1 BUS 10a Section 2 FUNCTIONS OF THE CAPITALIST ENTERPRISE COURSE SYLLABUS Fall 2012 Class Hours: Tues, Friday 11:00 AM–12:20 PM Location: TBD Dr. William J. Oliver 781-728-9455 Email: [email protected]Please put “BUS 10a” in the subject line Office: Sachar 11b Office Hours: Tuesday 9-11, Friday 9-11, and by appointment
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BUS 10a Section 2 FUNCTIONS OF THE CAPITALIST ENTERPRISE ...€¦ · FUNCTIONS OF THE CAPITALIST ENTERPRISE COURSE SYLLABUS ... Group assignment in teams of 5 or 6 ... Reebok International
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Students will be graded on a combination of the following (50% individual/50% team):
Contributions to class discussions (25%) – based on the quality and frequency of in-class
comments. BUS 10a is like business—a team sport. You need to help your team by asking
questions and building on each others’ comments. Midway through the course, I will ask you to
assess your own performance, and will provide my feedback on class participation—making
suggestions for improvement.
Do Don’t
Feel Free to express your opinion Just repeat case facts or other’s
comments
Be persuasive Use poor/wrong interpretation of data
Talk briefly and clearly Make rude, vulgar, irrelevant and
personal comments
Address the entire class and not only the
instructor
Keep quiet lest you might make a fool
of yourself
Listen to what others have to say Be obstinate
Take a stand; defend your analysis
Build on the prior speaker’s point
Digress
Have a sense of humor Talk for the sake of talking
Midterm exam (25%) This is a written, open-book exam that will be conducted during the normal
class period. You will be asked essay questions about the materials covered and issues discussed in
class. It will; require you to do some calculations as well as assess some companies from the
perspective of the approaches you have learned in the course thus far
Five written assignments:
PowerPoint presentation on “Cafeteria Day” (5%) Group assignment in teams of 5 or 6
students concerning one of the university‘s cafeterias or food stores. See details below.
Business attire is required.
PowerPoint presentation on globalization (15%) Group assignment in teams of 4 or 5
students. Each presentation (on a theme of your choice) should last 8-10 minutes, plus time
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for Q+A. Please submit the topic as indicated on the schedule: who is on your team and what
your proposed topic will be; only one submission per team, though! I will let you know the
following day if that topic has already been selected by another team. Business attire is
required.
Essay on the ethical issues surrounding the sub-prime mortgage debacle (5%) Individual
assignment. Write two pages double spaced, due at the start of class on Monday, April 23.
This is an individual assignment.
Tracking a company (5%) Individual assignment. Select one company which is listed on
NYSE or NASDAQ. Each week, on Tuesday before class, submit a short paragraph
describing an important event from the week that will affect (or reflect) your company’s
health or strategy. Include a link to your on-line source, in addition to your short assessment.
Each week, add the most current paragraph to the top of the prior weeks’ document—so at
the end of the course, you have a 13-week, running assessment of the company
Final paper analyzing a business problem facing a real company (20%) Group
assignment in teams of 3-4 students. The final paper must be done in teams of 3 students. The final paper is an opportunity for teams of 3 students to examine in depth a topic of your
choice. The paper must be 10 - 15 double-spaced pages (plus footnotes and references) and
cover:
Describe the facts around a problem a real company is facing today,
Use specific learnings and/or paradigms from the course (i.e. the list above) to evaluate
the situation, and
Offer a clear set of recommendations that are carefully analyzed.
NOTE: Teams will reconfigure for each assignment. Grades on written assignments are assigned to
all members of the team, though I reserve the right to alter individual grades when it is clear that an
individual contributed significantly more or less to the assignment.
Submitting Assignments
Papers must be submitted as an MSWord document. Presentations must be submitted as a
PowerPoint. Files must be readable on the Wintel platform; if you prepare documents on a Mac, you
are responsible for submitting them in compliant format (if I cannot read your file, you cannot expect
a good grade). Assignments are to be submitted to LATTE. Papers that are submitted late will be
graded down one full grade (e.g. from A to B) for each day or portion thereof.
Computers in the Classroom
Computers are not generally conducive to interactive classroom discussions. There are a few times
you will be asked to bring your computer—otherwise, leave them in your bag. Print out case studies
and any notes you need. Take notes on paper—transferring them to your computer helps the learning
process.
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Seating
Please select a seat on the first day of class, and use that seat for each class session. This helps the
professor get to know you (i.e. it helps establish your class participation grade)
Academic Honesty
You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be
forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System.
Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. For the
University policy, please see section 5 of the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.
Special Accommodation
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a
reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
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Date Topic
Ebert
Reading Assignment Due Case Other Reading
1 8/31 Introduction: what is
capitalism? Where has
it been? Where is it
going?
1 Syllabus
2 9/28 Understanding
business health
11 Kellogg‘s 2010 annual report
(LATTE)
A Guide to Case Analysis
(LATTE)
3 9/4 Marketing goods and
services
12 Cafeteria Day team
members and subject
venue on LATTE by
8AM day before class
Reebok International Ltd
4 9/7 Producing goods and
services
6,7
5 9/11 Improving Operations 15 Benihana of Tokyo
6 9/14 Leadership 9 Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin