Contemporary Business Strategies

 Project Objective To clearly define new, future-thinking opportunities for a chosen retailer. Opportunities should be defined in the areas of up-and-coming retail technology, sustainable practices, social media, and any other game changing current fashion industry best practices that you believe is relevant to your retailer’s future success. You will be deriving much of your research from our weekly Week-In-Review conversations and power points submitted to the Discussion Board on the above topics. It is important to note of what is posted by your fellow students on the Discussion Board each week, so that you have strong research for your Future Recommendations Report. All students will be able to use each other’s WIR sources for their individual papers. The purpose of this project is to equip you with the ability to problem-solve and utilize your critical thinking skills to provide forward-thinking recommendations for a company in the Industry that you may be interested in working for one day. Please note that the company you choose, will also be your “Primary” stock that you are trading for this course. You will be using the research from your stock market assignment to write the introduction for your paper Project Scope You have just been hired as a private business management consultant to advise the top-level management team of a chosen retailer. If you read the news and pay attention to NRF smartbriefs, you may have noticed that this retailer is in the news quite a bit, and not always in a good way! Your job will be to propose various strategies to improve sales and/or profitability to ensure your retailer’s long-term success. Your paper should convince the management team that your recommendations/solutions are the best possible actions to take to improve their business. Your research and recommendations will be structured along the following areas, which are aligned with your WIR presentations: 1) New and important retail technology that can benefit your retailer; 2) New and relevant sustainable practices that will help their carbon footprint; 3) The latest and most financially rewarding approaches to social media; and 4) Any other “Game Changing” best practices of competitive retailers that you may read about. Project Format Your Future Recommendations Report will most likely be between 12-15 pages in total. It will be a comprehensive, well-documented paper, written in a business report format with separate sub-headings (see below). You will be using in-text, Susan Spencer- CBS Online- 2.2.17 Page | 2 MLA citations throughout and will include a Works Cited page with a minimum of 15 sources. Images should be included to demonstrate specific recommendations, such as those for new technology or social media approaches. Your case study will be formatted as follows: 1. Title page 2. Table of Contents 3. Introduction: Where does your retailer currently sit? This should include: a. Last five year’s financial performance and current stock price b. An overview of where your retailer is sitting competitively in the marketplace c. What you perceive your retailer’s main problems to be 4. Thesis Statement Paragraph. This should include: a. A brief overview of what your recommendations are in the areas of technology, sustainable practices, social, and other game-changing best practices 5. The Body of your Analysis, including: a. Two relevant recommendations for new technology, based on WIR presentations b. Two relevant recommendations for new sustainable practices, based on WIR presentations c. Two relevant recommendations for new social media practices, based on WIR presentations d. Two relevant recommendations for other new best practices, based on successful competitive retailers, based on WIR presentations 6. Your Conclusion 7. Works Cited