Mini-Case Group Consulting Exercise The purposes of this group exercise are to (1) encourage you to begin working in groups on a simulated consulting engagement, (2) provide you an opportunity to apply what you have learned about strategy, the value chain, and business processes in a real-world setting, and (3) stimulate your thinking about business processes that may relate to the enterprise you will be starting shortly in the Business Planning simulation. Schedule a convenient meeting time (approximately sixty minutes) for your group, during which your entire team will visit a local or on-campus business. Your consulting team has been assigned the task of gathering information (not just data) about a potential new client for which your firm hopes to provide future professional services. Your instructor will tell you what type of business establishment you will be visiting. Prior to visiting your potential future client, familiarize yourselves with the business process concepts outlined in this chapter. Then, visit the business and observe its operations for about thirty minutes. Required Consider the following questions, summarize your responses in a brief memo, and be prepared to discuss your team responses in class during the next class period:

1. What do you think the companys business strategy is?

2. What structural forces affect the way it conducts business?

3. How does the company create value for its customers? What kind of products or services does the company sell? Do all products and services require the same set of business processes or are they different? Why?

4. Do you have any ideas as to what your clients value chain might look like? Refer to the value chain shown in Exhibit 2.6 as an example.

5. Does your client produce or manufacture any of its products?

6. Develop a list of financial and nonfinancial measures that might help the company to measure its performance.

7. What types of costs are specific to your client? Which are related to manufacturing, merchandis-ing, and/or service?