Business Capstone Project Proposal – 1000 words
This subject enables students to demonstrate their ability to think strategically and apply the concepts and tools learned in the course to a setting of their choice. Students will apply investigative and specialised knowledge to that setting. The subject requires application of concepts, theories and knowledge to the development of management practice in a given context. Students will work under the auspices of an academic supervisor as they prepare a project that has real-world consequences, one that will make an impact on the profession in their chosen community or sphere of influence. The project is to be practical- or research based and to contribute to theory or practice.
Choosing your capstone project/topic can be a daunting task. Often that is because you cannot see a clear path to the end of the project. For example, if you choose to help an underperforming company set a new direction to sustainability, you usually have no clue what new direction you may end up with, though sometimes you may have a vague idea. That is fine. To put it in other words, there is no point doing a capstone project whose outcome you knew even before you crafted the project proposal. If you could write the final project report and present your recommendations without collecting or analysing any data, then you are not busy with a suitable business capstone project idea. It must be a journey of searching and discovery. In short, that uncomfortable and uncertainty feeling that comes with a business capstone project is fine, part of the deal and no need to panic.
there is an option to do your own practical business capstone project, where you may focus on developing and implementing your own business idea or solution. At the end of the day, whichever practical capstone project option you choose, it is all about contributing to something new or different to practice. Whether your business capstone is a practical-based or research-based project, it comes down to applying MBA knowledge to a specific and real-life issue/problem. The project can take the form of finding a solution to a problem, developing and marketing a product, charting a new direction for a company, etc.
To carry out a successful business capstone you need to have some appreciation of research methods. The guiding compass of any project is its purpose/goal. What you want to achieve dictates the way the project will be done. Let us take an example of a project to investigate the poor financial performance of a company. That entails that you must determine what elements constitute and affect financial performance of a company, then collect information/data on those elements. For example, financial statements and financial decisions made can provide data for analyzing financial performance of a company. Keep in mind that secondary data is the data type most suitable for the Business Capstone Project.
Tools for data analysis
It is best to have some systematic approach to the way you analyse data. At its simplest, analysis is all about breaking down an issue/phenomenon into its components to understand more about it. It is about observing patterns, trends, differences, similarities, shapes, sizes, etc.Below is a list of some of the tools you may have come across during your MBA or other studies. The list is by no means exhaustive.
4Ps analysis
7Ps analysis
Ansoff matrix
Balanced Scorecard
Benchmarking
Career Mapping
Cause and effect analysis (Fishbone)
Competitive strength assessment
Content analysis
Cost-benefit analysis
Cost-effectiveness analysis
Customer analysis
Critical path analysis
Descriptive statistics (averages, standard deviation, correlation, range, variance…)
Market research
Needs Analysis
Opportunity analysis
Perceptual mapping
Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal (PESTEL) analysis
Porters five forces analysis
Porters generic strategies
Ratio analysis
Root cause analysis
Scenario analysis
Sensitivity analysis
Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) Analysis
Stakeholder mapping
Strategic diagram
Strategy Maps (similar to Cause and Effect)
Supply chain operations reference model (SCOR)
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis
Thematic analysis
Trends analysis
Value chain analysis
Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Organisation/Non-substitutable (VRIO/VRIN) analysis
Workforce Analysis
Choosing a tool or tools for analysis is an important decision. Avoid falling into the lure of using the ‘easiest’ tools for analysis. Even worse, do not try to use as many of the tools as you can. The toolsyou choose should be suitable and adequate to achieve the purpose of the project.
The ‘ability to think strategically’ and ‘to apply investigative and specialised knowledge’ are some of the phrases used to describe the business capstone. These phrases suggest a certain level of complexity of the project. For example, it is not a good idea to have a project which simply describes what happened in certain company. For example, it may be very interesting to describe how Qantas survived the GFC, but that alone is far from adequate for the business capstone project. Sometimes projects are too simplistic because the student is trying to do what you could call the ‘bare minimum approach’. The student may try to do only that which is enough to pass. That attitude is not very compatible with the business capstone project thinking. The business capstone project is more about applying as much effort as possible rather than as little as possible.
Project Proposal Structure
1. Background to the topic, significance and research problem
2. Research aims and questions
3. Review of literature
4. Study/project design
5. Timeline
6. Expected outcomes/impact
7. Reference ( at least 10 references)
(You must read the details of the following link which include more information about how to write all those above topics)
https://www.monash.edu/rlo/graduate-research-writing/write-the-thesis/writing-a-research-proposal)
(avoid the usual project about common companies such as Woolworths, Apple, Google, Qantas etc.)
You must send me your Project proposal idea and the name of the company and tools you are going to use (refer above tools for data analysis) first. Please find a company in Australia. Please send me three different ideas for three different business companies and the tools you apply, then I will select one for you to complete the proposal) Small-medium size company is fine.
Remember you need to find a real world company and its any issue you wish to discuss as the next step of this assessment is to complete the final project. So you need to find that company’s and its competitor’s etc. real data, reports in order to analyse the project.
The following list of project ideas is designed to help you quickly settle down on a suitable project idea. The list is not exhaustive, i.e. you may identify a project idea outside this list as long as it is a business project idea.
Strategic management
• Strategy evaluation – critically evaluating an existing business strategy
• Strategy formulation – applying the strategy formulation process to develop a strategy for a business
• Strategy implementation/execution – develop implementation plan for an existing strategy
• Analysis of external and its impact on the internal environment
• Competitive strength analysis – a weighted comparative analysis
Marketing
• Evaluation of customer issues (customer engagement, customer retention, customer satisfaction, etc)
• Evaluation or development of market entry strategies
• Market entry strategy implementation
• Studying market segmentation, positioning and targeting
• Evaluation of branding strategies
• Implementation or evaluation of market exit strategies
3. Finance/Corporate Governance
• Evaluation of financial performance and structures
• Stock trading, share prices, securities and related instruments
• Evaluating corporate governance structures, compliances and performances
Finance/Corporate Governance
• Evaluation of financial performance and structures
• Stock trading, share prices, securities and related instruments
• Evaluating corporate governance structures, compliances and performances
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