Vicarious Consulting $-$ Business Models

Start Date $-$ Week $1$ of the semester; End date: Last week of the semester

There will be regular announcements reminding you to make progress on this assignment.

Welcome to your first MBA experiential learning project. What you learn in the MBA program will have the expected impact when you are able to apply the concepts learned to real$-$life scenarios. In this course, you came across several examples of companies and business scenarios. Now you are expected to find your own scenario. One approach is to observe the business happening around you, in your environment. Analyze this business and come up with observations and recommendations from an MBA student's point of view. This assignment will help you demonstrate your business functional area knowledge and critical thinking skills.

Step $1$:

Identify a local business $($retail store, bar, restaurant....$),$ not a national chain. Observe the business from the vantage of a customer, which means you need to visit the business, consider purchasing $($even if you don$$t actually purchase$).$ Do not talk to the owner of the business right away and identify the purpose of your visit $($i$.$e$.$ writing a paper$).$ Try to develop an understanding of the business model $-$ what are the sources of revenue, what could be the costs, what is the nature of customer service, what are the features of the business, the facility etc.

Step $2$:

Write a description of the business model. Then come up with some ideas that have an effect on:

Sales

Costs

Margins

Step $3$:

Consider yourself as the owner of the business:

Identify a problem $($opportunity$)-$ Evaluate the opportunity based on desirability and feasibility.

Come up with your solution.

Seek feedback from your instructor.

Step $4($After feedback from instructor$)$:

Share your report with the business owner $($optional$).$ Seek feedback and revise your report. No limit$,$ but I do not expect more than $3$ pages.

Prepare a presentation of your report $($record your audio$)$ and submit the report along with your presentation $($PPT$/$Google Slides$)-10$ minutes for the presentation.