Week 10 · Business Case Workshop

Week 10 Business Case Workshop: Leading a Print Shop Across Two Locations

Introduction to Business Free sample edition

Part 1 — The Big Picture

This week you ran the four functions of management on the coffee cart as it grew to two carts: you counted 7 people on 3 levels with a span of control of 2 at each level, matched leadership styles to situations, kept managing apart from leading, and set the first cart's 48-drink break-even pace as a standard to control against. In this workshop you do the same for a different business, an illustrative print-and-copy shop that has opened a second location. You count its people and spans, find its break-even pace, check one real-looking week of daily counts against that standard, match leadership styles and managerial skills to its people, and then make a real decision: should the owner keep two shift leads, or supervise every clerk directly? Finally, you check a chatbot's analysis of the same case and correct it by hand.

Time budget: Plan for about 90 minutes.

Part 2 — The Task

Guiding question: How many people does the print shop's chart organize and what is its daily standard, what does one week of counts say when you compare it with that standard, and should the owner keep two shift leads or supervise all the clerks directly once you weigh the people the choice touches and the strongest case against your choice?

Workshop data: An illustrative print-and-copy shop's organization chart, break-even, and one week of daily counts

Source: The organization chart, break-even, operating days, price, supply cost, and six days of order and misprint counts for an illustrative print-and-copy shop with two locations, written for this workshop and printed in full in Part 4; it is not real data and describes no real business, place, or person.

Rows: one print shop's chart and one week of counts; the chart-and-standard table in Part 4 has 12 rows, the daily-count table has 7 rows (six days and a total), the decisions table has 3 rows, and the skills table has 4 rows
Columns: the quantity and its value in the chart-and-standard table; the day, its orders and misprints, and your comparisons in the daily-count table; the decision or task and your judgments in the other two
Decision: whether the owner should keep two shift leads or supervise all the clerks directly, and how to control the daily work without micromanaging it

Part 3 — Materials & Procedure

Tools and materials

A free spreadsheet (Google Sheets, or any free spreadsheet) for every computation; the SBA's free planning pages and SCORE's free templates for the plan; the SEC's EDGAR full-text search and investor.gov for what a real filing and a real security are; Census, BEA, and BLS data tables for real figures; and one approved chatbot used as a pair consultant whose numbers the student recomputes before trusting them

Ways of working

analyze-the-case
run-the-numbers
recommend-and-defend

Procedure

Open a blank sheet in a free spreadsheet. Type Quantity in cell A1 and Value in B1. In A2 to A6 type Owner, Shift leads, Clerks per shift lead, Break-even orders a year, and Operating days, and in B2 to B6 type 1, 2, 3, 33000, and 300. Tool: A free spreadsheet (Google Sheets, or any free spreadsheet) for every computation; the SBA's free planning pages and SCORE's free templates for the plan; the SEC's EDGAR full-text search and investor.gov for what a real filing and a real security are; Census, BEA, and BLS data tables for real figures; and one approved chatbot used as a pair consultant whose numbers the student recomputes before trusting them. Check: Rows 2 to 6 hold the case's five starting figures.
In A7 type Clerks in all and in B7 type =B3*B4. In A8 type Headcount and in B8 type =B2+B3+B7. In A9 type Flat choice: owner's span and in B9 type =B8-B2. In A10 type Break-even pace and in B10 type =B5/B6. Copy each amount into the chart-and-standard table in Part 4, adding the levels and both spans of control from the chart. Tool: A free spreadsheet (Google Sheets, or any free spreadsheet) for every computation; the SBA's free planning pages and SCORE's free templates for the plan; the SEC's EDGAR full-text search and investor.gov for what a real filing and a real security are; Census, BEA, and BLS data tables for real figures; and one approved chatbot used as a pair consultant whose numbers the student recomputes before trusting them. Check: The headcount adds every box on the chart, while each span of control counts only the people one line below a manager.
In C1 to G1 type Day, Orders, Misprints, Orders minus pace, and Misprint cost. In C2 to C7 type the days 1 to 6, in D2 to D7 type 118, 104, 112, 95, 121, and 110, and in E2 to E7 type 4, 2, 5, 9, 3, and 1. In F2 type =D2-110 and in G2 type =E2*3, then fill both down to row 7. In D8 type =SUM(D2:D7), in D9 type =D8/6, and in E8 and G8 add up their columns the same way. Copy every amount into the daily-count table in Part 4. Tool: A free spreadsheet (Google Sheets, or any free spreadsheet) for every computation; the SBA's free planning pages and SCORE's free templates for the plan; the SEC's EDGAR full-text search and investor.gov for what a real filing and a real security are; Census, BEA, and BLS data tables for real figures; and one approved chatbot used as a pair consultant whose numbers the student recomputes before trusting them. Check: A negative number in column F marks a day below the break-even pace, and column G prices each day's misprints at their supply cost.
Complete the decisions table in Part 4: for each decision, name the leadership style that fits (autocratic, participative, or free-rein) and give the reason from the time pressure, the group's experience, or the stakes. Check: Each row names one style with a reason tied to the situation, and no style is called right for every row.
Complete the skills table in Part 4: for each task, name the managerial skill it uses most (technical, human, or conceptual) and whether a shift lead or the owner would usually do it. Check: Technical tasks sit with the shift leads and conceptual tasks with the owner.
Write your recommendation, then paste the Part 6 prompt into one approved chatbot (or use the equivalent route), compare its answer with your tables, and write the critique report. Tool: A free spreadsheet (Google Sheets, or any free spreadsheet) for every computation; the SBA's free planning pages and SCORE's free templates for the plan; the SEC's EDGAR full-text search and investor.gov for what a real filing and a real security are; Census, BEA, and BLS data tables for real figures; and one approved chatbot used as a pair consultant whose numbers the student recomputes before trusting them. Check: You have a recommendation that names who gains and who gives something up, the strongest case for the other structure, and what would change your mind, plus a critique that quotes and corrects specific sentences.

Fallback route

When to use it: Use this route if a spreadsheet will not open or a formula will not run.

Work every step by hand from the figures printed in Part 4: multiply the shift leads by the clerks per lead, add the owner and the shift leads, divide the break-even by the operating days, subtract the pace from each day's orders, and multiply each day's misprints by 3 dollars. Fill in the decisions and skills tables, complete every analysis question and the critique step, and submit the same items for equal credit.

This route earns the same credit as the primary route.

Part 4 — The Scaffold

Count the people the chart organizes and find the daily standard, because every later step builds on these amounts.

Student scaffold table 1
Quantity	Value
Owner	1
Shift leads	2
Clerks per shift lead	3
Clerks in all
Headcount (people)
Levels on the chart
Owner's span of control
Each shift lead's span of control
Flat choice: owner's span of control
Break-even (orders a year)	33,000
Operating days a year	300
Break-even pace (orders a day)

Compare each day's count with the standard and price the misprints, so you can see where controlling should start.

Student scaffold table 2
Day	Orders	Misprints
1	118	4
2	104	2
3	112	5
4	95	9
5	121	3
6	110	1
Week total

Match a leadership style to each decision, because no one style fits every moment.

Student scaffold table 3
Decision	Leadership style that fits	Reason from the situation
The big printer jams in the busiest hour with 20 orders waiting
Choosing the second shop's opening hours
How an experienced shift lead arranges the clerks' breaks

Match each task to the managerial skill it leans on, so you can see how the mix shifts with level.

Student scaffold table 4
Task	Skill it uses most	Shift lead or owner?
Clearing a paper jam on the big printer
Settling a clash over who works the late shift
Deciding whether a third shop fits the plan
Coaching a new clerk on the order screen

Part 5 — Analysis Questions

Write the arithmetic that finds the clerks in all, the headcount, the owner's and each shift lead's span of control, the flat choice's span, the break-even pace, each day's orders minus the pace, the week's total and average orders, and the week's misprint cost, and say in a full sentence what the break-even pace means for the shop.
Using your daily-count table, walk the week through the four steps of controlling (set a standard, measure, compare, correct): which days fell short, what the misprints on day 4 suggest, and what the owner should do first. Explain why that first move is not micromanaging, and write one objective for the coming month that someone could check against your table.
Using your decisions and skills tables, explain which leadership style fits each decision and why, which skill each task uses most and who would do it, and point to one task in the case that is managing the work and one that is leading the people.
Choose one: (a) recommend whether the owner should keep the two shift leads or supervise all eight clerks directly in 5–8 sentences, using your spans of control and daily counts, naming one person who gives something up, the strongest case for the other structure, and the fact that would change your mind; or (b) argue the structure you would least choose as strongly as you can in 5–8 sentences, then say in two sentences why you still hold your view or why you changed it.
Your control check uses one week of counts, and the week's average lands exactly on the standard. Name one way a single week could mislead the owner, such as a holiday rush or one bad printer day, and explain how it could change what the owner should correct.

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment

Choose one equal-credit critique route. Route A: ask an approved AI tool to critique your completed work, then check its response against your own evidence. Route B is the no-AI equivalent printed below.

Approved tools: Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, Microsoft Copilot.

Prompt to paste:

I've pasted my completed Week 10 Business Case Workshop tables above. They describe an illustrative print-and-copy shop, invented for a class activity, not a real business. The shop has grown from one location to two. The owner is over 2 shift leads, and each shift lead is over 3 clerks. The shop's break-even is 33,000 orders a year over 300 operating days, each order sells for 6 dollars, each order uses 3 dollars of paper and toner, and every misprinted order costs those 3 dollars again. Last week the two shops together filled 118, 104, 112, 95, 121, and 110 orders and misprinted 4, 2, 5, 9, 3, and 1 orders. Please do eight things. First, tell me the shop's headcount, the owner's span of control, and the break-even pace in orders a day, and say which days fell short. Second, tell me what share of small businesses fail because of poor management. Third, compare the shop's organization with how a well-known national office-supply chain runs its stores. Fourth, sort these into a SWOT: the shop's two experienced shift leads, and a new office park opening near the second shop. Fifth, tell me exactly what the labor law requires for the clerks' breaks and whether the owner can be fined. Sixth, recommend whether the owner should keep the two shift leads or supervise all the clerks directly, and write the owner a short leadership plan. Seventh, tell me how much profit the shop makes at its break-even. Eighth, as a stretch question for later in the course, draw up the shop's balance sheet.

Test the response for these likely failures:

Chatbots often divide the year's break-even by 360 or 365 days instead of the 300 operating days, reporting 33,000 ÷ 360 = about 92 orders a day, or they count everyone below the owner and call the owner's span of control 8.
Asked what share of small businesses fail because of poor management, chatbots often give a confident percentage with no source and no year.
Asked to compare with a well-known national office-supply chain, chatbots often describe how that company organizes its stores or how many managers it has, with no source.
Chatbots often list the new office park among the shop's strengths, because it sounds like good news for the shop.
Chatbots often state exactly what break rules the law sets for the clerks and whether the owner can be fined, as if they knew the shop's state, its workers, and its facts.
Chatbots often recommend removing the shift leads to save money, or keeping them because a tall structure is always better, and never mention the clerks who would lose a nearby boss, the leads who would lose their jobs, or the strongest case for the other structure.
Asked for a leadership plan, chatbots often write general advice such as empower your team, foster a culture of accountability, and lead by example, with nothing about the two shops, the 110-order standard, or the misprints on the 95-order day.
Asked for the profit at break-even, chatbots often multiply 33,000 orders by the 6-dollar price and call the 198,000 dollars profit.
Asked for a balance sheet, chatbots often invent asset and debt figures whose two sides do not add up to the same total.

Write 3–5 sentences naming one thing the chatbot got right and at least two places it went wrong or overreached, quoting its words and correcting each with evidence from your own tables or this week's chapter.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

No AI account is required for this workshop. Instead of the chatbot, critique this flawed analysis, printed here in full: "The shop has 1 owner, 2 shift leads, and 6 clerks, so the owner's span of control is 8, because everyone below the owner works for the owner. The break-even pace is 33,000 ÷ 360 = about 92 orders a day, so every day last week beat the standard and there is nothing to control. Controlling means the owner should stand behind the clerks on the 95-order day and watch every print job. The owner should always lead autocratically, since someone has to be the boss, and should remove both shift leads to save money, since a flat structure is always cheaper and the clerks will be fine. About 70 percent of small businesses fail because of poor management, so this matters. A well-known national office-supply chain runs every store with one manager over 20 clerks, so the shop should copy it. The shop's biggest strength is the new office park opening near the second shop. The law requires a 30-minute break every four hours, and the owner will be fined if a clerk misses one. To succeed, the owner should empower the team, foster a culture of accountability, and lead by example. At its break-even the shop earns 33,000 × 6 = 198,000 dollars of profit. The shop's balance sheet shows assets of 60,000 dollars, debts of 25,000 dollars, and equity of 30,000 dollars." Mark it up: quote each flawed sentence, name what is wrong (a span of control that counts everyone below the owner, a break-even pace divided by the wrong number of days, controlling read as micromanaging, one leadership style called right everywhere, a recommendation that ignores the clerks, the shift leads, and the case for the other structure, a figure with no source, an unsourced claim about a real firm, an outside opportunity filed as a strength, confident legal advice for one shop, boilerplate that ignores the case, revenue treated as profit, or a balance sheet that does not balance), cite the evidence from your tables or the chapter, and write a corrected sentence beneath it; for the balance sheet, say which later week of the course takes it up and that it cannot come from this case. This route assesses the same objectives (Objective 5 and Objective 2) as the chatbot critique, takes comparable effort (about 30 minutes and 200–300 words), is scored by the same scoring criteria for the same credit, and its own submission artifact is the marked-up flawed analysis, posted in place of the chatbot share link and report.

Part 7 — What to Submit

All four completed scaffold tables
Written answers to all five analysis questions, including your recommendation
The chatbot critique report with its share link, or the equivalent route's marked-up flawed analysis

Deliverable:

A short Business Case Workshop report on an illustrative print-and-copy shop with two locations: four completed tables (the chart and its standard, the daily counts, the leadership-style decisions, and the managerial skills), written answers to five analysis questions including a weighed recommendation, and a critique of a chatbot's analysis of the same case, or, on the equivalent route, a marked-up correction of the printed flawed analysis. Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text. Choose a written, recorded, or visual form for your answers; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria.

Rubric

The rubric below shows how each submitted part is evaluated; bands are full, partial, or none.

Workshop evaluation criteria
Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Running the chart and daily-count numbers	The clerks, the headcount, both spans of control, the flat choice's span, the break-even pace, each day's comparison with the pace, the week's total and average, and the misprint cost are all found with the arithmetic shown, each span counting only direct reports.	The tables are shown, but one or two amounts are off, a span counts everyone below the manager, or the pace uses the wrong number of days.	No tables are shown, or amounts are given with no arithmetic behind them.
Matching leadership styles, skills, and the controlling steps	Every decision is matched to a fitting leadership style with a reason, every task to its main skill and level, the week is walked through the four steps of controlling with a cause-first move, and one checkable objective is written.	Most of these are present, but a style is matched with no reason, a row is blank, controlling is read as watching every move, or the objective cannot be checked.	No decisions, skills, or controlling analysis is submitted.
A weighed recommendation	The recommendation or the argued other side rests on the spans of control and daily counts, names a person who gives something up, states the strongest case for the other structure, and says what would change the decision.	A position is taken and tied to some case facts, but the case for the other structure, the person who gives something up, or what would change the decision is missing.	No recommendation is given, or it repeats general advice with no case facts.
Critiquing the AI analysis or the printed flawed analysis	The chatbot's analysis, or on the equivalent route the printed flawed analysis, is quoted and at least two errors are corrected with evidence from the tables or the chapter, including any invented figure, real-company claim, or legal rule flagged as outside this case.	The critique names errors but corrects only one, or corrects without evidence, on either route.	No critique is submitted on either route, or the AI output or flawed analysis is accepted without checking.
Naming the limitation of one week of counts	The response names a specific way one week could mislead the owner and explains how it could change what the owner corrects.	A limitation is named but not connected to what the owner should correct.	No limitation is named.

Quality Gate

Every headcount, span, pace, shortfall, and misprint amount comes from your own arithmetic on the printed figures, never from a chatbot.
Each span of control counts only the people one line below a manager, and the break-even pace divides the year's break-even by the 300 operating days.
Controlling is described as comparing counts with a standard and finding a cause first, not as watching every clerk.
Each decision is matched to a leadership style with a reason, no style is called right everywhere, and each task is matched to a managerial skill and a level.
The recommendation names at least one person who gives something up, the strongest case for the other structure, and what would change the answer; no statistic, real-company fact, or legal rule is invented.
The critique quotes the chatbot or the flawed analysis and corrects at least two errors with evidence from your tables or the chapter.

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