There are three items/generalizations about the midterm that I want to clear up since a number of people chose to comment on them in their exams:
1. Many pointed out that the business plan talked about a “product” when the company was only providing a “service.” In marketing parlance, a product can be a good (tangible), a service (intangible), or a combination of the two (a meal in a fancy restaurant is a combination of a good and a service.) The use of the word “product” in the business plan to describe their offering is not wrong.
2. Just as many focused on the misspelling of the word “Internet” as “Intranet”. In reality, there are three types of web-based networks: Internet (all users, anonymous), Intranet (internal network), and Extranet (internal plus suppliers and vendors). The use of Intranet in the business plan, in the way they were describing it, is correct.
3. The appendices/financials were left out of the plan by the faculty and not the authors. We did this to cut the plan down to manageable size and to only cover topics that we have discussed thus far. Not having this information before you was by choice, and not a fault of the plan.
