As the innovation consultant for your selected business, your first project is to assist the organization in improving its performance by analyzing its challenges and successes. Guiding your team, you must either generate a new product, service, or process, or update an existing product, service, or process as a resolution to the organization’s current challenge.  

Preparation

Perform a SWOT analysis for your selected business and use it to:

• Determine the need for change in your selected business.
• Identify 1 challenge within the business that you will address as part of your business plan.

Assessment Deliverable

Write a 525- to 700-word report for the department manager in which you:

• Include the SWOT analysis you conducted and your completed SWOT table.
• Analyze the current challenge you will address as part of your business plan.
• Justify how you determined the current challenge you will address as part of your business plan.
• Propose a solution (e.g., the introduction of a new or updated process, product, or service) for your business’s challenge. Note: This proposed solution will be used throughout the course assessments.
• Justify the implications of your recommended solution to enhance organizational outcomes.  
• Incorporate at least three properly cited sources with in-text citations from peer-reviewed Journal Articles (you will likely need more than three) in addition to any other non peer-reviewed references in accordance with Announcements #2, #4 and #6.

Remember that title and reference pages do not count toward word minimums.

Cite sources to support your summative assessment.

Format citations and references according to APA guidelines. 

TIP 1: BEFORE STARTING THIS ASSIGNMENT, REVIEW THE GRADING CRITERIA IN THE RUBRIC PAYING PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE PERCENTAGE OF THE GRADE FOR EACH SECTION.

TIP 2: For any claims that you make in your deliverable that are not common knowledge, make sure you properly cite where that statement/information came from. This is how all APA assignments should be done. This is what makes your documents academically credible; shows that your statements are supported by research (not uninformed opinions); and demonstrate an appropriate amount of rigor. So, the likelihood is that you will need more than three references.

TIP 3: Make sure to use in-text citations FOR EVERY REFERENCE to link your references to the statements you are citing.

I want to highlight some frequent mistakes I generally see in my classes as soon as possible to set everyone up for success for this course.

• All aspects of any briefing/paper must be in APA.

• This includes Title Page, Opening para, Body (with section headings), conclusion and reference page.

• Consistent margins/fonts/etc., proper in-text citations, and a properly formatted reference page.

• All briefings/papers must have at least three PEER-REVIEWED sources from an ACADEMIC JOURNAL.

• Using peer-reviewed sources enhances academic credibility by ensuring that the information presented has undergone rigorous evaluation by experts in the field. Peer review involves subjecting scholarly work to scrutiny by other professionals with relevant expertise before it is published. This process helps to maintain high standards of quality and reliability in academic literature by verifying the accuracy, validity, and significance of the research findings. As a result, citing peer-reviewed sources strengthens the credibility of academic arguments, demonstrating that the information has been vetted and endorsed by the scholarly community. This practice promotes trustworthiness and integrity in academic discourse, reinforcing the foundation of knowledge upon which further research and understanding are built.

• Body of the Paper/Briefing: For each assignment, you need to have a section heading/slide that directly corresponds/aligns to the bullet points in the assignment instructions. So, if the assignment has 5 bullet points to address, your paper/briefing should have 5 section headers/slides that match up with those assignment requirements (don’t cut/paste the bullet points into the paper, turn them into a proper heading).

• Don’t forget the intro para and a conclusion

• If you do this, the chance of getting a good grade is increased exponentially. It will keep you from leaving anything out

• Most important…answer/address the bullet points. DO NOT skimp on detail. Speaker notes should be a solid/robust paragraph or two. A few sentences will not be sufficient.

• Support your opinions with APA sources from the UoP Library, they have everything you need. Use proper in-text citations.

• Remember that title and reference pages do not count toward word minimums.
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