Rentz/Lentz, M: Business Communication, 3/e
Chapter 9
Writing Short Reports
Problem-Solving Cases
Shorter Reports
1. You started working for a local car dealership as an office clerk when you were in high school. You’re in college now, but you still work there part time, and you’ve noticed that the management of the company seems to respect your opinion and judgment a little more each day.
Today you and some others were hanging around the coffee maker with one of the owners, who mentioned that he’d seen a new electronic sign at one of his competitor’s sites. “I wonder how much it costs to buy one of those things?” he asks. “People can see us from the highway, so an electronic sign with changing messages might be a good investment.” After a moment of thought, he turns to you. “Will you find out what kind of electronic sign businesses usually use, and what they cost?” he asks. “And see how you change the content on the sign. Is it hard to learn how to use it once it’s set up?”
You tell him you’ll look into the matter and send him an email about it. Do the appropriate research and tell your boss everything he needs to know to decide whether to pursue this idea.
2. Take advantage of the many career resources to research what the career outlook is in your field. Research the employment prospects, typical jobs, advancement opportunity, salary range, career advantages/disadvantages, typical responsibilities—whatever you can find. You might start with the US Government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/). Professional societies also sometimes have excellent statistics on salaries and working conditions in their fields. And don’t neglect such job-search sites as Monster.com. If your instructor directs, interview someone in your field who can give you an insider’s view. Write up your findings as a well-organized short report, and be sure to interpret your findings in terms of their likely significance to you.
3. The insurance company where you work as an assistant to the information technology (IT) manager is doing well. Just last year, the company hired 9 customer service representatives and a receptionist, bringing the total number of employees to 54. But with growth come certain headaches—and one of them is figuring out how to regulate employees’ Internet use.
The customer service representatives work largely on the phone to handle claims and field other questions. Although they need to use the Internet to do their work, during downtime they continue to use the Internet for personal reasons, including emailing, social networking, watching favorite television shows, viewing YouTube videos, and even downloading programs or files that have nothing to do with their jobs. You are worried about three things: (1) security breaches resulting from these downloads and from other Internet activities, (2) inappropriate content being viewed or downloaded, and (3) computers running slowly or frequently locking up as a result of the Internet content being viewed or downloaded.
It’s time for an Internet-use policy, and your boss thinks you’re just the person to help write it. Your assignment is to study the current wisdom on workplace Internet policies and send your findings to your boss in an email report. She will use the report as the basis for a meeting on the subject next week.
4. It’s almost time for the annual awards dinner for your city’s chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). The two most honored awardees will be the LLS’s Man and Woman of the Year, the volunteers who have raised the most money for the cause during the society’s 10-week competition. Your boss, who serves on the organization’s board of directors, has been asked to announce the winners at the event and to present them each with a gift book.
Your boss has asked you to recommend some appropriate books for each winner. Learn more about the LLS and past Men and Women of the Year and then choose three appropriate books to propose for each. Send your recommendations to your boss in an email report.
5. You were recently hired as an intern at a Mayim’s, a distributor of high-end cosmetics and skin care products. Kori Roberts, sales manager and your supervisor, drops by your office to chat one day and brings up a subject she’s been wondering about. “Our sales staff have been communicating with each other and our retailers fairly effectively via phone and email, but I think it’s time to look into an online meeting application to supplement these methods. Do you know what kind of tool I’m talking about?” she asks. You nod, having just covered online meeting tools in your Technology for Business Communication class. “I heard some of these options were totally free and really easy to use,” she continues, “so I looked into a few. Skype, Lync, and OpenMeetings seem to be pretty popular for businesses. I’m thinking about recommending that all the sales staff subscribe to one of these. Then maybe they could talk to each other and the retailers more easily. I wonder which of these tools is better for us. And is there any downside to online meetings? Maybe security issues?” You take the hint and offer to look into the matter for her.
Do the necessary research—and, if you haven’t yet done so, try one or more of these services yourself—and then write Kori a report giving her the information she needs in order to decide whether or not to pursue this idea further. She may want to share your report with other managers in the company, so be sure you give it your best effort.
6. You work for the owner of three casual-apparel stores for young adults, both men and women. Business is pretty good, but your boss wonders if the atmosphere needs to be more “hip.” She already plays “cool” music, but she’s considering using video somehow in the stores. Since she knows you’re an Internet whiz, she turns to you for help. “How do other stores use video?” she wants to know. “Is it worth the effort and expense? What are my options? Is this kind of marketing effective? How can I maximize the results?”
You research the Internet, the sales literature, and stores in your area, and you find a lot of great stuff about using video in retail stores—so much, in fact, that, you decide to present your findings to your boss in writing. Tell her what she needs and wants to know in a clear, well-organized report. Having the information in writing will also be helpful if she wants to share it with other employees. Be sure she can go to your sources and learn more if she wants to.
7. You work in the marketing department of a company that manufactures clothing for outdoor sports enthusiasts (runners, hikers, skiers, snowboarders). Your company just expanded its market by acquiring a company that manufactures clothing for other outdoor interests (e.g., camping, hunting, and fishing). The clothing will be made under your brand.
You have successfully marketed your brand in such magazines as Runners’ World, but you know you need to expand your advertising to accommodate your new market. Your boss wants to find out what publications would be good advertising opportunities. He also wants to know the options for advertising in the online publications for these same magazines or on the apps that these magazines may have for mobile devices. What sizes and types of ads are available for purchase, and at what cost?
Write a memo to your boss giving him the necessary details about placing ads in possible publications for your new market. Provide as much information as you believe is necessary to make a sound decision, covering circulation, rates, specifications, and demographics.
8. In an effort to cut down on waste and expenses, the campus food service company at your university implemented a new policy a month ago, in the middle of the fall semester: no more trays. Instead of going from station to station loading their trays up with food, students must now get their food carrying only a plate and/or bowl (but they can use as many plates and bowls and visit the stations as often as they like).
After a month has gone by, the director of the campus food service wants to know two things: is there significantly less food waste, and how do the students feel about the new policy? He asks you, his trusty assistant, to find out.
You gather the information in two ways. First, you ask the managers of the three campus eateries how many 13-gallon bags of food waste (not including paper) they threw out during the last week before the policy was implemented and during the fourth week afterwards. Since the managers have been asked to keep track of this information, they are ready for your question. The manager at the smallest dining hall reports 5.5 bags for the “before” week and 4 bags for the “after” week. At the mid-sized hall, the “before” figure is 9.5 bags and the “after” figure is 8. At the largest facility, the “before” figure is 15 bags and the “after” figure is 12. The total number of student meal card swipes for the “before” week was 42,363; for the “after” week it was 40,907.
Next, you send a brief online survey to the 2,440 students who are on a campus meal plan. In fact, you send it out twice to encourage as much participation as possible. Altogether, 1,003 students participate (though a few do not answer all the questions). In response to the question “I waste less food now that the trays are gone,” 56 students pick “strongly disagree,” 135 “disagree,” 432 “agree,” and 380 “strongly agree.” In response to the question “I eat less now that the trays are gone,” 176 pick “strongly disagree,” 312 “disagree,” 292 “agree,” and 223 “strongly agree.” In response to the question “I favor the new trayless policy,” 131 students pick “strongly disagree,” 63 “disagree,” 418 “agree,” and 380 “strongly agree.” In response to the question “My attitude toward being on a meal plan is more positive now,” 160 pick “strongly disagree,” 315 “disagree,” 390 “agree,” and 120 “strongly agree.” In response to the open-ended question inviting feedback on the new policy, you get many positive comments about the university’s effort to reduce waste, to help the environment, and to keep up with the times. A few even praise the university’s effort to help students not overeat. The negative comments are about the loss of convenience, the difficulty of getting enough food on one plate, and the awkwardness of carrying a stack of dishes to the dishwashing area. A few students comment that for the high price they’re paying, the food service should at least include trays.
Now that you have your data, organize and interpret it for your boss, being careful to use qualified language (e.g., “perhaps,” “may be”) where appropriate.
9. You’re part-time assistant to the office manager of a successful veterinary clinic with four locations in the greater ____ area (you pick the city). For some time now, the practice’s three owners have been discussing making its contributions to the community more extensive and better organized. Animal hospitals in other cities feature their community service efforts on their websites and in their print literature, but thus far your company’s contributions have been random and relatively sparse. The owners think it’s time to create a focused, well-organized, appealing philanthropy and/or employee-volunteer program that will generate more positive publicity—and business—for the company.
They’ve asked your boss to review the literature on such programs and harvest useful information for them. They particularly want to know what kinds of programs other clinics have, the features of successful programs, and the business benefits of such programs.
Since you’re a college student with good writing and research skills and free access to your university’s extensive online resources, your boss asks if you’ll tackle this task. You decide you’ll start your research by consulting your library’s resources on corporate philanthropy and on veterinary philanthropy in particular. You’ll also look at the websites for the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, ServicelLeader.org, and the Points of Light Corporate Institute. (If your instructor directs, you may also interview an appropriate employee in a relevant business.) Once you believe you’ve found everything useful, you’ll digest it, interpret it, and present the results in a well-organized, well-written report to the owners. Keep your report to about four pages, but be sure to include your sources so your readers can consult them if they want.
10. It is common knowledge that today’s college graduates are different from those who came before them. The distinctive traits of “Gen Y” or “Millennial” employees have been well documented. Your boss, the owner of a small but growing software development company (you can decide what type of software), thinks his managers and recruiters need a better understanding of this generation. He asks you, one of his more accomplished young employees, to review the literature on Gen Y employees and write him a report in which you describe the main traits of this segment of the workforce and recommend ways to recruit, manage, and retain them. He’ll share this report, or parts of it, with his managers, who are Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.
11. Write a report to your instructor in which you argue for or against one of the following:
a. All business students should be required to take a business communications course as part of their degree program; business communication classes should not be optional.
b. Students graduating with business degrees should be required to pass a proficiency exam in the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access.
c. Business writing/presentations/communications courses should have a minimum grade requirement of a B-.