions, but you can draw on others, such as asking for regulatory changes or developing a partnership with another company to work on technological enhancements.
Strategies and Solutions
If you have several solutions, rank them in order by how preferable they are. The standard for ranking is up to you—ease of implementation, likely effectiveness, monetary and opportunity cost of implementation, or any other criteria. You may want to assign each solution to a team member or group of members for further analysis and elaboration. What will it take to implement it? What resources do you have and what do you still need? What is the likely result of implementing the plan? How might competitors, regulators, suppliers, and customers respond?
As you compose this deliverable, consider the course learning objectives relating to risks, opportunities, and the VBM. Keep in mind that, in economic analysis, “risks” include both upside and downside risks. In other words, unexpectedly positive things can happen as well as bad things. Critically evaluate your proposals in light of an ethical approach to business.
The deliverable for this step is:
A proposal with the following elements:
- A description of each proposed solution with a discussion of how it addresses the problem statement.
- A ranking of the solutions. The criteria are up to you (by cost, effectiveness, probability of success, or any other standard). The criteria should be described and justified.
- A discussion of how a virtuous leader would approach the proposed solutions.
Instructions for Deliverable
As a team learning project, the individual’s participation in the processes of the team is as important as the product produced by the team. Therefore, it is very possible that team members will earn different scores for the assignment due to individual differences in the team process. It is important to understand that low performance in the team processes has a ripple effect on other students’ contributions to the development of the final paper and its quality. This grading approach provides the ethical principle of equity in the assignment’s grades.
- Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade. You can learn more about the specific skills being assessed by reviewing the links in Problem-Based Learning Resources (new tab).
- Remember to review the problem and the resources available on the Problem Overview (new tab)page.
- It is recommended that the team keep the end deliverables in mind. Therefore, it is a good idea to review the PBL deliveries’ rubrics in Workshops Four and Five to ensure that you will have appropriate knowledge base to complete your project.
- Meet as a team to ensure you have a shared understanding of the requirements for this step. As a team, use your PBL plan to outline how you will all meet the requirements individually and collectively.
- You are to use the PBL Team Forum discussion link for the development of your deliverable. This will give the professor opportunity to coach the team, if needed. If your team chooses to use another tool to develop your PBL deliverables, you must invite the professor to join your site.
- Conduct an analysis of potential solutions and develop a report that addresses the following elements:
- A description of each proposed solution with a discussion of how it addresses the problem statement.
- A ranking of the solutions. The criteria are up to you (by cost, effectiveness, probability of success, or any other standard). The criteria should be described and justified.
- A discussion of how a virtuous leader would approach the proposed solutions.
- The Analysis of Potential Solutions Report should be written in essay style using APA format.
- One person from the team must submit the deliverable per the schedule outlined in your Team PBL Plan but no later than the end of Workshop Four.