Assignment: Strategic Management Case Project
This capstone course requires each student to construct a detailed and well-thought-out analysis of a business employing all the relevant strategic analysis tools studied in the course. This project will take the full term to complete. It is our sincere hope that you will find this project to be the most rewarding effort in your educational career.
Project Overview
This course is designed to help you develop strategic skills that can be used in management. The process of strategic planning is an iterative cycle of research and analysis, ending with a series of choices about what will be attempted and how it will be approached. The most tangible output is the strategic planning document. The most important output is the increased understanding that the participants acquire. Accordingly, the assessment of the final project will be heavily dependent on the quality of the strategic thinking inside that polished report. Students that focus on the expeditious completion of the steps may find that they have shortchanged the important and time-consuming exploration and thinking that is necessary to create a quality strategic case. Since not all tools can tell the planner which factors and alternatives are important to consider, the planner should pull in as much diverse information and perspectives as possible. Additionally, you should put yourselves in the competitor's shoes and consider how the "game" will play out. Your homework and subsequent improvements are intended to become a primary basis for the exploration and questioning that drives your strategic understanding and creative ideas. In addition, it is important to test your strategic thinking and your use of analytical tools in preparation for your final project.
Tips for Selecting an Organization
As you select an organization for your class project, it is important that you select one that is interesting, possibly useful to you in your career, industry, or interests, and allows you to explore strategic challenges in a meaningful way. If you select the industry in which you currently work, you must address two critical issues: (i) integrating and clearly citing existing information. (You will need to delineate work you've contributed as opposed to pre-existing information), and (ii) succinctly presenting existing information while adding new insight, analysis, and plans that substantially add to strategy development, implementation, and/or assessment of the organization. An organization or industry you are interested in should give you better access to information although you need to pay careful attention to the points made above.
Do not underestimate the degree to which you will need to be an expert in the selected industry and related areas. It is impossible to create a strategy without understanding the terms, technologies, market changes, and so forth in great depth. As soon as you select a topic, you should establish (or monitor) news feeds from several major sources of business news to keep abreast of actions in your industry.
Public companies are preferred for these plans as SEC filings and investment analyses are available through research. Some of the firm's main competitors will likely be public so that you can research them as well. Large, diversified, companies can be difficult for purposes of this course (unless their diversification is relatively narrow, and largely in one "solutions space"). Large organizations (e.g. GE) may file consolidated reports, and you may not have access to dis-aggregated information on the division that you are analyzing. Additionally, it's better to select a company/industry under "duress" or at least struggling. The reason is its very difficult to add new strategic ideas for a company that is doing well.
You may select any form of organization including profit, non-profit, and government organizations. However, please take into consideration that within these various organizations, the strategic thinking can be quite different and some can pose challenges for the planner. Most organizations have some type of customer base and opportunities for improvement. Charitable organizations compete against other nonprofits for time and money. Educational organizations compete for students. Regulated utilities compete for customers among themselves (e.g., gas versus electric) and in conjunction with governments to attract new industry. Units of governmental entities may be the most difficult, but even those organizations have customers who can choose to live in a different locality or elect government officials willing to change the status quo. If you are undecided, medium or small-size competitive, profit-oriented organizations may provide the best platform for applying course concepts.
Project Deliverables
Phase I: Modules I to iii (Outline for Strategic Management Case)
1) Introduction of the company (limit to a maximum of three single-spaced pages).
a. Description of the firm and its products
b. Company history (brief history, critical events, competitors, leadership), including strategic elements of its history
c. Vision and mission statement o Assessment of mission and vision
2) External assessment o EFE and CPM with strategic implications
a. Analysis of competitive position, opportunities, and threats
3) Internal assessment o IFE with strategic implications o Financial ratio analysis with key conclusions and implications for strategic choice
a. Overall analysis of internal capabilities and implications for your strategic decisions
Module i: Select company and secure instructor approval. Once approved, create plan outline, insert current mission and vision.
Module ii: Complete an EFE and CPM for your company (including analysis and conclusions) and insert in your working draft which you will hold until you submit Phase I during Module iii.
Module iii: Complete an IFE and calculate financial ratios (including analysis and conclusions) for your company and insert in your plan to submit at the end of Module iii.
Phase II: Modules iv to vi (includes revisions to Phase I based on the instructor's feedback)
1) Internal assessment (continued from Phase I-include IFE and financial ratios
2) Current strategy (brief description of the firm's current strategies), including current use of technology
3) SWOT matrix with strategic implications for the company
4) BCG matrix with strategic implications for the company
5) Space or other matrices with strategic implications for the company
6) Possible strategic alternatives
7) Evaluation of current organizational structure
8) Recommendation changes (if needed) to the structure, culture (including values), processes, rewards, or technology
Module iv: Integrate instructor feedback from Phase I.
Module v: Develop SWOT, BCG, SPACE, and IE matrices with strategic implications for the company. Module vi: Develop alternative strategies for your company with strengths and weaknesses of each.
Phase III: Modules vii to viii (includes revisions to Phase II based on the instructor's feedback)
Strategic analysis, choices, impact, and measurement
Product-positioning map
o Evaluation of strategies and objectives to achieve most favorable market position
o Description of how you would implement your strategies
o Milestones (steps for each major initiative with their timelines
o Specific results you want to achieve including market, financial, and product or service goals
o Financial projection (minimum three years)
o Presentation with audio - see below
o Executive summary - see below
Executive summary (compiled with concise and critical elements from the detailed work) While done as a last step, this goes in front of the report, after the index. A final and allencompassing analysis is presented, along with the recommendations that you would make to the firm's board of directors. This includes identifying what you recommend, and briefly outlining alternatives considered, key implementation steps, and the impact of the implementation on the company's performance and competitive position.
Module vii: Develop a product-positioning map with strategic implications for the company.
Conduct evaluation of alternative strategies and detailed description of selected strategy.
Module viii: Develop detailed implementation and assessment plan.
Complete financial projections. Create presentation with audio.
Complete the executive summary and insert into the plan.
Complete all editing, verification, and citing of all sources, and insert graphs and illustrations.
Format your assignment according to the give formatting requirements:
1. The answer must be double spaced, typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the course title, the student's name, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
Text Book: Strategic Management: Concepts & Cases- A Competitive Advantage Approach by Fred R. David and Forest R. David, 16th Edition.