Demonstrate knowledge of the current state of HISCO.

Include a cover page and 1-2 pages of reflection regarding what learnings you’ve taken away from the week’s activities, readings, videos, and other information you found noteworthy. Critically consider the challenges you faced in becoming familiar with the simulation, making operating decisions, and analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats faced by HISCO. Lastly consider how to apply lessons from Week 1 to your career field. Every job that you perform for your employer has budgetary and time constraints. Often choices have to be made about the quality of the project. There is only so much money that can be dedicated to your position within the company and the tasks that are assigned to you. Consider how budgeting impacts the work that you perform.

Required Resources
Articles
Holtzman, Y., Gorkhover, G., & Ganz, M. (2015, January 12). The U.S. medical device industry: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://www.mddionline.com/us-medical-device-industry-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats
The full-text version of this article is available through the website link. This article provides information about the medical device industry in the European Union and will assist you in becoming more familiar with the industry in the real world. The article will give the student a very good example of verbiage included in a published SWOT analysis. In Week 1 students will create and submit a SWOT analysis of HISCO. The article is found through an internet search of the medical device industry.
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Maresova, P., Penhaker, M., Selamat, A., & Kuca, K. (2015). The potential of medical device industry in technological and economical context. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 11, 1505-1514. doi:10.2147/TCRM.S88574

The full-text version of this article is available through the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library. This article provides information about the importance and the development of the medical device industry in the European Union and will assist you in your thinking as you develop your straetgy this week to be submitted along with your SWOT. The article will expand your knowledge of the industry.
Savickas, Mark L. (2003, September). Introduction to the special issue. Career Development Quarterly, 52(1), 4-7. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2003.tb00621.x

The full-length version of this article is available through the Ebscohost database in the Ashford University Library. This article provides information about and will assist you in your analysis for a SWOT creation assignment in Week 1. The article serves as a good example of the verbiage used in a SWOT.

Required Technology
Website
Growing Your Business A Management Simulation. (https://ashford.trisimulation.com/canvas)

This website is where you will conduct your readings and work to complete the Current Status of Hisco Pre-test and the SWOT and Strategy assignment.
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Please note that if you are experiencing technical issues with the Growing Your Business Simulation, you will need to contact the help desk within the simulation.

https://ashford.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/Simulation.Overview.Video.Part.1/0_akr7mkyl#wrap

Week 1 Guidance .
Welcome to class. You may have already read the online information on the course, but here is a part of it giving an overview of the course and learning objectives:
All online courses at Ashford are divided into a series of Learning Weeks, which always begin on a Tuesday and end on a Monday. All assignment due dates refer to the end of the day (11:59 pm) in the student’s own time zone. When you log in to class, you will see the Course Calendar in the Course Home module, so you will always know what day an assignment is due during each week. When in doubt, feel free to ask!
Learning Outcomes
This week students will:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of the current state of HISCO.
2. Assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of HISCO.
3. Explain what information or details are important to add to a SWOT analysis.
I will be evaluating the learning outcomes from your posts and providing some feedback. This course will require a lot of studying about HISCO and its competitors and operating environment. The learning you gain here will help you succeed in business even if your business if not directly related to medical devices.

The online pages also provide the following:
Introduction
Welcome to Week 1 of BUS687 MBA Capstone. This week you will be introduced to a business simulation that will require that you use skills and knowledge gained from previous courses in your MBA program. In particular, you will compete in a three company business environment. You will represent the company HISCO, a medical device manufacturer. Your competition in the simulation will be Matek and Redex. The goal is to outperform your competition by controlling the cost of HISCO while making decisions about the companys operations.
For Week 1 you will need to take a pre-test associated with current operations information provided in the simulation about HISCO. The information will also prove vital for the creation of your SWOT Analysis and Business Strategy. You will also watch a video concerning strategy creation that will be helpful as you construct your strategy for the simulation.
You will also participate in a journaling activity that requires that you reflect critically on the importance of creating and using a well-thought-out SWOT and the creation of an operations strategy in the HISCO Simulation. You will need to consider how using SWOTs and strategy creation was not only beneficial in the simulation but also will be beneficial currently in your career and in the future. It is important that you thoroughly read all assigned materials so that you are able to start the simulation in the most productive manner possible.
Please note that if you are experiencing technical issues with the Growing Your Business Simulation, you will need to contact the help desk within the simulation.

The pre-test is automatically graded. The final quantitative ranking is also automatically graded.
The following article is of particular help since it deals with SWOT:
Holtzman, Y., Gorkhover, G., & Ganz, M. (2015, January 12). The U.S. medical device industry: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://www.mddionline.com/us-medical-device-industry-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats (Links to an external site.).

One bit of information in the article refers to a challenge of the USA tax rate of 35% and how that hurt business in the USA and led to companies moving to foreign countries with lower rates. Congress passed a tax reform bill effective in 2018 that lowered that corporate tax rate to around 20%. This action has produced a booming economy and brought large investments back to the USA.
You will need to be up on current events and past events to run a business and this simulator will help understand why.