BUS 100: INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS
CASE STUDY
(In lieu of a final exam)

A. Choose a big business to study. Choose one whose stock you would buy if you had the money today. It must be a BIG, well-known business, e.g. IBM, AT&T.
B. List your business on the sign-up sheet. Be sure no one else has chosen that business. If they have, please select another.
C. Find the company’’s web site on the Internet. Print a few pages.
D. Find three recent magazine or newspaper articles about the challenges that the company faces. Choose REAL MAGAZINES, such as Business Week, Fortune, Money, Time, Newsweek, etc.---NOT ONLINE magazines. You MAY use the online version of the paper magazines. Make a photocopy of the articles. It’’s O.K. to give me your copy with your notes on it.
E. Answer the questions below. Type the questions and answer them fully in multiple paragraphs below the question. One or two sentences or paragraphs won’’t do. You probably should be able to write at least a page or more to answer each question. USE YOUR OWN WORDS -- NO QUOTES! This also means that you cannot copy words from somewhere else and call them your own——even from the Internet. Copying someone else’’s words without giving them credit is against the law. 1. What is the company’’s product or service? Explain in detail. 2. Give a history of the business, including how and when it started, its triumphs, its defeats, and its charities. 3. What topics does the Web site cover? Why do you think that the company wanted us to know that information?

4. Discuss each article separately. What is the title of each article? What topics do the articles discuss? Who wrote the articles? What are the author’s credentials? What are the names of the publications? 5. How well is this company doing today? What major challenges does it face? Does the information that you have found in the