Executive summary

The scope of the project is a study of the Funeral Home industry as covered with the CNBC TV-program entitled Death: Its a Living. The program takes a broader view of the industry; this report is written to be delivered to an owner/manager of a particular funeral home that you select.

The scope of my work to prepare this report includes:

1) Watching the television program - more than once

2) Reviewing of websites about this industry

3) Identifying reliable industry data from trade associations

4) Etc.

Based on my research, my recommendations to a selected funeral home are:

1) The Funeral Home Director should .

2) The Funeral Home should be

Enter here the key points made in the last section of this report - Conclusion and Recommendation.

Description of the business being studied

The business being studied in the funeral home industry in the United States. Its NAICS code is: XXXXX. The NAICS code description is copy and paste the words from the code description. This company competes in (name the parts) of the topics covered in the code.

Environmental scan items outside the company and industry. See Dess textbook chapter 2 for each topic below. Cite sources of the information used.

Demographic trends include (age, income levels, etc.) with citations provided:

1) Future

2) Enhanced

3) Religious

4)

Sociocultural trends include (interest in health and the environment, etc.) with citations provided:

1) Decline.

2) Closing

3) Continued

4) Changes

5)

Political/legal trends include (laws, regulations, etc.) with citations provided:

1) Stronger

2) Attention.

3)

Technological trends include (internet apps, robotics, etc.) with citations provided:

1) Dramatic changes

2) Declines in.

3)

Economic trends include (interest rates, inflation, etc.) with citations provided:

1) Declines in real net income and net worth of people that are limiting the money available for these goods.

2)

Global trends include with citations provided:

1) Sales are goods from outside the United States to inside the United States are

2)

Trends inside the industry unique to this industry. This is often found in trade journals or general business news see Dess Chapter 2

Concentrated versus fragmented, competitive intensity, consolidations vertical, consolidations horizontal, ownership changes, effects of the items in the environmental scan (above), Porters 5-forces considerations, and other. Note recent changes, new entrants, departures, Suggest projections.

As noted above, the NAICS Code for this industry is xxxxxx. Our company operates within the xxxxx segment of that industry. In this report, we will define the industry for our business as the XXXXX industry. Trends in the industry segment include:

List your company and the companys two nearest competitors with citations to the websites provided

Company name

Location/description of competing business

Your company

Competitor 1

Competitor 2

Competitive scan source of data a general comparison of the company to others in the same industry

Relative strengths of our company versus their nearest competitors

Our company .

Relative weaknesses of our company versus their nearest competitors

Our company .

Opportunities currently and in the future in this industry

Changes will allow .

Threats currently and in the future in this industry

Changes will force .

Comparisons among the nearest competitors drawn from websites

The target of the report and its two nearest competitors >>>>

Our company

Competitor #1

Competitor #2

Breath of products

Narrow and targeted as shown on the website

Wide

Fragmented. See the companys description in brochures.

Pricing

High products/services process exceed those found on competitors price lists

Low

Unclear

Logistics other than products

Marketing and selling

Product support

Procurement

Technology

Human resources

Development of new products and features .

Financial projections. This section is not practical for many assignments.

Conclusion and recommendation

Succinct statement and discussion of each conclusion. The support for that conclusion is noted above. The key points here are used in the opening Executive Summary section.

1) Re-direct their marketing efforts Based on the discussion above, the nature of consumers has shifted to .

2) Limit their product offering to include.

3) Move into the market where growth is .

Implementation plan not practical for pre-course assignment

Hardware and software needs: Total costs: $

Personnel needs, payroll expense, and training:

Timing to implement The time to acquire and set-up the hardware is one month. During that month, new personnel can be recruited. The loading of the items on to the Internet sales platform will take about 3 months. Limited sales can start during that period. Full sales would be achieved after approximately 6 months.

References:

List at least 20 references in APA style. See Appendix 2 in Dess for general categories of references in this field. References tied to the specific company and industry is critical. For the pre-class assignment 6-8 easily accessible references are expected. Each reference should have been cited in a retrievable manner (author name, year and page number) in the text pages above, with full description noted here.

Demographic data ...

Local data

Industry data

Company data

Web-shots of competing businesses

Appendices

This section is not practical for the pre-course assignment.

Include historical financial information, product literature, commentaries by other stock analysts, and other items. A limit of 35 pages applies here. For references, use APA style and not page number. Heavy use of well-described web references is expected. A list of at least 10-20 specific references that include page number is expected here. Make sure that they are also referenced in the body of the report. Also include your signed proposal letter here.

Binding of the final project

This section is expected for the final course project only.

A professional looking report is expected. A clear-covered, flat (no ring binders), 3-hole binding system featuring an artistic cover-page is preferred. Consider section dividers named as above. A printed version the PowerPoint slides is included in this section.