Assignment 1
Current employer or most recent employer is best suited for this project
Identify a mentor from your organizational choice who will assist you throughout the creation of the plan. The mentor should be willing to contribute time and, if logistically possible, attend the final presentation in support of your achievement.
Alternative: Place of business that you have patronized or have been familiar with over a long period of time. This choice will not be approved without a mentor meeting above criteria for commitment and contribution.
The organization can be a start-up that you or a significant other may create in the future. For a start-up, focus on an entrepreneurial idea that is of substantive interest, so this project leaves you with a product you may leverage in the future. The mentorship requirement still applies therefore the individual must be associated with the industry for the organizational start-up selected.
Write a 2,000-word paper in which you address the following:
Write an executive summary
Company Back ground (if any)
Identify both a Vision and Mission statement
Include a values statement
Identify the major components of your strategic management process, including outlining all facets of the plan.
Discuss how these components work together to create strategic value for the organization.
Briefly analyze each of your organizations’s (1) diversity plan, (2) employee motivation strategy, (3) innovation strategy, and growth strategy. Evaluate your organization’s current ability or lack thereof for these components. Hypothesize how these components (or lack thereof) could affect the organization’s strategic planning process and its people? (Support, hinderance, neutrality, agendas, etc…)
Explain the role that ethics and corporate social responsibility will play in your strategic plan. Ex. How does this direct strategy?
Define whether your organization’s identified vison/mission/diversity align with your own values and vision. Explain any conflict in this regard that you and your mentor identify. Ex. If you are currently working for the organization, how does your role influence this and vice versa?
Format your paper according to APA 6th guidelines. Including any MS Power Point presentations. This compilation paper, comprehensive in intent, requires the graduate student to apply significant outlining and sub-paragraph heading skills. Guidance: APA 6th Manual pp.62-63
Assignment 2 (6 Day Extension)
For this 3,200-word minimum assignment, you will be completing an environmental scan and economic analysis on your organization (for which you are creating your strategic plan), including the remote, industry, and operating environments. Your environmental scan should describe the situation completely and accurately. You should identify any major changes that you expect to affect your remote, industry, or operating environments in the next 5-10 years. This will include the following subcomponents:
Analysis of the forces and trends affecting your organization.
Utilize a macroeconomic forecast of economic indicators that will affect your chosen organization in the future and should be considered part of strategic planning.
Analyze the non-economic factors in the remote environment:
1) Social and Cultural
2) Political
3) Technological
4) Demographic
Complete a competitive analysis of your organization’s position from a microeconomic perspective. Ex. based on the pricing of the organization’s primary product or service line, an assessment of its cost structure, and an assessment of the market in which the organization competes. (Note: This should be an analysis, not a spreadsheet.)
Develop a summary of the organization’s current situation, including its mission or business overview, its current competitive position, and the forces and trends in its industry. Based on this situation, you will identify three to six current opportunities and issues you believe should be addressed through your strategic-planning process.
Identify strengths and weaknesses in the organization’s operating environment that can be leveraged to capitalize on the emerging opportunities or minimize threats.
Create three strategic long-term objectives that can be measured to determine the success of the strategic plan. Explain the measurement/metrics intended and their viability.
Revisit the mission and vision statements. If necessary, modify or improve them further to align with your expressed long-term objectives.
To recap your assignment goals:
Determine how to create value and sustain competitive advantage using an environmental scanning strategy.
Evaluate the company’s external environment.
Assess the company’s general external operating environment.
Evaluate the organization’s industry operating environment.
Format your paper according to APA 6th guidelines.