X culture readiness test answers

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Private and Confidential. For X-Culture use only.

Updated February 2, 2020

Track: 2020-1b

Company: ZenCV

Country: Italy

Website: www.zencv.it

Company Presentation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BB7qn1ERQbwudCuga4XbR2dvcWTqja7B

Company Business Plan:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nu3v37ia75yvlsx/BOOK%20WITH%20SPREADS_INVESTORS.pdf?dl=0

Webinars with company representatives: schedule and recordings here.

Questions: If you have further questions, please direct them to Admin@X-Culture.org. Your questions will be

directed to the company representatives.

A note from the company on communication:

On behalf of ZENCV, we promise that we will do our best to reply to your emails but we can not guarantee a 100%

response rate, hence the best way to get answers to your questions would be to come to our weekly "open doors"

webinar held every Tuesday at 7PM-7:30PM (GMT+1) when you can interact with us directly or just write questions on

our Facebook group where we will do our best to cover all queries meticulously or at least prepare answers to be

answered during the webinar.

ZenCV Xculture group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/193851995060161/

Topic: X Culture feat. ZenCV Zoom Meeting

Time: Every Tuesday 07:00 PM Budapest

Link to Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/7534506307

Meeting ID: 753 450 6307

Please prepare your questions by the end of Monday, and post them to our Facebook group so that we can answer them

on Tuesday on our Webinar. "

http://www.zencv.it/
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BB7qn1ERQbwudCuga4XbR2dvcWTqja7B
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nu3v37ia75yvlsx/BOOK%20WITH%20SPREADS_INVESTORS.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ttennucaz8d32rq/2020-1%20Webinar%20Schedule.docx?dl=0
mailto:Admin@X-Culture.org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/193851995060161/
https://zoom.us/j/7534506307
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COMPANY DESCRIPTION

ZENCV - Never worry about getting a job again.

The world is becoming increasingly overcrowded by robotic templates and AI. We believe it is time for us to

start using technology to enhance mankind in being consumer-centric, not just automate tasks to substitute

humans.

That's why we have created ZENCV.

ZENCV is an online platform for professional resume design & writing services that will match customers with

freelancers like top-notch CV designers and HR/industry experts to create high-quality, custom-made CVs.

The definition of Zen is "Doing one thing at one time," and we apply this philosophy to our customers by

making original CVs that are tailor-made to our clients' characters and their employer’s expectations hence,

differentiating them from a crowd of templates.

Ultimately, our goal is to remove the worry from our customers' minds by taking over CV making, which can

be a painful and tiresome task. By taking this task off our customers’ shoulders with this type of service in

conjunction with providing a high-class CV that guarantees results - we are leaving our customers in a state of

calmness and zen.

Our vision is to create the biggest online freelance

community for creating CVs and career services

where experts from around the world will help

identify what is special in people, help them grow

and help them brand & communicate those special

traits effectively and adequately to their future

employers.

Our mission to build a human-centric, freelance-

based & supportive ecosystem of online services,

tools, and education that will help more than 1

million people per year manifest their best

professional self.

We are currently one of the few players in the market

that offers a tailor-made 360° resume service,

including both CV design & CV writing, which is

planning to use technology and AI to support humans

on our platform to do their work up to 200% faster

instead of substituting them.

That is why we believe that with hard work, we can turn our dream into tangible reality.

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Our Story

The story of the company as told by its founder, Vladimir Bozovic:

It all started two years ago when Federica, my fiance and now one of the company co-founders, was sitting on

the couch, desperately scrolling through job posts on Linkedin and Glassdoor. She had just got her Bachelor's

degree and was determined to find a job. After sending her CV to 52 job positions, she started waiting for a

reply. Days were passing slowly, and Federica was getting more and more anxious. Surprisingly, she got only

three emails back. All negative.

That was very discouraging. How can I design my resume so that it attracts the attention of potential

employers? – She was asking herself.

Not only was she unable to write an effective resume, but she also started doubting if she had what it takes both

as a person and a professional. She was skeptical about her skills and capabilities, and she didn’t know if she

had anything valuable that she could display on that darn piece of paper.

It was obvious that she needed help. Boyfriend to the rescue. We sat together for an hour or 2 discussing what

she wanted out of life, why, and how. Following our conversation, we started putting down all the things she

was good at, all the things she liked doing, and then trying to find the intersection of those two within a role

existing in the real world.

Since an average HR receives 200 emails for a job position, we knew that we had minimal chances to grab their

attention. Hence, we organized the data collected in a way designed to arouse interest, and by using passionate

language that matched her character, we created her first new resume for applying to a position in the

Creative/PR/Marketing sector.

It highlighted her key achievements, projects, and

experience while emphasizing her most relevant

skills, hopes, and plans. All accompanied with

unique and sophisticated aesthetics that were

supposed to match employer expectations

(marketing & data visualization) to help her stand

out from the crowd of competition.

The result? She sent 30 applications and got seven

replies, three of which were interview invitations.

She went to each of them and got two job offers.

But it was not only the beautiful layout, original

design, strong key achievement section or even

that impactful personal statement that ultimately

made her win that job position. No. It was not even

that she was able to make a “Wow” impression to

the recruiter.

It was something more profound.

That human touch was all about finding that

special thing about her - that little, but unique set

of traits, skills, and strengths that she did not even

know she had. Then, once that precious gem of authenticity was found - the only thing remaining was helping

her write it down, brand it, and communicate it to her future potential employers.

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It was merely the process of having a normal conversation together with her, figuring out what she was excited

about, what she cared for, what she hoped for achieving, and helping her understand that there is great value in

her creativity, soft skills, and communication abilities. Ultimately, she realized how she could combine her

passions and strengths, all while doing something that would get her the paycheck at the end of the month. She

was more than happy.

That is the power we humans have to help one another. An algorithm or a machine could not have done it, and it

needed to come from a deep place that only we humans are capable of accessing. That place is called empathy.

In the meantime, Tamara, Marija, and Dusan, our friends that are professional Designer/ Architect/Designer,

respectively, were designing CVs in their spare time for some of their friends. They were also achieving great

results and feedback.

Our team boosted with Dorotea and Marija, our friends from high school, now psychologists with HR

experience and (super)natural abilities to peek into your soul, extract the most hidden but relevant contents, and

present them on paper in a way guaranteed to impress a future employer! Now they were analyzing each soul

coming through the gates of ZENCV, hunting down CV mistakes, and serving some freshly baked professional

CVs.

Accompanied by our Digital Transformation Strategist Riccardo with experience in innovative startups and our

friend from primary school, Kristina - a digital nomad and SEO mage we are determined to organize our online

presence & strategy so that we reach all those people needing help and advice to hunt down their next career

move. We are planning to do so in a human-first, human-centric fashion that will bring about significant

societal benefits.

After spending multiple weekends discussing and researching, we understood that a good resume needs both

sound design and relevant content to be successful. We also found out that current competitors only offer either

CV design OR CV content writing, but not both at the same time. Hence, we concluded that there was a

significant gap in the CV market, and that is why we decided to make a business out of our little idea.

Moreover, just like different football players have different roles - we also understood that our personal and

professional skills are fantastically compatible, which

is how we knew that we were on the right track.

Federica has a meticulous and pragmatic approach

that allows us to materialize all of our fuzzy ideas and

initiatives while Maki & Tami & Dusan are the

creative volcano that erupts beautiful designs and

ideas. Vlad and Riccardo, the CEO & CFO are

personally passionate and empathetic team-players

and professionally bright-minded innovators whose

skills sit on the intersection of business, design, and

technology. They focus mostly on how to turn all of

that fuzziness and creativity into a viable business

model with real numbers while keeping the startup's

fire bright and growing. Kristina, our SEO guru, is

envisioning our online strategies to create a magnetic

pull of customers while Dorotea and Marija are

handling all of those incomers from an HR consulting

point of view.

5

THE CHALLENGE

ZENCV already has some following in Italy and around the world. The company seeks to expand into new

markets and accordingly asks for your help with the market expansion strategy.

Please present your recommendations for the following:

Section I. Marketing

1. Market Research

To provide the foundation for your marketing strategy development, start with market research. ZENCV

suggests that you do the following:

To better understand customer tastes and preferences and test the product-market fit

• Survey a sample of people who could potentially order CV writing services from ZENCV. The suggested interview questions are provided in this online survey

Use this link to view the collected data

• Survey a sample of HR specialists to understand better how they manage their recruitment and selection and how they process job applications and CVs.

The list of suggested interview questions are provided here

Use this link to view the collected data

• Imagine that you need a CV either as a student or as a working professional. Go to zencv.it and navigate through the website looking for the service that you might want. Try using mobile as well. How would

you describe your customer experience? Easy? Hard? What do you think about the website? Could you

help ZENCV by proposing ideas for improvement? Fill in the results here.

• SEO: Assess ZENCV’s online presence compared to the competition in the proposed market. Use SEO assessment tools, such as Google keyword planner, Ahrefs free tools, Moz trial free tools, or

Ubersuggest to analyze the keywords used by ZENCV vs. the competitors to achieve favorable rankings

by the search engines. Find 15-25 keywords that ZENCV’s competitors are ranking for.

When conducting your analysis, it may be a good idea to divide keywords into several groups: high

volume search + low competition, low volume search + low competition, high volume search + high

competition.

This article provides a guide on how to find competitor keywords and assess their relative rankings and

SEO effectiveness.

2. Promotion Strategy

As ZENCV already has a half-finished promotion strategy in place, ZENCV needs help with the development

of the promotion strategy on both the operational and strategic levels. Primarily and, most importantly, ZENCV

needs help in developing what they already started (SEO blog article research & writing), and secondly, it could

also be beneficial to provide creative brainstorming to come up with new tactics that ZENCV can utilize to

make their promotion efforts even stronger.

• Operational Promotional Materials (with Awards) :

https://forms.gle/bLeFenNHUyBUSiu6A
https://tinyurl.com/tm7fgh4
https://forms.gle/rGwgcUdeZQjDxbC57
https://tinyurl.com/uszfyuk
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HXC5W3Y
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht
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Most important in this section are the SEO articles to be written (with awards). Also, to potential interest

customers, your client will need to present information about its products. Illustrate your knowledge of

the target consumers in your chosen new market by developing a mock-up locally-tailored marketing

brochure, email or webpage template, or social media post that your client can use to promote the

product. It does not need to have the perfect graphic design. It should only serve as a concept sketch for

what the promo material should look like to be effective with the target market segment.

ZENCV heavily relies on content marketing. Consider developing your own content that could be

effective for promotive ZENCV’s products, such as:

• Articles (with Awards): Research a chosen topic and write 1-3 SEO-friendly articles on topics relevant to ZENCV’s product.

Check the proposed topics to choose from in this sheet

Here are some writing guidelines

The company is also willing to offer prizes for the best content, more here

• Mockup CV: Create a socially shareable CV for a fictional character (content only, no design). Write a CV for a fictional (better option) or non-fictional character that is popular in today’s culture

or for a character you know well. The content should be usable for online promotion. An example of

a CV for the Night King (Game of Thrones) is provided below.

Use this guide when developing your mock-up CV.

https://drive.google.com/a/zencv.it/file/d/1z-qlBNWgQ2k8gBJOKtuHL5Og4N6tHywp/view?usp=sharing
https://tinyurl.com/w28f3qo
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PmWx98fM2aGkvLxxn5yo7vtLG_cAOVv4c-B_6qu3mXM/edit?usp=sharing
file:///C:/Users/bvlad/Downloads/tinyurl.com/ro24lvy
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• Strategic Promotion Channels: What is the best way to promote the product in the proposed new market in order to convince consumers to buy the product? Should the product be marketed directly to the end

consumers or intermediaries, such as local partners, retailers, or distributors? What are the best message,

slogan, and other marketing campaign elements? If applicable, discuss if the brand name or its

presentation should be modified to make the product more appealing to the tastes and traditions of the

consumers in the new market.

Currently, ZENCV relies on online advertisements and SEO for promotion. Are there other cost-

effective promotion channels that allow reaching the customers or retailers/disturbers, such as mailing

lists, social media groups, professional associations and meetings, bloggers or opinion leaders, industry

periodicals, or similar channels that are inexpensive, but allow to get directly (and ethically) to the

decision-makers?

Provide a clear step-by-step guide for how to place an ad or distribute a message through the channels

you are proposing, how much it will cost, how frequently it should be done, etc. For example, do not

merely say “Advertise via Facebook.” Provide the exact steps, cost, contacts, and other tips for

maximum effectiveness.

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Lesser-known but very effective promotion channels could include:

Influencers: Find niche influencers relevant for our company to build relationships with (e.g., HR specialists, psychologists, business consultants). If you find more than 2-3

relevant influencers, present your research and suggestions in the form of a table that

summarizes your findings, including:

• Names of the influencers

• Their presence online (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram profiles, webpages)

• What are their terms of promoting other parties’ products and services?

Put all the data related to influencers within this Google form

Collected data could be viewed here

Social Media Groups: Search for groups on Linkedin, Facebook, Discord, Quora, Reddit or other social media that might serve as a channel for communicating with

potential customers via blog posts, news, or discount coupons, and other content. If you

find more than 2-3 such groups, present the results of your research in a table that

summarizes:

• Group names and addresses

• Target audience: Who are the group members?

• What should be the main message of the marketing campaign, and how should it be presented?

• How content could be posted in the groups, and what are the accepted standards and costs?

Please provide your data related to social media groups in this Google form

You can view the collected data here

Evaluation Rubrics

7 – The marketing strategy is rooted in solid market research, the recommended promotion channel(s) is cost-

effective and allows to precisely target the potential customers, there is a clear step-by-step guide for how

to place an ad there and how much it will cost; samples of marketing materials are appealing and

convincing, all recommendations are supported by convincing arguments.

4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or

redundant, the formatting is inconsistent.

1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or entirely off the

point, not supported by credible sources.

https://forms.gle/dMmcenSUhA19mDJa9
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hA3y1HEFGB_AkZIo7xXHg6233CFwMtGxsCO0z9rL2Z0/edit?usp=sharing
https://forms.gle/AxW4AtDyKvLeQcD19
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rag1tK9BofpOK0YzLGr2_mrVbTeShCTC3h4FgU5GcRo/edit?usp=sharing
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Section II: Market and Product

3. Industry and Competition Analysis Start by learning as much as possible about your client’s industry, customers, and competitors.

We recommend that you follow the following steps:

Answer the following questions:

• Who are the competitors of your client company?

• How do they operate? What business model do they use?

• What are their products?

• How do their products and prices compare to yours?

• Strengths and weaknesses of your client compared to the competition?

• Threats and opportunities these strengths and weaknesses present?

A google search will allow you to find dozens of companies that offer resume services. Try to conduct initial

research on at least 10-20 competitors. From that list, identify 3-4 most threatening competitors and analyze

their product and business model in more depth. Present your results in a table that covers the following:

• Design: How beautiful is the design of their resume samples

• Number of options: Different designs to choose from

• Price: How affordable is their product?

• Service: How good is their customer service?

• Content: How good is their CV content?

• User effort: How easy is to obtain their final product?

Consider presenting your competition analysis as infographics or other easy-to-read format, like the following:

When assessing your client’s competitive position, you may find this short guide and this 5-min video on

SWOT analysis helpful.

Please use this form to collect the data about competitors.

Access the collected data on this link.

4. Product development

http://goo.gl/uV3cVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNXYI10Po6A&feature=youtu.be
https://forms.gle/NVMzuqE8AjD5aGK36
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i1SFHZ98qf2DZLzfgSQBZGyDp7Tv1S4ByDoGP0bqAsU/edit?usp=sharing
10

Based on your industry and competition analysis, would you recommend that your client revise their product

offering or business model?

Should ZENCV client modify its main flagship product (CV design + CV writing)?

For example, ZENCV is already considering some new options, such as:

offering interactive CVs, CVs that have a video instead of a photo, DIY resume builder, help with designing

LinkedIn profiles, help with developing cover letters, offering candidate pre-screening services to recruitment

companies or directly to potential employers, adding psychological and personality testing of job seekers, etc.

If you are recommending that ZENCV’s main product or business model be changed, and if you are offering

several alternatives, describe each alternative in terms of:

• Assessment of the practical difficulty of that alternative: How hard is it to realize?

• Financial analysis of taking that alternative: What would be the costs and revenues just roughly?

• Pros/cons of each alternative

When considering new-product and business model options, pay special attention to client retention. That is,

after the main product is sold (CV has been designed), can ZENCV continue working with the client and offer

other follow-up products and services? What else could clients need in the future that ZENCV could help with,

perhaps even after they find a job and no longer need a new CV? How can ZENCV continue helping them at

the next stage in their professional careers?

It is OK to conclude that ZENCV should stick with its current product/model. If you believe a modification of

the product/strategy is unnecessary, explain what other alternatives you have considered and why you have

concluded the current model is optimal.

5. New Market Selection and Analysis

Based on your industry and competition analysis, what are the new promising markets for your client? Which

country(ies) present(s) the most significant growth opportunities? Explain the criteria you considered when

selecting the most promising new market (e.g., income level, language, geographic proximity, political and

economic stability, etc.).

Provide an in-depth analysis of the proposed new market. Describe its culture, institutions, job search traditions,

customer tastes and preferences, and anything else that ZENCV must know to succeed in the market.

Please do NOT write here anything and everything you can find about the country. Include only the information

that is consequential for the market entry strategy.

Note, the market does not have to be a particular country or a geographic region.

Evaluation Rubrics

7 – Clear definition of the market(s); concise list of the client’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the

competition; strong recommendations for product and business model improvements; the recommendation

for the new market clearly explained; brief but insightful market analysis, strong supporting arguments,

sources properly cited.

4 – Good analysis and recommendations, but some elements are not well-argued; some parts are irrelevant or

redundant.

1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendations, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the

point, not supported by credible sources.

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Section III. Operations Management

6. Entry Mode and Partners Are direct sales the optimal market entry mode, or a joint venture, franchising, wholly-owned subsidiary, or a

partnership with the local partner would be more effective? If a partnership with a local distributor, retailer, or

partner is advised, what companies would be the best candidates for such partnerships?

The local partners could be

• HR/recruitment companies;

• Universities, training schools, NGOs, or governmental agencies that teach students or non-student job seekers how to find jobs and write CVs.

Try reaching out to 5-10 faculties and their representatives and get their feedback on our CV workshop

proposal, by either asking them to fill out this survey or asking these questions in person. Click here to

view collected results. This will allow you to understand better if this idea would work so that you can

use collected info to structure details of the CV workshop proposal. ZENCV will offer free CVs for best

students here as well as the possibility of internship.

Present a list of potential partners and explain why they might be interested in working with ZENCV, including:

• The optimal form of collaboration (e.g., independent partners, joint-venture, franchising, etc.)

• What can ZenCV offer them?

• Who is the best contact in the company to discuss possible collaboration?

Submit the results of your analysis in this sheet. Students that are able to help ZENCV secure a valuable

partnership will get 20% of the total value from that partnership (first 6 months) as well as free ZENCV

services.

If it is necessary to establish a legal presence in the new recommended market, please provide information on

how a company can be registered in the country (steps, time, cost) and what legal entity type would be optimal

(e.g., LLC, non-profit, etc.).

7. Pricing Develop the pricing strategy that will result in the highest profits in the proposed market, including:

• The optimal price structure (e.g., fixed price per CV, subscription, bulk pricing, retention bonus, repeat customer discounts, financing, etc.

• The optimal price point for the recommended strategy: e.g., the price per CV, the cost of a monthly subscription, etc.).

This blog and this article offer a good overview of some of the available pricing strategy options.

8. Finances and Funding

Identify the most suited type of startup funding that ZenCV should go for (for instance: Crowdfunding,

Angel Investor, Loans, etc.) by also stating the rationale behind that choice and PROS and CONS for each

identified opportunity. Give 5 suitable examples of potential investors for the best type of investment that

you have found. (for example if you choose Angel Investor - provide 5 potential Angel investors compatible

with out business)

Recommend sources of funding for future growth, such as:

o Government grants for startups

o Government grants for companies that aid people in their job search.

https://forms.gle/GynwqcNHd4hmHmXM9
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rbopKU23XVUNHePLIboeJDr861-D5OP-5TtBUfLLWVI/edit?usp=sharing
https://forms.gle/37MNpsrxaPFnbMZ88
http://www.nickkolenda.com/psychological-pricing-strategies/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227083
12

o Special loans/financing instruments o Startup competitions with monetary prizes

Provide additional information, such as: internet links to resources with more details on the funding agencies and the relevant grants, application deadlines, tips on how to maximize the

chances of receiving the grants

Evaluation Rubrics

7 – The proposed entry mode, pricing strategy, and recommended sources of funding are viable, an extensive

list of local partner provided with all the necessary contacts and details, the recommendations are

supported by convincing arguments.

4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or

redundant, the formatting is inconsistent

1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the

point, not supported by credible sources.

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REPORT STRUCTURE AND FORMATTING

Report structure:

• Title Page must contain o team number o client company name o names, emails, and countries of residence of all the team members and a short summary (5-15

words) of the role and work completed by each team member.

o If any of the team members dropped out or did not contribute to the report, please still list them, but add a note “Did not participate” by their names.

• Executive Summary (300-400 words, bullet-list format preferred) that provides a short review of your key findings and recommendations. The Executive Summary should not be saying what the report will be about

(list of topics), but rather summarize your key recommendations (the proposed new market, key findings of

the industry analysis, key features of the recommended marketing and pricing strategies, etc.). By reading

the Executive Summary, your client should be able to see and understand right away your key

recommendations. The rest of the report should only provide more details and supporting arguments.

• Report sections corresponding to each question listed above. Start each report section with short bullet-list summary of the key recommendations presented in the section

(2-4 bullets, each 4-10 words long), followed by 2-5 pages of more detailed explanations and supporting

arguments.

• References: if you cite any sources in the text of the report, provide full references in this section. Please use APA-6 citation style (google how to cite sources using APA-6 if you are not sure).

• Appendixes: If needed, add additional information in appendices, within the page limit.

Formatting:

• The report must be 15-25 single-spaced pages (7,000-15,000 words) including the title page, executive summary, references, and appendices. Each section should be 1-4 pages long. Generally shorter is better, so

be as concise and focused as possible. Design your report for easy navigation and scanning for key ideas.

• Number all pages in your team report.

• Portrait page orientation.

• Margins should be 2.5 cm (one inch) at the top, bottom, and sides of the page.

• Font type should be 12-point Times New Roman throughout the report.

• Single-space all body text.

• Indent the first line of a new paragraph.

• The text should be left aligned.

• All citations used must be cited in the text and in a reference list at the end of each report. In-text citations should include only the name of the author(s) and the date of the publication. Full references should be

provided at the end of the report. Please use APA reference style.

• A picture is worth a thousand of words, so use of figures, graphs, pictures, as well as tables is encouraged. It is recommended these are included in the main body of the report.

• Know your client: Which English spelling dictionary and paper size (A4/US Letter) varies based on which country your client’s business is headquartered.

http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa
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Note About Presenting Academic Frameworks to Business Executives:

Academic frameworks (e.g. SWOT, PESTLE, Porter 5 Forces, etc) are excellent for populating data and

facilitating analysis. They demonstrate a more rigorous thinking process rather than just ad hoc anecdotal

opinions.

However, it is the insights drawn from such academic frameworks that is of interest to business executives. Just

populating an academic framework and placing it in the body of a report without highlighting the insight gained

adds little value for the business executive. The eyes of a busy business executive will skip over a busy

populated academic framework as discrete descriptors within the framework mean little – it is the relationships

and insights that you highlight that is valuable to a business executive (do not have the reader guessing what

you thought was important in the chart – tell them).

The best reports discuss the insights within the body of the report, perhaps supported by a simple chart,

referencing the academic framework in the appendix. Diagrams, charts, summarised tables, etc. certainly are

fine within the body of the report, but there should be an easy to deceiver message from such graphics.

Download a PDF of a report from McKinsey Quarterly (www.mckinseyquarterly.com) to obtain an illustration

of one approach.

Evaluation of the Executive Summary

7 - Short but gives a very good idea about the key ideas presented in the business proposal, the client can get a

good idea about the main points of the proposed strategy from the executive summary;

4 - Gives some idea about the key suggestions, but some points remain uncertain; a bit too long; not to the

point.

1 - Not possible to figure out the key ideas of the business proposal from the summary, too short or too long

Evaluation of the Formatting

7 – The report has a clear structure, visual appeal, the sections are consistently formatted, sources are properly

cited, the formatting guidelines are followed exactly with respect to the page limit, font and other

requirements.

4 – The formatting guidelines are generally followed, but there are some deviations, there are some signs of

sloppiness in document formatting.

1 – The document looks very unprofessional, different report sections are formatted differently, the document is

very hard to read and navigate.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/
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TASKS AND DEADLINES

Each week, you will be asked to fill out a short survey to report your team’s progress, evaluate the

performance of your team members and provide other information we need to understand better why some

teams perform better than others. Please see the informed consent form at the end of this document for more

details.

Important: Participants who receive peer evaluations below 2.0 (out of 5.0) will first receive a warning. If

their peer evaluations stay below 2.0 two weeks in a row, they will be automatically excluded from the team.

Important: Occasionally emails with invitations to take a survey are filtered into the Junk/Spam email

folder. Please check your Junk/Spam email folder (search for messages with “X-Culture” in the subject line)

if you don’t receive a survey invitation message around the date specified in the table above.

All deadlines are set for 11:59 pm (23:59), EST time zone (New York).

1. Pre-project Readiness Test

Due: Any time before the official project start

Before the project starts, all participants must review project materials and take a Readiness Test. The test

will include questions about the project and online collaboration tools, as well as questions about your prior

international experience and background. You must successfully pass the Readiness Test (80% or more

correct answers) to participate in X-Culture. If your semester starts after the official start of the project or you

do not complete the Readiness Test on time for another reason, do so as soon as you can – we will continue

adding new participants for about ten days after the project start.

Official Project Start, Teams Formed

Monday, March 2

As long as you completed the Readiness Test, you will receive the names and contact information of your

team members on this day. Please reach out to your teammates immediately to establish contact. Introduce

yourself, and start working on the project. Students whose semester starts later will be added to the existing

teams once their semester starts, so it is likely an additional student may be added to your team in the first

two weeks.

2. Establish Contact with Your Teammates

Due: Thursday, March 5

By this date, you are expected to have exchanged at least a few messages with your teammates. If some

teammates are not responding, you are expected to send at least three email reminders to them by this date.

Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams will be excluded from the project. Your

communication starts via email, but once the initial contact is established, your team can use any means of

communication.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The survey will ask you to report whether or not you have communicated with all of your team

members. Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams may be removed from the project.

Note:

This and all other weekly surveys will also ask to evaluate your team members’ performance and provide

additional information we need to understand better why some teams perform better than others. Please see

the informed consent form at the end of this document for more details.

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3. Meet Your Teammates

Due: Sunday, March 8

Meet your team members: Please learn as much as possible about your teammates (background, interests,

hobbies, experiences, etc.). Research shows that spending a little time getting to know team members greatly

improves team effectiveness. It is also strongly recommended that you try a live video call (e.g., Skype).

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The survey will test how well you got to know your team members. It will contain a few questions about

your team members, such as their background, interests, etc. The acquaintanceship test will not be graded, so

do not feel obliged to reveal any personal information to your team members or insist that your team members

reveal their personal information to you. However, try to get to know your teammates as much as you can.

4. Select the Client Company, Team Charter

Due: Sunday, March 15

By this date, your team is expected to review all available challenges and select your client organization.

Before you choose your client organization, please carefully review the challenges presented by each

organization and try to attend (or watch the recordings of) the webinars with each of the client companies,

which will be held in the first week of the project.

Team Charter: Discuss with your team members and collectively write a one-page Team Charter that details

how your team will operate. It is recommended that the Team Charter includes the following sections:

• Distribution of roles and tasks. Many teams divide the workload by the report section. Research shows teams perform better when they divide the workload by function: one person is tasked with

coordinating team efforts, checking everyone’s progress, sending reminders, redistributing tasks if

needed; another person, usually a native English speaker, serves as a copyeditor, and so on. Many

teams also select a person whose role is to question everything and force the team to weigh their

options more carefully. Some teams assign a person whose job is to make sure nobody is ignored.

Some people are shy or may have a hard time keeping up the pace, and it is important they are not left

behind and their opinions are voiced and given full consideration.

• Dealing with conflicts. How conflicts (interpersonal, task, process) will be resolved.

• Dealing with free-riders. In most teams, someone is always late, produces low-quality work, or underperforms otherwise. Sometimes, a team member stops working altogether (gets sick, busy at

work, family problems, or simply drops the course). How will the team deal with the loss of a team

member? Who will redo the work if needed?

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The survey will ask you to report the name of your client organization, as well as ask each team member

to submit the same copy of the Team Charter.

5. Initial Individual Research and Ideas

Due: Sunday, March 22

Conduct your initial research and try to learn as much as possible about the industry your client operates in:

Who are the main players? What the most popular products and technologies? What new technologies and

approaches are likely to dominate the industry in the future? Is the industry regulated by the government and

how? What are the differences in different regions of the world? How does your client compare to the

competitors? What are your client’s strengths and weaknesses? Try to interview 2-3 potential customers of

your client company to better understand how they make purchasing decisions and if (and why) they would

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choose your client over the completion.

Review the challenge questions listed in the three sections earlier and, based on your initial research, jot down

your personal initial answers to each of them. You do not have to write more than a few words in response to

each question at this point; just your initial ideas and possible answers. This will prepare you for the team

discussions when your team will be collectively developing the best answers to each question. Even if your

team decides to assign a different report section to different team members, it is very important that each team

member shares his/her suggestions for each question. This will give the team member responsible for the

report section more to work with and help develop better final answers.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The weekly survey will ask you to report the results of your initial individual research and your initial

individual suggestions for responding to each block of questions listed earlier. Specifically, you will be asked

to:

• Report the results of your industry analysis, including a brief description of the industry, your client’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the completion, etc. (bullet list of key findings, half a page

total)

• Your initial recommendations for the most promising market, market entry mode, key elements of the promotion and marketing strategy, and key elements of the operation strategy (1-2 points in response

to each question, a paragraph per question).

6. Block 1: Market Analysis

Due: Sunday, March 29

This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 1. It does not have to be a fully finished

report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work

your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of

winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to

these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 1 (the survey will contain a document

upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member

will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to

complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).

7. Block 2: Marketing

Due: Sunday, April 5

This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 2. It does not have to be a fully finished

report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work

your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of

winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to

these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 2 (the survey will contain a document

upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member

will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to

complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).

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8. Block 3: Operations Management

Due: Sunday, April 12

This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 3. It does not have to be a fully finished

report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work

your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of

winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to

these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey

link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 3 (the survey will contain a document

upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member

will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to

complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).

9. Complete Draft

Due: Sunday, April 19

By this date, your team is expected to have a complete draft of your report. It does not have to be a finished

report, but it should be as complete as possible, including Title Page and an Executive and Chapter Summaries,

and correct formatting throughout the document.

Deliverables: One team member should submit the draft via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the entire team (see

step-by-step submission guidelines below). After your document is submitted, TurnItIn will generate a

plagiarism report that will show you if any parts of the report have been plagiarized (takes several hours to

produce). Usually, up to 20% similarity is acceptable, provided that copy-and-pasted materials are properly

referenced. If plagiarism is detected, your team will have until the Final Report deadline (see below) to fix the

problem and submit a plagiarism-free final report.

This draft will not be graded and the plagiarism statistics will not be shared with your instructors. This is only

for your information. You should continue editing the report until the final deadline, and you can still make any

changes or additions.

However, it is strongly encouraged that you submit as complete a document as possible, You will be able to

submit your draft and check it for plagiarism only once, so the more complete the draft, the less the chance that

the final report will contain plagiarism.

Also, every team member will be asked to submit your usual weekly progress survey. A few days before the

deadline, you will receive an email with the usual questions about your team.

10. Final Report

Due: Friday, April 24

By this date, your final report must be submitted via TurnItIn.com (see Submission Guidelines below).

Please note, the plagiarism statistics for final reports will be generated by TurnItIn and shared with the

instructors, but the plagiarism report will not be shared with the students.

Only one team member must submit the final document via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the team.

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11. Post-Project Survey

Due once report submitted, but no later than Sunday, Due: Sunday, April 26

A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email invitation with a link to your post-project survey.

This is the most important survey.

The survey will ask about your experiences in X-Culture and evaluate the performance of your teammates.

Your answers are extremely important and will help us improve the project in the future.

Every team member must complete the survey.

Submission Guidelines

The report draft and the final report documents must be submitted via www.TurnItIn.com. Only one team

member must submit the documents on behalf of the entire team. The team member who will be submitting the

draft and final report must follow these steps:

Part 1. Create a TurnItIn account (time required: 60-90 seconds).

1. On www.turnitin.com and click on the link “Create Account”. 2. On the next window, under the “Create a New Account” heading, click on the “Student” link. 3. Enter the Class ID. Note the Draft and Final report submissions have different Class IDs:

Class ID: 23500622 (class enrolment key xculture)

Note: If you already have a TurnItIn account, log on using your “old” login information, click on the “Enroll in

Class” tab on the top, and repeat step 3.

Part 2: Submitting the paper (time required: 60-120 seconds)

4. Once the account is created, you can log into your account. Your home page will list your classes. 5. Select the correct class and click on the "Submit" button.

Make sure to select “Draft” assignment for the report draft and “Final Report” for the final

report.

6. Choose Single File Upload. Make certain the file name only contains your team number.

Wrong: “Final report 123.pdf”, “Team Report.pdf”, “Team 123.pdf”, “John Smith.pdf”

Right: “123.pdf”

7. Click on "browse" to locate the paper saved to your computer. 8. Click on the file and click "open". 9. Click the "upload" button at the bottom. 10. Click "submit" to confirm your submission. Once the submission is finalized, you will see “Your

submission was successful” on the top of the page. If you wait a few hours, you will see your “originality

report” that shows how much and what parts of your report have been plagiarized.

research will have no effect on your course grade.

http://www.turnitin.com/
http://www.turnitin.com/
Section I. Marketing
1. Market Research
2. Promotion Strategy
Section II: Market and Product
3. Industry and Competition Analysis
4. Product development
5. New Market Selection and Analysis
Section III. Operations Management
6. Entry Mode and Partners
7. Pricing
8. Finances and Funding
Submission Guidelines