In Class Participation Grade (10%)

Business Reading (case studies)

Professor Warden

Office hours (D814): Thursdays 10:30-15:00

Class times: Mondays 10:10-11:00 & Thursday 3:30-5:20

Office Phone: 332-3000 ext. 4364
Email:

Textbooks (can be purchased through the Caves Books): Case Studies in International Management by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno

Handouts: Marketing data and cases extracted from Marketing an Introduction (Fourth Edition), by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong. Organizational structure data and cases extracted from Organization Theory (Third Edition) by Stephen P. Robbins. Financial data extracted from Managerial Finance (Ninth Edition), by J. Fred Weston and Thomas E. Copeland.

More information can be found on each company by accessing their WWW sites.

Course Goal:

This class sets the foundation for AFL students to understand management concepts and to obtain a firm grasp of the vocabulary involved. The class uses case study method to concentrate on special topics in international management, including culture, finance, accounting, marketing, ethics, and international organizational structure. A special emphasis is always placed on the international and intercultural aspects of business. When complete, this class will give students a base from which more specialized classes in international business can be studied. Since all material and case studies are presented in English, as well as all reports, students will obtain a higher level of English for the specific topic of international management.

I.In Class Participation Grade (10%: starts at 80 points)

A.Subtracting 5 points

1)Being late, or absent without a school approved excuse.

2)Failing to respond to questions in class.

3)Not prepared for class.

4)Being disruptive during other students’ presentations or questions.

5)Sleeping in class.

6)Using class time to prepare work due in class (this work should have been prepared ahead of time).

7)Using class time to prepare work for other classes.

B.Adding 5 points (up to 100)

1)Actively participating in class.

2)Asking questions, during question time, of other student’s presentations.

3)Asking questions of the teacher.

4)Being well prepared for class.

5)Gathering, and presenting to class, information related to the class topic which you have found through your own research.

II.Weekly Assignments and/or Quizzes (20%)

A.Complete Readings

All readings from texts and handouts must be completed before class. During a class, we may have a quiz that includes material covered in the readings. This includes memorizing all vocabulary presented in the readings and the important points of the readings.

Please keep in mind that this class is fundamentally a reading class for English business material. This means you are expected to read, read and read! If you start early, you will have no problem. But if you fall behind, you will have much difficulty to catch up again.

B.Book & Handout Exercises

The books and handout material includes many exercises. Completion of these exercises is the way you practice the skills we cover in class. Without practice you cannot improve your abilities. To this end, exercises from the books and handouts will be assigned each week. During class I may check that the exercises have been completed. Full points will be given to those who completed the exercises, irregardless of accuracy, while no points will be given to those who did not complete the exercises.

III.Case Presentations (20%)

A.Group Presentations

Make a 15 minute presentation that presents the case, expands on the case (using information from the business readings and/or outside material) and presents a solution. These cases have no right or wrong answer, but you must base any ideas you have on solid business information. Data presented in the cases is often not enough, which means you need to build on the case yourself. Make sure any assumptions you make are sound and follow other cases found in our readings.

When considering the cases, you should take the perspective that you have been hired as consultants to the relevant business. Your presentation is to the top managers of the firm. This means that if you say the company should cut costs, then you must present exactly why costs should be cut, how much should be cut, where it should be cut from and what the expected result of the cuts will be. Who, When, Where, Why are the key ideas to go after. But remember everything must stay in the business context based on the readings.

When your group presents, you must submit a completed group presentation preparation form, with each group member’s signature. This form explains clearly what each group member contributed to the presentation.

These individual presentations are very important to help you practice for the midterm and final presentations. Without practice, you will not be able to perform well during the big final presentation!

IV.Final (50%)

A.Group Presentation

Make a 20 minute presentation on the final case; turn in a written report on your recommendations for the case. This presentation and report should include all the main topics covered in all the previous cases. The written report should include the major points of your presentation and may include more details. The final report must be of high quality and bound at a printers. It should include a bibliography or endnote references.

V.Extra Credit (up to 5 pts on final grade)

THIS IS AN OPTIONAL EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT

Write a summary and analysis of an article from a business journal, language teaching journal or the Wall Street Journal. The article must be approved by me before you begin. Read the article, then, on your own, find one supporting article.

Must be five pages typed, double spaced.

The sixth page will be a bibliography (see your book English Mechanics on how to prepare a bibliography).

Copy both articles to A4 paper. Bind your  summary,  bibliography,  main article and  supporting article together. On the cover print articles’ names and other information as shown in example:

Marketing On the Internet: A Marketing Mix Perspective

Journal of Marketing

The Electronic Markets

European Journal of Marketing

Andy Chen

8533821

AFL Dpt.

Professor Warden

Class Schedule

Parts / Topics / Case / Notes
1 / FITZBURG TIRE COMPANY
Group presentations
2 / COMTEC CORPORATION
Group presentations
3 / HANOVER PUBLIC SYSTEMS
Group presentations
4 / INTERNATIONAL CARPET WHOLESALERS
5 / ASSAN MOTORS
Group presentations

Presentation Rating Form

Time / start on time / (out of 10)
end on time
English / pronunciation / (out of 10)
vocabulary
information accuracy
100% English
Case Facts / include facts from case / (out of 15)
case facts are well described
structure of case made clear
names & titles accurate
core situation understood
Business Background / data from readings used / (out of 15)
related data employed
aligns with present case
example firms & cases align with present case
Expanding / case is built upon / (out of 15)
assumptions make sense
outside data is brought in
Solution / (out of 20)
Bus. Data / clear & relevant / (out of 15)
applied bus. data used
outside data researched
TOTAL: / (out of 100)

Group Presentation Preparation Form (Submit with midterm and final presentations)

Group Name: / times attended group meetings outside of class / hours spent working on presen-tation / parts of presentation responsible for / signature
Members’ Names
(Number, English, Chinese)