2025_EML Capstone Projects

Therefore, I initially considered both the SWOT analysis and the decision tree analysis to make a decision as they are written above. The decision then becomes the physical therapy practice because it is the middle selection for both frameworks making it seemingly the most balanced decision amongst the three options. However, after thinking about this result I reassessed the evaluation criteria to weigh more heavily the membership model for revenue (it’s more reliable), the stronger market growth potential, and the opportunity for social media promotion. I also reconsidered the metric by which I evaluated the decision tree, the business failure percentage. This percentage was based on new businesses and this would be an already established pilates studio with at least a base of customers. Therefore, the percent chance of failing would be significantly lower than shown in the decision tree above so the EMV would be higher and likely higher than the Nutrition Store making the pilates studio the most desirable choice. 7.​Risk and Change Management Several risks were identified during the course of this project and addressed here through my risk management plan. The first major risk I found was the restricted access to key industry data. Data specifically related to the performance of each business I evaluated was behind a paywall. To mitigate this, alternative sources such as Grand View Research, GlobeNewswire, and government demographic data were used to ensure I had as comprehensive of an understanding that I could get for business without having to actually purchase the information. Furthermore, I’m not entirely sure what information I would get from purchasing a report from the listing website. Therefore I relied on open-access materials from several different sources to bridge this gap in specific information. A second risk was the potential for selection bias when evaluating the franchise options. This was addressed by using a decision tree and SWOT analysis to apply consistent, objective criteria across all businesses. If my evaluation bias persisted, a weighted scoring model was considered as a fallback but I decided that it was not necessary to do this (which kind of begs the question as to whether I am capable of seeing my own bias in this analysis, but my use of the decision frameworks should eliminate this uncertainty). The third risk centered on my desire for long-term operational demands instead of just short term profits or

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