Introduction to Business

I have been a TA for this course, I am pretty aware with how it is run. This is a mandatory course for all business students, but it is often taken as an elective. People often ask if this course is worth taking as an elective. If you need an easy elective, this isn't the course. Frankly, it is a lot of work. There are 3 exams, 5 cases, and a final 25pg group report. The group project, all I can say is start ahead of time and don't copy paste. Unfortunately plagiarism is a serious issue with this paper, and is taken seriously by the TAs and the professors. Reference properly, and make a genuine attempt to put together your own work and you won't have any problems. Start this ahead of time so you can monitor all the group members work, trust no one. Use the rubric as a checklist, make sure you do everything on that sheet of paper...do not lose out on easy marks.

How to do well on the cases...

Most cases follow a three step solution...students often don't grasp this concept till' late in the semester and their grades suffer. I will outline each step below.

Step 1: Identify the problem
-if you mess this up, it shows a lack of understanding of the case and it will make the rest of the steps impossible
-this portion should be no longer than 4 lines, and should simply state the issues in the case. THAT IS IT!
-you can give a brief summary of the case, but don't waste too much space or time on this
-simply state the problem in a way that shows your understanding of the case and you will receive marks

Step 2: Proposed solutions to this problem
-here we want to see some strategic analysis...either a SWOT or a pros/cons list
-the most straight forward is to list three solutions to the problem you established in step one and list pros and cons for each proposed solution
-when you list these solutions don't list something that was said to be impossible in the case...this shows a lack of understanding.

SWOT ANALYSIS BREAKDOWN (more useful for the final project)
Strengths and Weakness
-Internal factors of the said organization
Examples:
-Strength: talented employees
-Weakness: lack of capital

-putting an external factor in these two sections is sure way to lose marks

Opportunities and Threats
-External factors, these are out of the control of said organization
Examples:
-Opportunities: growth...expanding to new locations, prosperous economy
-Threats: Government regulation restricting current practices, competitors, recession

Step 3: Decision
-Choose one of the proposal used in step two that you feel best resolves the situation
-do not use a completely new proposal here, this should be tied in with step 2
-give reasoning to why you feel it is the best, comparing it with the other options is a good idea

-Some profs ask you to answer specific questions, if so just answer them and disregard what I have here.
I hope this helps :)

Textbooks

Operations Management
http://www.2shared.com/document/wDkuQSkk/Operations_Management_Creating.html

Operations Management

OM is the last mandatory management science course for business students. Out of the management science stream I felt this was by far the easiest course. The material is straight forward, you just have to know the procedure and you will be set...not the kind of course where you are figuring stuff out during an exam. I took it with Chaouch, and I highly recommend him. He runs the course very well, and the exams are identical to material covered in class. I wished he used the blackboard more often, but other than that no complaints. Much like QDM the assignments in the course are pretty tedious and require a lot of time. Attached is the link to the latest edition of the text. This PDF is fine for this course (for assignments and practice)....save yourself some money and don't buy the book.

http://www.2shared.com/document/wDkuQSkk/Operations_Management_Creating.html

A little about the blog and me

My name is Omar, and I am a third year student at the Odette School of Business. I am starting this page to share some resources, advice, and video tutorials. I will be posting textbooks, over 300 pages of self made study notes, old exams, and practice exam questions. I will be also posting FAQs for classes I TA for. I have a pretty diverse course background, and will be posting material for psych, political science, and economics. I hope this helps, my goal is have 6 pdf textbooks up by the time winter semester starts.