ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

1. The purpose of this exercise is to help you develop and understand your empirical and quantitative skills, your critical thinking skills, and your business writing skills.
   To those ends, aspects of the exercise tap your abilities in the following areas:

   1. Your ability to discern relevant facts or data.
   2. Your ability to evaluate (process, synthesize, or manipulate) relevant facts or data.
   3. Your ability to deduce conclusions (interpret) or contextual information from relevant facts or data. 4. Your ability to identify primary problems or needs from a situation or set of information.
   5. Your ability to interpret data, needs, problems, and parameters associated with a situation.
   6. Your ability to elucidate assumptions you make as well as to identify contextual characteristics
   and limitations associated with the data you used to evaluate the situation.
   7. Your ability to construct a presentation that advocates a solution to a key problem or need.
   8. Your ability to project the benefits of suggested solutions—its effects on parties involved

2. How the FedEx Office Exercise works: Read the case study carefully before you begin this exercise.

   You will be given a case to read. Be sure to read the exercise carefully—taking as much time as you believe is necessary. The case will:

   • Specify your role; who your client is; and contain data as to the situation your client faces.
   • Then, determine the relevant facts or data from the description of the situation.
   • Drawing from the facts you have selected, specify the problems that your client, its

     employees, or to your client’s customers are facing, remembering to focus only on the

     problems that your product or service can solve.

   • Taking into account the facts or situational parameters you selected and the problems

     you have deduced from those facts or situational parameters, estimate the larger

     implications associated with the problems the client presently faces.

   • Present solutions that your product or service can offer and provide detailed

     explanations on how the solution applies.

   • Relate the benefits of your solution to the specific beneficiary – your client, its

     employees, or the client’s customers.

     You will have to organize the analysis based on the format presented in class by the instructor. You will present your analysis with the following sections:

   1. SITUATION: Relevant Facts (separate section for seller and buyer)
   2. PROBLEMS: Analysis of Training Force’s Problems
   3. IMPLICATIONS: Larger, Future Implications if Problems Are Not Solved
   4. SOLUTIONS: FedEx Office Solutions for the Specified Training Force Problems
   5. BENEFITS: Benefits of the FedEx Office Solutions to Training Force

   SPIN questions are included at the end of the Situation, Problems, and Implications sections but should only be created after the analysis for each of these sections has been completed.

Remember – it is not enough to identify facts, problems, implication, solutions and benefits; you must analyze them in detail.

SECTION 1: SITUATION

1. Relevant facts – specify all of the relevant facts associated with the situation as outlined in the case study. Include facts for both the seller (FedEx Office) and the buyer (Training Force) and utilize the format provided by your instructor.

   The first part of your exercise, related above, is to help you develop your skills in evaluating a situation facedbyanother.Youwillspecifytherelevantdata associatedwiththesituation.As you determine the relevancy of the data, start to evaluate the impact of the data or situational parameters on parties involved and consider the potential outcomes of the problems on the parties involved (client, client’s employees, customers, and others).

2. Situation questions – write and present a minimum of four (4) Situation Questions the will uncover the relevant facts that are needed to understand the Training Force background and the complete Training Force process for producing and shipping materials.

SECTION 2: TRAINING FORCE PROBLEMS

1. Analyze Training Force’s problems – identify and completely analyze a minimum of four problems that the seller can solve. Do not include internal human resource problems that have no relevance to the potential solutions that the seller may provide.
2. Problem questions – Write and present a minimum of four (4) Problem Questions that will uncover four different problems that FedEx Office can solve that relate to Training Force’s process for producing and shipping materials

SECTION 3: IMPLICATIONS TO TRAINING FORCE

1. Implications of the problems – specify and completely analyze a minimum of four (4) implications related to the four problems. Each implication must relate to one of the four identified problems and demonstrate the larger effect that will occur without a resolution to the problem.
2. Implication questions – Write and present a minimum of four (4) Implication Questions that would reinforce the larger, more painful, and future implications that could occur if the problems are not solved.

SECTION 4: FEDEX OFFICE SOLUTIONS

Potential seller solutions to the buyer’s problems – present and explain in detail with supporting FedEx Office features a minimum of four solutions that the seller can offer to solve the buyer’s problems. Do not offer internal human resource solutions unique to the buyer’s company.

This part of your exercise is intended to help you develop your ability to amass, consolidate, and present a solution to a complex set of problems or situation. Using the data gleaned from the exercise, you will develop potential solutions to the problems. To support the solutions, you will need to specify and support your solutions with specific features and benefits. To underpin the problem and sub problems, you will need to relate relevant data and specify implications of those facts, data or situational parameters. Essentially, you are stating and justifying your interpretation of the situation— drawn from the data presented or evident.

SECTION 5: BENEFITS OF THE FEDEX OFFICE SOLUTIONS TO TRAINING FORCE

Benefits of the potential solutions – identify and explain in detail a minimum of four benefits that the buyer will experience resulting from the implementation of the seller’s solutions. The benefits should clearly identify the specific beneficiary related to the buyer – overall company, employees, clients, trainers, etc.

Okay. Take a breath. Keep in mind that you are simply trying to help your client and your client’s customers achieve their goals. Rather than simply blurting out random ideas, you are going through a thought-driven process. Chances are good that you have done such things at work or in personal problem solving.

Your written submission is an internal report. Therefore, write it as professional business document with clarity and conciseness. Use full descriptive sentences that analyze the facts from the case. Format the document with clearly identified sections and headings for each of the required analysis areas. Remember that you will create SPIN questions only for the Situation, Problems, and Implications sections and the SPIN questions are created after your thorough analysis.

The required file format is Word (.docx) or PDF (.pdf) and upload the file to the Blackboard assignment. Do not email the file to your instructor. It must be uploaded to Blackboard to be graded.

Okay. Given your assignment, go ahead and read carefully through the data presented in the following section. Take your time. Read through the situation several times. You will glean different bits of information each time. Then, initiate the analytical structure related in the previous paragraph.

Assumptions – list any that you are making (implied or unstated facts). For example, it is reasonable to assume that a client seeks to grow revenue and profit.

CASE STUDY OVERVIEW Your Employer – FedEx Office

You are an account representative with FedEx Office. Your job is to secure relationships with client organizations. Your company melds the parcel moving capabilities of FedEx with printing and data capabilities. Your customers are businesses that need to distribute information to their clients or internal users(e.g.,traininginformation,productinformation,manuals). UnlikemainlineUPSorFedEx,your employer does not move parcels or freight. Instead, your company helps clients disseminate data to users. In most cases, the data and information disseminated are non-routine (i.e. specific to a certain product, project, or program). An example would be copying, packaging, and shipping training materials and operating manuals to sixty-four hospitals and other facilities owned by Trinity Health group.

FedEx Office can print, store, disseminate, package, and otherwise prepare documented materials. Its facilities are located in all U.S. cities with populations in excess of 20,000. The firm ships to any location that can be reached by road. Data can be transferred between any of the nearly 2,000 FedEx Office locations. All locations feature printing, binding, cd or DVD burning and other data packaging capabilities. All locations are served by FedEx pickup and delivery. All locations offer a range of delivery options (next day, same day, two business days) very similar to those offered by UPS.

FedEx Office can ship across the world. In some nations, agents of FedEx Office (other firms) engage in delivery. FedEx Office facilities are located only in the United States (all fifty states) and across Canada.

Your Prospect – Training Force

Training Force contacted you by telephone. Training Force is a global training services company that provides an array of packaged training programs to businesses across the United States and Canada. The company headquarters is in Cary, NC. It has sub-offices in Dallas, TX and Los Angeles, CA.

Training Force has been in business since 1997. Jordan Davis and Alex Underwood started the company as co-founders. Davis focused on developing “Voice of the Customer” program that has enabled Training Force to provide tailored solutions and services to a wide variety of industries including finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, logistics, retail and energy. Davis is a professional human resources trainer and holds several national standards certifications in the human resources area. Davis earned an MBA from Wharton.

In 1999, Davis convinced four fellow human resources trainers to form a co-operative. The trainers began training human resources managers in the technology area. Over the years, Davis and the partners built relationships with trainers from other disciplines (e.g., LMS, Oracle, SAP and other areas where business often job out training.

Word of mouth and positive experience allowed Davis and the partners to establish a network of
1,800 contractor trainers across the U.S. and Canada. Training Force offers training solutions for more than 25 specific applications.