case study: Marissa Mayer, former Vice President of Google Product Search, left the company in 2012 to become the CEO of Yahoo! At that time, the stock sold for $15.74. It sold for $29.77 in January

Case Study Requirements

Each case is worth 50/1000 points (5% of course grade)

The following is the REQUIRED format for your case study papers. While you will also be taking a series of objective tests, these course projects are considered the most important grades of the course.

The following are the minimum case study requirements:

Each case study MUST consist of at least four pages (no more than five).

Cover page (one page) - A 10-point penalty will be deducted from the case study grade if any of the following information is not included:

• Your name (Please don’t make me guess your identity)

• Date

• Name of course

• The case study name

For your case study paper, include the following components in your finalized submittal in the following order and use them as Section Headings (USING BOLD TYPE) for formatting your submittal. (Use the italicized terms below as your section headings). Then write your paper in complete sentences in third person voice using a narrative writing style.

NOTE: This is a written business case study. Therefore, proper spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. are REQUIRED. This is not a series of text or Twitter messages!

Content Pages (2-3 pages: a minimum of 750 words but no more than 1000 words of content).

1. Provide an Executive Summary of the case by summarizing your report- not the case itself. Must be clear and concise and be at least one paragraph. NOTE: This will be the last section written when preparing your case study.

1. Identify the Statement of Immediate (obvious) Problem (s) (your company’s issues) including the root cause of the immediate problem, and the secondary problem(s) that may not be solved when immediate problem is solved.

1. Describe your company’s Situation (SWOT) Analysis by explaining at least three items for each element:

a) Strengths

b) Weaknesses

c) Opportunities

d) Threats

4. Described how the four management functions (planning, organizing, leading & controlling)

would help address this case.

5. Provide an Action Plan for this case including how to prevent a future similar occurrence. Must include what should be done by whom, why it should be done and how it should be done. Should include a contingency plan should problems arise.

References (on last page of paper): Minimum of three but no more than 5 quality sources. (5 points as part of the Grammar grade) Note: This is your original work. Therefore, a maximum of 20% of your case study submittal can be direct quotes or paraphrasing another’s work. A one-point penalty for each percentage point above the 20% maximum will be assessed. Five-point penalty if correct APA format is not followed.

GRAMMAR REQUIREMENTS

• Document MUST be left justified in a portrait format.

• Black (no other color!) 12-point Times New Roman typeface only. (Five (5) point penalty for each page submitted with any color other than black).

• No background color on any page is acceptable. A five (5) point penalty will assessed for each page that contains a background color.

• Write in third person voice (he, she, it, the company, etc.) only. Do not use first person (I, we, and us) or second person (you, them) voice.

• Your content MUST be broken into paragraphs. The first line of all paragraphs should be indented. Whole blocks of type are not acceptable. A 5-point penalty per page submitted with no paragraphs.

• Numbers 10 or larger, type the number. Less than 10, type the word (one, two, etc.)

• Financial figures are to be written as $50 (not fifty dollars); $1,500 (not one thousand, five hundred dollars); $1M (not one million dollars); $3.2B (not three billion, two hundred million dollars).

• Never end your sentence with a preposition like ‘to, from, by, with, between, before, after or during’. (E.g. The company could not have anticipated where the threat came from.)

• Always use italics for the name of a source (magazine, book or newspaper title) e.g. Wall St. Journal.

• NEVER use the words ‘sticking’ (instead use ‘placing’ or ‘inserting’ the product into the market); ‘everyone’ (no product appeals to/or is used by everyone-ever!), ‘stocks’ (it is ‘stock’) or ‘came up with’ (use ‘developed’).

• Always capitalize the first letter of proper names.

• When you attach your project to the online drop box, use SINGLE MS Word file or PDF attachment IN THE ORDER YOU WANT IT PRINTED AND READ. No multiple MS Word or PDF file attachments will be accepted. (10-point penalty per attachment for multiple documents submission).

• Always include page numbers on the top right corner of each page.

• Text MUST be double spaced. A 5-point penalty per page not double spaced.

• It is REQUIRED that you follow the APA style of writing.

HOW YOUR PAPER WILL BE GRADED:

It is YOUR responsibility to follow ALL the Case Study Requirements. If you choose not to follow the specific requirements and choose to write about another assignment, you have failed this case study.

All Case Studies MUST be submitted in the designated course assignment area.

It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that your document is MS Word compatible or PDF. RTF and WP files are NOT compatible.

If I cannot open your attached file, your document is late.

Any paper submitted after the deadline will be penalized 10 points per day.

No case study will be accepted five days or more past the published deadline. Case studies submitted past this point earn a 0 for that case study grade.

See next page for specific details (Rubric)