Analyzing Industry Data

Our company advertises thousands of products online. We believe we know a lot about our consumers and target consumer base, but we need to look beyond the buyer and examine our industry. We would like to collaborate with students to identify key market trends and assist in our go-forward plans. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Familiarizing themselves with our products, target market, and industry. Analyzing growth trends, stagnation patterns and decline analytics. Identifying areas of promising innovation and areas that are slowing down. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Recommending strategies to best position our company.

Competitive Analysis

Our company has been serving thousands of customers for decades. We want to better understand how our target audience perceives our brand and competitors. This will help us develop clarity on our competitive advantages and optimize our marketing strategy. We would like to collaborate with students to conduct a competitive analysis of our business. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Familiarizing themselves with our company, products, and target market. Identifying current and potential future competitors. Creating a matrix identifying features that are similar and different between companies. Summarizing our competitive advantages and disadvantages relative to the competition identified. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Recommending how our company can differentiate itself through products / services and messaging.

Ecological Packaging Research

Our company values sustainability and is looking to shift our packaging to be biodegradable or fully recyclable. We are looking for assistance in sourcing new packaging for each of our products: Research new and more ecologically friendly packaging and ways to package our products, which can include new packaging including mailers, boxes, stickers, etc. Create recommendations on the best ways to package our product. Creating an improved label design including a symbol to indicate that it is biodegradable/recyclable. *CHANGE CRITERIA AS REQUIRED* The following outlines criteria we hope to meet with our new packaging. Fully recyclable or biodegradable Hot fillable at 90º-95º celsius Fridge and freezer storable Attractive/ visually appealing Costs a maximum of $0.15 Pre-labeled Lightweight for shipping Able to order approximately 100k units annually

Health & Wellness Program Implementation

Our company has hundreds of employees with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We would like to implement a formalized health and wellness program to elevate their overall well-being. However, we do not have an adequate understanding of what types of initiatives will be valuable to our employees. We would like to collaborate with students to gain an understanding of what components should be included and the implementation strategies available. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Analyzing data from employee interviews and surveys. Researching current trends in corporate health and wellness. Developing a realistic health and wellness program. Providing metrics to justify the implementation of the program. Recommending steps to implement the program within our company. Revising and improving the proposed program based on feedback.

Lean Startup Business Strategy Development

Our team has noticed that our product development and operational processes are not as efficient as they have the potential to be. We want to simplify these processes to make them more “lean” in order to make them less costly and more adaptable to customer feedback at a fast pace. In this project, students will focus on evaluating our operations and identifying internal issues that are causing processes to be too timely or costly. Mapping out operational processes using Business Process Model Notation and notation (BPMN), and evaluating each step and the resources it consumes. Identifying bottlenecks in our operational processes. Researching solutions to each unique problem identified in the mapping process. Creating a proposal with recommendations for improvements and an implementation plan for how we would incorporate the solutions. Creating a second BPMN model of operational processes with the proposed solution(s).

Marketing Plan

Our company advertises thousands of products online. We hope to revamp our marketing strategy to attract more customers. We want students to help us build a marketing plan to grow and engage our target market. This will involve several different steps for the students, including: Familiarizing themselves with our current marketing goals and strategies. Researching how customers perceive our brand and marketing. Recommending new channels we should use for promotion. Identifying an appropriate budget for advertising. Bonus steps in the process would also include: Recommending updates to our messaging that can better explain our value proposition.

Market Validation Study

We are looking to gain a better understanding of our target market to make sure there is a need and demand for our product. This will allow us to determine if we are targeting the right segments to be as profitable as possible. We hope to ensure that we are offering the appropriate elective benefits and using our marketing budget in the most effective ways. Tasks: Assess the size of our market with metrics such as sales data and number of manufacturers, and compare them to the size of our customer base to determine our market share and how many potential customers we could obtain. Analyze our current offerings and the positioning of our brand. Create a survey and interview questions for empirical interviews to be conducted by our company’s management to gain feedback on our brand, products, and services. Analyze survey and interview results to create recommendations on how to improve our positioning, branding and products/services.

Reducing Employee Turnover

In recent years, managers of our company have observed a decrease in the life cycle of our employees. Previously, individuals progressed through one or more roles within the organization over 2-5 years before leaving and moving onto new organizations. However, we are unable to pinpoint the exact reason for this. Tasks include: Conducting research on current human resources and workforce trends to determine common reasons people are leaving their jobs today. Formulate (number) strategies to reduce turnover in the company based on the common reasons for turnover that were found in the research stage. Decide on the best strategy based on its predicted effectiveness, cost effectiveness, and the logistics of putting the strategy in action. Students will create a report detailing their research findings, as well as an implementation plan for each strategy they explored.

Redesigning a Human Resources Performance Evaluation

As our organization grows, it is important to stay up to date with the industry’s evolving human resources practices to manage our employees effectively. In this project, students will design a preliminary model of a new performance evaluation system that emphasizes our company goals, and draws a focus to our main challenges that staff are facing. Tasks include: Speaking to current employees and management to determine the needs and challenges of our organization for a performance management system. Researching performance management options that may suit the needs of our team, focusing on measurability and reliability. Establishing a rollout plan that outlines how our organization will transition to using a new performance management system. Using a weighted decision matrix to decide on a method based on factors such as efficiency, user-friendliness, measurability, reliability, and cost- effectiveness.

Organization Structure Configuration for Growth

Our organization is anticipating a large amount of growth in the next five years. To make sure we continue to operate with a high level of efficiency, we need to have the right people in the right places. With your help, we hope to modify our current organizational structure in a way that best manages our growth priorities. Tasks may include: Research our existing structure and personnel needs using our organizational chart and speaking to employees. Generate a projection for personnel needs in the next five years using quantitative and qualitative assessments. Conduct a gap analysis for the skills and positions that will be needed in the next five years. Develop a proposal for a reconfiguration of our current organizational structure including research, the gap analysis, an updated organization chart, and proposed solutions. Create an updated organizational chart according to recommendations.