| Course | GB601 MBA Capstone |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Integrated capstone document |
| Length | About 1,090 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB601 Unit 9
One Argument, Eight Milestones: A Unit 9 Integrated Capstone Document for Brightwater Formalwear
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB601: MBA Capstone
Unit 9 Integrated Capstone Document
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Brightwater Formalwear and every figure are composite and illustrative; the frameworks and sources cited are real.
Executive Summary
Brightwater Formalwear's wedding and prom rentals fell from about 21,420 in FY2022 to about 15,800 in FY2026, and on current trends annual rental revenue will fall to about $2.17 million by FY2031, roughly $820,000 below today. Roughly 80 percent of the drop is customers moving to other providers, chiefly wedding parties whose out-of-town members order from national online renters.
The capstone recommends a wedding party program: two coordinators, partnerships with venues and planners, video fittings and mailed suits for groomsmen who live away, spare sizes near each venue and an option for grooms to buy their suit. The program costs about $135,000 to start and about $150,000 a year to run, has a net present value of about $439,000 at a 10 percent discount rate, and would bring rentals to about 15,500 in FY2030, where doing nothing leaves about 12,300.
Its main risk is a national renter copying local fit assurance, which would make the program lose money. The plan answers that risk by building venue relationships quickly and sets an exit at month 18 that limits the loss to about $266,000 if the program falls short.
The capstone asks the president for three approvals: the program itself, its $135,000 start-up budget and a three-store pilot that opens in December.
Brightwater's real loss is the groomsman too far away to visit a store, and the program is designed to bring them in without asking them to travel.
Reconciling Three Figures
Before assembly, three figures appeared differently in different milestones. Each is now set to one value used throughout.
Market estimate. Unit 2 used a preliminary estimate of about 31,200 wedding and prom rentals in FY2022, before prom attendance data were added. Unit 3's final estimate is about 31,500. The document uses 31,500 everywhere; the share decomposition is unchanged because it was calculated in Unit 3.
Survey count. Unit 2 set a target of 400 responses, and an early draft of Unit 5 cited 440 responses received at that time. The final count, used in Unit 4, is 452. The document uses 452 and the Unit 4 percentages.
Start-up budget. Unit 5 modeled $120,000. Unit 7 added $15,000 so every store's fitters could be trained. The document uses $135,000, which lowers net present value from about $454,000 to about $439,000. All risk figures in Unit 8 were calculated on the updated base.
Chapter 1: The Problem and Its Cause
The decision this capstone serves is the three-year choice of response to the rental decline. This chapter contributes the diagnosis. Rentals fell by about 5,620 between FY2022 and FY2026 while the area's market fell only about 5 percent. Decomposing the loss shows about 4,470 rentals lost to share and about 1,160 to a smaller market. The finding survives every tested value of the key assumption, the portion of weddings in which men rent. Demand is projected to decline about 1 percent a year through FY2031, so a recovering market will not solve the problem.
Chapter 2: Why Customers Leave
This chapter contributes the evidence on which response could win customers back. A survey of 452 customers found that 41 percent of former customers left because wedding party members in other cities found online ordering easier, while price ranked third. Twelve interviews with planners, venue coordinators and activity directors found that ten value day-of fixes above everything else. An audit of seven rivals found Brightwater's prices within the market range. The evidence identifies an empty position on the map, where fit on the day meets convenience for a scattered party, which Kim and Mauborgne (2005) would describe as uncontested space.
Chapter 3: The Economics of Each Response
This chapter contributes the financial comparison. A wedding party program rental contributes about $109, while a shipped rental contributes about $41, which explains most of the difference in results. Measured against doing nothing, the program is worth about $439,000 in present value; the partnership loses about $77,000 when its drain on Brightwater's own rentals is included, and the online channel loses about $294,000. The program still breaks even if it wins back only about 56 percent of the rentals projected.
Chapter 4: The Choice
This chapter contributes the decision. Scored on five criteria weighted before scoring, the program leads at 4.45, ahead of the status quo at 3.25, the partnership at 2.70 and the online channel at 2.00, and it leads under two alternative weightings. Porter (1996) describes strategy as a set of activities that fit together, and the program's components reinforce one another in a way a single feature could not.
Chapter 5: How the Program Will Be Built
This chapter contributes the plan. Implementation runs thirty-six months in three phases, scheduled backward from the first engagement season. The pilot launches at three stores in December, the president decides on expansion in month 14 against three thresholds, and the program becomes part of normal operations by month 36. Each task has one accountable role, and leading measures such as remote fittings completed are reviewed monthly.
Chapter 6: What Could Go Wrong
This chapter contributes the limits. Six risks are measured in net present value. Only a rival copying local fit assurance would, by itself, make the program lose money. Ethics rules cover gifts to public school employees, disclosure of referral arrangements and the handling of customers' measurements. The exit at month 18 caps the loss.
Responses to Instructor Feedback
The revision memo in the appendix lists every comment from Units 1 to 8 and the page where it was addressed. The most significant changes were narrowing the scope to weddings and proms in Unit 2, adding the sensitivity test to the market decomposition in Unit 3, counting the partnership's lost rentals in Unit 5 and adding the exit rule in Unit 8. Rumelt (2011) argues that a good strategy links diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action, and the feedback consistently pushed the capstone toward that linkage.
Appendices
The appendices hold the full assumption sheet and workbook, the survey instrument and results, the interview guide and coding summary, the competitor audit table, the Gantt chart and responsibility table, the risk register and the revision memo. Each appendix is referenced from the chapter that relies on it, and no appendix introduces evidence the chapters do not use.
References
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue ocean strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard Business School Press.
Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, 74(6), 61-78.
Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good strategy bad strategy: The difference and why it matters. Crown Business.
Reading the GB 601 Unit 9 instructions
The ninth GB601 milestone asks you to combine your milestones into one coherent capstone document. Write an executive summary that states the problem, the recommendation, its value, its main risk and the decision requested. Reconcile any figures that changed between milestones in one visible place, and use the final values everywhere. Rewrite rather than paste: open each chapter by saying what it contributes to the decision, cut repeated background and keep one vocabulary throughout. Show how you addressed instructor feedback from every earlier unit. Use appendices for supporting detail that the chapters reference. Length follows your guidelines, often thirty to fifty pages plus appendices, with APA 7 citations.
Inside the GB601 Unit 9 example
The document opens with an executive summary of the rental decline, the program, its $135,000 start-up cost and $439,000 value, the rival risk and the approvals sought, and the highlighted sentence restates the core finding. A reconciliation section sets the market estimate at 31,500, the survey count at 452 and the start-up budget at $135,000, with the effect on net present value. Six chapters follow, each opening with its contribution: diagnosis, customer evidence with Kim and Mauborgne, economics, the choice with Porter, the plan and the risks. A feedback section lists the main revisions, framed by Rumelt's link between diagnosis and action, and appendices are described by the chapter they support.
GB601 Unit 9 rubric: what earns full points
Points in the GB601 integrated document go to coherence. An executive summary that decides, rather than describing contents, earns heavy weight because readers judge the capstone by it. A visible reconciliation of changed figures shows control of the evidence. Chapters rewritten to open with their contribution to the decision demonstrate synthesis rather than assembly. One set of figures and terms throughout shows care. Documented responses to feedback show the student used the course. Appendices that support rather than pad complete the structure. Professional formatting and APA 7 citations finish the rubric. Many GB601 instructors read the integrated document against the earlier graded milestones, so consistency with what was already approved, or a stated reason for any change, protects points that were earned before.
GB601 Unit 9 help from the desk
The most frequent GB601 integration problem is pasting eight milestones in order, with repeated introductions and figures that disagree from chapter to chapter. Executive summaries often list what the document contains instead of what it concludes. A common gap is leaving changed figures unreconciled, so the instructor finds two values for the same thing. Writers frequently ignore earlier feedback or address it without saying where. Appendices are sometimes used to add length rather than support. Write a summary that decides, reconcile every changed figure, rewrite each chapter to serve the decision, document feedback by page and keep appendices tied to chapters. A free custom integrated document can be requested through this page.
Get a GB601 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Everything you have written this term, the final document guidelines and rubric, and any instructor comments still open: send all of it. A custom integrated document comes back within 24-48h with one set of figures, openings that carry your question, and a memo answering feedback by page. No fee applies to a first request. 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 1: Problem Statement and Scope
- 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 10: Capstone Defense Presentation
- GB600 Unit 9: Adaptive Challenge Plan
- GB590 Unit 9: Ethics Program Recommendation
- GB580 Unit 9: Strategic Control Measures
- GB570 Unit 9: Chain Redesign Proposal
GB601 Unit 9 questions, answered
How is the Unit 9 document different from the milestones placed side by side?
It is rewritten, not assembled. Introductions are merged into one, repeated background is cut, numbers are reconciled, and each chapter is revised to point toward the decision. The earlier milestones are raw material; the integrated document is the argument they were gathered for, and graders can tell within a few pages which of the two they are reading.
What if a figure changed after an earlier milestone was graded?
Use the corrected figure everywhere and say so. A short reconciliation note, old value, new value and reason, shows control of the evidence, while silently changed numbers look like errors to anyone comparing drafts. Instructors generally expect some figures to move as research matures; what they penalize is inconsistency left inside the final document.
How long should the integrated capstone document be?
Whatever the project guidelines set, which varies by section; many land somewhere between thirty and fifty pages before appendices. Length follows the argument, so cutting repeated background usually helps more than adding analysis. An executive summary of one or two pages is widely expected, since it is the part a real decision maker would read first.
Where can I find a free GB601 Unit 9 sample paper?
This page holds a full GB601 Unit 9 integrated capstone document for a composite formalwear chain, with a deciding executive summary, a reconciliation of three figures, six rewritten chapters and feedback responses.
What belongs in the executive summary of the integrated document?
The problem with its cost, the recommendation, its value, its main risk and the decision being requested, in that order, so a reader could approve or reject the plan from the summary alone.