During the term, you will research and summarize two articles of your choosing
concerning a recent (less than one year) decision made by a private for-profit business. The
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decision may be financial (mergers, new share issue, IPO), product-related (line extension,
product introduction, ingredient changes), personnel-related (hiring, firing, training), marketrelated (promotional, location, market entry/exit), or any other changes that companies make.
The article that you summarize should be at least 8 paragraphs and not a short blurb on
CNN.com. The written summary should include:
1. What is the source and subject of the article? (A short description of the details of the
article and the decision and actions taken by the firm)
2. How do the actions described in the article contribute to the firm’s success? Note: you
may disagree with whether the decision will actually benefit the firm.
3. How is this article relevant to our course/today’s lesson?
You will present your analysis in a very concise 1-page paper. Because the articles may address
many issues, I suggest that you write a 3-4 page paper first, then condense it down to a single
page. Your paper will be uploaded to Blackboard by its due date. Late papers will be penalized
10 points per day. The article summaries will each count for 7.5% of your grade.
Discussions: You will begin discussions of both of your articles and you will respond to at least
five of the discussions started by your classmates. You can start a discussion by responding to
one of the discussion boards that I have posted and posting a one-paragraph summary of the
business action/decision that is the subject of your article. Your goal is to have a meaningful
discussion about the business firm’s decision and whether you believe it will benefit the
company. As noted in #2 above, your classmates may disagree about whether the decision is
good for the firm. Your posts will count for 5% of your grade.