Business Analysis Paper Section I
BAP formatting guidelines
Section I Industry Analysis Guidelines
Industry Classification
This section requires that you first, identify the industry to which your company belongs. All of these are hospitality and tourism organizations so you must determine the specific segment. So Starbucks would belong to the multinational coffeehouse segment of the Food and Beverage sector of the Hospitality Industry. Section I for Starbucks would examine the three required sections to pertain to the Multinational Coffeehouse Industry.
It would be incorrect to identify Starbucks (for purposes of Section I of the BAP) a belonging to the Hospitality/Tourism Industry or the Food and Beverage Industry.
Define the structure of the industry segment and identify the dominant companies in this segment. Analysis would include their strengths and weaknesses. Documentation might include the relevant size of other multinational coffeehouses.
Size and Growth
For Starbucks……it is of the multinational coffeehouse segment. Not for the company you are studying (that will be presented in Section II Company Analysis).
Financial performance in this section deals with the industry segment and not your specific analysis company. How has the industry done in recent years and what are the projections for the future. How has COVID-19 impacted the finances of the industry segment?
The Value Line publication analysis is a good source for this type of information as are trade publications that are devoted to the specific industry.
This is another opportunity to use a chart (placed in the appendix) to show financial performance of the industry over multiple years. Do not deal with quarters but focus on annual performance as this should be a broad macro perspective.
Government Regulations
This is to be written for the specific industry segment within hospitality/tourism What are the important government regulations that the industry are forced to implement.
Obviously, the pandemic is currently impacting all hospitality and tourism segments. A brief general description of how your industry segment is impacted would be appropriate.
Some of you are studying companies whose segments may be currently nonoperational. In those situations, you would discuss government regulations that were in effect in January 2020.
Students always want to know expected length for written assignments. For this reason, single spaced page estimates are provided for each section of the BAP giving you an idea of the depth of analysis required for each. These are minimums.
This first section would be 2 single spaced pages individual/ 3.5 for partner papers.
Format Guidelines
The paper should be in APA format except where indicated below.
Contents include Title Page, Table of Contents, Section I, Section II, Section III, References, Appendices.
-A required table of contents for your paper will be posted which aligns directly with the rubric used to (in addition to the guidelines for each section) evaluate your BAP.
Make sure you include all elements as indicated in the rubric (including documentation in the appendix where required) to receive maximum points.
-Do not integrate tables, charts and graphs or other forms of documentation within the body of the paper. This information goes in the required Appendix and should be referenced in the body of the paper as Appendix A, B, etc. as per APA guidelines: the first appendix you refer to in the body of the text is Appendix A, the second is Appendix B and so forth.
-All information in both the body of the paper and the appendix require appropriate citations. All sources used must be listed on the reference page.
Since sections I and II are heavily based on researched data/documentation these should appear as required. Section III is your own analysis of the material in sections I and II so citations should not be included as this is solely your own thoughts and words.
References and the use of citations as per APA are critical and required should be included in at the end of the paper (not as footnotes as the bottom of the page).
-If you are unclear about references, citations, use of quotations, APA format and/or plagiarism please see
owl.english.purdue.edu and/or FIU library
It is fully your responsibility to submit a paper with appropriate citations and no plagiarism. See FIU Code of Conduct.
-All papers must be submitted to turnitin through Canvas as a word document and contain no more than 5% matching text, most will have zero. This is not a research paper but an analysis of the information that you researched. Your appendices must be fully cited.
Even with zero % on turnitin.com you will need a fully cited paper.
-Font Size is -Times New Roman 12. Pages should have ½” margins on the side with 1” margins top and bottom.
Single spaced.
Questions…please message me…. don’t guess or ask a classmate.
Guidelines Section II
Business Analysis Paper
Section II Industry Analysis
SECTION II COMPANY ANALYSIS
This section provides the key analysis of your company (this is not a research paper).
The estimated length of this section is 10 single spaced pages individual author papers and 15 single spaced pages partner author papers. These should meet the requirements for formatting found in Section I Guidelines. The length requirements are your indication of depth of analysis in order to adequately cover the information requested in the Table of Contents.
Supporting materials (data/documentation to support your analysis) are in addition to these length suggestions. They are included only in the appendix of your BAP.
An appendix is mandatory in a BAP as they serve as the foundation for the analysis.
The required section for Section II are as follows
- Company Profile (Note: similar information is requested in Section I but this time it is asking for analysis of your Company as opposed to the Industry segment to which your company belongs.)
Industry Classification
2. Size and Growth
3. Company Profitability - Factors affecting Profitability
b. Product segmentation - Degree of company concentration
- Price factors
***Pre-submission requirement** to this point
- Company Vision; Mission; Guiding Principles chapter 2 {remember Discussion 4 on FIU’s mission}
- External Environment Evaluation chapter 3 {using Porter’s Five Forces}
- Threat of New Entry
- Power of Suppliers
- Power of Customers
- Threat of Substitutes
- Intensity of Rivalry
-Documentation in the appendix. Analysis in your own words in body of the paper.
- Identification of Differentiators chapter 5
- Analysis of Internal Environment chapter 4 {using SWOT}
-Documentation in the appendix. Analysis in your own words in body of the paper.
- Competitive Analysis chapter 6
- Value Chain Analysis
- Rivalry Analysis
- Financial Analysis {this should contain a significant analysis of the data requested on the rubric}
Data/tables/documentation in the appendix.
Analysis in your own words in the body of the paper.
Please review the rubric as that indicates the specifics of what you will be evaluated upon.
The only tools I use for evaluation is the BAP Rubric and the Guidelines.
Business Analysis Paper RXU Section III
SECTION III ANALYSIS Problem Identification, Resolution and Recommendations
This is the final section of your paper and is based on the analysis you have prepared in Sections I and II of this paper.
It must include the sections outlined below. The length of this section is minimum of 3 single spaced pages for individual papers; 4.5 pages for partner papers.
Note: All companies have been impacted by COVID so unless you identified in the body of the paper how COVID directly and specifically impacted your company this would be considered a generic problem related to the industry.
This is your feedback to the executive team of the company you have been studying and analyzing this term.
What you write in this section must logically follow from previously presented information. This is not the time to introduce new information. It should not contain footnotes as this is all written by you from your perspective.
You should not be providing ideas by others here, but only your own thoughts.
Please review the rubric for specifics on how this section will be evaluated.
Make sure you include all required information.
Please note that this is a key section of your paper and as such is given a significant amount of points as per rubric.
- Problem Identification 3.5 points
Follows from the analysis in Section I and II…based upon my analysis these are the
Problems that are occurring in XXX Company. Not generic industry problems.
1.
2.
3.
Each problem should include a narrative of explanation of why this is a problem based upon Section II analysis.
- Generation of Alternatives for Problem Resolution 3.5 points
For each of the problems identified what alternatives are there for resolving that problem?
Each alternative should include a narrative of each resolution.
(See rubric for how many resolutions you should identify for each problem)
Problem 1.
Resolution A
Resolution B
And so on…..
- Strategic Recommendations 3.5 points
What are you overall recommendations for the company?
This is based Overall upon Section II and Section III Problem Identification and Section III Alternatives for Problem Resolution.
This is not where you add new information or data.
Recommendation I
Recommendation II
Recommendation III