| Course | GB601 MBA Capstone |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Problem statement and scope |
| Length | About 1,120 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB601 Unit 1
Fewer Tuxedos Out the Door: A Unit 1 Problem Statement and Scope for a Formalwear Rental Capstone
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB601: MBA Capstone
Unit 1 Problem Statement and Scope
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Brightwater Formalwear, its people and every figure are composite and illustrative; the data sources named are real.
Organization and Author
Brightwater Formalwear was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1971 and is now run by the founder's son as president. It rents tuxedos and suits for weddings, high school proms and other formal events through nine stores in the Columbus area, Newark, Delaware and Lancaster, with about 70 employees. I am the company's store operations manager, responsible for fittings, inventory and the stores' daily schedules. The president has given written permission for me to use company rental records, survey customers and interview the company's partners for this capstone, on the condition that the company is not named in the submitted work.
The Problem
Brightwater rented about 21,420 formalwear packages in FY2022 and about 15,800 in FY2026. If the trend continues, annual rental revenue will fall from about $2.99 million to about $2.17 million by FY2031, a loss of roughly $820,000 a year.
The decline is not simply a smaller market. Ohio marriage counts and high school enrollment have changed far less than Brightwater's rentals over the same period, which suggests that much of the loss reflects customers choosing other providers, including national online renters that ship suits to customers' homes, or buying suits instead of renting.
A market that shrank by about 5 percent cannot explain a rental count that fell by a quarter.
The Decision Question
Which response should Brightwater commit to over the next three years to stop the decline in rentals: building its own online rental channel, deepening its in-store wedding and prom service, or partnering with a national online renter?
The question is framed as a choice among real alternatives because each has supporters inside the company. The president has asked whether Brightwater should simply copy the online renters. The longest-serving store managers believe the company's strength is in-person fitting and should be extended. A national online renter has approached Brightwater about serving as its local fitting and alterations partner. The capstone will compare all three against doing nothing.
Why This Organization
Brightwater suits a capstone because it is large enough to have records spanning many years, small enough that one person can see its whole operation, and facing a decision that draws on every part of the MBA: marketing in the customer evidence, finance in the projections, strategy in the alternatives, operations in the roadmap and ethics in its relationships with schools and venues. Its records include every rental contract since FY2019, with event type, store and party size.
Evidence So Far
Company records show rentals by year: about 21,420 in FY2022, 20,100 in FY2023, 18,600 in FY2024, 17,050 in FY2025 and 15,800 in FY2026. Over the same period, marriages recorded in the central Ohio counties Brightwater serves, according to Ohio Department of Health vital statistics, fell only slightly, and enrollment in grades 11 and 12 in the area's high schools, reported by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, was roughly flat. Weddings account for about 52 percent of Brightwater's rentals, proms about 38 percent and other events about 10 percent.
Why Now
Three facts make the decision urgent. First, Brightwater's inventory renewal cycle means that within eighteen months it must decide how many new garments to buy for FY2028, and that purchase only makes sense if the company knows how many rentals it expects. Second, the national online renter's partnership offer expires at the end of the current fiscal year. Third, each year of decline makes recovery harder, because wedding parties increasingly choose a provider based on where the groom's friends rented, and the share of grooms whose friends rented from Brightwater is shrinking.
Who Has a Stake in the Answer
The decision affects several groups whose interests the capstone will have to weigh. The president and his family own the company and depend on its income. About seventy employees, many of them long-serving fitters and tailors, would see their work change under any of the three responses. Wedding planners, venue coordinators and high school activity directors recommend Brightwater to their clients and students, and their trust rests on years of reliable service. Customers want clothing that fits on the day it matters, at a fair price, without unnecessary trips. Each response serves these groups differently, and the comparison in Unit 6 will weigh them alongside the financial results.
Scope
In scope: rentals for weddings and proms in Brightwater's nine-store area; the three candidate responses and the status quo; financial projections over five years; implementation over three years.
Out of scope: suit and accessory sales other than as part of a rental response; the company's alterations work for non-rental customers; expansion beyond central Ohio; the president's succession plans. These are excluded because they do not change the decision question or would require evidence the capstone cannot gather in ten units.
The scope will be revisited in Unit 2 after instructor feedback.
How Success Will Be Measured
The capstone will judge each response on three measures beyond the rental target. The first is Brightwater's share of wedding and prom rentals in its area, which isolates the company's performance from changes in the market. The second is the share of wedding parties in which every member rents from the same provider, since split parties are where online renters gain. The third is net present value over five years at a 10 percent discount rate, which allows responses with different costs and timing to be compared on one basis. All three can be calculated from company records and public data, so the measures do not depend on evidence Brightwater cannot collect.
Target
The capstone will test whether any response can bring Brightwater back to about 15,500 rentals in FY2030, against about 12,300 projected if nothing changes. The target is deliberately modest: it does not assume a return to FY2022 levels, only that the company can hold its current rentals roughly level while the market declines slowly. Rumelt (2011) puts diagnosis first in any sound strategy, and the target is set so that the later financial model can show whether each response meets that challenge or merely slows the fall. Later units will test the alternatives with frameworks from across the program, among them the analysis of industry structure Porter (1980) set out. Christensen et al. (2016) add a question the customer evidence must answer: what job a family or a wedding party is hiring a rental to do, since a response that solves the wrong job will not win customers back.
References
Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know your customers' "jobs to be done." Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54-62.
Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press.
Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good strategy bad strategy: The difference and why it matters. Crown Business.
GB601 Unit 1 instructions, in plain terms
The first GB601 milestone asks you to choose an organization, state its problem and set the boundaries of your capstone. Introduce the organization and your role in it, and document permission to use its records. State the problem briefly with evidence and its cost if nothing changes. Turn the problem into a decision question with more than one plausible answer, and explain who supports each. Explain why the organization suits a capstone that draws on the whole MBA. Draw the scope boundary and give a reason for each exclusion. Name the measures and a target that later units can test. Most sections expect about four pages, with public data and any framework named cited in APA 7.
How this GB601 Unit 1 example is built
The paper introduces Brightwater, founded in 1971, and the author's role, with the president's written permission. The problem appears in two sentences: about 21,420 rentals in FY2022, about 15,800 in FY2026 and roughly $820,000 a year at risk by FY2031. The highlighted line contrasts a 5 percent market decline with a quarter of rentals lost. The decision question names three responses and who favors each. Sections explain why the company suits the capstone, why the decision is urgent and who holds a stake. An evidence summary uses state marriage and enrollment data. The scope lists inclusions and exclusions, measures are defined, and the target cites Rumelt, Porter and Christensen and colleagues.
GB601 Unit 1 rubric: what earns full points
GB601 instructors award points in this first milestone for a problem that is specific, evidenced and costly. A problem stated briefly, with a figure and a consequence, shows the capstone has something real to solve. A decision question with several plausible answers earns credit because it gives later units a choice to make. Documented access and permission show the project is feasible. A scope with reasons for each exclusion demonstrates judgment about what ten units can cover. Measures and a dated target that a later model could disprove show the capstone is testable. Clear organization and correctly cited data sources in APA 7 take the remaining points.
Common GB601 Unit 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many GB601 problem statements describe an organization at length and never state a problem with a number. Others frame the question so narrowly that only one answer is possible, which leaves Unit 6 nothing to compare. A common gap is missing permission or access, which undermines every later milestone that depends on internal data. Scopes often list what is included without saying what is excluded or why. Targets are frequently vague, such as improve rentals, so no later analysis can test them. State the problem with evidence and a cost, pose a decision with real alternatives, document access, draw the scope with reasons and set a target with a number and a date. A free custom problem statement for your organization is available through this page.
Get a GB601 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Tell us the organization you are considering, or the two you cannot choose between, and attach the Unit 1 instructions and rubric. The custom problem statement arrives within 24-48h carrying a decision question, a scope table and a dated target built around that organization, and the first sample costs nothing. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More GB601 papers and MBA samples
- GB601 Unit 2: Research Plan
- GB601 Unit 3: Industry and Market Analysis
- GB601 Unit 4: Competitive Positioning Evidence
- GB601 Unit 5: Financial Projections
- GB601 Unit 6: Strategic Alternatives Comparison
- GB601 Unit 7: Implementation Roadmap
- GB601 Unit 8: Risk and Contingency Analysis
- GB601 Unit 9: Integrated Capstone Document
- GB601 Unit 10: Capstone Defense Presentation
- GB600 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- GB590 Unit 1: Ethical Dilemma Post
- GB580 Unit 1: Company Selection Memo
- GB570 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
GB601 Unit 1 questions, answered
Can a GB601 capstone use my own employer?
Often that is the expectation, since access to real records makes every later milestone easier. Most sections ask for permission to be documented and for confidential figures to be disguised or labeled as illustrative. A composite organization is sometimes accepted when access is impossible, but the project guidelines decide that, so check them before committing to one.
What is the difference between the problem and the question?
The problem is the situation with evidence and a cost: contracts down, revenue at risk. The question is the decision the capstone will make about it, worded so that at least two answers stay plausible. Keeping them separate stops the solution from sneaking into the problem statement, which instructors notice immediately and which leaves the alternatives unit with nothing to compare.
How specific does the Unit 1 target need to be?
Specific enough that a later projection can prove it wrong. A number, a unit of measure and a date are the usual minimum, and a baseline beside it shows how ambitious it is. The target can be revised once the market analysis arrives, and a revised target with a stated reason is generally read as learning rather than inconsistency.
Where can I find a free GB601 Unit 1 sample paper?
This page carries a full GB601 Unit 1 problem statement and scope for a composite formalwear rental chain, with the problem in two sentences, a three-way decision question, scope, measures and a dated target.
Should the decision question name the alternatives in Unit 1?
Naming them helps, because it shows the decision is real and lets the research plan gather evidence for each. The capstone can still add or drop an alternative later if the evidence calls for it.