I-Core Project - Deliverable #1
See I-Core Overview sheet and/or syllabi for due date
I.
Format –
 Be sure to use professional language and proper writing techniques in all submissions.
Failure to communicate in a professional manner can result in a substantial downgrade.
 Each deliverable should start with your group name (letter and number), and a complete list
of all members.
o For each member indicate any attendance issues (have they missed any meetings?
When? Reason for absence? Did they give advance notice?) This includes all
absences since the beginning of the semester
o For each member list a personal strength and a personal weakness that pertains to
this group project. This is to be decided on by the group NOT the individual.
 Please use 12 font, 1½ line spacing with ‘normal’ margins.
 Charts and exhibits may be submitted within the document as needed. Material not part of
the discussion but necessary to conducting your analysis should be included as an appendix.
Each Deliverable should include a Works Cited page in proper format. Keep in mind ‘find
articles’, ‘Google’, etc. are search engines not sources.
II.
Submission
 Your deliverable must be submitted two different ways. It is important that you follow the
directions specifically for both. Failure to properly submit the assignment using both
methods will result in a 10% grade deduction.
 The 1st way it is to be submitted will be viewable to all your I-Core instructors.
o This deliverable is to be submitted as a Word document (not pdf, works, rtf, etc.)
under Assignments 2 on the Oncourse I-Core site.
o Name your file according to your group and which deliverable is being submitted
(i.e. “G2 Deliverable 1)
o Be sure to submit your file and not just save it. If you just save it, we will not be able
to see / access it. You will see a confirmation message once it has been successfully
submitted.
o Only the person submitting the deliverable will be able to see our comments. It is
that person’s responsibility to disseminate the information among the rest of their
group in a timely manner.
AND
 The 2nd way it is to be submitted is to email it to your Coaching Instructor only using their
IU email account.
o The subject line is to say: Deliverable
 Do not put a number after it; do not add anything to it; be sure to capitalize
the first letter and spell the word correctly
 Failure to do so may result in your email going to the instructor’s ‘junk’
folder.
o Again, send it only to your coaching instructor. The emails for all the instructors
are:
 Prof. Donahue – kdonahue@iupui.edu
 Prof. Ippolito – mippolit@iupui.edu
 Prof. Lee – pedalee@iupui.edu
 Prof. Roberson – wtrobers@iupui.edu
 Prof. Smith – jamcsmit@indiana.edu
III.
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Required Components
Company Contact Information (will use for every deliverable)–
o company name and address
o contact name and phone number/email address
o brief description of current product offering
o brief description of proposed product/service
Industry Analysis - Industry background (basic information about the business
segment/industry within which your proposed product/service would compete; this may be the
industry within which your context company presently competes or it may be a new—to your
context company—industry). Address the following issues:
o List and briefly describe the major players, especially in the geographic area the team is
targeting for their new product. What is each main competitor known for (core
competencies, reputation)?
o Briefly describe the existing structure of the industry. Is it characterized by lots of small,
independent outfits, is it dominated by one or two big players, or is the structure
something in between? How big are these (typical sales volume and/or range of sales
volumes)? Is there any significant influence from international competitors? From this,
what can you infer about the market shares of the existing competitors?
o Comment on growth rate of industry or of the major competitors. Have their sales
revenues been growing rapidly or slowly? (Bear in mind the effects of the recent /
current recession.) Do things change fast (e.g., smartphone industry) or not so fast (e.g.,
pizza delivery) in this industry? Have there been lots of new products introduced lately,
or has the product mix remained largely unchanged for several years? Are operations
processes subject to rapid technological change or is the technology reasonably stable
experiencing gradual change?
o Are the main competitors able to demonstrate product differentiation, or are the
products pretty much interchangeable making it more of a commodity industry? What
do the existing profit margins look like (usually low in a commodity industry; may have
higher margins if significant product differentiation exists)?
o Define whether your project is business-to-business sales or business-to-consumer
sales. How do the present market participants compete? Do they do lots of advertising
or not so much? Do they extend store credit (not third party credit, such as credit cards)
to their customers? Does each competitor have lots of physical locations, so the market
is well covered already, or are they geographically concentrated? How big a role does
personal service from a premium sales force play, vs. low-wage order-takers (e.g. Lexus
dealer vs. Domino's pizza)? (This issue will affect hiring plans and wage expense). Any
obvious recent examples of successful or failed strategies (e.g., Circuit City's failed
strategy of keeping wage costs down by having fewer salespeople in its stores, vs.
Target's successful approach to competing with Wal-Mart by offering nicer stores)?
o Is the industry capital intensive, requiring significant investment in store locations or
production facilities? Generally you find that industries with higher investment are
more likely to finance themselves with debt. Is maintenance of inventories an important
investment for your industry? Generally you find industries with greater inventory also
have more accounts payable. Greater capital and inventory requirements usually have
lower asset turnover. Are there publicly traded companies that offer a similar product
line? Identify this publicly traded sector or a comparable company. You may find the
financial statements of these companies helpful in answering the questions above and
understanding the financial implications for further analysis. If no direct public
competitors exist, select the industry/company that is most similar?

F301 – In Deliverable 1, you should summarize in words the main financial aspects of your
proposal. Deliverable 1 is where you tell a story. No numbers are required. Your document
should address the following topics:
o A short description of your proposed new product. One or two sentences will suffice.
o A list of the main items of equipment or other long-term assets which will be required.
o A short description of the main items which will show up as variable operating
expenses. For example, you might say that your cost of goods sold will consist mainly of
iron castings, or printing paper, or food.
o A short list of the additional personnel which you expect will be required, and the kind
of jobs they will perform. For example, you might say you will need one supervisor,
three people to wash cars, and a part-time accountant.
o Inventory required. What items will the company carry in inventory to support the sale
of this new product? Note that for certain kinds of new products, the answer may be,
“None.” Just make sure you can support that conclusion.
o The terms of the sale. Will sales be on a cash basis or will you extend credit to
customers? If you extend credit, what will be your credit terms? This, taken with the
point above, will impact the level of working capital required to support your project.
In addressing these topics, your document should be consistent with the statements you
make in your Marketing and Operations deliverables.
Your document for Deliverable 1 should be a businesslike document. This means:
 It should be written in complete sentences with no misspelled words and no errors of
English grammar or usage. (Short sentences are better than long ones.)
o Bullet points are OK, but they still should be complete sentences.
o If you are just presenting a list of items, you can just list the items. A list doesn’t
have to be in the form of a sentence.
 It should be typewritten, not handwritten. It should include the date, subject, team
designator, and the names of the team members.
 It should be no more than one page in length.
One final note:
o Do not assume the company has excess capacity. It is unlikely the company can
contribute space, employees’ time, use of existing equipment, accounting services, or
other resources to this project at no cost. Any assets or resources transferred to your
project must be paid for at market rates (no subsidies). When it comes time to put
together your spreadsheet of cash flows, if an asset or resource has a market value –
such as an existing employee’s time, or space on the existing property – that market
value must be charged to your project. Just because the value is hard to pin down
doesn’t mean the value is zero. At least show a reasonable estimate.

M301 – This is your opportunity to tell me your initial thoughts and concerns about the
marketing section. Do not try to figure out strategy at this point; it should all be based on what
best serves your target market. Requirements:
o Review any questions/concerns that were brought up regarding the marketing
component during the proposal discussion.
o Discuss who you are going to distribute your questionnaires to, how you are going to
distribute them (give this a lot of thought and maybe research. You will not be allowed
o
o
o
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on private property to distribute, that includes malls), and what type of information you
feel you will need from your questionnaires.
What research should you do before compiling your questionnaire and what is your
timeline for completing that research?
List of environmental trends broken up by category: Demographic, Cultural,
Political/Legal, Technological, Economic and Competitive. Remember that
environmental trends are external to the company and uncontrollable. When discussing
the Competitive environment you will need to identify direct and indirect competitors as
well as any trends occurring within the industry.
If any information you are providing for Marketing, or any of the other areas, overlaps
with information you are providing elsewhere, you do not need to repeat the
information but may refer the reader to the other discussion area. Be sure to do the
reference by page number.
P301 – In this section describe your initial ideas, thoughts, and concerns about operations
management. This section answers the “how” question. Given what you have proposed as a new
product or service, how will you accomplish this? What resources will you need to make this a
reality? Look at this as a chance to get a head start on the operations issues, recognizing that
they may change based on input from marketing.
o Make sure to address any concerns that arose in the proposal discussion.
o Discuss how you will make sure that your prospective customers get the product or
service that you propose. Visualize a customer walking into this new establishment.
What will you need to make sure that customer gets what they come in for?
o Will you need additional employees?
o What new equipment will be required? (vehicles, machinery, retail displays, food
preparation equipment, for example)
o What new facility (building, addition, renovation?)
o Do you know how to provide this service or will you and your employees need to be
trained?
o Will additional inventories be required? If so, what types?
o Where do you think you’ll get those inventories from?
o Will your process for providing your customer with this product or service change from
your existing process? If so, how? Will the process be an entirely new one? If so, what
type of process is it? Briefly describe it.