CA 1 - Envelope Business
in BUS 110
Enabling students to experience the need for effective planning and management of an organization while using business and economic ideas in context
Lesson Plan & Handouts: PDF
The Client
Your client, LIU’s Department of Business, relies on you to provide the department with letter envelopes. LIU Business will use these envelopes to send acceptance letters to its applicants, interdepartmental mail, recommendation letters for its students, and diplomas to its graduates. There are 10 students in the department and 5 faculty members. Since LIU Business is relying on you, your company must give a binding commitment as to how much you will deliver. The contract conditions are as follows:
- $0.25 maximum per accepted envelope
- $0.10 maximum per extra envelope (exceeding the agreed number)
- $0.15 penalty per envelope that you fail to deliver
LIU Business is quality-minded and, thus, only accepts envelopes fulfilling these specifications:
- Tidy and well glued or taped.
- Not glued on the inside
- Exact cutting and folding
- Clean appearance
- Pleasing aesthetic
- Appropriate design/pattern on the outside
At the end of the 40-minute planning period, you must submit a completed order form including the details of your binding commitment. At the end of class, you will submit the business information handout and your financial sheet.
Lesson Plan
- The participants are divided into even groups (the number of members per group varies on class size). Each group is assigned to a work area in the classroom.
- Provide contracts and order forms for each group.
- For 30 minutes, each group is allowed to experiment, formulate their plans, and discuss how best they can achieve their goals. Consider the five factors of production (i.e., labor, human capital, entrepreneurship, natural resources, and capital) as well as the five business sectors (i.e., economic, political/legal, demography, social factors, and technology). During the period, the group should assign a member as the observer.
- For 10 minutes, each group is required to agree on a company name, mission statement, and logo, and other advertising/marketing materials.
- At the end of this period, the participants must have completed their order forms and submitted them to the instructor.
Round 1 (30 minutes)
- For 20 minutes, each group should fulfill their contract to the best of their ability. During which, the observer will record the results, for example, by responding to: a. What was the acceptable number of envelopes made per person or per group within the time limit of 20 minutes? b. How close is the number of envelopes produced to the number planned by your group? c. What is the overall profit? Are there any losses? d. Did you achieve your goal? What were your difficulties? e. Did everything go as planned? What went wrong? f. What have you learned that will help you to do better in the second round? g. How would you allocate your profits, assuming you wish to continue your business?
- Take 10 minutes to discuss the results with each group. Consider training and experience-building as well as analyzing the competition. The observers can discuss with other groups and report back to their groups.
Round 2 (30 minutes) This round is exactly like the first round. Each group will attempt to fulfill their contracts to the best of their ability. Planning, strategizing, and business and economic analyses are similarly done. The actual production should again be carefully timed for 20 minutes. Observations and discussions will follow for 10 minutes.