ACCG301 Group Research Report | Session 1, 2017 GROUP RESEARCH REPORT REQUIREMENTS DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Faculty of Business and EconomicsACCG301 Group Research Report Group Research Report Requirements 2 Students will be allocated to groups of five members, with each group being assigned a Foleo entity by their Tutor in Week 3. Each group will be required to submit a comprehensive business proposal for their assigned business unit or the parent company, which will support Foleo’s corporate-level strategy for expansion. To complete this task students are expected to conduct their own research into their assigned entity’s specific industry as well as the academic literature. Students should also research all released Case Study chapters along with the in-class materials for relevant information regarding their assigned Business Unit and/or the company as a whole. NB: Each Foleo entity will have a different market and students need to research the real world’s relevant industry and academic literature to produce a viable proposal for their assigned business unit or the parent company. Therefore, each proposal must be supported by references to at least one academic journal in addition to other reliable sources of information. Each business proposal should follow the prescribed “Strategy for Growth” and include all the requirements outlined in the relevant “Scope of Proposal” for the assigned Foleo entity. Proposals are expected to be presented as a formal report to the Board, and as such, should comply with the following structure: i. Title Page; ii. Abstract / Executive Summary; iii. Table of Contents; iv. Introduction; v. Body; vi. Conclusion and Recommendation; vii. Appendices; viii. List of References. Proposals must be: x no more than twelve (12) pages in length, including tables, figures and appendices, but excluding title page, table of contents and references; x presented in Times New Roman font size 12; x presented with 2.5 cm margins and 1.5 line spacing; x comprehensive and to the point - excessive verbosity, lack of precision or otherwise poor writing skill will affect the grade. Each proposal will receive a mark out of 20, which will be converted to the weighting for this assessment item (i.e. 10%). This grade will be available to all group members according to their agreed participation %. Each submission will be assessed based on the criteria contained on the Coversheet found on iLearn. One electronic version of each group’s proposal (excluding the coverpage) must be submitted to Turnitin (plagiarism detection software) via the provided link on the Unit’s iLearn website BEFORE students’ registered tutorial in Week 11. Students are required to submit a hard copy of the Originality Report generated from Turnitin attached to a completed coversheet to their Tutors at the beginning of the Week 11 tutorial. Late submissions will be penalised at 25% per day and submissions will not be accepted after the Turnitin link is deactivated at the end of Week 11. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will be penalised, so it is in student’s best interests to submit their own original work. Please note that only one submission per group is permitted, so members within groups must agree on who will submit their proposal. In the Week 7 tutorial, groups are required to submit a Group Progress Report which must address the following 6 criteria: 1. The product/service/initiative your group is suggested to support the growth strategy; 2. The ‘real-life’ company you have selected to support your group’s proposal; 3. Completeness status of the group report; 4. Number of meetings held between the group members, 5. Individual contributions of members up to the end of Week 7,ACCG301 Group Research Report Group Research Report Requirements 3 6. Your strategies and plans that are to be followed in order to complete the report until the submission date. Submission of this report is mandatory and failure to submit will impact the final grade awarded to the group’s proposal. Each group will be assigned one of the assignments below to write the report. 1 – Assignment Foleo Fones Assume your group has been engaged by Foleo Group Limited as a team of consultants. At your initial meeting with the Board, your team has been asked to propose a strategy that will expand the current operations of the Foleo Fones business unit. This project will require the team to suggest the introduction of a new product, service or business that will achieve growth for the business unit and ultimately, the organisation as a whole. It will involve research into the specific industry in which Foleo Fones competes, in addition to an examination of its current operations. The Board of Foleo Group Limited have provided the following parameters for your research and proposal: Strategy for Growth – EITHER related diversification OR vertical integration Scope of Proposal: The business proposal must contain the following elements: x The actual strategy being proposed; x An analysis of the external environment of Foleo Group Limited using Porter’s 5- Forces Model (NB: each force examined should relate to the Foleo Fones business unit’s specific circumstances, eg. it should analyse the bargaining power of Foleo Fones’ buyers, etc.); x An explanation of how the proposed expansion strategy aligns with the current goals and strategies of the organisation. This explanation should include: i. an identification of the corporate mission and objectives of Foleo Group Limited, and ii. an identification of the current generic competitive strategy of Foleo Fones. x Evidence that the proposed strategy will be viable for Foleo Fones. This section should include: i. an explained example of a relevant ‘real-life’ company that have introduced a similar growth strategy as that being proposed; ii. reference to at least one academic journal that supports the strategy being proposed. x An analysis of any potential ethical implications and the likely impact of the proposed strategy on all Foleo stakeholders; x An explanation of how performance will be measured – specific measures should be presented in a Balanced Scorecard and examples of useful/appropriate reports should also be suggested.