Private and Confidential. For X-Culture use only. Updated August 22, 2018 2018-1a Challenge Presented by: Mary’s Poop Company website: www.maryspoop.com Company introduction video: https://youtu.be/_z7PkA5jSyg Product overview and background: https://youtu.be/cMHie2kLcLw A news report about the company: https://youtu.be/Cwqa8EV0GO0 Webinars: Webinar 1, Company Introduction: Friday, August 30, 9 am EST (New York time zone) Questions: If you have further questions, please direct them to Admin@X-Culture.org. Your questions will be directed to the company representatives. COMPANY DESCRIPTION The Company Founder on the Company History and Philosophy I started with only 3 alpacas in 1994. Today, my herd numbers 150, and I breed, raise, and sell alpacas as a business. The alpaca lifestyle is totally gratifying, but like most farmers, I need to use all possible by-products for commercial purposes. The alpaca poop business is a natural offshoot. It didn’t take long to see the difference in the grassy areas chosen by the alpaca as “poop piles” in the pastures. Lush and dark green. So, we thought, what about the houseplants that we have? Alpaca farms regularly advertise the sale or availability of raw manure, but what about a household product? Suppose we use ONLY the manure from my lovely alpacas? Testing for over 4 years, my sister Anna and I have managed to grow the best violets, orchids, gardenias – you name it – simply fabulous plants by watering with composted alpaca poop. But, it was a messy proposition, and I wasn’t thrilled about loose poop in the kitchen. Biodegradable bags were the answer. And, to brew my mix faster and more thoroughly, double-grind the composted piles, allowing more surface area to come in contact with the water. Heads up here: since I started testing my herd for pathogens myself, I have found some startling things. Strange critters live in manure and will not die off on their own. Clever little bugs. My sincere advice to the gardener, indoor and out, is NEVER use any organics that have not been properly composted. 1 We invested in a proprietary system of forced aeration that heats the manure to a consistent 135-155 degrees for 5 days. An additional 5 months of cure, followed by grinding – the result is perfect Poop, perfectly balanced for the earth and plants and NO pathogens harmful to humans, NO weed seeds, a fresh earthy smell. All natural, 100% organic – for your beautiful garden. Organic Soil & Plant Food: Ingredients, Science, Delivery System This product was initially designed for home use to fertilize houseplants – all potted plants in and around the house and garden, including vegetables and herbs – and to enrich the soil for long-term maintenance and health. Odor-free and totally safe for children and pets, the ingredients in the Poop+ Pods are organic and the film is completely biodegradable. The Poop+ Pods have also proven to be remarkable starter kits for planting or transplanting trees, shrubs, and flowers outside, when the owner wants to ensure that the plants have the best possible start, that extra insurance policy, so to speak, guaranteeing optimum results as quickly as possible. Poop+ is nothing less than a revolutionary product for plant care everywhere. This fertilizer is a second-generation product. The previous iteration was a compost tea, which was pure, specially composted alpaca manure packaged in proprietary tea bags and steeped to produce a nutritious mix for weekly watering. Unquestionably the best compost tea available, the product was not perfect: much of the nutrients remained in the tea bags and many homeowners were looking for something even easier and less timeconsuming to use. Our new water-soluble pouch delivery system enabled us as well to add special ingredients to enhance the plant’s nutritional capture and uptake. Now, we have “perfection.” Mary's Alpaca collects alpaca manure beans from paddocks where alpacas are organically raised. Great care is taken to avoid small stones and excess field debris. The manure is specially composted in large bins constructed for that purpose using a proprietary forced-air system to control the optimum temperatures ranging from a minimum of 131°F (55°C) to a maximum of 155°F (68°C) for three consecutive days thereby killing all harmful pathogens and weed seeds. The composted mixture contains 3% pressed pine wood pellets that expand when moisture is added to allow sufficient oxygen to circulate throughout the pile. The pellets themselves have no added chemicals of any kind. Composting, utilizing the forced air system, lasts for nearly 3 months to encourage the growth of helpful (aerobic) microbes. (A teaspoon of healthy soil contains more microbes than there are people on the earth.) The finished compost is then ground multiple times and pulverized to produce a consistent powder-like substance for increased solubility and suspension in water. The organic product is packaged in water-soluble pouches made of biodegradable polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Alpaca manure has legendary powers as a fertilizer and is considered the best manure for that purpose of all livestock animals - principally because alpacas digest nearly 100% of their food in a complex ruminant system in which grass, grains, or hay remain in digestion for at least 62 hours. The product has an average naturally balanced NPK ratio of 2-3-2. Mycorrhizal fungi is added to the composted alpaca manure for the purpose of improving plant root structure and the uptake of nutrients provided by the compost. Mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic relationship with the roots and eventually grow hundreds of miles of tiny fungal filaments (hyphae) that spread out to reach into all the crevices of the soil to access, absorb, and transport nutrients back to the plant. Our custom blend of Mycorrhizal fungi is ideal for houseplants and excellent for trees and shrubs of all varieties. The complex “Soil Web of Life” found in all healthy plant and soil systems can thereby be improved by hundreds or thousands of times. Each Poop+ Pod also contains a third, highly beneficial and complimentary ingredient, yucca powder. The yucca extracts are added to reduce plant stress in less than optimal surroundings or when freshly planted and to make the water “wetter,” allowing the water to hold the ingredients in suspension and the mix to penetrate through the soil surface and efficiently spread to all the roots, where nutrient uptake is significantly improved. 2 Moreover, the saponins and complex carbohydrates in yucca powder are gentle on roots and provide a friendly slow-release food for all the beneficial microorganisms in the root zone. The Poop+ Pods are meant to be placed in room temperature tap water, where the packaging dissolves and the formulation is thoroughly stirred to encourage even distribution. One Poop+ Pod treats 1 gallon of water. Plants are watered with this solution, which is designed for weekly use for optimum results. Leaves may also be sprayed with the solution, a process called foliar fertilization, especially helpful for drier, indoor climates. Our patent-pending blend and delivery system represents a profound difference from using synthetic chemicals, which eventually destroy plant soil and ultimately harm the very plant itself. In addition, the Poop+ Pods represent a revolutionary method to kick start any new planting or transplanting outdoors. Watering initially in stages as the (re)planting is accomplished insures that the roots are inoculated with Mary’s proprietary blend. The formula quickly grows the hyphae that promote early success from the “Soil Web of Life” found in all healthy soil. That soil, of course, has been supercharged with our special compost mix. The results, apparent in the first growing season, will be astounding. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRODUCT What do you feed alpacas and why is there manure so special for fertilizer? The alpacas gate pasture grasses, quality hey, and 1/2 cup of grains per day. I avoid using any chemicals in my pastures. The animals do get shots and dewormers but the ‘cooking phase’ of the composting gets rid of any residues. Alpacas digest their food longer than any other herbivore, up to 62 hours, thus the manure not only is naturally balanced but has no undigested proteins or fat. As an overt organic fertilizer, it cannot be beat, socalled "black gold." Does the manure smell? No odor at all. Odor would come from undigested organics. Is the entire Poop+ pod organic? All 3 ingredients, the alpaca manure, the Mycorrhizal fungi and the Yucca extract are totally Organic. The packaging film, called PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) is technically not organic because it is a petroleum-based product. In solution, however, the PVA is in such a minute quantity that USDA regulations allows the product in its entirety to be called "organic." Can you explain more about the packaging film, PVA? Polyvinyl alcohol is a synthetic polymer, which is a substance made up of many molecules all strung together. It starts its life as ethylene, a natural gaseous hormone given off by plants that causes fruit to ripen. In this case, the ethylene is synthetically produced (but nature identical), then turned into vinyl acetate through a chemical reaction with oxygen and acetic acid (in diluted form known as vinegar), then polymerized (bonded to form repeating molecules), and dissolved in alcohol to become a water-soluble polymer. PVA is used in things like contact lens lubricant (safe enough for your eyes) and also used to package instant foods, like coffee. It dissolves in water, is biodegradable and non-toxic. Some vitamins & supplements are packaged in it as well. It’s on the FDA’s GRAS list (generally regarded as safe). And the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approved it as a coating agent for food supplements. You will likely be eating it soon. 3 Who else packages fertilizers this way? Mary’s Alpaca Poop+ would be the first organic fertilizer packaged in this convenient, pre-measured way. Certain chemical fertilizers utilize his delivery system as well, but that’s not what this is all about. Can you tell me about your composting system? We compost our leftovers in a rolling barrel. It seems to work. Anything we can all do for ourselves and our environment is fabulous in my book. In a commercial establishment, farmers use long ‘wind rows’ and turn the piles to get the oxygen to the microbes. I had a system designed and built to force air through the manure. I have 4 large bins that can hold about 3,000 pounds of manure. The bins ‘cook’ naturally called a thermophilic reaction. We take the compost temperature with a long probe, in 6 spots, once a day. It must reach at least 131-155 degrees F to kill off all the harmful pathogens, and we maintain that temp for about a week. We continue feeding the oxygen to the pile, has significantly lower temperatures for at least 2-3 months to encourage the growth of helpful microbes. A very efficient system and very safe for the consumer. You have a patent on this? I have a patent pending on both the formulation and the delivery system. It’s been in place for almost a year now. I have a small garden area, actually a raised bed. It’s 10 x 5. How many pods would I need to use each week to care for my tomato plants? I also grow tomatoes. I use one pod in a watering container (about 1 1/2 gallons) and go from plant to plant. It depends on how many plants are being grown; I have 10 and use about 2 pods a week. Why do you pulverize the manure? Do you have to do that to the other ingredients as well? I pulverize it because manure in clumps "hates" water (its nonpolar, no positive or negative ions, so it just sits there without dissolving. As a fine powder, it can be stirred into suspension in solution and will travel with the water to the roots. If fertilizer does not reach the actual roots, it is useless. The Yucca ensures that the water spreads evenly throughout the soil and the mycorrhizal fungi increases the root mass. The other ingredients are in powder form, so all I have to do is blend them to a certain formulation. How do I know how much Poop+ I should use on my plans? A little, a lot? I’m not very good with houseplants. You are totally not alone is this. My entire family used to kill every plant we ever owned. But you’ll be happy to learn that you don’t have to measure anything. Ever. Whether you use 1 pod to ½ gallon of water or 1 pod to 2 gallons of water, you can’t hurt your plant. Remember, feed as you water one time a week and LET IT DRAIN. Let the pot sit on a dish towel until it stops draining. Put it on a saucer for the rest of the week knowing it’s not sitting in a puddle of water. If a plant is too big, such as a large gardenia bush, simply don’t overwater. Really, plants don’t take much on a regular weekly basis. Get a ‘water meter’ at any garden supply store, poke it in the soil (all the way down to the roots) and be safe. I have orchids, which I call my monthlies because that’s how long they bloom, then forget it. Same with my African Violets and Christmas cactus. All look great in the store but nothing thrives inside. Will your Poop+ work? I need help. This is getting expensive. OMG…you bet. Look at the video again. Mary’s Alpaca Poop+ is a revolution in houseplant care. Some of those orchids were blooming for 8 months straight! 4 Over time, will I need to water less? It's true that the Poop+ formula will over time cause a plant to need less water, a benefit of the efficient delivery system and improve soil quality. The plants need water for architectural substance and strength and the added low cost of feeding will ensure vibrant growth. THE CHALLENGE Mary’s Poop is already known in its region and is ready to scale up and expand to new locations around the world. Accordingly, the company is seeking your help with identifying new promising markets, developing a market entry strategy, developing an operations management strategy in the market and, most importantly, finding sustainable ways to fund the expansion. The company is small and as any small company, does not have the resources to buy expensive advertisement. Below is a more detailed list of questions and instructions for your deliverables. Section I: Market 1. Industry and Competition Analysis To provide a foundation for your analysis, start with a survey of the industry. Who are your client’s main competitors? What are your client’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition, and what are the threats and opportunities for your client? When assessing your client’s competitive position, you may find this short guide and this 5-min video on SWOT analysis helpful. 2. New Market Selection and Analysis Based on your analysis of the client and competition, identify most promising new market for your client. Where would the product be in most demand (where do the people who want and can afford the product live)? Please first consider the market characteristics that are essential to the success of the product in the market, such as the geography, shipping cost, cultural, economic, and political factors, trade regulations, certification requirements, etc. Based on a comparison of the countries that fit your criteria, select one most promising market that you believe has the greatest potential. Please note, the market is usually a country, but it can be a region or a country, or a multi-country region. Conduct an analysis of the market in terms of: Key competitors in the proposed market, their strengths and weaknesses, their pricing and promotion strategies, etc. Provide an in-depth analysis of the market in terms of factors relevant to the success of your client in the market; provide all the information about the proposed market that your client needs to know to successfully operate there, including: o Cultural, legal, political, and economic factors that your client must understand to ensure the success in that market; o Consumer tastes and preferences with respect to your client’s product. Evaluation Rubrics 7 - Clear and concise list of the client’s strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities for its product, review of the market selection criteria, the recommended new market clearly matches the criteria, brief but insightful market analysis, strong supporting arguments, sources properly cited. 4 – A good analysis and recommendation, but some elements are not strongly supported, some parts are irrelevant or redundant. 5 1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the point, not supported by credible sources. Section II. Marketing Important: When designing the marketing strategy, keep in mind that the company is very small and does not have the budget for expensive advertisement. A good marketing strategy would rely on inexpensive or free promotion channels, such as word-of-mouth, social medial viral campaigns, professional associations, or partner organizations and networks. More expensive approaches may also be justified if you can show how that investment can be quickly recouped with rapidly increased sales. However, if you’re proposing a more expensive campaign, make sure to suggest sources of funding in your Section III. 3. Promotion Channels What is the best way to promote the product in the proposed new market? Should the product be marketed directly to end consumers, or to retailers or distributors? What are the cheap or free promotion channels that allow to reach the customers or retailers/disturbers, such as online advertisement, mailing lists, social media groups, professional associations and meetings, via bloggers or opinion leaders, industry periodicals, or similar channels that are not as expensive as TV or radio, but allow to get directly (and ethically) to the decision makers? Please note, the Client is particularly interested in the online/home shopping and social media promotion options. If applicable, provide a clear step-by-step guide for how to place an ad or distribute a message through the channels you are proposing, how much it will cost, how frequently should it be done, etc. For example, do not simply say “Advertise via Facebook”. Provide the exact steps, cost, contacts and other tips for maximum effectiveness. 4. Message What is the best way to convince the consumers to buy the product? What should be the main message of the marketing campaign and how should it be presented? What is the best message, slogan, and other marketing campaign elements? If applicable, discuss if the brand name or its presentation should be modified to make the product more appealing to the tastes and traditions of the consumers in the new market. 5. Promotional Materials To interest the potential customers, your client will need to present information about its products. Illustrate your knowledge of the target consumers in your chosen new market by developing a mock-up locally-tailored marketing brochure, email or webpage template, or social media post that your client can use to promote the product. It does not need to have the perfect graphic design. It should only serve as a concept sketch for what the promo material should look like to be effective with the target market segment. Evaluation Rubrics 7 – The recommended promotion channel(s) is inexpensive and allows to precisely target the potential customers, there is a clear step-by-step guide for how to place an ad there and how much it will cost, an appealing and convincing marketing brochure or ad is offered, with strong supporting arguments for each element. 4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or redundant, the formatting is inconsistent. 1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the point, not supported by credible sources. 6 Section III. Management 6. Capital It is a small company with a very limited budget. If your strategy requires additional investment for expansion, please provide a strategy for raising the necessary funds. This resource provides a review of funding sources typically available to small companies. It is not enough to simply name the source (e.g., use angel investors or crowdfunding). Make certain to provide sufficient details and step-by-step guidelines on how to obtain funding via your proposed source (names and contacts for the funding resource, the steps needs to be taken to apply for the funding, the message for investors, timing, cost, amount, risks, etc.). 7. Entry Mode Are direct sales the optimal market entry mode, or a joint venture, franchising, wholly owned subsidiary, or a partnership with the local distributors or retailers would be more effective? Or perhaps the product should be sold via large online retailing platforms, such as Amazon, Alibaba, or the like? Recommend the optimal market entry mode and explain your suggestion. If a partnership with a local distributor, retailer, or partner is advised, what companies would be the best candidates for such partnership (list at least three, with contacts, descriptions, and tips for how to approach them). 8. Logistics What is the best way to ship the product to the new market? Should it be shipped directly to the end user, or first to a warehouse or distributor? What shipping options allows for the best combination of price, time, and reliability? Are there import tariffs, custom duties, or other fees that the buyer or seller needs to pay and if so, how much and how such payments can be made? 8. Pricing Develop the pricing strategy that will result in the highest profits in the proposed market, including the optimal price point, as well as the way the price should be charged (fixed price, subscription, bulk pricing, retention bonus, repeat customer discounts, financing, etc.). This blog and this article offer a good overview of some of the available pricing strategy options. Evaluation Rubrics 7 – The proposed strategy for raising capital is promising, well-explained, and sufficient guidelines are provided to execute the strategy; the entry mode and recommendations with respect to the logistics are clearly articulated, viable, and supported by convincing arguments; if a local partner/distributor recommended, at least three are suggested with company contacts and description, the proposed shipping and pricing strategy is explained in sufficient detail and supported by convincing arguments and credible sources. 4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or redundant, the formatting is inconsistent. 1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the point, not supported by credible sources. OPTIONAL: A REAL-LIVE VIABILITY TEST A real-life test of the proposed expansion strategy: Get a contract for your client To make the project more realistic, gain further business experience, and to put to a real-life test the claimed demand for the product in the new proposed market, teams are encouraged to try get a real purchasing contract for the product in the proposed new market. You can try to do it individually or as a team. 7 If you would like to try it, please do the following: 1. Find potential customer. 2. Share information about your Client’s products with the potential customer. 3. If the client shows interest, connect the potential client with the company. Be prepared to assist in the negotiations between the company and the prospective customer with respect to the terms of the contract, price, and support options. This part is optional and your decision to try it or your success or failure if you try will have no effect on your evaluation in this project. However, we encourage you to try to secure a contract and facilitate its execution as this will not only offer you a unique, very real and very practical international business experience, but will also lead to tangible rewards and a much stronger resume in the case of your success. It’s one thing to say, “your product could be easily sold in this market using this strategy”. It’s another thing to try to put that strategy to a test and confirm there is interest in the market by finding a potential customer. If you succeed at securing a sales contract for your client, you will receive a prize commensurable with the amount of 20% of the contract value, offered as a post-market commission (after the deal is closed and the customer pays for the product). The company owner 8 Report Structure and Formatting Guidelines Structure: Include an Executive Summary (300-400 words, bullet-list format preferred) that provides a short review of your key findings and recommendations. Please remember, the busy company owners and executives will not have the time to read hundreds of the reports, so they must be able to get a quick summary of the content of your report from the Executive Summary. Most managers will make a decision on whether to continue reading the report if the Executive Summary catches their attention. Therefore, make sure this important part makes it easy to see your key recommendations. At the beginning of each report section include a bullet list of the key recommendations and figures presented in the section (2-4 bullets, each 4-10 words long). Again, when presented with hundreds of the reports, busy executives must be able to get key figures and recommendations from these summaries. The Title Page must contain team number, client company name, names, emails, and countries of residence of all the team members and a short summary (5-15 words) of the role and work completed by each team member. If any of the team members dropped out or did not contribute to the report, please still list them, but add a note “Did not participate” by their names. Evaluation of the Executive Summary 7 - Short but gives a very good idea about the key ideas presented in the business proposal, the Client can get a good idea about the main points of the proposed strategy from the executive summary; 4 - Gives some idea about the key suggestions, but some points remain uncertain; a bit too long; not to the point. 1 - Not possible to figure out the key ideas of the business proposal from the summary, too short or too long Formatting: The report must be 20-35 pages (5,000-8,000 words) including the title page, executive summary, and references. Each section should be 1-3 pages long. Generally shorter is better, so be as concise and focused as possible. Number all pages in your team report. Margins should be 2.5 cm (one inch) at the top, bottom, and sides of the page. Font type should be 12-point Times New Roman throughout the report. Double-space all body text. Indent the first line of a new paragraph. The text should be left-aligned. All citations used must be cited in the text and in a reference list at the end of each report. In-text citations should include only the name of the author(s) and the date of the publication. Full references should be provided at the end of the report. Please use APA reference style. A picture is worth a thousand of words, so use of figures, graphs, pictures, as well as tables is encouraged. It is recommended these are included in the main body of the report. Evaluation of the Formatting 7 – The report has a clear structure, visual appeal, the sections are consistently formatted, sources are properly cited, the formatting guidelines are followed exactly with respect to the page limit, font and other requirements. 4 – The formatting guidelines are generally followed, but there are some deviations, there are some signs of sloppiness in document formatting. 1 – The document looks very unprofessional, different report sections are formatted differently, the document is very hard to read and navigate. 9 TASKS AND DEADLINES Each week, you will be asked to fill out a short survey to report your team’s progress, evaluate the performance of your team members and provide other information we need to better understand why some teams perform better than others. Please see the informed consent form at the end of this document for more details. Important: Participants who receive peer evaluations below 2.0 (out of 5.0) will first receive a warning. If their peer evaluations stay below 2.0 two weeks in a row, they will be automatically excluded from the team. Important: Occasionally emails with invitations to take a survey are filtered into the Junk/Spam email folder. Please check your Junk/Spam email folder (search for messages with “X-Culture” in subject line) if you don’t receive a survey invitation message around the date specified in the table above. All deadlines are set for 11:59 pm (23:59), EST time zone (New York). 1. Pre-project Readiness Test Due: Any time before the official project start Before the project starts, all participants must review project materials and take a Readiness Test. The test will include questions about the project and online collaboration tools, as well as questions about your prior international experience and background. You must successfully pass the Readiness Test (80% or more correct answers) to participate in X-Culture. If your semester starts after the official start of the project or you do not complete the Readiness Test on time for another reason, do so as soon as you can – we will continue adding new participants for about ten days after the project start. Official Project Start, Teams Formed Monday, October 1 As long as you successfully completed the Readiness Test, you will receive the names and contact information of your team members on this day. Please reach out to your teammates immediately to establish contact. Introduce yourself, and start working on the project. Students whose semester starts later will be added to the existing teams once their semester starts, so it is likely an additional student may be added to your team in the first two weeks. 2. Establish Contact with Your Teammates Due: Thursday, October 4 By this date, you are expected to have exchanged at least a few messages with your teammates. If some teammates are not responding, you are expected to send at least three email reminders to them by this date. Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams will be excluded from the project. Your communication starts via email, but once the initial contact is established, your team can use any means of communication. Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will ask you to report whether or not you have communicated with all of your team members. Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams may be removed from the project. Note: This and all other weekly surveys will also ask to evaluate your team members’ performance and provide other information we need to better understand why some teams perform better than others. Please see the informed consent form at the end of this document for more details. 10 3. Meet Your Teammates Due: Sunday, October 7 Meet your team members: Please learn as much as possible about your teammates (background, interests, hobbies, experiences, etc.). Research shows that spending a little time on getting to know team members greatly improves team effectiveness. It is also strongly recommended that you try a live video call (e.g., Skype). Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will test how well you got to know your team members. It will contain a few questions about your team members, such as their background, interests, etc. The acquaintanceship test will not be graded, so do not feel obliged to reveal any personal information to your team members or insist that your team members reveal their personal information to you. However, try to get to know your teammates as much as you can. 4. Team Charter Due: Sunday, October 14 By this date, your team is expected to review all available challenges and select your client organization. Before you choose your client organization, please carefully review the challenges presented by each organization and try to attend (or watch the recordings of) the webinars with each of the client companies, which will be held in the first week of the project. Team Charter: Discuss with your team members and collectively write a one-page Team Charter that details how your team will operate. It is recommended that the Team Charter includes the following sections: Distribution of roles and tasks. Many teams divide the workload by the report section. Research shows teams perform better when they divide the workload by function: one person is tasked with coordinating team efforts, checking everyone’s progress, sending reminders, redistributing tasks if needed; another person, usually a native English speaker, serves as a copyeditor, and so on. Many teams also select a person whose role is to question everything and force the team to weigh their options more carefully. Some teams assign a person whose job is to make sure nobody is ignored. Some people are shy or may have a hard time keeping up the pace and it is important they are not left behind and their opinions are voiced and given full consideration. Dealing with conflicts. How conflicts (interpersonal, task, process) will be resolved. Dealing with free-riders. In most teams, someone is always late, produces low-quality work, or underperforms otherwise. Sometimes, a team member stops working altogether (gets sick, busy at work, family problems, or simply drops the course). How will the team deal with a loss of team member? Who will redo the work, if needed? Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will ask each team member to submit the same copy of the Team Charter. 5. Select your Client Organization Due: Sunday, October 21 By this date, your team is expected to review all available challenges and select your client organization. Before you choose your client organization, please carefully review the challenges presented by each organization and try to attend (or watch the recordings of) the webinars with each of the client companies, which will be held in the first week of the project. Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will ask you to report the name of your client organization. 11 6. Initial Individual Research and Ideas Due: Sunday, October 28 Conduct your initial research and try to learn as much as possible about the industry your client operates in: Who are the main players? What the most popular products and technologies? What new technologies and approaches are likely to dominate the industry in the future? Is the industry regulated by the government and how? What are the differences in different regions of the world? How does your client compare to the competitors? What are your client’s strengths and weaknesses? Try to interview 2-3 potential customers of your client company to better understand how they make purchasing decisions and if (and why) they would choose your client over the completion. Review the challenge questions listed in the three sections earlier and, based on your initial research, jot down your personal initial answers to each of them. You do not have to write more than a few words in response to each question at this point; just your initial ideas and possible answers. This will prepare you for the team discussions when your team will be collectively developing the best answers to each question. Even if your team decides to assign different report section to different team members, it is very important that each team member shares his/her suggestions for each question. This will give the team member responsible for the report section more to work with and help develop better final answers. Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The weekly survey will ask you to report the results of your initial individual research and your initial individual suggestions for responding to each block of questions listed earlier. Specifically, you will be asked to: Report the results of your industry analysis, including a brief description of the industry, your client’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the completion, etc. (bullet list of key findings, half a page total) Your initial recommendations for the most promising market, market entry mode, key elements of the promotion and marketing strategy, and key elements of the operation strategy (1-2 points in response to each question, a paragraph per question). 7. Block 1: Market Analysis Due: Sunday, November 4 This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 1. It does not have to be a fully finished report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback. Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 1 (the survey will contain a document upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations). 8. Block 2: Marketing Due: Sunday, November 11 This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 2. It does not have to be a fully finished report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of 12 winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback. Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 2 (the survey will contain a document upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations). 9. Block 3: Operations Management Due: Sunday, November 18 This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 3. It does not have to be a fully finished report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback. Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 3 (the survey will contain a document upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations). 10. Complete Draft Due: Sunday, November 25 By this date, your team is expected to have a complete draft of your report. It does not have to be a finished report, but it should be as complete as possible, including Title Page and an Executive and Chapter Summaries, and correct formatting throughout the document. Deliverables: One team member should submit the draft via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the entire team (see step-by-step submission guidelines below). After your document is submitted, TurnItIn will generate a plagiarism report that will show you if any parts of the report have been plagiarized (takes several hours to produce). Usually, up to 20% similarity is acceptable, provided that copy-and-pasted materials are properly referenced. If plagiarism is detected, your team will have until the Final Report deadline (see below) to fix the problem and submit a plagiarism-free final report. This draft will not be graded and the plagiarism statistics will not be shared with your instructors. This is only for your information. You should continue editing the report until the final deadline and you can still make any changes or additions. However, it is strongly encouraged that you submit as complete a document as possible, You will be able to submit your draft and check it for plagiarism only once, so the more complete the draft, the less the chance that the final report will contain plagiarism. Also, every team member will be asked to submit your usual weekly progress survey. A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with the usual questions about your team. 13 11. Final Report Due: Friday, November 30 By this date, your final report must be submitted via TurnItIn.com (see Submission Guidelines below). Please note, the plagiarism statistics for final reports will be generated by TurnItIn and shared with the instructors, but the plagiarism report will not be shared with the students. Only one team member must submit the final document via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the team. 12. Post-Project Survey Due once report submitted, but no later than: Sunday, December 2 A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email invitation with a link to your post-project survey. This is the most important survey. The survey will ask about your experiences in X-Culture and evaluate the performance of your teammates. Your answers are extremely important and will help us improve the project in the future. Every team member must complete the survey. Submission Guidelines The report draft and the final report documents must be submitted via www.TurnItIn.com. Only one team member must submit the documents on behalf of the entire team. The team member who will be submitting the draft and final report must follow these steps: Part 1. Create a TurnItIn account (time required: 60-90 seconds). 1. On www.turnitin.com and click on the link “Create Account”. 2. On the next window, under the “Create a New Account” heading, click on the “Student” link. 3. Enter the Class ID. Note the Draft and Final report submissions have different Class IDs: Class ID: 19160106 (password xculture) Note: if you already have a TurnItIn account, simply log on using your “old” login information, click on the “Enroll in Class” tab on the top, and repeat step 3. Part 2: Submitting the paper (time required: 60-120 seconds) 4. Once the account is created, you can log into your account. Your home page will list your classes. 5. Select the correct class and click on the "Submit" button. Make certain to select “Draft” assignment for the report draft and “Final Report” for the final report. 6. Choose Single File Upload. Make certain the file name only contains your team number. Wrong: “Final report 123.pdf”, “Team Report.pdf”, “Team 123.pdf”, “John Smith.pdf” Right: “123.pdf” 7. Click on "browse" to locate the paper saved to your computer. 8. Click on the file and click "open". 9. Click the "upload" button at the bottom. 10. Click "submit" to confirm your submission. Once the submission is finalized, you will see “Your submission was successful” on the top of the page. If you wait a few hours, you will see your “originality report” that shows how much and what parts of your report have been plagiarized. 14 Consent to Act as a Human Participant Project Title: International Student Collaboration Project: Dynamics and Performance in International Virtual Teams Project Director and Principal Investigator: Dr. Vasyl Taras. One of the requirements of your International Business course is to complete an international collaboration exercise. You will be teamed up with several other students who are enrolled in similar International Business courses at universities around the world. Working as a team, you will be required to develop a business plan for an international company. To help you better understand and interpret your experiences and to give you a chance to compare your own experiences with those of other students participating in the exercise, data about your prior international experiences and perceptions about international collaboration will be collected before and after the exercise. In addition, you will be asked to provide peer evaluations once the project is over, and the quality of the team reports will be evaluated by the instructor. A summary will be presented to you at the end of the project, so you can see how your experiences compare to those of other students, how attitudes and perceptions about international collaboration have changed, on average, over the course of the project, and how team composition and prior international experiences tended to affect group dynamics and performance. Once the project is over, all personal information will be deleted from the dataset, and the data will be completely unidentified, making it impossible to match responses with the names of the people who provided them. Most of the data will be collected online. Absolute confidentiality of data provided through the Internet cannot be guaranteed due to the limited protections of Internet access. Please be sure to close your browser when finished, so no one will be able to see what you have been doing. The risks associated with your participation in the study are minimal. Please note the data collected during the project may be used for the purposes of research, the results of which may be published in scholarly journals. Any publication will contain only a general summary of the results. No personal information will be reported or shared. Because your performance in the exercise is counted towards your course grade, the research project is treated as one of the required course exercises/tests. You have the right to refuse to participate or to withdraw at any time. Your grade in the course will be adjusted accordingly, just as it would if you chose not to write a test or complete a homework assignment. If you choose to withdraw, you may request that any of your data which has been collected be destroyed unless it is in an unidentifiable state. While participation in the project is required as part of your course, it is your right to disallow the use of the de-identified data you provide for research-related purposes. If you do not object that the data you provide during the project can be used for researchrelated purposes, and the results of the study can be disseminated through scholarly publications, keep this consent form for your records. If you object to the use of the data you will provide during the course project, please indicate so at the bottom of this form. Return the form to your instructor, and your data will not be used for any resea-[0 rch-related purposes. The results of the study based on the data you provided will not appear in any resulting publications. Your decision to allow or to deny the use of the data you provide during the project for research related purposes will have no effect on your grade. If you have any concerns about your rights, how you are being treated or if you have questions, want more information or have suggestions, please contact Eric Allen in the Office of Research Compliance at UNCG at (336) 256-1482. Questions, concerns or complaints about this project or benefits or risks associated with being in this study can be answered by Dr. Vasyl Taras who may be contacted at (336) 256-8611 or v_taras@uncg.edu. If significant new information relating to the study becomes available which may relate to your willingness to continue to participate, this information will be provided to you. For a copy of the approval letter from the Office of Research Compliance of the Institutional Research Board, please visit www.vtaras.com/11-0260_IRB_Approval.pdf If you not wish to grant the right to use the de-identified anonymous data that you provide during the project for research-related purposes or disseminate the data through a publication in scholarly journals or in any other form, please fill out this form: https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_39Hu41lah50VeaF Your decision to not allow the use of your data for scholarly research will have no effect your course grade. 15 6. Initial Individual Research and Ideas Due: Sunday, October 28 Conduct your initial research and try to learn as much as possible about the industry your client operates in: Who are the main players? What the most popular products and technologies? What new technologies and approaches are likely to dominate the industry in the future? Is the industry regulated by the government and how? What are the differences in different regions of the world? How does your client compare to the competitors? What are your client's strengths and weaknesses? Try to interview 2-3 potential customers of your client company to better understand how they make purchasing decisions and if (and why) they would choose your client over the completion. Review the challenge questions listed in the three sections earlier and, based on your initial research, jot down your personal initial answers to each of them. You do not have to write more than a few words in response to each question at this point; just your initial ideas and possible answers. This will prepare you for the team discussions when your team will be collectively developing the best answers to each question. Even if your team decides to assign different report section to different team members, it is very important that each team member shares his/her suggestions for each question. This will give the team member responsible for the report section more to work with and help develop better final answers.
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