KA1 Skill Builder
KA1 Skill Builder
Your KA1 Skill Builder will be challenging and will require devoted inquiry, assimilation, reflection, and refinement in order to achieve the highest possible score. It constitutes 45% of your grade and entails a 7-day completion window, so very obviously, this represents a heavy-duty assignment that will take significant time and effort. (Note that this is a comprehensive mid-term that in no shape, form, or fashion is related to tiny weekly assignments.) Specifically, you are to address each deliverable listed below in full and submit your work in accordance with the instructions contained herein.
Importantly, this is an independent assignment to be completed by you and you alone. Sharing work with fellow students, supplying advice to your student peers, gaining assistance from outside parties, and similar actions constitute violations of the academic code of conduct and will carry significant penalties in accordance with University policy.
In evaluating your work, I will investigate compliance quality (i.e., the degree to which your submission complies with noted guidelines), content quality (i.e., the quality of the content presented in your work), reference/citation quality (i.e., the quality of associated references and adherence to APA style guidelines), and communication quality (i.e., the degree to which your work meets standards expected in business communications, including matters concerning the use of proper grammar and punctuation).
Deliverable 1 of 3
Place yourself in the role of an administrator working on behalf of a pediatric dentist who is interested in establishing a new clinic in your local community. The establishment will be named Vista Pediatric Dentistry. In an effort to determine the features and benefits to be offered by Vista, examine the competition in the marketplace to get an idea of what’s being offered in the area. Then, using Theodore Levitt’s Total Product Concept, develop an associated TPC for Vista, identifying attributes pertaining to each level indicated in the model.
As this is a real-world assignment and will naturally require significant attribute compilations, place your listings in tabular form (i.e., using tables) by level, rather than via Levitt’s circular diagram. Provide a narrative to accompany your TPC, discussing your thought processes for assembling the Vista offering in the manner noted. Be sure to include a profile of your local market to aid your instructor in understanding the various market dynamics of this particular community.
Deliverable 2 of 3
Based on your review of the competition conducted in Deliverable 1, construct a Levels of Competition Model for Vista Pediatric Dentistry, identifying product form, product category, generic, and budget competitors. Be sure to indicate those offerings that are believed to pose the most significant threat to Vista. Provide a narrative explaining your model.
As this is a real-world assignment and will naturally require significant competitor compilations, place your listings in tabular form (i.e., using tables) by level, rather than via Lehmann and Winer’s circular diagram.
Deliverable 3 of 3
Internal marketing is a very important element of the discipline that can offer significant value at Vista Pediatric Dentistry. Learn more about internal marketing by examining recent scholarly publications (dating back no later than 2010) on the topic. Select five (5) scholarly journal articles (academic, peer reviewed publications) on the topic of internal marketing and supply an annotated bibliography summarizing each article and discussing how the noted findings might benefit Vista. (Note that the articles need not focus on the health sector, as findings from other industries, in many cases, are either directly applicable or applicable with only slight modifications.)
If you are unfamiliar with preparing annotated bibliographies, click the following link for details: Annotated Bibliographies. As noted in the course syllabus, LSU Shreveport offers a helpful resource in its Noel Memorial Library which offers numerous electronic databases, permitting students to conduct searches and read journal articles remotely.
The Submission Requirement
Your work must be prepared following the standards set forth in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The following link supplies helpful guidance: APA Style.
