Part 1
Purpose of Assignment
The assignment allows students to explore a company that they are familiar with and relate this to their own experiences to determine the importance of the mission and vision of a business as well as the influence this may have on their own role. The assignment will also allow the student to explore the effects of a company not having a mission statement.
Assignment Steps
Resources: textbook readings
Choose a company that has both a mission and vision statement. This should not be the same company you will choose for the assignments for Weeks 2-5.
Prepare a minimum 700-word summary in which you address the following:
• Identify the company's mission statement.
• Identify the company's vision statement.
• Explain what role these have on the way the business operates. Evaluate whether the company's actions seem to align to their vision and mission statements.
• Examine how the mission and vision of the organization might affect or guide you as an employee or manager in the company.
• Analyze what you think would be the effect if the company did not have a mission statement.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. Write the paper in third person voice.
Cite a minimum of two peer-reviewed references.
Part 2
Purpose of Assignment
Students will have the opportunity to research a company and industry to conceptualize forming a new division of an existing company based on a new product or service.
The assigned text and Strategic Planning Outline serve as a guide to complete sections of the capstone project each week. This will allow the student to lay the basic foundation for an effective strategic plan. A final plan will be presented in Week 5.
Assignment Steps
Resources: Strategic Planning Outline and Week 2 textbook readings
Use the Strategic Planning Outline as a guide to complete sections of your capstone project each week. A final strategic plan is due in Week 5. Cite your resources/references.
Choose a business in which you will propose a new product or service in a new division of your chosen company.
You may find it helpful to review the various strategic management and business models of companies in an industry that interests you, using the IBISWorld and Mergent Online databases found in the University Library. Your proposed new product or service division of this company will serve as the context for the Strategic Plan that you will develop during this course.
Develop a minimum 1,400-word proposal in which you explain the importance of innovation in your selected division's vision, mission, and values, and determine your business model for this new division.
Include the following:
• Propose a new product or service for the new company division. The division should be customer-focused with an innovative mission statement. Ensure you are differentiating your product or service.
• Describe how the division addresses customer needs and achieves competitive advantage.
• Create a vision and a business model for this new division that clearly demonstrates your decision on what you want your business to become in the future.
• Explain how the vision, mission, and value of the new division align with the company's mission and vision.
• Summarize how the vision, mission, and values guide the division's strategic direction.
• Define your guiding principles and values for your division in the context of culture, social responsibility, and ethics.
Cite a minimum of two peer-reviewed references.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. Write the paper in third person voice.
Part 3
Purpose of Assignment
Students gain experience conducting an internal and external environmental analysis for their proposed new division and its business model.
They will also gain valuable experience in conducting a SWOTT analysis for their proposed division.
Assignment Steps
Resources: Strategic Planning Outline and Week 3 textbook readings
Conduct an internal and external environmental analysis for your proposed new division and its business model.
Develop a SWOTT Table summarizing your findings. Your environmental analysis should consider, at a minimum, the factors below.
• For each factor, identify the one primary Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat, and Trend, and include it in your table.
• Include the SWOTT table in your submission. Use the Sample SWOTT Table in the Student Materials as a starting point to complete your SWOTT table. For full points, the entire 20x5 matrix must be completed.
o External forces and trends considerations:
Industry Changes
Legal and regulatory
Global
Economic
Technological
Innovation
Social
Environmental
Competitive analysis
Internal forces and trends considerations:
Strategy
Structures
Processes and systems
Resources
Goals
Strategic capabilities
Culture
Technologies
Innovations
Intellectual property
Leadership
Compose a minimum of 1,400-word Synopsis Paper in which you analyze relevant forces and trends from the list above. Your analysis must include the following:
• Identify economic, legal, and regulatory forces and trends.
• Critique how well the organization adapts to change.
• Analyze and explain the supply chain of the new division of the existing business. Share your plans to develop and leverage core competencies and resources within the supply chain in an effort to make a positive impact on the business model and the various stakeholders.
• Discuss the primary internal organizational considerations for the development of a strategic plan.
• Identify the major issues and/or opportunities the company faces based on your analysis.
Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines. Write the paper in third person voice.
Cite a minimum of two peer-reviewed references.
For this assignment you will be submitting two deliverables:
1) your SWOTT table (Excel spreadsheet)
2) your Synopsis paper described above (Word document)
Part 4
Purpose of Assignment
Students will have the opportunity to develop a Balanced Scorecard. This, in turn, will allow them to create effective strategic objectives to be included as part of their overall strategic plan.
They will also be presented with the task of creating a brief communication plan that will be used by their proposed division to efficiently distribute information with regard to their strategic initiatives.
Assignment Steps
Resources: Strategic Planning Outline and Week 4 textbook readings
Create a minimum 1,050-word Strategic Objectives Summary paper.
Include your balanced scorecard and its impact on all stakeholders, and the communication plan. Include your balanced scorecard and its impact on all stakeholders, and a communication plan. Follow the detailed instructions below.
See the Student Materials for a Balanced Scorecard Overview, which may help keep you on track for this assignment.
Identify key trends, assumptions, and risks in the context of your final business model.
Develop the strategic objectives for your new division of the existing business in a balanced scorecard format in the context of key trends, assumptions, and risks.
The strategic objectives are measures of attaining your vision and mission. As you develop them, consider the vision, mission, and values for your business and the outcomes of your SWOTT analysis.
Consider the following four quadrants of the balanced scorecard when developing your strategic objectives:
• Shareholder Value or Financial Perspective, which includes strategic objectives in areas such as:
o Market share
o Revenues and costs
o Profitability
o Competitive position
• Customer Value Perspective, which includes strategic objectives in areas such as:
o Customer retention or turnover
o Customer satisfaction
o Customer value
• Process or Internal Operations Perspective, which includes strategic objectives in areas such as:
o Measure of process performance
o Productivity or productivity improvement
o Operations metrics
o Impact of change on the organization
• Learning and Growth (Employee) Perspective, which includes strategic objectives in areas such as:
o Employee satisfaction
o Employee turnover or retention
o Level of organizational capability
o Nature of organizational culture or climate
o Technological innovation
Evaluate potential alternatives to the issues and/or opportunities identified in the SWOTT Analysis assignment and table you completed in Week 3.
Create at least three (3) strategic objectives for each of the four (4) balanced scorecard areas identified (Financial, Customer, Process, Learning and Growth), for a total of 12 strategic objectives minimum. Base your solutions on a ranking of alternative solutions including the following:
• Identify potential risks and mitigation plans.
• Analyze a stakeholder and include mitigation and contingency strategies.
• Incorporate ethical implications.
Develop a specific metric and target for each strategic objective using a balanced scorecard format:
Example: a strategic objective in the shareholder or financial perspective is to increase market share. A metric to actually measure this strategic objective of market share increase is, "The percentage of increase in market share."
The target is the specific number to be achieved in a particular time period. The target for the metric of "Increase market share" could be "Increase market share by 2% for each of the next 3 years" of an increase of 2% per year for 3 years.
(Please see the Balanced Scorecard Template in this assignment's Student Materials.You may use this as a starting point if you wish.)
Outline a brief communication plan discussing how you will communicate the company's strategic objectives including the following:
• Define the purpose.
• Define the audience.
• Define the "owner" of the communication step (i.e., who will develop and deliver the communication).
• Identify the channel(s) of communication and why you selected that channel.
Be sure to submit the Balanced Scorecard chart itself (as either an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document with embedded table), along with the other content outlined above (i.e., Strategic Objectives Summary paper).
Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines. Write the paper in third person voice.
Cite a minimum of two peer-reviewed references.
Part 5
About Your Signature Assignment
Signature/Benchmark Assignments are designed to align with specific program student learning outcome(s) in your program. Program Student Learning Outcomes are broad statements that describe what students should know and be able to do upon completion of their degree.
Signature/Benchmark Assignments are graded with a grading guide or an automated rubric that allows the University to collect data that can be aggregated across a location or college/school and used for course/program improvements.
Purpose of Assignment
The purpose of The Final Strategic Plan is to allow the student to develop a comprehensive strategy for a new division of an existing company. This analysis will be the culmination of all the previous week's coursework as well as e objectives covered during their entire degree work.
Assignment Steps
Resources: Strategic Planning Outline and Week 5 textbook readings
Develop a minimum of 700-word section for your business model and strategic plan in which you add your strategies and tactics to implement and realize your objectives, measures, and targets.
• Identify marketing and information technology as part of the strategies and tactics section of the business plan.
• Develop at least three methods to monitor and control your proposed strategic plan, being sure to analyze how the measures will advance organizational goals financially and operationally.
• Determine the best possible options for evaluating the strategic plan.
• Explain the ethical issues faced by the organization, summarize the legal and regulatory issues faced by the organization, and then summarize the organization's corporate social responsibility.
• Show, in this section, the possible implications of the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) on the strategic plan and its implementation.
Prepare a minimum 350-word executive summary defining the new division of existing business. Share your Vision, Mission, final business model, and value proposition, and list your key assumptions, risks, and change management issues. Quantify the growth and profit opportunity and planned impact on various stakeholders.
Note: Any investor should be eager to meet with you after reading your executive summary.
Use the Strategic Planning Outline as a guide, and combine Parts 1, 2, and 3 of your completed business model strategic plan with your Final Business Plan Model assignment and Executive Summary. This includes the Business Model, Vision, Mission, Values, SWOTT Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis, and Balanced Scorecard and Communication Plan from prior weeks. Your consolidated final strategic plan should be a minimum of 4,200 words in length.
Format the paper consistent with APA guidelines.