Review the Individual Projects you completed in Unit for the Able Corporation. Do an external analysis (opportunities and threats) to determine how to best launch your company into the market place. Prepare a business plan for Able Corporation for presentation to the SOS-C of Walden International. As part of this group project prepare a detailed outline of a business plan, in presentation format. Please keep in mind that this is an outline, there is not enough time or information provided to prepare a full business plan. Assign the following elements to members of your group:
- Rudimentary mission statement
- key operating principles
- Key elements of a market analysis
- External analysis (opportunities and threats)
As a group, use the Discussion Board to decide upon one-year, five-year and ten-year strategic objectives. Provide as many strategic objectives pertaining to the various levels, corporate, business, functional, and operating as possible. Also, please keep track of possible alternative strategies and points of contention in your group discussion. Include how an organization re-evaluates itself during a five-year or ten-year period and restructures itself and the way it handles the work.
Individual Project:
Professor Dr. Rich Bergstrom
Peter H. Lloyd
In six months I will need to present a complete business plan for Able Corporation to the Strategic Officers Steering Committee. This business plan will provide a mission statement, operating principles, market analysis, company strengths and weaknesses analysis, one-year, five-year and ten-year strategic objectives, sales forecasts, financial and operational objectives, and pro forma financials. As a preliminary step in the preparation of the business plan the major elements of the strategic management process must be identify which may include insights, issues, and questions.
Strategic management is how the organizations become successful and how they remain competitive. The strategic management will help the general managers in Able Corporation to center on the choices, tradeoffs, and activities to undertake for a strong competitive position. To accomplish Able Corporation’s objectives the corporation’s strategy will consists of decisions and actions.
The strategic management will incorporates the Able Corporation’s budgeting, monitoring, planning, reporting, marketing, and control with its external environment, internal organization capabilities, and its overall purpose and direction. Able Corporation will use strategic management to grow a constructive future and to help their entities succeed. Able Corporation must convince their stakeholders to foresee the future of the organization and help them work towards making the vision a reality.
The strategic management process consists of three stages which are the strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation. The strategy formulation contains the developing of the vision and mission, recognizing Able Corporation’s external opportunities and threats, decisive their internal strengths and weaknesses, the creating of the long term objectives, generating alternative strategies, and choosing particular strategies to pursue. The strategy formulation would require Able Corporation to establish annual objects, devise policies, motivate employees, and allocate resources to help execute the formulated strategies. The strategy evaluation is the primary means for obtaining information on particular strategies that are not working. The three fundamental strategy evaluation activities will review the external and internal factors that are the bases for the current strategies, the measuring of performance, and the taking of corrective actions.
The major factors in strategic management are:
Competitive Advantage:
- “Anything that a firm does especially well compared to rival firms.”
- The pursuit of competitive advantage will lead to success or failure within the organization.
- You must keep in mine that you need to continually adapt to changes and effectively formulate, implement, and evaluate strategies.
Strategists:
- The individuals who are the most responsible for the success or failure of the organization.
- They help the organization gather, analyze, and organize information.
Vision and Mission Statements:
- What do we want to become?
- What is our business?
- A clear mission statement describes the values and priorities.
External Opportunities and Threats:
The organization need to formulate strategies to take advantage of external opportunities and to avoid or reduce the impact of external threats, maybe with the use of lobbying.
Internal Strengths and Weaknesses:
- They are controllable activities within the organization.
- Can be determined by elements of being rather than performance.
Long-Term Objectives:
- Seeks to achieve in the pursuing of the basic mission which will take over a year to achieve it.
Strategies:
- Means by which long-term objectives will be achieved.
- The potential actions that require top management decisions and large amounts of the firm’s resources.
Annual Objectives:
- Short-term milestones must be achieved to reach long-term objectives.
Policies:
- Means by which annual objectives will be achieved.
- Are guides to decision making and address repetitive or recurring situations.
References
David, Fred R. (2005). Strategic Management Tenth Edition Published by Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Unit 1 IP1: Able Corporation business plan
Daniel Cajigas
American Intercontinental University on Line
1) Able Corporation Mission Statement:
The purpose of the business is to have a worldwide presence in the field of power tools, lawn mowers, lawn furniture, microwaves, and ranges. The business: manufacturing and marketing of power tools, lawn mowers, lawn furniture, microwaves, and ranges. The values: manufacturing high quality and high performance equipment backed by high quality after sales service and sold by high profile chain shops.
2) What principle would you use in order to prioritize the implementation steps needed to accomplish the strategic objectives?
The operating principles would include: 1) Increasing the market share. 2) Increasing the production of the products with maintaining the highest quality of the products. 3) Incorporating the latest technology in our products. 4) Establishing contacts with the large chain shops like Sears, Best-Buy and Wal-Mart and appointing them for the sales of the company’s products. 5) Developing a strong after sales service network for the areas to be covered. 6) Providing fast and efficient after sales service. 7) Doing ongoing research and incorporating the latest technologies in our products. 8) Developing and retaining a strong team of professions, including R& D personnel, production team and marketing professionals. 9) Developing a healthy financial structure for the company. 10) Developing and maintaining a good synergy with the store chains so that these stores are satisfied with the performance of the company.
3) What post implementation and feedback mechanisms would you have in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the process? What measures would you use?
In one year the company should consolidate its manufacturing facilities, complete its product development, test the products, acquire the sales rights to the targeted territories, recruit personnel for the expansion into the global market place, recruit personnel who have experience in dealing with global purchases, and arrange for finance for the expansion into the global marketplace. In five years the company should have assumed leadership in the manufacturing and export of high technology items like microwave oven and gas ranges. The company should have established its brand names worldwide and its contracts with the chain stores should be such as to provide a primacy in display and position to its products. The company should have developed a team of professionals who would not only continue to push the technology barriers in production but also invent new models which would establish the company as a leader in its range of products (Denham, 2000). The finances of the company should be such that there is an optimal leverage of funds. The dividends paid should be the best in the industry and the P/E ratio should equal the best in the stock market. This would be essential for financing future expansion. In ten years the company should have expanded into futuristic industries like robotics, and other technology intensive industries, lawn mowers and lawn furniture should have been phased out by then. The financial strength of the company should be such that the company may establish banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions to finance its cross global operations. The market should be so expansive that every distribution channel involved in the selling goods manufactured by Able should carry Able’s products. The company may change its name from Able to a more global name. The company should be known for product differentiated because of excellent standards and quality. The company should be at the forefront of R&D and should have excellent professional scientist dedicated to inventing marketable products (Denham, 2000). The brand equity of the company should be of high value and should be reflected in its balance sheet.
4) What legal or ethical issues need to be considered?
According to David (2005) some of the legal or ethical issues that are needed to be taken into consideration are: A) Environmental contamination issues. B) Misleading advertising in order to gain advantage over the competition. C) Discrimination or lack of equal opportunities to employees, customers or investors. D) Padding expenses accounts. E) Taking advantages of foreign markets by dumping banned products. F) Poor product quality after achieving economical advantage over the competition. G) Using non union labor in a union environment and finally product overpricing.
References:
David, F.R. (2005). Strategic Management Concepts and Cases (10th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Denham, Rudi, (2000). Strategic planning: Creating the future. Feliciter 41, 12(38)
Unit: Individual Project
Able Corporation Strategic Management Model
By Donna Florom
The development of a company’s mission statement, vision statement, strategy plan, and implementation process may well be the most important action a company may undertake. The process provides the mechanism to tell the employees, the industry and the world the company’s identity, where the company intends to go, and how it is going to get there. It provides an identity and a road map for the employees to help work together for their success and the success of the company. A comprehensive strategic-management model includes three phases, the Strategy Formation, the Strategy Implementation and the Strategy Evaluation (David, 2005).
1) Strategy Formation
Development of the Mission and Vision Statements:
The mission statement provides the identity of the company, while the vision statement states what the company wants to become (David, 2005). The mission and vision statements are the bases of the strategy implementation. Since it is the guide for the strategy of the company, the purpose, core values and philosophy of the company need to be identified and encompassed into the statements.
To define the identity of Able Corporation some of the following actions may be taken.
• Interview employees, either in a group setting or individually inquiring what they think is good or bad about the company, what they value about the company, and where they would like to see the company in five years.
• Ask what their personal core values are, and if these core values are reflected in Able Company.
• Identify any written or unwritten sayings or rules of the company that may help understand the culture of the company.
• Identify the values of the owners / founders of the company, and what was the driving force that brought the company to where it is today. Research the history of the company.
• Interview in the community to find out the reputation of the company, and if the values portrayed in the community are the same as those identified within the company.
• Since the manufacturing is based out of a single location in Tennessee, how does the company support the local community? Does the company give back to the community, and if so how?
• Since Able Company mostly sells through larger vendors, is that their goal and strategy, or do they also want to work with smaller vendors?
• Where do they want to grow globally? What markets do they want to take on? Are there specific areas/products that the company would prefer to be known as the best?
Perform an External Audit:
It is always important to know the outside factors of that can affect the vision and strategy of a company. An external audit needs to be performed to better understand the market and growth potential (David, 2005). Below are some of the questions that should be looked at when performing an external audit.
• Who is the competition?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Are the areas the competition excels the same areas Able excels?
• Where are the best global growth areas?
• Where are analysts suggesting are future growth areas?
• Where is the industry heading?
• Where is the industry declining?
Perform an Internal Audit:
In order to truly succeed, an entity must truly know itself. An internal audit should be conducted to answer some of the following questions.
• What are Able Company’s strengths?
• What sets Able Company apart from the competition?
• What are Able Company’s weaknesses?
• What have been the successes in the firm’s history?
• Was there a common thread in the successes?
• What have been the failures in the firm’s history?
• Was there a common thread in the failures?
• Where has the greatest growth trends occurred historically and recently?
• Where has the greatest declines occurred historically and recently?
• Has there been an explanation for the growth or declines?
• What are the strongest client relationships?
• Can those client relationships be leveraged in the growth strategy of the company?
Generate, Evaluate and Select Strategies:
In generating, evaluating and selecting strategies for the company, some of the following items should be asked and taken into consideration.
• Are there short-term strategies that can be done that will assist with the long term strategy? Are there any “low hanging fruit” that can be taken as nourishment to climb to the company vision?
• Having determined the strength of the company that sets it apart from the competition, how can it best be exploited to dominate the competition?
• If the company is going global, where is the best place to start? Does the company start in a general geographic area and grow into other areas or does the company work with an export broker that will truly go world wide?
• What is needed in order to go world wide in the different geographical areas?
• What is considered a healthy rate of growth?
• What are the major changes each area of the company will need to make in order to reach the vision of the company?
o What are the operational changes needed?
o How will the company market? Does the company have the marketing support needed to achieve the vision?
o What MIS growth and support are needed to reach the vision?
o Are the accounting system and staff big enough and the right strength for the company to achieve the vision?
o Is proper finance in place in order to achieve the vision? If not, how is it going to be obtained?
o What kind of R&D is needed to continue to grow the company?
o With the growth of the company, do new H&R issues need to be taken into consideration? Does the company have the right staff and resources to do that?
2) Strategy Implementation:
Once a mission statement, vision statement and strategy have been formulated, the strategy must then be implemented. In order to do this some of the following items need to be addressed. Most of the time capital / cash flow abilities will limit the ability for an organization to grow in different areas. It is important to make sure the capital / cash is applied in the appropriate order and structural needs.
• Based upon the priorities of the different departments, what needs to be done first in order to achieve the visionary growth for the company?
• What are the different capital / cash flow needs of the different goals?
• What are the capital limitations / cash flow limitations of the different needs?
• Do different departments need to grow before others can be allowed to grow? Example, it would not make sense to grow the accounting system and department before the operations of the company stretched the current systems to capacity.
• Does marketing need to grow first in order to stimulate R&D, or does R&D need to grow in order to stimulate marketing?
• What are the MIT needs for each of these items, and what are the ramifications of more outdated systems? Example, what is the effect of an outdated accounting system on the company versus outdated equipment for R&D?
• Since part of the vision is to go world wide, are there what needs to be put into place first in each of the different internal entities?
3) Strategy Evaluation:
Some of the following items may be used to evaluate the success of the strategy and its implementation.
• Was the rate of growth that was laid out achieved?
• Was the company able to penetrate the world wide markets that were targeted?
• Was the rate of return maintained, or the vision rate of return achieved?
• Are the debt / financial ratios acceptable?
• Was the company still able to maintain its strength in the previously strong market areas?
• How did the employee relations fair? Was their higher voluntary turn over due to the changes? (I.e. high burn out rate with the growth?)
Legal and Ethical Issues:
Any time a company expands, especially into a world wide market, legal and ethical issues always need to be examined. Some of the following should be considered.
• What are the different import / export laws for the different worldwide geographical areas?
• What are the different human resources / payroll laws for the different worldwide geographical areas?
• In the US market, are there new human resources / payroll laws that now need to be considered with the larger size of the company?
• Will the change in the organization substantially change the way of life for the current employees? If so, is it for the better or the worse?
• Will jobs be done overseas that were once performed or could be performed in the US? How do the company ethics tie into that situation?
• Are there geographical areas of the world that although it may be legal to do trade with, that the company does not ethically want to do trade in that area?
As stated at the beginning, the development of the mission and vision statement will identify, define and provide the road map for Able Company. The strategy to achieve that vision will always be a work in process, and must be evaluated on a regular basis for legality, ethics and success.
References:
David, F. (2005). Strategic Management Concepts and Cases (10th edition).. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc