Assessment Principles of Management

Assessment Brief
Individual Report
2000 words (not including appendices or references)

Task
You are required to plan a business venture. To do this you need to use the methods and select tools and ideas from those that you have learned about in the first five weeks of the unit. The task is to use management skills to plan to open and run a sports goods store in a business unit in the Mall in Luton.
It is recommended that you visit the Mall and have a look at some of the business units (shop spaces) that are used. You are not looking at the large stores but the relatively small spaces. This is important as it will give you a sense of the stock requirements and shop fittings that are required.
Stage 1. The first step is Planning. There are a number of useful tools for this and you should select one appropriate one as your planning framework. You should think carefully about what the inputs of the business are. Think of the activity from seminar 1 and use this as a guide (be aware the business in the assignment is more complex). This stage is the initial research and decisions about what is required to set up and then run the business as an ongoing concern.
Stage 2. Human Resources. You should identify the key roles, their requirements and select appropriate selection methods for identifying the most appropriate people. You should justify this choice of method with brief reference to the techniques and research discussed in the core text.
Stage 3. Operations Management. Based on your initial planning you should plan for the inputs and outputs of the business. You should use an appropriate framework to identify the important operations for the regular running of you business.
Stage 4. You should provide a basic financial forecast for your business. This should be in the form of a balance sheet/profit and loss. Remember that you have already done this in your core programme (Pods) and you should use the same process but base it on the inputs planned for in stages in and 3.
This is a 2000 word individual report. As this suggests it should be in report “ not essay, format.