Absolutely No Plagiarism and Original Work Only
For this project, you and your team will be responsible for creating a document (in Microsoft Word) and delivering a presentation (using Microsoft PowerPoint; with audio content) that together detail the Year #1 performance of your LINKS Services Marketing Simulation firm and outline your Year #2 plans for the firm. In your report of the Year #1 performance of your firm, it is important that you discuss the service design, service operations, marketing, forecasting, IT, and other decisions you made through the year (on a quarterly basis; e.g., service introductions, service deletions, service level changes, etc.) and, as much as you can, the results[1] of those decisions. To report on the results of the decisions you made throughout Year #1, it would be very useful for you to specifically refer to the financial and operating reports and research studies that are generated for you throughout the simulation.
To communicate your Year #2 plans for the firm, it is important that you indicate the strategic direction you and your team plan for the firm. Although you can elect to use other frameworks, you may find Ansoff’s strategic framework[2] a useful one for indicating your intended strategic direction for Year #2. When discussing your intended strategic direction, please try to be as specific as possible. It would also be helpful to include a discussion of how you would like to differentiate[3] and competitively position your firm for Year #2. (PowerPoint Presentation: 4-5 Slides reflecting paper)
You should also create a tactical plan that could be used to achieve your strategic goals and desired competitive position for Year #2. It is important that you address your strategic directions in this section in behavioral, action-oriented terms. Topics to include in your tactical plan may include service introductions, service deletions, branding, plans for building strong customer relationships, service guarantees, human resources policies, and plans for additional marketing research, although the specific composition of your tactical plan should really be tailored to the nature of your Year #2 strategic direction intention. In any case, your tactical plan (and strategic direction statement) must be persuasive and executable and should reflect the topics we are looking at in this course.
Your presentation should serve as a summary of your document and, as such, should very clearly be structured in terms of the main topics of your document (namely, Year #1 report, Year #2 strategic direction, and Year #2 tactical plan). Unless there is a compelling reason for you not being able to do so, I would enjoy hearing your voice recorded over the slides so that, when I run the presentation, I can hear you delivering the content of your presentation. Please let me know if you require technical assistance for this requirement.
[1] In terms of customer, operational, and financial outcomes.
[2] See Figure 8.2 (p. 228) of your textbook.
[3] Unless differentiation is not your intended strategy.
