Integrated Business Project

September 2016 - December 2016

"...Of the 14 business plans submitted to the business owner, our team's business report and presentation was the winner of Bentley's Hartnett Prize."

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In this course, my team of six and I worked on a project to redesign the business plan for a local hot sauce company called 9 Lazy Kids. We developed a deep understanding of how the traditional business functions are integrated in the workplace. Key principles in accounting, business processes, finance, management, marketing and operations were reviewed within the context of project management.

Together, we analyzed the issues facing the client company, developed, and evaluated a set of alternative solutions and presented a program of recommendations to the sponsoring organization at the end of the semester. This included re-branding 9 Lazy Kids as "Diez Diablitos", re-structuring product pricing to better reflect consumer's willingness to pay within the owner's target market segment, conducting primary and secondary market data, analyzing, and interpreting it in order to make the best recommendations for the business owner.

The project enabled us to analyze the company's potential to introduce new goods and/or services, introduce existing goods and/or services to new markets, and/or develop other growth opportunities, as well as to present a business proposal.
 

• Worked as a team of 7 to rebrand and restructure local, family owned hot sauce company 

• Conducted secondary and primary research on the hot sauce industry in order to build an effective business plan that would deliver on measurable and successful business goals

  • In-depth research of the hot sauce industry using research databases such as: IBISWorld, Mintel Reports, Nielsen, Demographics Now, and Bentley Library.

  • Conducted a focus group​ of 10 participants

  • Designed and sent out a survey to over 200 recipients

  • Used Qualtrics (similar to Tableau) to analyze and interpret findings 

• Delivered a complete, integrated business report which included:

  • Marketing - rebranding (new logo, new brand name, new website design), made recommendations to expand current product mix width and depth based on data collected (new flavors and new sauces such as those for cooking), and designed promotional campaigns to widen reach of hot sauce users.

  • Operations - designed a more efficient distribution strategy better aligned with business budgets, researched bottling companies in the area and manufacturers; designed operations plan to optimize value for customers.

  • Finance - calculated a new pricing model for existing and future products to better reflect competition and customers' willingness to pay (gathered from focus group information as well as survey results), allocated costs with business budgets

• Presented our final report in a PowerPoint presentation to all professors teaching the course along with the business owner

• Of the 14 business plans submitted to the business owner, our team's business report and presentation was the winner of the Hartnett Prize

• Rebranding is now underway based on our team's recommendations