BA 4981 Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos Written Response

BA 4981 BUSINESS LAWASSIGNMENT: WRITTEN RESPONSE ELIZABETH HOLMES AND THERANOS
Part of your grade in this class is short Written Responses to various articles, questions, or other
materials.
As indicated in the syllabus, these will be worth 10% of your final grade. Grading will consist of
whether you answered the question/followed the assignment; whether your written response is
coherent, thoughtful, and uses complete sentences and whether it follows the assignment. I will not
be focusing on your grammar per se, but of course proper grammar and spelling helps any written
assignment to be coherent.
Assignment:
•
•
Answer one of the following questions about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.
You do not need to do any additional research; your response should be based on what we
watched in class
and our class discussions and your thoughts on same.
•
•
•
•
Submit your response by the start of your class on Thursday, January 19, 2023.
Submit it via the assignment tab on World Class.
Your response should be typed, single spaced, and contain a minimum of 200 words.
At the end of your assignment, please indicate how many words are in the assignment (not
counting any
identifying information).
•
•
Do not forget to put identifying information at the top of your assignment.
If your assignment is submitted up to 2 hours late (i.e. up to 2 hours after your class has
started), you will
receive a 25% deduction on your grade on the assignment. If you submit your assignment
more than 2 hours late but less than 4 hours late, you will receive a 50% deduction on your
grade on the assignment. Anything more than 4 hours late will receive a zero on the
assignment.
Answer one of the following questions:
•
•
What do you think it was about Elizabeth Holmes that made so many people believe in
her despite the fact that she dropped out of college and had relatively little experience in
the field in which Theranos existed? How was she able to get so many people to follow
her, back up her idea, and invest in the company?
What do you make of Elizabeth Holmes’s obsession with the founder of Apple, Steve
Jobs? Why was it so important for Holmes to be just like Jobs to the point where she
imitated his way of dressing and business practices?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Some commentators have speculated that a lot of the reason Holmes acted the way she
did (including her baritone voice) is due to the pressures of being a woman in a maledominated industry. Do you think that affected Elizbeth Holmes’ behavior? In what way?
No additional research is required but if you are interested in this
topic here are a couple of things to check out.
The Dropout on Hulu (dramatization)
HBO: Inventor Out for Blood (documentary)
American Greed Podcast
Bad Blood the Final Chapter Podcast
We will go over the assignment briefly in class tomorrow, but it
should be fairly self-explanatory.
•
This link might help.
https://www.refinery29.com/enus/2019/03/226939/theranoscommercials-ads-marketing-elizabethholmes