NOTE: Your writing proficiency in your responses to all three questions will be evaluated as a measure of your professional communication. Responses must demonstrate your ability to synthesize information appropriate to each business situation, and presented in a clear, concise, and organized manner.
Supporting evidence must be drawn from reliable sources in the literature and referenced using accurate APA Style.
Question #1-Strategic Thinking
When involved in strategic management of the total enterprise, one must consider ways to assure proper implementation of the strategy, i.e., making it a real and viable part of strategic business unit (SBU).
These activities include efforts to institutionalize or achieve, at the granular level, the ability to think and act strategically by every individual contributor and his or her leader from top to bottom of the organization and throughout all locations where the corporate holdings are found in the world, if needs be. What is given at this point is that the following have already taken place:
1. Strategic assessments both inside and outside of the SBU to derive outcomes called strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats;
2. The vision, mission and values have been decided upon and published throughout the SBU;
3. Generic and grand strategies have been formulated; and
4. Long-term objectives have been written in detail and translated to annual, functional and department level objectives and goals.
What comes next on the road to full and complete unfettered institutionalization of strategy?
Please describe that process called strategy implementation and application assessment. Discuss the challenges an organization and its leadership as well as individual contributors will face and how they will overcome them to assure that the strategic planning efforts will be fully accepted, endorsed and embraced by the membership of the SBU. Use scholarly, academic literature to support your response.
Question #2-Divergent Thinking
Divergent thinking embraces all efforts to identify, analyze and reconcile the seemingly disparate interests and demands of the many stakeholders of an organization (both inside and outside) be it a business entity or any other kind of collectivity of human and material resources legally dedicated to the singular goals of achieving its purpose or mission and vision.
The organization must be able to operate legally and without compromise to its mission when going through the process of ultimate reconciliation of stakeholder demands and claims on that organization. Consider the stakeholders that must be accounted for in a global entity from today's business or service industries. Global entities might include but not be limited to Samsung, Toyota, Shell Oil, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, ZARA, IKEA, Nissan, VW, HSBC, Siemens, Nestle's, Heineken, Dior, Lenovo, BP, International Red Cross, United Nations, WHO, the EU, etc.
Choosing from this list or making a choice of another global organization, please list the top five (5) stakeholders that have the most powerful interests in and over that global entity, and perform a comparative analysis that identifies those stakeholders and what they would demand of the organization. Then, analyze and recommend how the entity might ultimately reconcile stakeholder demands and still function unfettered (feasibly, innovatively, ethically and legally) to realize its mission and vision. Use scholarly, academic literature to support your response.
Question #3-Informed Decision Making
Identify and describe a global company of your choice (mission, product line and customer base) that has come under the public criticism and governmental scrutiny for its accounting and financial practices that have resulted in external complaints of exaggerated claims of profitability (EBITDA) and strength of liquidity and market share.
There are many businesses to choose from, from pharmaceutical research and manufacturing firms to financial institutions, or choose from the list of business entities offered in question #2 above. Your job is to help re-establish your business's legal credibility and ethical standing under the law and in the eyes of its shareholders as well as customers.
What are the major legal and ethical requirements the organization must comply with before it can be restored and come out from under the limitations placed upon it by federal regulators (e.g., to allow it to offer stock and engage fully in the DOW or NASDAQ exchanges)?
What is the decision making process the organization must undertake to achieve compliance, and what recommendations must be made by the leadership of the organization to achieve it competitive place in the business community once again? Use scholarly, academic literature to support your response.