Video Critique

Page 1 of 9 COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY SPRING 2017 (First 7 -Week Session) MANA 5360 – 70X - Global Business Perspectives (Online Accelerated MBA) COUNTRY SEMINAR ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS V. 1.3 – January 23 , 2017 All requirements in this document are MANDATORY and should be understood as an integral part of th e course syllabus , as expressed there, and of the course’s rules and requirements. OVERVIEW: For the purpose of this “Country Seminar” assignment, imagine your group has been given a task by your employer, a multinational corporation with operations all over the world, to gather and organize information . It will be in the form of a SHORT 15 -MINUTE VIDEO PRESENTATION and a 4-page WRITTEN /GRAPHICAL SNAPSHOT SUMMARY about ONE specific country and its comparison with the USA . The organization is considering doing business in the assigned country. It will use your information to determine that feasibility. Each group must have between FOUR and FIVE people. Some teams may have f ewer , depending on the class size. If drop outs occur, adjustments will be made. Teams will be composed by self -enrollment, as instructed in Blackboard. Be sure to get with your team as soon as possible (use Blackboard to initiate communication with assigned team mates and from there use any means you agree on for ongoing communication ). From previous semesters, there are a few exemplary projects submitted. They will be provided in Blackboard under the Team Assignments tab for you to review . We only p icked exemplary materials from teams that knew NOTHING of video editing when they got started, and they did it all with plain hard work and effort. PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND CONTEXT: The learning objective of this assignment is to make sure all course participants: a. Collect structured and longitudinal (meaning data over time, not just a single year of data – see example below ) PESTEL 1 data on any country in the world, using only publicly available sources (t he latest data point must be the most RECENT data available ) 1 PESTEL = Political, Economic. Socio -Cultural, Technological, Environmental, and Legal, environments, of a given country or region. More on PESTEL can be found on the VIDEO LECTURES for Chapter 2 (Political Economy) that your instructor included in Blackboard. Page 2 of 9 Longitudinal graph example : b. Include comparison data in all data graphs for BOTH the assigned country AND the US c. Produce a compelling, interesting, and professional, presentation about the country’s PESTEL, utiliz ing the free video editing tools available online (i.e. Camtasia, Movie Maker, etc.) d. INTERPRET what the data tells us (tell the story) in terms of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, that any given country presents to international business managers and companies thinking of entering the country as a foreign market or investment site The country seminar involves a two -part assignment: 1. Part One: A 4-page SNAPSHOT 2 (summary) of the country’s PESTEL context (including Culture), including references . It must be uploaded as a PDF file into the discussion board your team will be provided with at the time of presentation . 2. Part Two: A VIDEO, NO MORE THAN 15 minutes , that your t eam members ha ve to produce themselves . It must be upload ed as a URL into Blackboard’s discussion board assigned to the team 3. After you upload the summary and the video, several other student groups that have been assigned your Group to comment on will have about a week to comment on it, make suggestions, etc. Your team should participate in that debate, ask for clarification on specific suggestions, and so forth. By the end of the week, your team must have reco rded or copied ALL comments in the discussion board, as it will be closed after the deadline for commentators to post their suggestions to you 4. 2 “Snapshot” is just another name we give to the PDF Country Summary. Do not unde rstand this has to do with a “Snapshot” app or software that is out there. You are NOT to use or download such app. 3 That means you need to (a) create the video in a computer; (b) then upload it into a service such as YouTube, which will give you a public ly available link (URL); and (c) finally post that URL into the Blackboard’s discussion board you were assigned to. 4 Please note that, at the same time that your team will receive comments from several other groups on your posted work, your group will act as a commentator of other groups it was assigned to. So please make sure you plan ahead of time for that busy time of the course for your group. Page 3 of 9 The following week, email your professor or Coach and setup a time and a date to conference or to Zoom with your team mates and him . The purpose is to agree on what should be revised or not based on (a) the comments made by the class, (b) your own reflections, and (c) the professor’s (or coach’s) own feed -back and suggestions . You will have until the date determined in the schedule (usually a week before the end of the course ) to revise and re -submit your work, both video and summary. A specific link for that will be available in the course’s Blackboard under Assignments/Team Assignments. COACHES AND GROUP SUPPORT : Every group that has been finalized, has a country assignment confirmed, and has been sanctioned as course -ready by the instructor will be assigned a COACH to support them through the entire process. Please not however that such support to the group is c ontingent on all students in it being timely in their course assignments and in good standing in UT and in the course. Therefore, if any student is in default, his or her entire group may have last priority in coach support. It is th entire group’s respon sibility to require all their members to be in good standing in the course, in order to avoid delays and lapses in service to the group. Every effort will be made to have coaches assigned prior to the start of classes, but this depends on groups being fas t to organize and to finish country designations, and on external parties hiring such coaches. As soon as those coaches are designated, your instructor will let you know via blackboard and a “Coaches” tab will be visible in the course’s blackboard.

Please be patient until that happens. No use in contacting the instructor about this before the coach announcement is out. All assignment -related questions should be directed to coaches once they are assigned, but we REQUIRE YOU TO COPY THE INSTRUCTOR ( [email protected] ) IN ALL COACH COMMUNICATIONS, to make sure he is on the loop and can assist as necessary. If there is a need to escalate an issue to the instructor, the coach will communicate with the instructor direc tly and you will be notified afterwards. PROJECT STEPS: 1. Complete the Group’s Designation by the deadline (see schedule). Failure to do so on time will result in the instructor randomly assigning you to a group at a later date . To complete the Group’s designation, do the following: a. if you know do NOT know anybody else to work with, simply enroll (in Blackboard, under the Groups tab) in any Group you want (beware that some groups may be waiting for a specific person to enroll and they may ask you not to enroll in their Group without permission or an invite) b. If you DO know other people you want to work with: organize yourselves so that EACH ONE goes and enrolls in the same Group number you all agreed on. If you do not want other people to enroll wit hout an invite, write an observation about it when you enroll. c. When the team gets 5 people enrolled, your instructor or coach will finalize it and let you all know about it. From that point onward you will be able to see the links under the Assignments /Team Assignments tab. Page 4 of 9 d. If you want your Group to be finalized with only 4 members, after they have all enrolled, let your instructor/coach know, and they will finalize the group and let you through. DO NOT EMAIL your team preferences to your instructor or coach . It all must be done via blackboard to be valid. 2. Complete Country Designation Assignment by the dealine (see schedule) . Failure to do so on time will result in the instructor randomly assigning your group a country. Once your group has been finalized (by the instructor, which you will know when receiving an email about it), all of your team mates will be able to see the links under the Assignments/Team Assignments tab. You will not be able to see anything under the Te am Assignments tab until the Group is finalized by your instructor or coach . Then each finalized Group will then choose and submit (using the “Country Designation Assignment” under the Ass ignments/Team Assignments tab) their top 5 countries in order of pr eference. The countries will be chosen from the top 70 trade partners of the US listed below per the 2015 census data (source: https://www.census.gov/foreign - trade/Press -Release/2016pr/10/exh4as.pdf ). Avoid Taiwan, or any other country, for which there is not enough publicly available data for. It is best if you have a ranked list of country preferences, as your designated country will be a first come, first serve, kind of self -appointment. DO NOT EMAIL your preferences to your instructor or coach. It a ll must be done via blackboard to be valid. And before you can choose a country, your team needs to have been designated and finalized through blackboard. By the established date in the schedule, the instructor will publish in Blackboard the assigned count ries for each team. 3. Work on and Prepare the C ountry Seminar Snapshot Summary and Video in the Required Format Specified Below: SNAP SHOT SUMMARY:  Should be used in conjunction with the video. No problem at all to use the same exact graphs in both Snapshot and video (actually, that makes a lot of sense, start with the graphs). After watching the video, viewers should use the summary to compare key elements of the PESTEL conte xt with the same var iables used in the video . We are NOT looking for many written elements. It should be mostly comprised of graphs, charts, and visuals. Use text only to highlight an issue in a graph or for tables . When used , text should be limited to just a couple of words (no long phrases ).  Maximum of 4 pages (Think of it as a collection of for example 24 boxe s of content: imagine divid ing each page once vertically, and twice horizontally. You would end up with 6 boxes per page . Hence, you would have 24 boxes total). Some people fit more (up to 36) and are successful, but they must make sure it is all visible and in HD (high definition).  It is recommend ed you divide the “boxes” mentioned above among the KEY and most comparable information on the PESTEL framework (see next page for required and recommended PESTEL variables to include) . It must be in th e PESTEL order [start with the P (political), move on to the E (Economic), and so on ].  Each topic selected by the team should get a boxed area and perhaps some get a merge of two boxes (such as culture) . Page 5 of 9  Make sure the subjects FLOW using the PESTEL structure. Do not go back and forth between subjects.  Make sure your pages are titled with your country’s name and that each box has a bold title (“Rule of Law”, “Populati on”, etc.)  In the snapshot AND also in the video, consider using section dividers (“POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT”, then “ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT”, etc.), so your audience knows you are changing subjects  Make sure all graphs and tables present LONGITUDINAL data (meaning data over time, not just a single year of data – see example on page 2 ), that the latest data point is the most RECENT available , and that all graphs and data tables include comparison data for both the assigned country AND the US.  Where poss ible, create all graphs and tables from scratch so they will be legible. It is unlikely you will find online ready -made graphs with all the required information. You can and SHOULD create your own using Excel . The objective of the assignment is to make sur e you can find the data in publicly available sites, collect the data, and organize it in meaningful and LONGITUDINAL graphs. No sense in using other people’s graphs and tables .  Make sure ALL external content is properly APA referenced  Use the “exemplary examples” from past courses that were published in Blackboard as reference material 5  It may be a good idea to prepare the snapshot first, creating from scratch all graphs and tables, and then use them in the video .  Make sure ALL PESTE L sections (me aning Pol itical, E conomic, etc) are included, and that within each section , the main elements are included (the list in next page should help to understand what is minimally required and what is not) .  Howev er, even if all sections must be covered , do understand that they should not be evenly divided: in a typical P ESTEL presentation, the P ES (Political, Economic and Socio -Cultural Sections) represent about 70% of the content, whereas the TEL (Technology , Environmental and Legal sections ) represent the remaining 30%. Please remember this when dividing the time and space for each section in your finished report or video 5 Use ALL examples from past courses to inspire you. Do not simply follow the one with the same country as yours. And not only one, as none is perfect, and you will get a better idea by following what is best from each one. Page 6 of 9  Use the PESTEL topics below to fill all the slots or “boxes” . Please pay special attention to the columns below as it denotes those that are mandatory, highly recommended, and encouraged : PESTEL SECTION Mandatory (minimum required) Highly desirable Encouraged if space/ time permits (intro)  Cover (names, UT, course, etc.)  Location/Geography  Population & demographics (Race/Gender/Age distributions) Political  Political System  Political Freedom  Corruption  Rule of Law  Political Stability Economical  Economic System  Economy’s size and growth (Total GNI at PPP and GNI/capita at PPP)  Economic Freedom  HDI (Human Development Indicators)  FDI (inward and outward flows and stocks)  Historic Foreign Exchange Instability (use a 3 rd country to compare country’s currency vs. US$)  Trade Evolution (changes over time in level of barriers, main partners ad products inbound and outbound 6)  Inflation  Economic Instability Socio -Cultural  Education (for example, use PISA numbers)  Languages  Religions  Cultural Data (at least Hofstede data – located in the cultural data folder in Blackboard \Other Class Materials) 7.   Social structure and diversity Technological  Investments in R&D as % of GDP/Technological production differentials  Number of patents overtime  Number of scientific papers overtim e  Innovation indexes Environmental  Environmental Performance Index (EPI) over time Legal  Legal System  Intellectual property protection (including data on trademarks/patents/copyrights protection levels over time) SWOT  Country SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis References  References and sources actually used (APA format, URLs, etc.) VIDEO PRESENTATION :  Should be about doing BUSINESS in that country. Do not make it like a tourist video or a Nat ion al Geographic video. Make it as if a potential investor in the country were watching it to determine the investment feasibility . DO NOT take a pro - or against -country perspective, be neutral, just present the facts, the pros and cons, and assume your audie nce is qualified to make the decision. Do not assume your job is to “sell” this country to your audience . 6 Do not merely concentrate on the trade exchange between your country and the US, but rather of each of the 2 countries with the world 7 Trompenaars cultural variables are NOT required in this edition of the course, so please concentrate on Hofstede’s variables and data. Page 7 of 9  Make it interesting , not boring. Your investor should NOT be bored to death. Make sure you view the exemplary videos I left for you in Blackboard. They did well in past semesters.  Make sure you use VIDEO OVERLAYS (better than video inserts) throughout your video, as a means to keep it interesting and dynamic.  Video Content Recommendations: o Overall, keep text to a minimum. Graphs and tables with few words works better.

Use the graphs and tables you created for the snapshot. For example, when you mention FREEDOM use a side by side Freedom House comparison graph between your country and the US instead of using a lot of text. o Add one or two small bullet points highlighting the main differences you want to emphasize on that subject. You can use text overlays to make such words fade in and out at the exact time they are needed for retention. Sever al bullets can be substituted by graphs. Remember you don't want the audience distracted by too much text, they need to LISTEN to you . o Context should be depicted as visually as possible. However, do not only display data or graphs – TELL THE STORY by interpreting the data (i.e. W hat STORY is the graph telling us?, What factors have affected the data over time?, etc.). Do not just read the data out to your audience . o Avoid simply having audio over a still image at all costs. That is a sure way to mak e a dull and boring video. And hard to edit and improve later. Again, use video overlays as much as possible. o If any image is still in your video for more than 5 or 7 seconds, it will bore your audience. Do something to change it somehow. Graphical anno tations (such a circle, or arrow, that moves in the slide showing what you are talking about, tend to help) o The worst possible idea is to simply record voice over still Powerpoint slides. Remember: make it DYNAMIC. Check the examples and you will have a b etter idea o Consider interviewing someone from that country and then spreading the interview segments throughout the entire video – do not use more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time from the interview. Do not insert pieces of an interviewee rambling about something, cut the video to the critical parts. o Be sure to include all of the charts and graphs used in the snapshot summary. o Camtasia is a great video editing system to use, and a 30 -day trial version is available for free online. See the Tips document for more information. If your free trial forces you to have a water logo in your video, do not worry: this is not a video editing class. Do not, under any circumstances, assume you should purchase this or any other software due to this assignment .  Flow and References o Make sure the s tructure and flow follow the PESTEL order . o ALWAYS include the references . You can do it in each picture or slide, or you can have a list of credits at the end  Other specific requirements and suggestions: o The maximum length allowed is 15 minutes. There is n o minimum length. o All students on the team need to participate and ALL MUST BE HEARD AND/OR SEEN 8. 8 If a documented disability disallows someone to be heard or seen, have the student inform your instructor, and that Page 8 of 9 o The students do not need to physically meet to do this assignment . All but about 2 or 3 in the last few years have done this completely remotely, from all parts of the world. That is why we are asking for a video presentation, so you can prepare and stitch together pieces made by different people in different places. o Use CURRENT DATA in your presentation, NOT opinions or hearsay. Get the data from the sites I indicate to you in the lectures (World Bank, Freedom House, Transparency International, Hofstede’s site, etc. ). Indexmundi and such places are ok, as long as the data is CURRENT . Old data will hurt your grade . o Make all data you do include is COMPARATIVE to the US and LONGITUDINAL . o Make sure your cover page state s who you are and the purpose of this video presentation. o Include a country SWOT analysis . They can be very helpful as a wrap up at the end of the video . o You can and should use third party videos , as long as you reference them and only include short segments. For example, you can find a video on You Tube and download it with savefrom.net . After that, you can simply edit it and take a short segment of it. 4. SUBMIT YOUR TEAM’S WORK : a. To submit the assignment , you must upload your video onto You Tube and copy the URL into the Blackboard discussion post (NOTE this should be done in the PUBLIC discussion board , the one all students can see, not in your own group’s private discussion board) . Students must be able to follow that URL and watch your presentation as you wanted them to, without having to sign up for anything. b. Embed or attach your country snapshot as a PDF file in the same post . c. Your instructor will make a discussion board available to your team when the date scheduled for your presentation arrives . d. Copy the video URL and upload the PDF ONLY in your team’ s discussion board. Nowhere else. Information on Sources, Standards and Citations There are many sources at the library and on the Internet. You are REQUIRED to use several secondary AND primary sources, such as interviews with people familiar with that country. Regarding secondary sources, some interesting official sources are:  http://data.worldbank.org  http://www.imf.org/external/ns/cs.aspx?id=28  http://www.principalglobalindicators.org/Pages/Default.aspx  http://www.commerce.gov http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html  http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/index.html  http://censtats.cen sus.gov/sitc/sitc.shtml Other very good and almost ESSENTIAL unofficial sources are:  https://www.transparency.org  https://freedomhouse.org/ would not be a problem. Page 9 of 9  http://www.heritage.org/issues/economic -freedom  www.govindicators.org  http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI  http://www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/statistics.htm  https://geert -hofstede.com/  http://archive.epi.yale.edu/epi/data -explorer  https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/  http://internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world -factbook/index.html  http://globaledge.msu.edu/global -insights/by/country  http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english.html  http://www.embassy.org Many other sources, not listed above, can and should be used. You need to cite each source. Your final upload should provide bibliography that includes all sources for the project. Failure to provi de a bibliography section and detail will result in an automatic failing grade for the project. Also keep in mind that plagiarism on this project or anywhere else in the class will result in a failure of the course by the student. All written work is expected to include citations of the referenced work. Failure to cite sources will result in an F for the project or assignment. For the proper format of citations, please follow the American Psychological Association Publication Manual. For electronic cit ations, please go to http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html . For citing interviews and other primary data, please also follow APA. As mentioned before , I am also requiring that you use primary data . Primary data is information that you have compiled yourself. For instance, an interview with someone who has done business in that country or is familiar with business in that country would be considered primary data. You will need to interview somebody from outside the project group, and also cite this interview properly within your project. Your team may decide the most effective way that you think your research should be conveyed through in the country seminar . Be creative! By the time “fellow employees” are finished going through your uploaded video seminar, they should have a good understanding of the basic business environment of the country, as well as the cultural and political economy/trade barriers and nuances of doing international business in that countr y.