For your Final Project, you will create a capital investment plan proposal utilizing the health care business you selected in Week One as well as the answers to the Basic Information questions.  Refer to the websites for Sample Business Plans.  Create a capital investment plan proposal for your health care company that includes the following sections:

1. Executive Summary: This section is a concise, one- to two-page/slide summary of a business report. It restates the purpose of the report, highlights the major points of the report, and describes any results, conclusions, or recommendations from the report.
2. Service and/or Equipment Description: This section should be at least one page/slide. Describe the service or equipment suggested in the business proposal and the reasons why this is socially and politically beneficial for the community in meeting consumer demands.
3. Establishing the Team: This section should be at least one page/slide and include a chart that illustrates the structure of the capital investment team.  In addition, provide a summary of your team (background, responsibilities, etc.).
4. Key Strategic Goals: This section should be at least one page and include specific funding sources for the capital investment.
5. Financial Analysis: Projected income statement and types of assumptions made to compute the figures. 
   • Typical income statement assumption information requirements.  Initial investment
   • What types of revenue will be generated from the capital investment?  Will insurance reimburse?  If so, discuss the impact of the various reimbursements (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, private, or self-pay).
   • How many services will be offered to produce the revenue (by month)? Look at patient days.
   • How much labor will be required (FTEs)?
   • What will the labor cost?
   • How many (and what types of) supplies and/or devices will be required to offer the service?
   • What will the supplies, drugs, and/or devices cost?
   • How much space will be required?  Are renovation costs involved?
   • What will the required space occupancy cost?
   • What is the life of the equipment (if applicable) and the cost of maintaining the equipment?
     • Cash flows:
     • Payback period
     • Internal rate of return
     • Assume discount rate of 8% and 6% respectively for comparison purposes.

   Submit your proposal using a presentation tool such as PowerPoint. Your Capital Investment Plan Proposal should include a title page/slide and table of contents (section names and page numbers). In addition, include detailed speaker notes that are grammatically correct.  You may also submit a written report to go along with your presentation, but you should still include detailed speaker notes.
   Completing the Final Project

   The Final Project:

   1. Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages/slides in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
   2. Must include a title page/slide with the following:
      1. Title of project
      2. Student’s name
      3. Course name and number
      4. Instructor’s name
      5. Date submitted
   3. Must begin with a succinct thesis statement.
   4. Must address the topic of the project with critical thought.
   5. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
   6. Must use at least four scholarly sources that are cited according to APA format as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center..
   7. Must include a separate reference page/slidethat is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

MT3 – Some areas of Competitive Advantage to be considered are: Determinants of Competitive Advantage (Internal and External Perspectives) and the Fundamental Perspective versus the Dynamic Perspective (The External and Internal Dimensions of the Dynamic Perspective)

[NOTE: The subjects mentioned below in each Main Topic are suggestions only; you are free to explore any area of the Main Topic that interests you, particularly if there is some direct application of the MT to your present or past business experience]

You’ll all become experts in SSM at the determinants of competitive advantage via your analysis of your SSM competitors. Once you’ve identified your PRIMARY competitors, you must determine their characteristics. Specifically you must know their strategies, goals/objectives, strengths and weaknesses, even their possible reaction patterns. I’ve found that it helps to ask a number of questions like: What are your competitors trying to do in the marketplace? What are their apparent goals? What really “drives” (e.g., their distinctive competencies) each competitor’s behavior?

One can also think of many factors that might shape a competitor’s goals/objectives: their size, history, current management, and financial situation. If your competitor is a division of a larger organization, it’s important to know whether the parent is running it for growth, or to milk it (you’ll discuss this later in business portfolio planning, e.g., “cash cows”?). Of course, whether competitors can carry out their strategies and reach their goals depends on their resources and capabilities. We need to gather information on each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses a la the SWOT Analysis we’ll see in C&S, C3.

To help in all of this I like the Arthur D. Little consulting firm’s notion of an organization occupying one of six COMPETITIVE POSITIONS in the marketplace which some of you might know:

Dominant: This firm controls the behavior of other competitors and has a wide choice of strategic options.

Strong: This firm can take independent action without endangering its long-term position and can maintain its position regardless of competitors’ actions.

Favorable: This firm has an exploitable strength and a more-than-average opportunity to improve its position.

Tenable: This firm is performing at a sufficiently satisfactory level to warrant continuing in business, but it exists at the sufferance of the dominant company and has a less-than-average opportunity to improve its position.

Weak: This firm has unsatisfactory performance, but an opportunity exists for improvement. The firm must change or else exit.

Nonviable: This firm has unsatisfactory performance and no opportunity for improvement.

A frank assessment of “biting the bullet” to know where you are – really! – is absolutely essential – and do this sooner than later. Of course, these are all difficult to answer accurately without additional market research, but they are worthwhile areas to explore yourself, even if on an ad hoc basis.

In searching for weaknesses, we should identify any assumptions we might have of competitors that are no longer valid. Some companies believe they produce the best quality in industry when they do not. At Cummins Diesel we KNEW that we had superior quality, but sometimes forgot that our competitors Detroit Diesel (then GM) and Caterpillar made pretty good engines too. They weren’t of the same sophisticated design as Cummins, but they got the job done, at a reasonable price – they were good “value”.

Let’s continue on with any thoughts you might have on this vital question of how to deal with competition.

For this Discussion, review the web article by Clark, called “50 Trigger Words and Phrases for Powerful Multimedia Content,” (located in Day 1 of this week). Assume you have been tasked with writing a brief memo to your staff about issues concerning computer usage. Computer logs show that an excessive amount of time is being spent sending personal e-mails, surfing the Internet, and visiting social networking sites. You will compose this memo twice. In your word selection, use the “Health and Hope” approach first and second use the “Betrayal and Revenge” emotional group (both are described in the Clark article). You will post both memos as part of your original post this week.

For the Evoking Emotion Through Words Part 1: Memos posting, you will post your two memos and then comment briefly on the experience of writing from two different angles

The material in this module tells us that many companies place disproportionate emphasis on the financial perspective at the expense of the other three perspectives. Give an example of an organization which you are familiar from either previous coursework, the news, or personal experience where this has been the case. What were the results of this focus on the financial perspective on customers and other stakeholders? Be as specific as you can and give concrete examples.  [This TD is designed for you to respond to the above question/topic during the first week of the module. During the second week of the module please read through responses by peers and post a second response addressing one or more of the shared ideas. Please bring in new ideas/comments and research that haven’t been mentioned yet. An “A” grade needs at least two strong entries with at least one of them supported by research, with the source cited.] 

Rubric Name: BSBA/BSHRM/BSL Undergraduate Discussion Grading Rubric – Timeliness v1