Why do I have to do a Business Plan or ... - Walden University



Walden University MBA Program – Program Project FAQ

Directory of Questions

- Why do I have to develop a New Venture Business Plan or Comprehensive Business Analysis (Due Diligence / Consultancy) Report in the Walden MBA? 2

- What level of effort is needed to create a New Venture Business Plan or Due Diligence Report? 2

- What if I don’t know where to begin? What resources does Walden provide that will help me with my Program Project? 2

- What is a New Venture Business Plan? 2

- What is a Business Analysis (Due Diligence) Report? 3

- If I study and existing business, should I use its real name? 3

- If I study an existing business, what types of resources would I need and where would I find them? 4

- Should I create a (New Venture) Business Plan or complete a Comprehensive Business Analysis Plan (Due Diligence / Consultancy Report)? 4

- Do I need to get permission from the company if I choose to do a comprehensive business analysis (Due Diligence / Consultancy Report)? 5

- How is the Program Project (Business Plan or Comprehensive Business Analysis) different if I am designing a plan for a new venture versus writing a business analysis (consultancy report) for an already established company? 6

- If I want to start my own business, how do I protect my ideas? 6

- What types of evidence are usually required to establish proof that my idea is a good business idea? Where can I find resources or evidence that my idea has a place in the market? 7

- Can I change my mind if I don’t like the project I selected? 9

- Do I have to use APA style? 9

- What if I have Transfer Credit or a Waiver for a required course? Do I still need to complete that part of the project? 10

- What is the Program Project Rubric and how do I use it? 10

- What is the Program Tracker? Who fills it out? What goes in it? 11

- Why do I have to develop a New Venture Business Plan or Comprehensive Business Analysis (Due Diligence / Consultancy) Report in the Walden MBA?

The Walden MBA is designed in an integrated manner. The Program Project will enable you to apply what you learn during each core course into a project that replicates a bigger real-world scenario. The MBA program is designed to allow students to complete the components of the business plan incrementally. Each component is completed during the class related to the course enrollment. For example, the marketing section of the business plan is completed during the marketing course.

From an academic perspective, your program project provides a tangible deliverable that demonstrates the knowledge you have acquired during the MBA program. This project will provide you with a powerful example to show current or future employers the potential contribution you can make based on the skills and expertise you gained.

- What level of effort is needed to create a New Venture Business Plan or Due Diligence Report?

The Program Project will require you to work hard. a significant amount of research, analysis and writing is ahead. The good news is that you will be able to do this over the entire time you are in your M.B.A. program. Working on your Program project will push you to think through every aspect of your M.B.A. and your business.

- Can I use commercial business plan software or templates?

You should not use commercially available software or templates marketed to help entrepreneurs write business plans. While these serve a purpose to certain individuals in planning for a new business venture, they do not align with the specific goals and requirements in the M.B.A. core courses. The business plan, as defined in the M.B.A., aligns to content specific to each course and is intended to help you connect your learning to a major scholarly work you will create across the program. The results of your effort may be edited to a suitable document for seeking funding after you are done, but the outcomes of the project are somewhat different for the purposes of your graduate degree. You should be extremely careful to follow the directions and rubric in each course so that you are addressing the requirements for each course.

- What if I don’t know where to begin? What resources does Walden provide that will help me with my Program Project?

o Consider your own interests/career goals and explore potential businesses areas that align with your interests/career goals

o Email: MBAProgramProject@waldenu.edu with general questions (non-course specific)

o Email or use Ask the Instructor to consult with your course instructors for questions related specifically to each course

o Check the Grading Rubrics for the Project in each core course arefound under the Course Info tab.

o Use Walden’s Writing Center:

- What is a New Venture Business Plan?

A plan for a New Venture provides research and details about an idea or concept you think will make money and be successful. Your plan will give prospective investors the facts about your concept and ability to be successful. Your plan will also demonstrate how you think through the details and address potential risks or issues. Since your investors likely will not know you, it is important that they get a clear picture of your ability to deliver on your idea. Your plan will help you get other people interested in your business. Taking time to create a business plan demonstrates that you are serious about your concept. A business plan also demonstrates that you are a professional who understands what it takes to start and manage a business.

creating a business plan is necessary under two circumstances:

• External Legitimacy - If you are seeking outside financial support, investors expect to see a business plan. Further, consultants and government agencies may need to see your business plan. If you envision a potential partnership or joint venture, you will need a business plan.

• Internal Understanding – A Business Plan is also valuable in assisting you define all the aspects of the business clearly for yourself and other stakeholders. A Business Plan will enable everyone to understand the business in the same way.

- What is a Business Analysis (Due Diligence) Report?

A Business Analysis (Due Diligence) Report is a problem-driven comprehensive review of an existing business or organization where you will critically analyze its history, market value, and financial position and then make recommendations, based on your analysis, related to the ways the enterprise could make improvements that will resolve current problems and enhance its future success.

A Business Analysis (Due Diligence) Report is not a “book report.” Some of the common mistakes include these:

- Simply reviewing and re-stating the company’s vision, mission, business strategy, and financial positions based on materials provided by the company

- Conducting the analysis without a problem statement

- Failing to offer recommendations or offering recommendations without justifications

In order to avoid making the most common mistakes, you should adhere to the following guidelines:

- Provide greater analysis than simply reviewing and …

- Use a problem statement to conduct your analysis

- Offer recommendations with sufficient justifications.

- If I study and existing business, should I use its real name?

No, you should not use the organization’s name, nor should you provide specifics about its location that might identify the organization. This precaution is to protect you as you will be making recommendations related to the organization. You should plan to provide general location information such as “located in a major metropolitan area in the southern United States” rather than a specific city. You may choose to disclose benefits to the general location if it is important to your analysis.

- If I study an existing business, what types of resources would I need and where would I find them?

No proprietary, confidential, or otherwise internal information relating to a company and its performance that is not publicly available should be used in your work. It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not divulge this information. Generally, this type of information is available to senior executives or distributed to employees as confidential and for internal use only. Any information that is available on the Internet, reported by the media, or is considered public knowledge does not fall under this restriction. You may not interview individuals that work at the company or survey those employees. Do not assume you can use company resources such as email addresses, printing materials etc. for your project. If you work for the organization you are studying, check policies about doing work on company time or using company resources.

1) Company annual reports - Found on the company website

2) Financial statements – May be found on: company website, SEC (EDGAR) Website, or financial portals such as Yahoo! Finance

3) Organization charts - May be found on company website, Hoover, or financial portals such as Yahoo! Finance

4) Leadership biography - May be found on company website, Hoover, or financial portals such as Yahoo! Finance

5) Product and service offerings – May be found on company website, Hoover, Industry Analyst Websites such as Gartner or financial portals such as Yahoo! Finance

a. Business model, sales and marketing strategies – May be found on company website or financial portals such as Yahoo! Finance, industry analyst Websites, such as Gartner, investment banks

- Should I create a (New Venture) Business Plan or complete a Comprehensive Business Analysis Plan (Due Diligence / Consultancy Report)?

Both approaches have rewards and challenges.

A Business Plan for a new venture will give you the most opportunity to creatively and critically apply all of the concepts from each course because you are not restricted by the history of an established business. In many cases, you will be better able to apply your learning to a blank canvas. The challenge of a new business is that all the financial and market information needs to be created. Even so, students who select a new business often find the Program Project more manageable.

The alternative option is to perform a due diligence analysis on an existing business. If you choose this option, then you are expected to critically analyze all functions of a business, including leadership, organization culture, human resource strategies, sales and marketing plans, product and services, financial performance, market cap, etc. The goal is to develop a comprehensive business analysis report with potential problems and solutions identified. To achieve this goal, you must have access to the required documentation from the existing business. These documents include statement of incorporation, company vision and mission statements, organization charts, biography of the leadership team, annual reports and financial statements for the past three years. Because it is difficult to obtain such documents from a privately owned business, Walden strongly recommends choosing a publicly traded company that you are familiar with for the due diligence analysis. The benefit of working with an existing business for which you have in-depth knowledge is that you are able to critically evaluate its history and performance.

- Do I need to get permission from the company if I choose to do a comprehensive business analysis (Due Diligence / Consultancy Report)?

Permission is not required if it is a publicly traded company and all required documents are available to the public. However, we do encourage you to contact the company and let them know that you are working on such a MBA program project. You may be able to get more information from them and perhaps a tour of the company. You can contact the public relations or investor relations department of the company.

If you select a privately held company (NOT recommended), you should submit a letter of permission from the owner or project sponsor (a letter template is found at the following link: ).

The sponsor should hold a position of authority within the organization. The role (title) of the sponsor along with contact information should be included in the signature of the letter, and the letter should be written on company letterhead if available.

Your letter of permission should be emailed to your MMBA 6510 instructor and to MBAProgramProject@waldenu.edu by Week 6 of the first course in which you submit your project work. You should keep a copy of the letter for your records in case another instructor wants to see it.

If you want to use an existing privately held business, you should consider the following risks and disclose those to the owner/project sponsor prior to seeking permission:

• You may be required to disclose business-sensitive information (financial, marketing, strategy etc.) as part of the Program Project requirements, and you will be posting sections for peer review in the classroom. You are required to change the name of the company in all materials (including drafts shared with peers) to protect the information. In some cases, you may elect to maintain confidentiality by removing key pieces of data that might give away the organization’s identity or inappropriately divulge proprietary details. You should work with your instructors when these situations occur.

• You may be analyzing processes or culture within the organization and describing those and how you would recommend they be improved.

• You may not survey or systematically interview employees at the company. If at some point you wish to pursue interviews or surveys, you will need to follow the standard university procedures for obtaining prior approval from the Institutional Review Board. Collecting data from human subjects without IRB approval can result in dismissal from the program.

• Extreme care must be taken to ensure no proprietary, confidential or personal information is disclosed intentionally or unintentionally. Consult your instructor or MBAProgramProject@waldenu.edu if you have questions.

• Remember, if you switch companies, you will be required to rewrite the portions of the plan previously written.

- How is the Program Project (Business Plan or Comprehensive Business Analysis) different if I am designing a plan for a new venture versus writing a business analysis (consultancy report) for an already established company?

In the new venture (business) plan, you are designing the components from scratch with supporting evidence from credible resources based on your own investigation. On the other hand, if you are analyzing an established company, you will look at existing data for similar components to your report and provide recommendations about how to improve the performance of the organization.

For example, take the mission portion of a Business Plan. For a new venture, you would apply relevant and appropriate concepts and ideas for creating an original mission and vision statement, including a statement of principles that would help explain your business to potential funders, to potential customers and to future employees.

For an already established company, you will identify the mission of an already established company. After identifying it, you will critique it in light of existing business strategies and practices. The analysis may also include recommendations as to how the company could improve what they already have or bring existing strategies and practices into alignment with the stated mission and vision.

- If I want to start my own business, how do I protect my ideas?

Walden’s Student Code of Conduct requires that students behave in an ethical manner. Students who plagiarize ideas from other students jeopardize their academic standing at Walden. Please refer to the following link for a complete description of Walden’s expectations.



It is recommended that you protect your ideas ahead of time to the extent possible. If you have an idea/product that could be patented, copyrighted, or registered, it is actually quite inexpensive and quick to file for provisional patent protection and to legally establish a trademark or just openly declare a copyright to protect your ideas up front. You could, prior to commencing your project, obtain such provisional and explicit protections.

Second, you can discuss the benefits and value of any such legally covered products/ideas that you might be worried about sharing without necessarily providing intricate details as to “how” they work. (Think along the lines of Coke’s formula. You don’t need to reveal the formula, but you would have to be able to discuss why the formula is a good one and demonstrate its effectiveness in driving sales).

We recommend that you work with your instructor on use of potential proprietary or confidential information.

- What types of evidence are usually required to establish proof that my idea is a good business idea? Where can I find resources or evidence that my idea has a place in the market?

Following is a list of possible websites and resources that are commonly used for building businesscases; you should also consult the Walden library and other resources:

Entrepreneurship

U.S. Small Business Administration (Source for funding and business startups)



Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation (Education and entrepreneurship)



Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: Five-Year Strategic Direction and Strategic Plan 2005-2009



Entrepreneur (Source for business planning and ideas)



Business and Government Libraries and Resources

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development



University of Rochester: Business & Government Information Library



GPO Access: About the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)



List of Government and Public Libraries



The Business Library: List of U.S. Government Departments & Agencies Web Sites



The Business Library: List of International Government Web Sites



University at Buffalo: Government Documents Information



University of Central Florida: Business & Economic Information from Government Sources



Stanford Graduate School of Business: List of Business Web Sites and Government Information



Library Spot: List of Government Libraries



James J. Hill Reference Library



Plano Public Library System



Foundation Centers

Foundation Center (Centralized sources for foundation research)



Education and Leadership

S. H. Cowell Foundation (K-12 education, family resource centers, youth development, affordable housing)



The Wallace Foundation (Education leadership, arts participation and out-of-school learning)



Institute of Museum and Library Services (ILMS)



Social Change and Global Initiatives

Ford Foundation (Social justice, sustainable development, plus others)



W. K. Kellogg Foundation (Education and learning; food, health and well-being; and family economic security)



The San Francisco Foundation (Arts and culture, social justice, community health, education, environment)



- Can I change my mind if I don’t like the project I selected?

Yes, but you must do so before completing the MMBA 6530 Marketing course. If you change projects or topics, you will need to redo the sections of the paper that have been previously completed. It is not recommended that you change your project.

- Do I have to use APA style?

Yes. APA guidelines must be followed for the Program Project. No exceptions. There are many different writing style manuals and APA happens to be one of them. This is the style that Walden has decided to use. In most companies, there are standard formats that must be used when presenting information. This is the editorial style that Walden has decided to use.

1. Does use of APA mean that my Business Plan will only be a theoretical plan and not a practical plan that I can use?

No. Walden requires the APA format to ensure that your writing demonstrates a high level of critical thinking so that you can adapt to any specific formatting an organization or business requires of you. Many agencies require different formats for grants, loans, etc. Walden wants its students to have perfected their written expression to be adaptable to different writing requirements as necessary.

Moreover, Walden strives to produce graduates who are scholarly practitioners, which means your thinking and writing come from more than just your own opinion. A scholarly practitioner is one who not only practices his or her trade using past experience, training, and intuition to share his or her thoughts but also grounds and supports the direction of the trade by use of the literature that can be found in the relevant field. It is also important for the instructors who assess the components of your Program Project as well as end assessors to evaluate your critical thinking and accomplishment of the learning outcomes. Therefore, theory and accepted concepts in the field should be evidenced in your writing.

2. I was told this would be a Business Plan I could use to go to the bank, use with potential investors, etc. How can this be so if APA and the explanations are used? Even appendices and double spacing of papers may seem foreign when individuals review business plans.

In the Capstone course, the one exception to APA that will occur will be that you may single line space the final draft of your paper. All other APA criteria apply. Citing sources, providing appendices with support material, and all of the APA components can only enhance your Business Plan to investors, bankers, etc. when they are reviewing it. Following APA guidelines will show that you thoroughly researched and can support your assertions. Even if after you complete the program you feel the Business Plan is too formal in terms of APA for presenting to investors and others, you can remove some of the information and still have a solid Business Plan.

- What if I have Transfer Credit or a Waiver for a required course? Do I still need to complete that part of the project?

Yes. You can find the information detailing the project assignment and resources for each core course at the following weblink: . You may access and work on the project throughout your program.

- What is the Program Project Rubric and how do I use it?

In each M.B.A. core course (MMBA 6510, MMBA 6520, MMBA 6530, MMBA 6540, MMBA 6550, MMBA 6560, MMBA 6570, and MMBA 6780), you will find a rubric that your instructor will use to assess your work. You should download the rubric before you start writing and read through it. You will find in the rubric the description of the items your instructor will be looking for and the criteria by which you will be evaluated. Students are encouraged to use the rubric while they compose their work and critically assess their own work using the criteria specified in the rubric.

If you have questions about the criteria or rubric, you should consult your instructor.

Your instructor will completely fill out the rubric and return it to you in the grade book drop box with your course grade.

- What is the Program Tracker? Who fills it out? What goes in it?

Each M.B.A. student is responsible to maintain and submit a program project tracker document (MBA Program Project Feedback Tracker found at: ). After you receive feedback from your instructor once your Program Project submission is graded in each course, you are required to take the feedback you receive and copy it into the program project tracker to document.

You are encouraged to fill out the tracking document immediately after you receive your grade each term. If you are not clear on what your instructor’s feedback means, consult your instructor right away.

If your instructor has not provided qualitative feedback, you should open the grading rubric and look through the criteria that are marked. If you receive particularly high or low marks for items in the rubric, you should indicate those and the accompanying criteria in your tracking document. Synthesizing the rubric feedback is a critical piece of using the feedback your instructors provide. If you have questions specific to your grade, consult your instructor. If you have general questions about how to use the rubric results in your tracker document, email MBAProgramProject@waldenu.edu.

Keep a copy with a back-up so that you can submit it with your next project submission in the next course you take.

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