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College Hill Situation Analysis
Project Objective:
The report is to be a situation analysis for the
College Hill area of Texarkana, AR.
The neighborhood association has been making headway with internal efforts to
make direct improvements in the quality of life for College Hill residents -
tearing down dilapidated buildings, decreasing crime, increasing activities in
neighborhood centers, and such.
Our concern, however, is with assessing the impact of external forces that could
be creating both opportunities and threats to this area.
Our target audience, then, is anyone interested in taking proactive steps to shape the
future of this area, including at least the neighborhood association and city
administrators (Arkansas side).
Your situation analysis should result in a strategy that matches the area's
competitive strengths with changes that are expected in the dynamic external
environment of College Hill.
The College Hill area of Texarkana, AR was at one time a prestigious part of
Texarkana.
The original Texarkana College was located at the east end of College St.,
giving this area its name.
The core of the area that we are calling College Hill is bounded by Dudley St.
on the north, East St. (71) on the west, Forest St. on the south, and County
Club Rd / S. Oat St. on the east.
The busiest streets in College Hill are East St., Division Ave. (196),
Ferguson St., and Dudley St.
The major gateways into this area are East St. on the northeast corner of
College Hill, Dudley St. on the northeast corner, and Division Ave. (196) on the
east side coming off of Rte. 245 (the future I-49 corridor).
A Yahoo! map of College Hill (search on Bramble Park as the center point) can be
found H E R E.
Some Important Rules:
Please take special precautions if you discuss this project
with anyone outside of the class.
Some information that has been or will be distributed or discussed in class
might be confidential.
Equally important, we do not want anyone outside of the class to be misled by
our activities, especially since several organizations in Texarkana are working
on similar sorts of issues.
We must be especially careful that anyone outside of our class understands that
this is a learning exercise for the class and that the university otherwise has
no special association with the project or anyone who might come to speak
to our class about the project.
Please exercise restraint when expressing personal opinions about project issues
outside of our class meetings.
Do not make direct contact with any class clients or with anyone who has spoken
to our class; all questions and all responses must be funneled through the
professor.
Since this has caused problems in the past, you will immediately be dropped from
the course if you do so.
For a variety of reasons, you are prohibited from conducting primary research
excepting some kinds of observational research that would not reveal the nature
of our project.
You might, for example, stand on a street corner to count customer traffic,
but you may not call businesses or competitors for an interview and you may not
conduct a formal survey.
This latter issue has caused serious enough problems in the past that I will
immediately drop you from the course if I have reason to suspect that you have
interviewed or surveyed competitors, business leaders, or prospective buyers.
(Engaging in these activities could, for example, jeopardize relationships with
business school clients, could jeopardize relationships with university donors,
or could jeopardize our school's federal funding.)
General Report Structure:
All reports must have some sort of introduction that explains the nature,
focus, and objective of the client and of the report to the reader.
The body of all reports must in some way address opportunities and
threats in the environment and address the strengths and
weaknesses of our client or project.
All reports must also end with some sort of recommendation.
That is, the report should lead to some speculation regarding the outlook for
our client's project, the direction that should be set, and possibly some
suggestions regarding how strategy for this project can be implemented (some
issues of tactics).
Although some sort of recommendation is required, most of the text of the
report will be associated with a scan and assessment of the current
environment that logically leads to a recommendation.
Note that a report that ends with a negative outlook can be as valuable as a
report that ends with a positive outlook, although you are charged with finding
a solution if one exists.
The Assignment:
- This is a real world assignment.
The written report will be scored in large part on the professor's perception of
the usefulness and acceptability of the report to the real client within the
framework that this is to be a situation analysis.
A common problem is that students tend to include irrelevant and inappropriate
material in a report to show evidence that some particular concept has been
learned in the course.
Note that a minimal requirement is that reports be relatively free of
problems of grammar, spelling, typing, and such.
Do not fabricate material for the sake of creating a report.
Again, remember that this is not a creative writing assignment but is a technical
writing assignment.
- The exact format of the finished report is of your own choosing.
Although a suggested format for a situation analysis is attached for guidance,
it is not necessary that this be followed exactly.
HOWEVER, the attached outline does cover the major issues that are generally
important in such an analysis; whatever format that you choose must be appropriate
for this assignment.
Other published formats commonly called "situation analysis,"
"market analysis,"
"environmental analysis," "business plan,"
and such might or might not be appropriate and acceptable.
No two finished reports would be the same, and it is unlikely that a report
could ever be constructed to exactly fit an imposed outline.
- ALL facts in the report must be substantiated except those that are
obviously common knowledge.
This necessarily requires that the source of each and every piece information be
cited.
Watch for statements that lend themselves to red-ink comments such as,
"says who" or "I disagree."
For example, if a statement is made that the local economy is likely to get better
or worse over the next five years, then the report MUST indicate the source of
this expectation.
Additionally, related questions associated with substantiating this statement
might have to be answered, e.g., Who expects this?
How did this person or organization or publication arrive at this expectation?
How many others agree with this expectation? How many others disagree?
If the speculation is your own, be sure that it is substantiated with charts,
graphs, tables, or figures that indicate the source of the information contained
therein.
- Information sources must be as close to the original source as possible.
For example, reporting population statistics that you found on a Chamber of
Commerce or real estate agency Web site is not appropriate in a professional
report and these third-party compilations are very often in error.
Such statistics are easily obtained directly from Census Bureau and you have
absolutely no excuses for not citing directly to an exact page at this original
source.
- You are required to cite all sources of information.
A less obtrusive method of citing in a business report is to list the references
at the end of the report in a numbered list: List all sources at the end of the
report in alphabetical order.
Number them in this order, starting the list with number 1.
Whenever a statement is made that must reference that source, indicate the
source by a number in parentheses after the statement, like this (12).
Note that the first time in a report that a source is referenced, the number is
not necessarily (1), the second is not necessarily (2), etc.
Also note that the same source may appear multiple times in the same report,
like this (23).
If several sources support the same statement, they should all be included like
this (4, 7, 12, 15); a greater number of sources often strengthens an assertion.
If several statements are made in the same paragraph that use the same source,
list that source only once after all such statements within a single paragraph.
That is, do not source this (8) and this again (8) for two separate issues that
are included in the same statement.
- If you cite information that was obtained from a Web site, your reference
list must provide a complete URL to the exact page that you cite.
Since Web pages sometimes disappear, you must also indicate the date on which
you accessed the page.
(Assume that I WILL look up those references to verify information and that I
will seek out cached and archived pages if I cannot find them.
The more work you make for me, the lower your grade.)
For more information on citing Web sources, see a recent style manual such as
APA - this information can be found online if your notes and books from a
writing course are getting too old.
- You must submit a folder with your report which contains a copy of any
documents that you reference.
For example, if you reference demographic statistics which were obtained from
the US Census web site, then you must include a printed copy (clearly identified)
of the web page which contained that information.
- As a point of reference, an environmental report for a large established
industry could be 20-30 pages in length.
However, the practical usefulness of an environmental report is not necessarily
a function of its weight.
Different people have different writing styles; different perspectives on the
organization might require more or less detail in analysis.
Different time constraints and working environments also would necessarily yield
more or less detail.
There are times when no stone should be left unturned; this is not one of those
times.
Neatness (defined as good grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.), however, is
always important in business writing.
A minimal requirement of the report is that it be free of blemishes in
grammar, spelling, and such.
You are asked to submit a report that is no more than 20 pages in length, but
you are not asked to necessarily reach that limit.
- Please do not use any sort of report folders for the report that you
submit to me; use plain white paper with a single staple in the top left corner.
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