CI7600 Business in Practice – Assessment AY 2015-16.
Main Assessment (essay)
You will individually (and all your own work, avoiding plagiarism) write an essay on the following:
From the range of UK business vehicles available, e.g. public company, private company, partnership, sole trader etc you should take two and compare and contrast these two different types of business structure for suitability for a new but potentially fast growing start up. You could justify why you have chosen these two from the range available using the techniques learnt in your formative exercise (decision matrix or similar).
Your theoretical startup/spinoff will probably be active in a Technical (“STEM”) area. If you wish to describe a start up in a non-STEM area, then discuss this with your lecturer first.
It is advised that you do not describe actual companies, but rather consider an abstract scenario. However you are welcome to illustrate specific points in your essay with reference to a real-life example and at each point you may give brief supporting details of your “case study” examples in an appendix.
The factors you should consider include a range of economic, international, technological, commercial and management issues which will influence the choice of business structure, especially if the activity is trans-national. You have covered all these topics in the module and the coursework will test if you have followed the lectures.
Your report body should not exceed 6,000 words and any appendix not more than 1,000 words.
Criteria: Each of the 9 criteria is worth up to 10% of your final mark.
1 Understand what different business vehicles are available in the UK, the relative merits of different business vehicles and the various corporate and personal taxation issues that may apply. Understand in broad strokes the process of new venture formation and the role of Companies House.
2 The need for obtaining adequate investment and working capital finance, the various financing options available like debentures, shares, options and warrants – both now and for the future. How to attract investment from e.g. Business Angels or Venture Capital.
3 Linking business planning to forecasting and budgeting: How to tackle the business planning process depending on the nature of the business structure and the likely finance requirements
4 Consider alternative management structures and how operations might be organised, a brief demonstration of understanding of some analysis tools.
5 How to formulate a marketing and sales strategy – particularly with regard to the markets and services and the resources required to achieve the desired level of revenue and profit
6 Labour and human resources issues – With particular emphasis on the ability to retain and incentivise key members of the team who are critical to the future success of the business, but also to other “publics”.
7 How to plan the relevant knowledge management and information management systems for “knowledge workers” and the possible impact of the digital revolution on future trading.
8 Legal, regulatory and compliance issues
9 Presentation: References, grammar, clarity and style

You will submit your main coursework to Studyspace by 21st December 2015 at 10.00 by upload to Turnitin. Submissions up to one week after this date will be capped at 50%, submissions over a week late will be marked for feedback only with 0%.