1

A4


SALFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF





Module Title


Management Simulation

Level 6
Title of Assignment

Business Plan
Programmes
undertaking the
assignment

BSc (Hons) Business and Management suite of programmes
Hand-out date
24/09/12
Hand-in date
Business Plan Monday 10
th
December 11am
Amendments document Monday 18
th
February 11am
Weighting within the
module

50%
Word limit/presentation
criteria
Business Plan; 3,00010% words, plus appendices and list of
academic and business references. A 10% penalty will be imposed
for every 300 words over the word limit.
Amendments; 1000 words 10%. No appendices.

Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding
Formulate, review and appraise corporate mission
statements, strategy and objectives;
Analyse and evaluate market information in order to
develop coherent business plans;
Explain and analyse inter-relationships between
operational decisions and their impacts in areas such as
marketing, production, quality, product development,
logistics, and HRM;
Critically assess the usefulness of a range of management
tools in various organisational contexts.
2


Key Skills to be
practised
Transferable/Key Skills and other attributes
Work effectively in a team;
Negotiate with and persuade peers;
Plan and manage time effectively;
Formulate, implement, review and appraise plans and
decisions in an uncertain and dynamic environment;
Present the rationale for, and appraisal of team decisions
both verbally and in writing;
Reflect on individual and team performance as a basis for
personal learning.
Details of the task
1. Prepare a business plan for your management teams business
for submission in week 12 (see below for details regarding
content and structure).
2. Receive verbal feedback in week 19 (week 1 semester 2).
3. Write an amendments document identifying what you would
change about your original plan and fully justifying the changes.
You should not make changes to the plan itself.

Constraints and Assumptions:
The business must be a Pizza Shop.
You, as a management team, need to decide what kind of
Pizza Shop you want to develop.
Your location is fixed, as allocated in your workshop.
You are not in competition with the other teams in your
workshop, even if they have been allocated a neighbouring
address.
For the purposes of this exercise, treat the premises as
though they are empty. You do not need to allow for ripping
out the current shop!
The premises are connected to all the usual utilities, i.e.
gas, water, electricity, telephone/internet.
The business will open on 1
st
January 2013. All forecasts
should start from this date.
The start-up equity capital is 40,000.
You may look for alternative sources of equity and/or
transactional capital as would any other company in the
UK, if needed. If you succeed in this, you have to provide
evidence of obtaining funds or lines of credit, i.e. bank letter
or similar, to be attached in the appendices of your business
plan.

Content:
Your business plan should contain the following elements:

Executive summary of your business proposition;
Current position (to include an environmental analysis and
internal position assessment; key assumptions and
constraints);
Strategy including vision, mission, objectives, sources of
competitive advantage, stakeholders, KPIs, as well as a
review of competition, major risks and uncertainties, and
contingency plans;
Products offered, market opportunities, marketing strategy
and customer base;
Operations considerations including shop layout,
production levels, service process, handling stock,
3


Products offered, market opportunities, marketing strategy
and customer base;
Operations considerations including shop layout,
production levels, service process, handling stock
assessing risks, procurement and logistics;
HR considerations; staffing requirements, training, pay or
reward system, health & safety and other risks;
Financing requirements, sources of finance, budgeted set-
up costs and financial projections;
Legal considerations including the form of business,
licensing, IPR.

The operational projections and cash flow forecasts should cover
the first year on a monthly basis, i.e. 12 monthly statements, and
then the following 2 years on an annual basis. The profit & loss
projections should be done annually for 3 years. The budgeted
set-up costs are presented as a one-off statement.

These projections and forecasts should be presented in an
appendix and also submitted as an Excel file on CD based on the
template supplied on the module Blackboard site. We would
encourage you to modify this to suit your planning needs.
Assessment criteria
Peer Scores;
Team members will be asked to complete a confidential peer
assessment form. There will be 100 points to be allocated to the
members of the team on the basis of their relative contributions to
the overall outcome. These points will be used to distribute the
team marks for assignment 1 to individual team members. For
example, in a team with a mark of 60%, an individual member
with a total of 110 points would score 60% x
110
/
100
= 66%. The academic team reserve the right to amend the
peer assessment points in the light of overall equity based on
evidence of individual participation and contribution in class and
on the group pages on Blackboard. There will be lectures in
semesters 1 & 2 to help you to prepare for this element of the
assessment process.

Your attention is also drawn to the School policy on plagiarism
and referencing and you should make reference to the University
study guide web site www.edu.salford.ac.uk/studyskills

See overleaf for the detailed Business Plan assessment criteria
4


Assessment Criteria Weighting

Assessment of macro and micro-economic environments:
PESTEL, SWOT and any other assessments which you
deem to be appropriate.


10%
Your companys strategy:
Type of strategy, with its justification;
Vision, mission, objectives, sources of competitive
advantage, stakeholders, KPIs, as well as a review of
competition (offerings and pricing, assessment of
capabilities), major risks and uncertainties, and
contingency plans;
Degree to which your strategy integrates the various
business functions.






30%
Marketing considerations:
Market research and review of your customer base;
Products and services offered;
Branding, positioning (USP) and marketing mix



10%

HR considerations:
Staffing requirements and training;
Reward system;
Health & Safety and other risks



10%
Operations considerations:
Shop layout; Hours of operation; Production levels;
Service process;
Handling stock; Procurement and logistics;
Assessing risks.



10%
Financial considerations:
Overview of sources of financing ;
Budgeted set-up costs;
Cash Flow Forecasts (1 year monthly + 2 years annual);
Profit & Loss projections (3 years annual).



10%
Legal considerations:
Form of ownership/business;
Intellectual property rights;
Licences, permits, and Insurances.



10%
Structure, presentation, referencing of academic and business
sources/data.

10%
5

Grade Descriptors for Level 6

LEVEL OF
PERFORMANCE
%
MARK

CRITERIA



Outstanding



100-90
Demonstrates a mastery of a complex body of
knowledge and the ability to use such knowledge in an
innovative and creative manner to develop new
insights and relate these to the particular
circumstances of the situation under consideration.




Excellent




89-80
Demonstrates an excellent understanding of a complex
body of knowledge and the ability to analyse and
synthesise knowledge, reflect on the application of
theory in practice and to use these skills to develop an
argument which is well structured, clearly justified and
relevant to the particular circumstances of the situation
under consideration.



Very good



79-70
Demonstrates a good understanding of a complex
body of knowledge and the ability to analyse and
synthesise knowledge from a range of appropriate
sources. Is able to develop an argument which is
clearly justified, justifiable and relevant to the particular
circumstances of the situation or task in hand.




Good




69-60
Demonstrates a detailed understanding of the subject
and an ability to compare and contrast information
obtained from a range of appropriate sources. Is able
to apply knowledge to specific scenarios in an
appropriate manner and can develop an argument
which is clearly justified and relevant to the task in
hand.



Fair



59-50
Displays a reasonable understanding of the subject
with evidence of some appropriate reading.
Demonstrates some attempt to analyse and evaluate,
but may lack the ability to develop a well structured
argument which is sufficiently focused on the task in
hand.



Adequate



49-40
Displays an understanding of the basics, but mainly
descriptive with limited evidence of analysis or
evaluation. May be rather general in scope. Lacks the
ability to develop a logical argument focused on the
task in hand.

Unsatisfactory

39-30
Demonstrates only partial understanding of the basics.
Work addresses some of the obvious features of the
task but fails to reach the required standard.

Poor

29-20
Inadequate and inaccurate knowledge displayed with a
poor ability to interpret the task in hand. Limited effort
and planning evident.

Very poor

19-10
Virtually no relevant knowledge displayed. No apparent
structure or meaningful discussion.

Extremely poor

9-1
Totally inadequate attempt, virtually nothing of
relevance to the question.
No attempt 0