He purpose of this assignment is for you to: Discuss with a manager of a business how economic issues impact the business. To gather information for the paper, you will interview a business manager who: Is responsible for making decisions with a time horizon of at least 6–12 months. Makes decisions that impact the expansion or contraction of the capacity of the business, for example, hiring and layoff decisions, building new facilities, and long-term ordering of materials and supplies. You will then write a paper discussing the interview PROCEDURE: Conduct an interview with the manager you have selected. Ask the following open-ended questions and take notes so that you can write your essay discussing the manager’s answers: What business are you in? What is the history of your company? What are your expectations: About the economic environment over the next one year? (Be sure to cover interest rates, the business cycle, and differing expectations about the local, state, and national economies.) About how the expected economic environment is likely to affect your business? Is your business most affected by changes in the local, state, or national economy? In what ways? What are some of the key problems your industry is experiencing currently? What is currently working well for your company? Pricing: What are your expectations about how your prices will change over the next one year? Do you expect them to go up or down or to stay the same? Why? What do you expect will happen to prices your suppliers charge? (Be sure to ask about the costs of labor, materials, rent, and the products they purchase to resell.) What do you expect will happen to prices your competitors will charge? What are the issues you consider in deciding whether or not to expand your business? How much does your decision depend on the economy? Why? How much does your decision depend on the specific environment of your business? In what ways? If you wanted to invest to expand your business, where would you go to obtain the necessary funding? The impact of government: What, if any, government actions or policies would help your business expand? What specific local, county, state, or federal policies impact your business (positively and negatively)? Hiring: What is most important to you in finding new employees? What types of employees are difficult to find? What skills and qualities are you looking for in employees? What skills are difficult to find? FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS Write a paper of 1200–1500 words that summarizes and discusses the interview results. Double-space the paper and use 12 pt. font Cite all sources used in the correct APA format. Please label the file for your paper by using the following naming convention: lastname.firstname.602.interview. Be specific about how economic issues affect this business. Include in the paper a description of the business and your assessment of the outlook toward the business over the next one year. Note that this assignment asks you to write a paper in which you want to discuss the information you obtained in your interview (it is NOT a restatement or a summary of the interview). A critical component of the written paper is your interpretation and assessment of the information gathered from the interview. When writing the paper, consider whether what the manager said makes sense to you. Are the manager’s views consistent with what you are learning in the course? You will find that many businesspeople are good at their business and surprisingly poor at economics. So don’t be afraid to evaluate what they say. GRADING CRITERIA: Interview Paper—Grading Criteria Writing Style Issues (40%) Structure—Does the paper have a logical flow, introductory and closing paragraphs, and headings and subheadings, wherever required? Spelling and grammar Mechanics—Punctuations and citations Documentation (where applicable) Presentation Content Issues (60%) Breadth of analysis Depth of analysis Conceptual understanding
