business plan essay

assignment 5: evaluation of business planning Theory & practice

During the Business Project module you have applied a wide range of professional techniques and academic frameworks in order to investigate, analyse and develop a business plan for a new mobile app.

The focus of this final assignment is on business planning in theory and practice. You will look back at the techniques and frameworks that you have used and evaluate their contribution to the development and refinement of your app idea and ultimately to the presentation of your business plan.

There are a number of key steps involved:

Identification of techniques, frameworks, theories that were used. In addition to principles of business planning, project management and virtual teams you will also have drawn on concepts and frameworks from all your other modules, for example, PESTEL, Tuckman, marketing mix…

Selecting the most interesting and/or useful techniques/frameworks:

1. Application – give examples and explain how you used the technique/framework in your team.
2. Results – what did you find out? How did the technique contribute to your business project?
3. Evaluation – How useful was the technique/framework you used in this context?

Conclusion – Which techniques/frameworks did you find most effective for the development of your business plan and for the organisation and management of your team? What would you do differently if you were to do the project again?

For this individual assignment you should prepare a short piece of written work (1000 words) reflecting on your experiences of working on the business project module this year.

We expect your work to be well written, structured and presented, using appropriate language and business terminology. We expect you to keep a clear focus on the issues under consideration and to illustrate your evaluation with practical examples from your project experience, and figures/diagrams where appropriate.

A full list of references (and optionally a bibliography) should be included in BBS Harvard style. Citations must be included in the text of your assignment wherever appropriate.

Total word count: 1000 words

Marks will be awarded for:

Drawing on relevant theoretical concepts in order to frame your evaluation and to demonstrate your understanding of business planning (30%)
Depth of evaluation and analysis of specific techniques/frameworks (30%)
Development of personal insights and conclusions (20%)
Citations and presentation: layout, references, use of English, structure & terminology (20%).

This assignment is worth 30% of the DB150 Business Project module.

Sources you will need to draw upon include:

Your marketing textbook

Your economics textbook

Your finance textbook

Your HR/OB textbook

Kugler L (2016) ‘Smartphone Apps for Good’, Communications of the ACM, Vol 59, p18-20.

Barrow C, Barrow P & Brown R (2015) The Business Plan Workbook, 8th edition, Kogan Page.

Blackwell, E. (2008) ‘Chapter 9: How not to write a business plan – or run a business’ In How to Prepare a Business Plan, 5th Edition, Kogan Page, p133-139.

Eriksson P & Kovalainen A (2011) ‘Chapter 12: Focus Group Research’ In Qualitative Methods in Business Research, Sage, London, p173-192.

Finch (2013) How to write a Business Plan, 4th Edition, Kogan Page.

Learn Higher (2012) ‘Ground rules for group work’, [Online] http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/working-with-others/group-work-working-with-others/ground-rules-for-group-work/ (accessed 14 July 2014).

Randolph WA & Posner BZ (1988) ‘What every manager needs to know about project management’, Sloan Management Review, Vol 29, No 4, p65-73.

Saunders M, Lewis P & Thornhill A (2012) ‘Chapter 12: Analysing Quantitative Data’ In Research Methods for Business Students, Sixth Edition, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, p472-543.

Siebdrat F, Hoegland M & Ernst H (2009) ‘How to manage virtual teams’, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol 50, No 4, p63-68.

Stutely R (2012) The Definitive Business Plan, 3rd Edition, Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Zheltoukhova K & Suckley L (2014) ‘Hands-on or hands-off: effective leadership and management in SMEs’, CIPD: Research Insight Report [Online] http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/research/effective-leadership-management-sme.aspx

Team member contributions

As part of this assignment, we also ask you to evaluate the contribution of other team members. You will quantify each person’s input to the overall business project. You should adopt an holistic approach that recognises the range of roles and skills required to create and present the business plan including the digital marketing campaign. Tutors will take this information into account when they determine individual marks for each student.

Please complete the following evaluation of team member contributions and include a copy of this form in your assignment.

EVALUATION OF TEAM MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS Please give your overall assessment of other group members’ contribution according to the project quality and to the functioning of the group.
Name of group member (do not include yourself)	Percentage of Value Added to the Group Project (average must = 100%, ie if there are three other members in your group the values must total 300. If 4 members, then total =400)




Comments: Where you have rated a team member particularly highly, please provide the reasons. Where you have awarded a lower score, please also briefly outline the reasons.
“I confirm that the above evaluations of individual contributions are accurate. They are based on my best recollection of actual events. They are not based on my personal views of or relationships with other members of my group”
Signature:	Date:

EXAMPLE

EVALUATION OF TEAM MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS Please give your overall assessment of other group members’ contribution according to the project quality and to the functioning of the group.
Name of group member (do not include yourself)	Percentage of Value Added to the Group Project (average must = 100%, ie if there are three other members in your group the values must total 300. If 4 members, then total =400)
John Smith	110%
Elise Jones	120%
Kaylie Johnson	80%
Paul Foster	90%
Comments: Where you have rated a team member particularly highly, please provide the reasons. Where you have awarded a lower score, please also briefly outline the reasons.
“I confirm that the above evaluations of individual contributions are accurate. They are based on my best recollection of actual events. They are not based on my personal views of or relationships with other members of my group”
Signature:	Date:

Submission instructions

Submission deadline: Midnight Friday 28 April 2017

An electronic copy should be submitted via studentcentral (DB150> Assignments> Assignment 5)

Feedback and marks will be available following the level 4 Exam Board.

DB150 BUSINESS PROJECT ASSIGNMENT 5