This course includes five writing activities that will require you to create different types of technical communications. These are designed to actively test your understanding and to apply your knowledge to potential real-world situations. These writing activities also provide practice in communicating your reasoning in a professional manner.

Proposal: Team Building and Collaboration (Module One) At International Gadgets, there has been a history of miscommunication within office departments, between offices, and between the company and its customers. You have been hired as the manager of the Corporate Communications department. You have decided to ask senior leadership for approval to develop a project and team to pursue improving communications and eliminating miscommunication throughout the company.

Your first task is to develop a project proposal for senior leadership. Compose a proposal that addresses the following:

· State the company’s communication issues.

· State the objective of your project.

· Provide recommendations for how the project will address the communication issues.

· Describe the makeup and roles of your proposed team, including what attributes you will be looking for in team members.

· Detail the results you hope to accomplish.

· Conclude by summarizing key points and requesting action from senior leadership.

Be sure to offer solid reasoning in all areas of your proposal.

Company Background International Gadgets (IG) is a multinational company of 1,300+ employees and over $4 billion in revenue. Headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, the company designs, manufactures, sells, and supports a variety of low- and high-tech business productivity tools.

IG has manufacturing facilities in Detroit, Michigan, and Shanghai, China, and sources component parts from suppliers in Vietnam, China, Brazil, and the United States. While IG maintains sales offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Munich, Paris, Moscow, and Brussels, its products are sold throughout the United States and all of Europe and in China through a partner firm. IG employs both a direct sales force targeting its top 1,000 customers as well as selling via its website. Sales offices also include service and support operations, managed separately from the sales teams. The company is considering expanding more directly into China and exploring the possibility of opening a sales office in Beijing.

IG’s current top-selling product is the Office Drone, designed for workplace monitoring. The Office Drone is a small, unmanned aerial vehicle for indoor use that includes real-time video monitoring and a targetable built-in water pistol and reservoir. The Office Drone is marketed to management and security teams to break up water cooler conversations and other non-productive behaviors among groups of workers.

IG has introduced several new products and experienced rapid growth during the past year with many new employees in all departments. The management team has greatly expanded as well, including several first-time managers, and is experiencing difficulties in functioning as effectively as in the past. Communications within and between all parts of the organization, external partners, and suppliers and customers are at serious risk of completely breaking down.

In a recent example, Detroit Manufacturing was unable to meet a product delivery deadline because of parts shortages from supplies. (The component parts originated in Brazil and had been seriously delayed due to a dockworker’s strike at U.S. West Coast ports.) Manufacturing believed they had informed Sales of the delay, but Sales indicated they had never received that information and ended up losing the customer to a competitor. In another example, European sales were impacted when Switzerland unexpectedly devalued its currency, impacting IG’s profitability. Revised profitability forecasts were provided by several of the European sales offices, but others did not understand the request from the corporate office due to how it was worded, and the delay in response led to unnecessary costs.

What to Submit

This proposal must be 2 to 3 pages in length (plus a cover page and references) and must be written in APA Style. Use double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Integrate at least one resource cited in APA style. Review  How to Write a Project Proposal for suggestions and formatting guidelines for developing proposals. The Module One Short Paper Template (linked in Module One of your Brightspace course) can serve as a starting point for developing your proposal; you are not required to use this template.