5.1 Assignment Part 1: The Business (50% of Overall Grade)
The Rules are as follows:
• Split students into 2 teams
• Set up a business that uses an ICT element to sell either a product or service online
• The maximum groups are allowed to invest in the business is £20 (113 AED) – to limit risk
• On week 1 students will split into groups and begin discussing ideas
• On week 2 the finalised business projects will be signed off by the course coordinator
• By Week 3 the businesses should be operational
Remember the goal for each team is to raise as much money with the business and then donate profits to a charitable organisation of their choice (The receipt MUST be attached to the final report).
Each week there will be a one hour workshop to review the progress of the business on areas;
• From idea to opportunity
• Cashflow Forecasting
• Marketing and sales networking
• Competitor analysis
• Operations and logistics
• Importance of the brand
The final hour of each lecture will be dedicated to and designed as a workshop providing guidance on the business process, setting tasks for students to complete as well as tackling issues such as idea viability, value proposition, business ethics and professional responsibility. For example;
 Register Your Domain Name (approx. £5 – 30 AED)
 Establish Your Company Name or Brand
 Build Your Own Website/Social Media Platform
 Secure Online Credit Card Payments
 Web Hosting for Your Online Shop
 Marketing, Marketing, Marketing
These sessions will be employed to support student groups in the endeavour of value creation. Feedback and feed forward systems will be used to review, correct and enhance progress during the value challenge. The first hour or two of the lectures will be designed to offer you current academic thinking on key concepts of theories. Lectures will be linked to staff research, and will involve use of casework and research generated by academic researchers. In some cases guest speakers will be invited to give industry perspectives. In addition the lectures will be interactive and student centric with students taking lead roles in designing and leading debates. The assignment overall is designed to:
1. Encourage development of an entrepreneurial mind-set and ethical awareness.
2. Develop social capital with external communities and bring value to all involved.
3. Enhance communication practices by improving dialogue between students, academe and business
4. Create a work related and entrepreneurial learning environment for the twenty-first century business school
5. Create fruitful collaborations for business that is grounded in social learning principles which are ethical and teach principles for sustainable business. Internationalisation:
Students following this module will develop the following core transferable skillsets: Information: analysis, retrieval, evaluation, knowledge contextualization and interpretation Cognitive self: creativity, decision making, self-awareness and ethical responsibility, negotiation, intellectual capacity.

5.2 Assignment Part 2: The Individual Report (50% of Overall Grade)
The second part of the assignment is the individual management report on the business, and a critical reflection of the process of setting up the business over the ten weeks. The report should be a maximum of 2500 words (word count excludes appendices, tables, figures, diagrams etc…) and should include a thorough analysis of;
1) The business
2) The current strategy selected by the business, and
3) A reflection on the process of set-up
In addition consider the following questions;
1. Who we are? (Type of business, industry etc…)
2. What we do? (What type of business is it? Products/services, consumer markets etc…)
3. How we do it? (What strategy does it follow?)
4. Why we do it? (The underlying assumptions upon which the business is based)
5. Where we do it? (What markets does it serve?)
6. How well we do it (Evaluate the business performance)
7. What improvements we could make? (To strategy, to brand identity, to supply chain etc…)

Ultimately while you are evaluating the business your also looking at what you would do differently.
NOTE: Avoid using first person tense in the report (No I, We, Me, My view).

The report must be complete with executive summary, a reference section and appendices therefore you may well want to undertake some searching of websites, journal articles, textbook and newspapers for additional information. Remember to keep note of all sources of information and ensure appropriate referencing in your report. Marks will be deducted for exceeding the word count.
Please submit your assignment to the AAO Office no later than 12pm on Tuesday 26th November (Week 11). You must also submit the final version of your assignment to Turnitin by midday (12pm) on the same day.
NOTE: Full referencing and attribution of sources is expected at all times; failure to adhere to university guidelines on referencing and plagiarism will result in your assignment being referred to the University’s Disciplinary Committee.