MN20032 E-Business: 2013-2014 (Semester 1)

Individual Assignment Brief

Your assignment should be handed into the School office no later than
15:00 on 28th November 2013.
The Brief
The purpose of this unit is to provide students with knowledge and expertise
with which to evaluate the business opportunities and challenges that are
present as a result of the massive technological changes of recent years. This
assignment is a very practical application of those aims.
The brief is unapologetically very wide. You are required to write an executive
summary of a business strategy document. Your idea can be anything you like
but you must put yourself into the position of leading the company through its
launch. You may choose to:
Start up a new company.
Propose a new division of an existing firm.
Re-launch an existing company.
At risk of stating the blindingly obvious, given the nature of the unit, your
business should primarily exist in a digital space (at least from a market
perspective). If you think your idea operates at the boundaries of this definition,
feel free to speak to me.
Some of you may be considering yourself as a budding entrepreneur and be
tempted to use any existing ideas you may have for this assignment. This is fine,
but no promise can be made to keep the idea confidential. While there is no
specific need for your idea to become public, markers and external examiners
will have access to the paper and it will be stored according to normal university
rules. Marks will not be awarded based on the assessors view of the quality of
your idea; this assignment is designed to evaluate your understanding of key eBusiness principles which are covered in the lectures.
It is not necessary to consider financial plans or return on investment in detail.
Students may choose to provide a short summary of financial projections, but
note that there is no specific marking criterion for this activity. Only add
financials if you think they help to convince the reader of the feasibility of your
idea and its value proposition. Non-finance students should be clear that
credibility can be achieved in other ways too (see the link to interviews with
venture capitalists on Moodle).
Equally, non-marketing students are not at a disadvantage. The requirements
for the promotional plan are important, but demonstration of understanding
only of those elements covered in this unit is required. However, the best CEOs
are all-rounders and need to show a good understanding of market dynamics if
they are to be convincing with investors and other stakeholders.
If your idea is highly technical, you must find a way of communicating it in a realworld way that does not exclude a non-technical audience (which describes the
majority of investors).
Dr Chris Archer-Brown

2nd October 2013

MN20032 E-Business: 2013-2014 (Semester 1)

Individual Assignment Brief

Your executive summary should not exceed 2,000 words and it is recommended
that you focus on creating a clear picture of:

Your business idea (including the product or service you propose to

launch). This is often referred to as the elevator pitch.
The market need that your proposition meets.
Your target audience.
What methods you will use to reach it (in other words; your promotional
plan).
How you will manage your customer operations profitably (Making sales;
Fulfilment; Customer service).
How you will generate, sustain and grow value for the investors.

Feel free to choose a commercial entity, a non-profit or a community interest

company (CIC) the principles are broadly the same in this context.

Poor

Marking Grid

Outstanding

While this is a very practical assignment, students should take advantage of the
insight gained from the academic sources suggested in the unit. Demonstration
of students understanding of a minimum of five academic articles is required.
Please remember the normal rules for citations and referencing your word
count of 2,000 excludes references and tables.

The business idea is presented clearly and

concisely and is pitched at key stakeholders.
The value to investors is unambiguous and
credible.
The paper highlights the market need that the
business fulfils.
A plausible promotional plan is included to
attract, engage and acquire new customers.
Plans are established for customer operations
that are appropriate to the business idea.
The sources of sustained competitive
advantage are presented and justified.
The paper is presented professionally, taking
note of grammar and typographical accuracy.
Clear evidence of wide reading from high
quality academic and practitioner sources.

Dr Chris Archer-Brown

2nd October 2013

MN20032 E-Business: 2013-2014 (Semester 1)

Individual Assignment Brief

To reiterate:
The perceived quality of the business idea itself is not a component of the
marking grid.
Students ability to present a detailed spreadsheet showing the projected
costs, cashflows and profits of the business are not core to this
assignment.
The marking grid primarily focuses on the students ability to apply their
learning from scholarly material and the experience of others gained from
analysis and discussion of case studies. You are well advised to make
these links clear in the paper through short references to these examples.
Finally, remember that you are asked to produce the executive summary of a
strategy document that aims to convince key stakeholders of the efficacy of your
idea.
For those launching a new business you need to consider: investors;
potential partners; and future employees.
For those presenting an internal business case for investment, the
audience is slightly different; the directors of the existing firm will be as
interested in how your idea affects their existing proposition as they are
in your new one.
Formative Assessment
You have the option to participate in a formative evaluation in the period
between Week 5 (e-Commerce) and Week 6 (Assignment Workshop). Students
who submit a brief outline of their assignment before 17:00 on Wednesday 30th
October will receive specific feedback by email before the assignment workshop
on 6th November.
Your outline should not exceed 300 words. I recommend that you cover the
topics in the bullet points at the top of page 2 of this brief: idea; unmet need;
target market; promotions; customer operations; value to investors. I do not
expect these to be fully-formed at this stage if you can only cover one or two of
the topics, please make that clear and if you have any specific questions you want
me to comment on, please add them (but, they should be counted in the 300
word limit).
Depending on the number of students who take this opportunity, I may provide
an overview of the feedback as an introduction to the workshop in week 6. If
only a small number of students choose to participate, the feedback is unlikely to
be representative for the group, so an overview will not be given.
No marks will be given and this exercise will not count towards your summative
assessment. This is simply an opportunity for you to seek reassurance that you
are on the right track and for me to ensure that I have communicated the
requirements clearly and that I have covered the relevant topics appropriately.
~end~
Dr Chris Archer-Brown

2nd October 2013