INTEGRATED SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT
(FINC 300, INFO 300, MGMT 300, MKTG 300)
DUE: December 6, 2019
INSTRUCTIONS:
The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the
finance, operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate
their functioning in the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well
you understand this integration. It is worth 10% of your course grade.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT IS TO ANSWER ALL OF THE QUESTIONS, IN A SEPARATE
DOCUMENT FOR EACH OF THE 300 COURSES.
• The assignment should be prepared as a Word document, 3-4 pages in length for each
discipline’s questions.
• The document should be double-spaced, using Arial font #12.
• Add any Appendices at the end of the Word document.
• Upload the appropriate Word file through the link on Canvas to each of your Integrated
Semester courses separately by the due date (i.e. the Marketing assignment should be
uploaded to the Marketing class only).
• Your reference sources, in addition to the base case and question sets, should be online
sites and articles, Bloomberg terminals, your Integrated Semester textbooks, PowerPoint
slides, and other sources you professor assigns.
• Turnitin, a software tool that improves writing and prevents plagiarism, will be used to
assess your sourcing of information. Do your own work.
Please read the instructions carefully before beginning to answer the questions. Contact
your instructor if you don’t understand the assignment’s directions or requirements. The
assignment must be submitted as instructed. You will lose points if you fail to follow the
instructions or if the submission is formatted incorrectly.
2
FINANCE ASSIGNMENT
Please answer the questions below. Use either the Bloomberg terminals located at the
Feliciano School of Business or other reputable sources such as the SEC website,
finance.yahoo.com, Compustat, morningstar.com or Wall Street Journal etc. for the financial
data you use in your answers. You need to provide the references regarding the financial
data you use to support your answers at the end of the finance portion of the term paper.
Questions:
1. Expanding the number of stores in a foreign market, such as the expansion plan
launched by Starbucks in China (announced in 2018), is a major capital budgeting
project. A project of this scale requires coordinated planning across all functions of a
business that you are studying in your Integrated Core classes. Choose and discuss
three items on the income statement and balance sheet (a total of six items) that you
think this new undertaking will effect. Explain why you chose those particular items,
and how the marketing, management and operations decisions of the company will
affect them.
2. Choose and calculate three ratios for Starbucks for the last two years. Make sure to
select ratios that you think that expanding into a new market will effect, and explain
your reasoning. Identify a competitor of Starbucks and contrast these three ratios for
the two companies. Explain why you selected this competitor. Describe how the
decisions made by management, marketing and operations functions of the company
can impact, and hopefully improve, the components of firm operations that these
financial ratios measure.
3. Explain how the financial decisions regarding opening a new store are related to
management, marketing or operations decisions that the company must make (or has
made)?
3
OPERATIONS ASSIGNMENT
Starbucks has developed a new coffee which uses some standard and some new
ingredients. It believes this coffee could become wildly popular with its younger customers
but wants to test market it in a few stores in key locations around the country to assess
customer reaction.
You are the manager of a Starbucks store that has been selected for this test marketing.
a. You have full responsibility for the success of the test market at your store. Write a
memo outlining the preparations that you will have to make at your store before the start of
the test marketing. Your memo should focus on at least four of the following issues: staffing,
training, equipment, supplies, store layout, quality, customer service, etc. (750 words)
b. Describe any interactions you would have with managers at Starbucks Finance,
Marketing, and HR as you get ready for the start of the test-marketing in your store. For what
issues would you need their help and support? (250 words).
4
MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT
1. Starbucks has been identified as one of the best places to work according to
employee rankings and job posting websites. It has also earned a number of top
customer service accolades and many of these recognitions result from Starbucks’
human resource management practices. Describe how Starbucks’ human resource
management practices enabled them to build their culture and become a successful
company.
2. Starbucks’ strategy often enabled the company to successfully compete in a heavily
saturated market of coffee shops and eateries. Describe Starbucks’ strategy. What are
some key elements of their strategy that enabled them to maintain a competitive
advantage and keep customers?
3. As Starbucks’ business expands, it continually faces issues on how to keep customer
satisfaction high and maintain and attract business. How has innovation and change
specifically contributed to the success of the company? As the company grows larger,
what types of changes are being made to the structure, technology, and people in the
organization?
5
MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONS:
The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the
finance, operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate
their functioning in the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well
you understand this integration. This assignment will be dealing with STARBUCKS and has 2
parts.
Listed below you will find some WEAKNESSES and THREATS for Starbucks, read them
carefully then proceed to answer the questions that follow:
Starbuck Weakness:
