BUS 400 Module One Blog Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
Raising money to invest in innovation is hard. Companies both large and small work to strike a balance between executing an existing business model and thinking ahead to advance their business. As individuals think critically about how their business should move forward, they should rst get a 360-degree view of their environment. This journey starts with research on the current state of the business and critical thinking questions that can help leaders drill down deeper.
Prompt
In this blog post, you will take on the role of the recently-promoted chief innovation ofcer (CIO) of an established U.S.-based company of your choosing. It is within your responsibilities to discover new ways to improve an existing product or service in North America, to introduce a new product or service to the market that will give the company a market edge over competition and t within the company’s core competencies. For the purposes of this blog post, and for this entire course, you will do the latter.
The new product or service must be something that cannot be easily duplicated and takes into account consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP). If a consumer doesn’t have a problem or need for the product or service offered, they will not be willing to exchange money for the solution.
The rst step of such an undertaking requires research and an examination of the selected company’s nancials and current resources. Moreover, this new product or service offering must leverage the strengths of the company.
Using MarketLine, Yahoo Finance, and the investor relations page on the company’s website, select and research an established company of your choice. Specically, look at the company’s 10K Report with a focus on the company’s business in North America. You will continue to research and work with this company throughout this course in the milestones and project.
In your blog post, identify the company you researched and describe its potential new and unique product or service. from the Shapiro Library and address the following questions:
• : What is the company’s main business?
◦ What value does the company deliver to the customer?
• : Is the company currently protable?
• : What are the company’s main strengths to be leveraged to create a new product or service?
• : What is unique about the new product or service?
• : How can the new product or service improve protability? Note: this is an estimation based on research of the company’s current market position.
What to Submit
Your blog post must be between 400 and 800 words in length and be submitted as a Word document. Your blog post should be written in a professional voice and should be appropriately formatted for a blog. Any sources cited should use APA formatting.
:
How to Write a Blog Post for Beginners: This article is an introduction to writing blog posts.
12 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog: This article examines important elements in developing your own blog.
Blogging Best Practices PDF: This bulleted list gives you a quick summary of the best practices top bloggers use.
Module One Blog Rubric
Exceeds prociency in an exceptionally clear, insightful,
sophisticated, or creative manner
Describes the company’s value proposition
Shows
progress toward prociency, but with errors or omissions; areas for
improvement may include descriptions that are missing key components or
cursory description in general
Does not attempt criterion
16
Exceeds prociency in an exceptionally clear, insightful,
sophisticated, or creative manner
Determines if the company is currently protable
Shows progress toward prociency, but with errors or
omissions; areas for improvement may include determinations that are
incorrect or lacking research
Does not attempt criterion
16
Exceeds prociency in an exceptionally clear, insightful,
sophisticated, or creative manner
Explains the company’s main strengths that can be leveraged
to create a new product or service
Shows progress toward prociency, but with errors or
omissions; areas for improvement may include incomplete explanations or SWOT
analysis not included
Does not attempt criterion
16
Exceeds prociency in an exceptionally clear, insightful,
sophisticated, or creative manner
Identies what is unique about the new product or service
Shows
progress toward prociency, but with errors or omissions; areas for
improvement may include explanations lacking detail or product/service that
is not unique
Does not attempt criterion
16
Exceeds prociency in an exceptionally clear, insightful,
sophisticated, or creative manner
Describes how the new product or service can improve
protability
Shows progress toward prociency, but with errors or
omissions; areas for improvement may include descriptions lacking detail or
product/service does not improve protability
Does not attempt criterion
16
Exceeds prociency in an exceptionally clear, insightful,
sophisticated, or creative manner
Clearly
conveys meaning with correct grammar, sentence structure, and spelling,
demonstrating an understanding of audience and purpose
Shows progress toward prociency, but with errors in
grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, negatively impacting readability
Submission has critical errors in grammar, sentence
structure, and spelling, preventing understanding of ideas
10
Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with few or
no minor errors
Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with consistent
minor errors
Uses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with major
errors
Does not use citations for ideas requiring attribution
10
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