Private and Confidential. For X-Culture use only.

Updated August 22, 2020

2020-2a

Company: X-Culture Kids

Country: USA
Website: https://x-culture.org/academy

Webinars: Webinar schedule and recordings here

Questions: If you have further questions, please direct them to Admin@X-Culture.org. Your questions will be
directed to the company representatives.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

X-Culture Kids is a program offered by X-Culture with the mission to provide kids ages 10-17 with
international collaboration and international business experience.

Please note, X-Culture has three tracks: university, kids (ages 10-17), and professionals (non-student adults,
18+). The university track is the main X-Culture program. The tracks for kids and professionals are managed
under the X-Culture Academy brand. The present challenge refers specifically to the track for kids ages 10-17,
and thus for convenience, we refer to it as X-Culture Kids, although technically it is not a separate company, but
a track for our younger participants.

Why?
International Experience

We live in a global world. In school, at work, in our personal lives, we increasingly must interact with people of
different cultures. International experience helps interact more effectively.

People with international experience are in high demand, but still in low supply. They are more likely to be
admitted to good universities and get good jobs.

Teaching to work with people from different cultures is notoriously hard. It is not something one can learn from
books or lectures. Learning in a classroom how to interact with foreigners is like learning how to swim on a
football field.

One must get in the water to learn how to swim. One must have a practical international experience to
understand other cultures.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to find opportunities to gain international experience. International travel is costly.
Even if one can afford to go overseas as a tourist, there is a big difference between being a tourist and being a
co-worker.

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Furthermore, international work teams tend to be comprised of more than two nationalities. It is not unusual to
see work teams where each team member comes from a different culture. This fundamentally changes the group
dynamics. Working in a team comprised of just two cultures is not the same as working in a team where every
team member is from a different culture.

Lastly, the rapid development of online communication technologies makes it easier than ever before to work in
globally dispersed teams. Most international interactions happen online. The group dynamics in virtual teams is
much more complicated than in face-to-face teams. The ability to work in global virtual teams cannot be
learned from books, by visiting other countries, or by working in traditional face-to-face teams. It can only be
learned by working in virtual teams.

X-Culture is an inexpensive, safe, and effective way to gain international experience and learn how to
work in global virtual teams.

About 5,000 business students from 130 universities in 40 countries on 6 continents participate in X-Culture
every semester.

They first receive training in areas such as online collaboration, cross-cultural communication, problem-solving
in teams, and the basics of international business.

Then, they complete a business project for a real corporate client in a team of about 7, each person from a
different country, thereby gaining international experience and online collaboration skills.

Business Experience

Just like international experience, business experience is hard to gain from books or lectures. It is hard to
understand business theories without applying them in practice.

X-Culture students solve international business problems for real companies. The students receive detailed
information about their client company and its products, have live webinars with the company managers,
present their work to their clients and receive feedback, and can even see their best ideas implemented.

Most talented trainees often receive internships and job offers. Many companies also offer after-market
commission for proposals that lead to contracts.

In addition to international experience, X-Culture students also receive business consulting experience.

Better Learning

Our research shows that practical experience aids theoretical learning. Compared to control groups, students
who also had the X-Culture experience as part of their International Business courses did better on the course
exams. Same exam. Same questions. More correct answers if X-Culture is part of the course.

It is possible that the knowledge they gained during the project helped students answer exam questions.
However, at least partially, better performance on the exams could be attributed to improved interest in the
subject and a stronger motivation to learn.

Practical application of the theories covered in the course helps students understand and appreciate the
importance of the course materials. Seeing theory work in practice creates a sense of discovery, which makes
learning more engaging and enjoyable.

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We receive hundreds of letters from former X-Culture participants who share that the experience was so
interesting that they read several additional books on International Business that were not even assigned for
their course. Many also shared that because of X-Culture, they changed their majors to International Business.

A Better World

Most importantly, X-Culture makes the world less divided and less hostile.

Our research shows that X-Culture reduces prejudice against people of other cultures, increases interest in
working with people from different cultures, and increases confidence in one’s ability to complete a project
with people from other cultures.

These are very important outcomes.

With every X-Culture graduate, we reduce the chance of international conflict. With every X-Culture graduate,
we increase the chance of successful international collaboration.

Literally, the more people go through X-Culture, the less likely the next war is. The more people go through
X-Culture, the more likely we are to collectively find solutions to the challenges we face as a civilization.

A Brief History of X-Culture

X-Culture Kids stems from the X-Culture Project.

X-Culture was launched in 2010 by Dr. Vas Taras. As he was preparing a new International Business course, he
thought it would be a good idea to partner with a professor in another country who was teaching a similar
course. The students from the two countries would work in international virtual teams on a term project, deal
with the cultural differences, time zones, and in the process, experience the challenges and learn best practices
of international collaboration.

To find a colleague in another country who was teaching a similar course, Dr. Taras sent out a call through the
Academy of International Business mailing list. To his surprise, dozens of business professors around the world
replied within hours.

Universities from 7 countries (about 400 students total) participated in X-Culture in the first round.

As of 2020-2, about 5,000 Master’s and Undergraduate students from over 130 universities in 40 countries on 6
continents participate in X-Culture each semester (see the complete list here).

Originally, X-Culture was envisioned only as an experiential learning exercise for students in university
International Business courses. However, many new exciting programs have been developed around X-Culture.

In 2012, the first X-Culture Global Symposium was held in Florida as a part of the AIB-SE conference. Now,
the X-Culture Global Symposium is held twice a year. Best students from dozens of countries meet in person,
meet their business clients, have a company tour, and a series of career development workshops and networking
events.

In 2013, Mercedes-Benz partnered with X-Culture and presented a real-life business challenge for our students
to solve. The students did well. Ever since, every semester, we select 5-10 companies that present their
challenges for the students to solve.

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Originally X-Culture was exclusively for university students (MBA and Undergraduate). However, requests to
expand the project to other demographics have been frequent from the project’s inception.

Starting in 2014, X-Culture allowed corporate employees and other non-student professionals to participate in
the project. We are now testing the viability of X-Culture for pre-college kids and teens.
We are also testing a host of other X-Culture off-shoot programs, such as the X-Culture Business Week,
Coaching Program, WikiDemix.org, VirtualTA.org, and MVP Prize.

X-Culture Kids

When X-Culture was launched in 2010, it was open only to university students. Over 70,000 students have
already participated in X-Culture, and about 5,000 more participate every semester.

Since 2015, non-student professionals can take part in the X-Culture training. People ages 19 to 60 take part in
the project to gain international and business experience, acquire new skills, and improve their chances of a
promotion or an entirely new career.

Starting in 2018, pre-college students can participate in X-Culture, too.

Our tests show that children as young as 9 years old are fully capable of completing a project with their peers
from other countries – and they could greatly benefit from this experience.

Of all the X-Culture spinoffs, X-Culture Kids probably has the best potential to make the world a better place.
First, X-Culture Kids has a much larger target audience than X-Culture University.

There are about 20,000 universities in the world with a web presence. Not all of them offer International
Business courses, and not all their students are fluent enough in English to participate in X-Culture. We
estimate that in any given semester, only about 50,000 students worldwide are enrolled in courses suitable for
participation in X-Culture – and we already capture about 10% of that population.

The target population for X-Culture Kids is MUCH larger. There are about a billion people ages 9-17
worldwide. Nearly half of them either speak English or try to learn English. Even if only 0.0001% of this
population (1/10,000th of 1 percent, or only 1 in 100,000) participated in X-Culture, that would be 5,000
participants every semester, or up to three times that a year.

In other words, even if X-Culture Kids is 10,000 times less effective than X-Culture University at attracting
potential participants, it will attract the same number of people every semester.

Imagine what impact we can have on the world if we capture 0.01% or 0.1% of that population.

Second, young minds are more malleable. X-Culture improves cultural intelligence, reduces prejudice, and
improves cultural self-efficacy, and the effect is likely stronger for younger participants. That means even less
prejudice, even more interest in cross-cultural interactions, and even stronger collaboration skills after the
X-Culture experience.

As a test, we invited applications for X-Culture Kids in 2017. Relying only on word of mouth among
X-Culture instructors, we received over 100 applications.

For 2020-2 round, we issued an open call for applications and promoted it on social media. In response, we
received about 1,300 applications.

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Sadly, based on our experience from earlier years, the vast majority of applicants will not pass the Theory
training, and we will likely be left with a few hundred qualified participants. Given our minimal effort in
promoting the program, this is a remarkable number and a good return on investment. From the start, the
program seems to be sustainable. The money we spent on advertisement and administration should be fully
recouped with the registration fees, although it is too early to talk about actual profits.

Moving forward, a few thousand pre-college participants per semester seems a very realistic goal. If it is an
achievement, the program should generate enough resources to hire professions full-time administrators, as well
as compensate the many professors helping us manage the program.

HOW?

X-Culture Kids is a startup. There are many uncertainties, and until we try, we won’t know what works best.
The plan is to start with the same basic idea and project design that has served us well in X-Culture University.

However, because the participants will be younger and less prepared, some changes are necessary:

1. Age-appropriate challenges
Industries and products that are more relevant to younger populations will be selected for the challenges.
For example, in the 2018-1 round, a Lithuanian educational toymaker and a Finnish private school
network were the clients. The kids had to either design new toys and develop a marketing strategy for
those toys, or design a school of their dreams and design a strategy for convincing parents to send their
kids to the school. Furthermore, the challenge questions are less technical (e.g., less financial analysis) and
instead more creative (e.g., more product design).

2. More rigorous selection

Most universities are selective and offer rigorous training. The university students tend to be highly
skilled. Also, X-Culture is part of a course grade, so the university students work hard to get good grades.

X-Culture Kids will not be pre-selected and trainer by universities. They will receive no grades. To
compensate for this reduced selectivity and extrinsic motivation, a stricter selection will be needed, both to
attract only the most prepared applicants, and to make the project more prestigious to improve motivation.

3. More pre-project training

Unlike university students who already have much training and are enrolled in International Business
courses, kids and teenagers will need to receive more rigorous pre-project training in online collaboration,
cross-cultural communication, business report writing, and the like.

4. More gamification
For university students, the project is designed to resemble real business consulting projects: strict
deadlines, dry communication, professional formatting of deliverables.

X-Culture Kids will rely on gamification and fun to provide extra motivation.

5. Broader recruitment
A call for participants via the Academy of International Business is enough to attract many professors who
enroll their students in X-Culture.

X-Culture Kids will require more active and broad recruitment, including recruitment via personal
contacts, direct solicitations, online recruitment, as well as via clubs and professional associations.

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 6. Company-like management
Most X-Culture professors are Ph.D.-holding experts in business and experienced educators. They provide
all the necessary help because once X-Culture is part of their course, it is part of their job. This allowed us
to build a global organization with a minimal budget.

The school teachers and parents of X-Culture Kids may not be as skilled and experienced as X-Culture
professors. Also, some personnel will need to be hired, such as Regional Executive Directors, Recruitment
Agents, contracted IT and marketing support services. Thus, X-Culture Kids will need to be managed
more as a company, rather than as a research project.

Program Design

In the first iteration, the X-Culture Kids program design will look like the regular X-Culture University + more
pre-project training and post-project reflections. As we gain experience with the program, the program design is
likely to evolve constantly.

Pre-Project Training (4 weeks)

A series of gamified training modules, such as:
• The X-Culture Project: Purpose, History, Method, Vision
• Online Collaboration Tools (Skype, Doodle, Dropbox, Google Docs, WhatsApp, etc.)
• Cross-cultural communication
• How to be an effective global virtual team
• Effective presentation: The art of writing business proposals
• Plagiarism and academic referencing
• The basics of International Business

Practical Training (8 weeks)

The students work in global virtual teams:
• As the students are completing the project, they experience the challenges and learn best practices of
working in teams, communicating online, dealing with time-zones, cultural differences, and more
• Students have live webinars with the CEOs of their client organizations, submit weekly deliverables,
receive feedback, and make friends
• The teams submit their final business proposals

Post-Project Reflections (4 weeks)

After the reports are submitted:
• Students present their work in-class and/or in a live online teleconference
• Students write reflection papers where they reflect on their experiences

Post-Project Awards and Documentation

After the project is over, the students and instructors receive:
• X-Culture Global Collaboration Certificates (students)
• X-Culture Global Educator Certificates (teachers)
• Best Team awards
• Best Teacher awards
• The best students and instructors are invited to the X-Culture Symposium

X-Culture Kids will be offered concurrently with X-Culture University (2 times a year), plus likely an
additional third round in the (northern hemisphere) summer as a virtual summer camp.

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 Benefits for Trainees

1. International experience
Complete a project in a team where each team member is from a different country.

2. Business experience
Solve a real business challenge for a real client company.

3. New knowledge and skills

Training in cross-cultural communication, online collaboration tools, international business, business
writing and presentation, and more.

4. Personal and professional network

Friends around the world, contacts at many universities and several companies.

5. Cultural intelligence
A documented significant improvement in cultural intelligence from before to after the project.

6. X-Culture Certificate and Recommendation Letter

You learn and grow. We provide documented proof.

7. Stronger resume and improved chances of a new start

X-Culture experience makes you a much stronger applicant for a stipend or job.

Benefits for Teachers

1. Enhanced student learning
Compared to control groups (no X-Culture), students in courses with X-Culture do better on exams.

2. Improved teaching evaluations

Compared to control groups, students who have X-Culture give their teachers higher evaluations.

3. Research and publications

X-Culture is an excellent research platform that provides high-quality multi-source multi-level
longitudinal data. If you are interested in scholarly work, X-Culture will provide you the necessary data.

4. Professional network
Meet the hundreds of educators and business professionals on the X-Culture team.

5. Documented proof of your achievement:

X-Culture Global Educator Certificate and support letters sent to your principal or department head.
You do a great job; we make sure the world knows about it.

6. X-Culture certificates for your students

Students get X-Culture International Business certificates, which help with college and job applications.

7. Helps us make education more interactive and experiential:

The workplace is becoming global. Learning how to work across cultures in a classroom is like learning
to swim on a football field. X-Culture is developing new teaching methods for the new today – and you
can be part of our team.

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 Recruitment

X-Culture Kids is being developed based on years of experience with X-Culture University.

We already have 90% of the building blocks: a recognizable and trusted brand, an effective program model,
training materials, a system for participant management, performance monitoring, data collection, templates for
pre- and post-project documentation, a large online following, and the like.

The biggest immediate challenge of X-Culture Kids is recruitment.

X-Culture offers great value to the students and teachers. Most parents/teachers would probably want to enroll
their children/students in X-Culture – … if only they knew about it.

X-Culture is a platform project. Its value lies in the variety of participants. It is useful because and only if
people from different countries participate in it.

X-Culture Kids would be viable even if a small group of children from only 4-5 countries took part in it.
However, a much larger and diverse group offers economies of scale and gives the project is allure and
credibility.

Thus, the biggest immediate task and the key to the success of X-Culture Kids is to inform the potential
participants about this wonderful opportunity.

Since there is no global professional association of parents of school teachers akin the Academy of International
Business that could serve as a universal recruitment channel, X-Culture Kids will have to rely on other channels
to inform potential participants about this wonderful opportunity, such as:

1. Word of mouth
X-Culture University has about 70,000 alumni, and about 5,000 more participate every semester. Our
research shows that about 90% of them find the X-Culture experience to be useful or very useful for
their future career.

Additionally, almost 600 professors have participated in X-Culture. About 250 of them participate on a
regular basis and are avid supporters of the project.

We also have about 20,000 X-Culture Newsletter subscribers and 250,000 Facebook followers.

Happy former X-Culture participants and project fans could provide great help with recruitment.

2. Local recruitment agents

Personal meetings with teachers, administrators, and leaders of local youth and parent clubs and other
educational and social organizations could be a very effective recruitment channel.

Unlike former participants who would share the information about the program only occasionally and
only with a small number of friends and family, local representatives can be hired to promote X-Culture
on a permanent basis. They can work part- or full-time.

The most effective local representatives would likely be teachers or other educators who believe in the
X-Culture cause and seek additional income on the side. However, they could also be hired full-time
employees whose only job is to act as X-Culture’s local recruitment agent.

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 3. Advertisement in local media
Where feasible, local representatives can be given a budget to place ads in local newspapers or
magazines in locations where such promotion channels may be feasible.

4. Targeted promotion
A Google search makes it easy to find relevant organizations in cities where X-Culture wishes to recruit
participants (schools, youth and parent clubs, etc.). Brochures and other promo materials can be mailed
or emailed to them directly. It is probably best if the local representatives curated this process, as the
local market and language knowledge may be necessary to ensure a high conversion rate.

5. Conferences
Local, regional, and international conferences for teachers and other educators can be attended by
X-Culture representatives to promote the project.

6. Online
Probably the most promising promotion channel is the Internet.
Promotion via social platforms and by using targeted online advertisements is probably going to be most
effective.

Advertising via Facebook, Google, and their affiliates allows for a relatively inexpensive way to reach
our target audience, such as parents of children ages 9-16 interested in extra-curricular activities and
training opportunities for their children. The categories can be specified remarkably accurately and
include geographic location, language, interests, and more.

7. Online community
An online community (or separate communities) of like-minded teachers, parents, youth club leaders,
and youths can be created to provide a platform for idea exchange and socializing. It could be a
discussion forum and a source of ideas and links to new training and learning tools, educational projects,
blogs, and more. We can also organize webinars with leading educators, successful project participants,
authors of books on the topic, popular bloggers, and more.

While some of these promotion channels appear more promising than others, the plan is to start with testing
them all first and then focus on those that provide the best return on investment.

In late 2019, we ran a round of tests of advertising the program on social media, namely via Facebook,
Instagram, as well as limited tests with YouTube and Google AdWords. After trying about 20 different ads
(pictures, short videos, longer videos, live webinars, online contests), we were able to find a formula that
provided a significant return on investment. That is, our final model was expected to return up to $5 on every $1
invested in the advertisement, provided all admitted participants pay their participation fees.

Most likely, however, a large percentage of those admitted to the program will not be able to pass the
theoretical training and quality for completing the project in teams. Some percent may also drop out when the
time comes to pay the registration fee. Our current estimates suggest that the current recruitment model will
fully cover our advertisement and administrative expenses, but it is not expected that the program will be
generating a significant profit.

• A detailed X-Culture Kids Promotion philosophy and strategy document.

• X-Culture Kids: A Parent’s Reflections After Week 5
• X-Culture Kids Presentations
• Can Kids Do International Business?

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 THE CHALLENGE

X-Culture is doing very well as far as our collaboration with universities and students. However, X-Culture
Kids is a new product, and we are experiencing difficulties with expanding into new markets. So far, most of
the participants are kids of our professors and alumni. Almost everyone who has participated in the beta-run of
X-Culture Kids wants to participate again, which allows us to conclude that the product is of much value.

We are ready to offer the program to other market segments. Accordingly, we seek your help with identifying
new promising markets and developing a new market entry strategy.

Section I: Market

1. Industry and Competition Analysis

To provide a foundation for your analysis, start with a survey of the industry. Who are your client’s main
competitors? How your client’s product and pricing are different from those of the competitors?
What are your client’s strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition, and what threats and
opportunities it is facing?

When assessing your client’s competitive position, you may find this short guide and this 5-min video on
SWOT analysis helpful.

To better understand the industry and consumers, it is recommended that you reach out to parents and teachers
to find out more how they select additional training and experiential learning opportunities for their kids, what
programs they use now, and what it would take for them to consider the X-Culture Kids program.

Suggested questions for parents:

• Are your children currently or have they ever been enrolled in educational programs outside school?
• If so, how did you select such programs? What is important to you when selecting such programs for your
kids?
• Would you consider a program like X-Culture Kids for your children? Why or why not?
• Is there anything that would make X-Culture Kids more attractive to you?

Suggested questions for school teachers:

• Are your students currently or have they ever been enrolled in educational programs outside their regular
classes?
• Who decides if your students can enroll in such extra-curricular programs?
• What is important to you when selecting such programs for your students?
• Would you consider a program like X-Culture Kids for your children? Why or why not?
• If you liked the X-Culture Kids program, would you be allowed to enroll your students in it?
• Is there anything that would make X-Culture Kids more attractive to you?

2. New Market Selection and Analysis

Based on your analysis of the client and competition, identify the most promising new market for your client.
Where would the product be in most demand (people who want and can afford it)?

Please first consider the market characteristics that are essential to the success of the product in the market, such
as the economic, political, institutional and cultural factors. Based on a comparison of the countries that fit your
criteria, select one most promising market that you believe has the greatest potential.

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Conduct an analysis of the market in terms of:
• Key competitors in the proposed market, their strengths, and weaknesses, their pricing and promotion
strategies, etc.
• Provide an in-depth analysis of the factors relevant to the success of your client in the market, including:
o Cultural, legal, political, and economic factors that your client must understand to ensure the success in
that market;
o Consumer tastes and preferences with respect to your client’s product.

Evaluation Rubrics
7 - Clear and concise list of the client’s strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities for its product,
review of the market selection criteria, the recommended new market clearly matches the criteria, brief but
insightful market analysis, strong supporting arguments, sources properly cited; if a survey of potential
clients has been conducted, the sample is clearly described and the findings are presented in a concise
readable format.
4 – A good analysis and recommendation, but some elements are not strongly supported, some parts are
irrelevant or redundant.
1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the
point, not supported by credible sources.

Section II. Marketing

3. Promotion Channels

Identify who makes the decision to enroll kids in programs like X-Culture Kids (e.g., parents, teachers, school
principals) and suggest the best ways to reach the decision-makers and present them with information about the
program. Because it will likely be a highly specialized consumer segment, mass advertising like TV may not be
an optimal promotion method. Rather, professional mailing lists, direct mailing or highly targeted promotion via
social media and professional associations, or personal meetings with target organizations representatives may
be more viable and cost-effective, although more common methods may be more suitable for reaching parents.

Try to not only identify the general channels, but also research and provide the specifics. For example, do not
simply recommend professional email distribution lists, targeted social media campaigns, or professional
associations as a way to reach the decision-makers (such as LinkedIn network, etc.). Find out the actual email
distribution lists and research how one can send out a promotional message to its recipients; suggest which
social media allow for sending information directly to the decision-makers and how exactly this could be done;
or which professional associations or conferences the decision-makers belong or go to. That is, provide names,
addresses, prices, and exact steps that need to be taken to send out the message via this channel.

4. Message
• What is the best way to convince consumers to buy the product?
• What should be the main message of the marketing campaign and how should it be presented?
• What is the best message, slogan, and other marketing campaign elements?
• If applicable, discuss if the brand name or its presentation should be modified to make the product more
appealing to the tastes and traditions of the consumers in the new market.

5. Promotional Materials
To interest potential customers, your client will need to present information about its products. Illustrate your
knowledge of the target consumers in your chosen new market by developing a mock-up locally-tailored
marketing brochure, email or webpage template, or social media post that your client can use to promote the
product. It does not need to have the perfect graphic design. It should only serve as a concept sketch for what
the promo material should look like to be effective with the target market segment.

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Evaluation Rubrics
7 – The recommended promotion channel(s) is inexpensive and allows to precisely target the potential
customers, there is a clear step-by-step guide for how to place an ad there and how much it will cost, an
appealing and convincing marketing brochure with strong supporting arguments for each element.
4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or
redundant, the formatting is inconsistent.
1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the
point, not supported by credible sources.

Section III. Management

6. Entry Mode
• Are direct sales the optimal market entry mode, or a joint venture, franchising, wholly-owned subsidiary, or
a partnership with the local distributors, government agencies, or other forms would be more effective?
• If a partnership with a local distributor, retailer, or company is advised, what companies would be the best
candidates for such partnership (list at least three, with contacts, descriptions, and tips for how to approach
them)?

7. Payments
What is the best way to collect payments and move money across the border when doing business in the
proposed market, particularly with respect to transaction fees, currency exchange, and taxes?

8. Pricing
What is the optimal way to charge for the program like X-Culture Kids? Should it be a fixed price or a different
model would work better (subscription, membership, group pricing, repeat customer discounts, installment
payments, etc.), and corresponds well with the marketing strategy suggested earlier.

This blog and this article offer a good overview of some of the available pricing strategy options.

Evaluation Rubrics
7 – The proposed entry mode and recommendations with respect to the payments and pricing are clearly
articulated, are viable, and are supported by convincing arguments; if a local partner/distributor
recommended, at least three are suggested with company contacts and description, the proposed shipping
and pricing strategy is explained in sufficient detail and supported by convincing arguments and credible
sources.
4 – Good suggestions, but not enough detail and weak supporting arguments, some parts are irrelevant or
redundant, the formatting is inconsistent
1 - Impossible to figure out what the recommendation is, supporting arguments are absent or completely off the
point, not supported by credible sources.

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 OPTIONAL: A REAL-LIFE VIABILITY TEST

To make the project more realistic, gain further business experience, and to put to a real-life test the claimed
demand for the product in the new proposed market, teams are encouraged to try get a real B2B contract (with a
school), or sign up individual participants for the X-Culture Program. You can try to do it individually or as a
team.

If you succeed at securing a B2B contract or an individual participant enrolls thank to your referral, you will
receive a prize commensurable with the amount of 20% of the contract or enrollment value, offered as a gift or
post-market commission (after the deal is closed and the customer pays for the product).

If you would like to try it, please do the following:

1. When you identify a potential organizational or individual customer, share information about X-Culture
Kids with them.
2. If they express interest in the program, suggest that they register for the next round of the program here:
https://x-culture.org/academy/
3. If the potential client has questions, please contact Academy@X-Culture.org to receive more
information via email or to schedule a live call.

This part is optional, and your decision to try it or your success or failure, if you try, will have no effect on your
evaluation in this project. However, we encourage you to try to secure a contract and facilitate its execution as
this will not only offer you a unique, very real and very practical international business experience but will also
lead to tangible rewards and a much stronger resume in the case of your success.

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 REPORT STRUCTURE AND FORMATTING

Report structure:

• Title Page must contain

o team number
o client company name
o names, emails, and countries of residence of all the team members and a short summary (5-15
words) of the role and work completed by each team member.
o If any of the team members dropped out or did not contribute to the report, please still list
them, but add a note “Did not participate” by their names.

• Executive Summary (300-400 words, bullet-list format preferred) that provides a short review of your key
findings and recommendations. The Executive Summary should not be saying what the report will be about
(list of topics), but rather summarize your key recommendations (the proposed new market, key findings of
the industry analysis, key features of the recommended marketing and pricing strategies, etc.). By reading
the Executive Summary, your client should be able to see and understand right away your key
recommendations. The rest of the report should only provide more details and supporting arguments.

• Report sections corresponding to each question listed above.

Start each report section with a short bullet-list summary of the key recommendations presented in the
section (2-4 bullets, each 4-10 words long), followed by 2-5 pages of more detailed explanations and
supporting arguments.

• References: if you cite any sources in the text of the report, provide full references in this section. Please use
APA-6 citation style (google how to cite sources using APA-6 if you are not sure).

• Appendixes: If needed, add additional information in appendices, within the page limit.

Formatting:
• The report must be 15-25 single-spaced pages (7,000-15,000 words), including the title page, executive
summary, references, and appendices. Each section should be 1-4 pages long. Generally, shorter is better, so
be as concise and focused as possible. Design your report for easy navigation and scanning for key ideas.
• Number all pages in your team report.
• Portrait page orientation.
• Margins should be 2.5 cm (one inch) at the top, bottom, and sides of the page.
• Font type should be 12-point Times New Roman throughout the report.
• Single-space all body text.
• Indent the first line of a new paragraph.
• The text should be left-aligned.
• All citations used must be cited in the text and in a reference list at the end of each report. In-text citations
should include only the name of the author(s) and the date of the publication. Full references should be
provided at the end of the report. Please use APA reference style.
• A picture is worth a thousand of words, so the use of figures, graphs, pictures, as well as tables is
encouraged. It is recommended these are included in the main body of the report.
• Know your client: Which English spelling dictionary and paper size (A4/US Letter) varies based on which
country your client’s business is headquartered.

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Evaluation of the Executive Summary
7 - Short but gives a very good idea about the key ideas presented in the business proposal, the Client can get a
good idea about the main points of the proposed strategy from the executive summary;
4 - Gives some idea about the key suggestions, but some points remain uncertain; a bit too long; not to the
point.
1 - Not possible to figure out the key ideas of the business proposal from the summary, too short or too long

Evaluation of the Formatting

7 – The report has a clear structure, visual appeal, the sections are consistently formatted, sources are properly
cited, the formatting guidelines are followed exactly with respect to the page limit, font and other
requirements.
4 – The formatting guidelines are generally followed, but there are some deviations, there are some signs of
sloppiness in document formatting.
1 – The document looks very unprofessional, different report sections are formatted differently, the document is
very hard to read and navigate.

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 TASKS AND DEADLINES
Each week, you will be asked to fill out a short survey to report your team’s progress, evaluate the
performance of your team members and provide other information we need to understand better why some
teams perform better than others. Please see the informed consent form at the end of this document for more
details.

Important: Participants who receive peer evaluations below 2.0 (out of 5.0) will first receive a warning. If
their peer evaluations stay below 2.0 two weeks in a row, they will be automatically excluded from the team.

Important: Occasionally emails with invitations to take a survey are filtered into the Junk/Spam email
folder. Please check your Junk/Spam email folder (search for messages with “X-Culture” in the subject line)
if you don’t receive a survey invitation message around the date specified in the table above.

All deadlines are set for 11:59 pm (23:59), EST time zone (New York).

1. Pre-project Readiness Test

Due: Any time before the official project start

Before the project starts, all participants must review project materials and take a Readiness Test. The test
will include questions about the project and online collaboration tools, as well as questions about your prior
international experience and background. You must successfully pass the Readiness Test (80% or more
correct answers) to participate in X-Culture. If your semester starts after the official start of the project or you
do not complete the Readiness Test on time for another reason, do so as soon as you can – we will continue
adding new participants for about ten days after the project start.

Official Project Start, Teams Formed

Monday, October 5

As long as you completed the Readiness Test, you will receive the names and contact information of your
team members on this day. Please reach out to your teammates immediately to establish contact. Introduce
yourself, and start working on the project. Students whose semester starts later will be added to the existing
teams once their semester starts, so it is likely an additional student may be added to your team in the first
two weeks.

2. Establish Contact with Your Teammates

Due: Thursday, October 8

By this date, you are expected to have exchanged at least a few messages with your teammates. If some
teammates are not responding, you are expected to send at least three email reminders to them by this date.
Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams will be excluded from the project. Your
communication starts via email, but once the initial contact is established, your team can use any means of
communication.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to report whether or not you have communicated with all of your team
members. Team members who fail to establish contact with their teams may be removed from the project.

Note:
This and all other weekly surveys will also ask to evaluate your team members’ performance and provide
additional information we need to understand better why some teams perform better than others. Please see
the informed consent form at the end of this document for more details.

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 3. Meet Your Teammates
Due: Sunday, October 11

Meet your team members: Please learn as much as possible about your teammates (background, interests,
hobbies, experiences, etc.). Research shows that spending a little time getting to know team members greatly
improves team effectiveness. It is also strongly recommended that you try a live video call (e.g., Skype).

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will test how well you got to know your team members. It will contain a few questions about
your team members, such as their background, interests, etc. The acquaintanceship test will not be graded, so
do not feel obliged to reveal any personal information to your team members or insist that your team members
reveal their personal information to you. However, try to get to know your teammates as much as you can.

4. Select the Client Company, Team Charter

Due: Sunday, October 18

By this date, your team is expected to review all available challenges and select your client organization.
Before you choose your client organization, please carefully review the challenges presented by each
organization and try to attend (or watch the recordings of) the webinars with each of the client companies,
which will be held in the first week of the project.

Team Charter: Discuss with your team members and collectively write a one-page Team Charter that details
how your team will operate. It is recommended that the Team Charter includes the following sections:
• Distribution of roles and tasks. Many teams divide the workload by the report section. Research shows
teams perform better when they divide the workload by function: one person is tasked with
coordinating team efforts, checking everyone’s progress, sending reminders, redistributing tasks if
needed; another person, usually a native English speaker, serves as a copyeditor, and so on. Many
teams also select a person whose role is to question everything and force the team to weigh their
options more carefully. Some teams assign a person whose job is to make sure nobody is ignored.
Some people are shy or may have a hard time keeping up the pace, and it is important they are not left
behind and their opinions are voiced and given full consideration.
• Dealing with conflicts. How conflicts (interpersonal, task, process) will be resolved.
• Dealing with free-riders. In most teams, someone is always late, produces low-quality work, or
underperforms otherwise. Sometimes, a team member stops working altogether (gets sick, busy at
work, family problems, or simply drops the course). How will the team deal with the loss of a team
member? Who will redo the work if needed?

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to report the name of your client organization, as well as ask each team member
to submit the same copy of the Team Charter.

5. Block 1: Market Analysis

Due: Sunday, October 25

This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 1. It does not have to be a fully finished
report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work
your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of
winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to
these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.

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Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 1 (the survey will contain a document
upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member
will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to
complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).

6. Block 2: Marketing
Due: Sunday, November 1

This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 2. It does not have to be a fully finished
report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work
your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of
winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to
these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 2 (the survey will contain a document
upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member
will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to
complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).

7. Block 3: Operations Management

Due: Sunday, November 8

This week, your team is expected to submit a draft of your Section 3. It does not have to be a fully finished
report section. However, try to complete as much as possible. The more you complete now, the less work
your team will have to do later. The drafts will not be graded by X-Culture and will not affect your chances of
winning the completion (we only evaluate the final reports). However, the instructors will have access to
these documents in case they would like to review your work and provide feedback.

Deliverables: A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email with your personal weekly survey
link. The survey will ask you to submit a draft of your Report Section 3 (the survey will contain a document
upload link). Although your team is expected to develop the section draft collectively, only one team member
will be asked to upload the document on behalf of the team. However, every team member will be asked to
complete the rest of the progress survey (questions about how your team is doing and peer evaluations).

8. Complete Draft
Due: Sunday, November 15

By this date, your team is expected to have a complete draft of your report. It does not have to be a finished
report, but it should be as complete as possible, including Title Page and an Executive and Chapter Summaries,
and correct formatting throughout the document.

Deliverables: One team member should submit the draft via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the entire team (see
step-by-step submission guidelines below). After your document is submitted, TurnItIn will generate a
plagiarism report that will show you if any parts of the report have been plagiarized (takes several hours to
produce). Usually, up to 20% similarity is acceptable, provided that copy-and-pasted materials are properly
referenced. If plagiarism is detected, your team will have until the Final Report deadline (see below) to fix the
problem and submit a plagiarism-free final report.

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This draft will not be graded and the plagiarism statistics will not be shared with your instructors. This is only
for your information. You should continue editing the report until the final deadline, and you can still make any
changes or additions.

However, it is strongly encouraged that you submit as complete a document as possible, You will be able to
submit your draft and check it for plagiarism only once, so the more complete the draft, the less the chance that
the final report will contain plagiarism.

Also, every team member will be asked to submit your usual weekly progress survey. A few days before the
deadline, you will receive an email with the usual questions about your team.

9. Final Report
Due: Friday, November 20
By this date, your final report must be submitted via TurnItIn.com (see Submission Guidelines below).
Please note, the plagiarism statistics for final reports will be generated by TurnItIn and shared with the
instructors, but the plagiarism report will not be shared with the students.

Only one team member must submit the final document via TurnItIn.com on behalf of the team.

10. Post-Project Survey

Due once report submitted, but no later than Sunday, Due: Sunday, November 22

A few days before the deadline, you will receive an email invitation with a link to your post-project survey.
This is the most important survey.

The survey will ask about your experiences in X-Culture and evaluate the performance of your teammates.
Your answers are extremely important and will help us improve the project in the future.
Every team member must complete the survey.

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 Submission Guidelines
The report draft and the final report documents must be submitted via www.TurnItIn.com. Only one team
member must submit the documents on behalf of the entire team. The team member who will be submitting the
draft and final report must follow these steps:

Part 1. Create a TurnItIn account (time required: 60-90 seconds).

1. On www.turnitin.com and click on the link “Create Account”.
2. On the next window, under the “Create a New Account” heading, click on the “Student” link.
3. Enter the Class ID. Note the Draft and Final report submissions have different Class IDs:
Class ID: 25723625 (class enrollment key: xculture)

Note: If you already have a TurnItIn account, log on using your “old” login information, click on the “Enroll in
Class” tab on the top, and repeat step 3.
Part 2: Submitting the paper (time required: 60-120 seconds)
4. Once the account is created, you can log into your account. Your home page will list your classes.
5. Select the correct class and click on the “Submit” button.
Make sure to select “Draft” assignment for the report draft and “Final Report” for the final
report.
6. Choose Single File Upload.
Make certain the file name only contains your team number.
Wrong: “Final report 123.pdf”, “Team Report.pdf”, “Team 123.pdf”, “John Smith.pdf”
Right: “123.pdf”

7. Click on “browse” to locate the paper saved to your computer.

8. Click on the file and click “open”.
9. Click the “upload” button at the bottom.
10. Click “submit” to confirm your submission. Once the submission is finalized, you will see “Your
submission was successful” on the top of the page. If you wait a few hours, you will see your “originality
report” that shows how much and what parts of your report have been plagiarized.

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