MBA 640 Final Project Milestone One Guidelines and Rubric 
 
Overview: The final project for this course is the creation of an external capital funding proposal. 
 
Most businesses face a landscape of uncertainty and a never-ending stream of risks and opportunities. Managers must continually project the likely financial
impact of decisions, make recommendations, act on those decisions, determine how to pay for them, and evaluate the costs and effectiveness of what has been
done. Many decisions are short-term, routine, and operational. Others are longer-term investment decisions that require substantial new resources, such as
developing new services, expanding into new geographic markets, or undertaking business combinations or spin-offs. Each requires managers to forecast, plan,
and make decisions based on a thorough understanding of both internal and external factors that can affect a company’s financial success.
 
For the summative assessment in this course, you will bring your finance and economics knowledge to bear by preparing an external capital funding proposal for
a major international investment at a publicly traded corporation. In order to secure the support of potential financial backers, your proposal will need to lay out
what the proposed investment opportunity is, how it fits within the company’s broader mission and goals, its financial impact, and the amount being requested
and why (including alternative funding mechanisms considered). In addition, it will also need to include information on the organization’s context, risk factors,
and microeconomic assumptions that could affect the success of the investment.
 
Prompt: You have already chosen the company you will use for your final project, and you have started a narrative description of your expansion project into
another country. In this milestone, you will build on that narrative description providing sufficient detail about the expansion, its costs, and its time frame to give
a loan committee a firm sense of the proposed investment. You will also analyze the impact of the investment proposal on your business by explaining why now
is the right time for this investment given the global context and by explaining how the investment is a good strategic fit with your company. This milestone
addresses all of Section II and Section III (Parts A and B only) of the final project.
 
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
 
II.  Investment Project: Use this section to describe the investment for which you are seeking funding, its costs, and time frame. Specifically, you should:
A.  Describe the investment project. Be sure to provide sufficient detail to give the loan committee a firm sense of the parameters of the activity, the
need for it, and what financial metrics are relevant for determining success. In other words, what do you propose to do, where, what marketplace
need will it fill, and how will you measure success? 
B.  Specify the resources the project will require and where these resources will come from. In addition to noting the amount of the loan you are
requesting, you should also consider human resources, facilities, government approvals, intellectual property, access to natural resources, and other
resources that might be required to carry out the project. 
C.  Time frame. When will the project start, what is the anticipated economic life of the proposed expansion, and how will you decide if, when, or how
to exit? Justify your choices with appropriate financial metrics. 
 
III.  Justification: In this section, you should analyze the impact of the investment proposal on your business. In particular, you should cover: 
A.  Why is now a good time for this investment given the global context? Justify your response, citing specific external factors such as trade regulations,
foreign currency considerations, or trends in foreign direct investment that might affect business financial decisions. 
B.  Strategic fit. Use this section to discuss why the investment proposal makes sense for your company strategically. Specifically:
1.  How does the investment align with the company’s organizational and financial priorities? Support your argument with evidence from
company reports and financial statement analysis designed to persuade the lender that the investment is a good strategic fit for your
company. 
2.  How does the project fit within the global microeconomic environment? Support your response with evidence. For example, would the
expansion tap unmet demand for the company’s key products or services or fill a new niche? How do you know? 
3.  How does the project build on the organization’s core competencies and comparative advantage? For example, does the company have a
strategic advantage from intellectual property, regional expertise, suppliers, or organizational structure? 
 
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your investment project and justification paper should be approximately 8-10 pages in length (excluding spreadsheets, other exhibits,
and list of references as necessary). It should be double-spaced with 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins, and should use APA format for
references and citations.
 
Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade Center. For more information,
review these instructions.
 
Critical
Elements
Proficient (100%)  Needs Improvement (75%)  Not Evident (0%)  Value
Investment
Project:
Describe
 
Describes investment project,
providing sufficient detail to give a
firm sense of the parameters of
activity, market need, and relevant
financial metrics for determining
success
Describes investment project, but
description lacks detail, contains
inaccuracies, or omits key
information on parameters, market
need, and relevant financial metrics
for determining success
Does not describe investment project   13
 Investment
Project:
Resources
 
Specifies resources required,
including amount of loan and other
physical and financial resources,
along with where resources will
come from
Specifies resources required,
including amount of loan requested,
other physical and financial
resources, and where resources will
come from, but response contains
inaccuracies or omits key details
Does not specify resources required   13 
Investment
Project: Time
Frame
 
Determines when project will start,
anticipated economic life, and exit
process, justifying choices with
appropriate financial metrics
Determines when project will start,
anticipated economic life, and exit
process, justifying choices with
financial metrics, but response
contains inaccuracies, omits key
details, or financial metrics are not
appropriate 
Does not determine when project
will start, anticipated economic life,
and exit process 
13
Justification:
Why Now
 
Evaluates why now is a good time for
this investment in the global context,
citing specific external factors that
might affect business financial
decisions in justifying response
Evaluates why now is a good time for
this investment in the global context,
citing specific external factors, but
response contains inaccuracies,
omits key details, or links to business
financial decisions are tenuous
Does not evaluate why now is a good
time for this investment in the global
context, citing specific external
factors that might affect business
financial decisions in justifying
response
13
Justification:
Strategic Fit:
Priorities
 
Persuasively argues how the
investment aligns with the
company’s organizational and
financial priorities, supported by
evidence from company reports and
financial statement analysis
Argues how the investment aligns
with the company’s organizational
and financial priorities, supported by
evidence, but argument is cursory,
illogical, contains inaccuracies, or is
poorly supported by evidence and
sound financial analysis
Does not argue how the investment
aligns with the company’s
organizational and financial priorities 
13
Justification:
Strategic Fit:
Microeconomic
 
Assesses how the project fits within
the global microeconomic
environment, supported by evidence
Assesses how the project fits within
the global microeconomic
environment, supported by evidence,
but response is cursory, poorly
supported, contains inaccuracies, or
links between microeconomic factors
and project are tenuous
Does not assess how the project fits
within the global microeconomic
environment 
13
Justification:
Strategic Fit:
Comparative
Advantage
 
Evaluates how project builds on
organization’s core competencies and
comparative advantage in explaining
why the project makes sense
strategically
Evaluates how project builds on
organization’s core competencies and
comparative advantage in explaining
why the project makes sense, but
response is cursory, contains
inaccuracies, or is only tangentially
related to strategic fit
Does not evaluate how project builds
on organization’s core competencies
and comparative advantage in
explaining why the project makes
sense strategically
13
Articulation of
Response
Submission has no major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors related
to citations, grammar, spelling,
syntax, or organization that
negatively impact readability and
articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors related
to citations, grammar, spelling,
syntax, or organization that prevent
understanding of ideas
9
Total  100%