Business Case Challenge

This subject is not offered in 2012.

Approximately 2.5 hours of personal study per hour of class time is required to achieve a satisfactory level of performance.

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements for this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject brings together students from different specializations in the Master of Management (accounting, finance, management, human resource management, and marketing) to work in multi-disciplinary teams on a broad and challenging business case of contemporary importance. The subject culminates in a presentation and Q& A session before a panel of industry, community, and academic judges. Students are required to undertake research on a complex, multi-faceted problem facing an actual organization and work together to provide a holistic analysis of the problem. They are also required to explain and defend their recommendations and to explain how and when their recommendations should be implemented. The subject is taught by academic staff from different departments within the Faculty and features guest presentations from relevant industry and community experts on how to analyse cases, make effective and compelling presentations, and work together in teams comprising people from different disciplinary specializations. The scores for each of the assessment components are peer moderated.

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

• Engage in cross-disciplinary dialogue on understanding and analysing complex problems facing organizations;
• Provide actionable recommendations to an organization;
• Demonstrate core management skills with respect to decision making and working with others;
• Demonstrate an ability to support recommendations with appropriate qualitative and quantitative data;
• Demonstrate effective communication skills in a timed presentation and during a Q&A session.

• Team based mini case presentation (10 min oral presentation with slides; 10 min Q&A), due Week 5 (10%)
• Team based written report on the mini case (1500 words), due Week 5 (10%)
• Team based major case presentation (20 min oral presentation with slides; 15 min Q&A), due Week 12 (40%)
• Team based written report on the major case (4000 words), due Week 12 (40%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• Critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills;
• Collaborative learning and teamwork;
• Evaluation, interpretation and analysis of data;
• Accessing data and other research information from a range of sources;
• Verbal and written communication skills.