The purpose of the Strategic Assessment and Recommendations Project is to analyze an organization’s external and internal environment, assess its current strategies, and generate and evaluate the most successful strategic alternatives and construct recommendations. All sections in the outline (below) should be organized and presented in a coherent manner and serve the purpose of the project.
Each bulleted section of the outline should be a heading in your paper. As you develop your matrices (EFE, CPM, etc.), they will be placed in an appendix of your paper and analyzed in the body of your paper (e.g. See Appendix 1). Your Recommendations will be crafted based on all the research and matrices you have created over the entire course, and must show the interrelatedness of market, economic, social and political trends, and their impact on the global environment. Your recommendations should be constructed as if you were a professional consultant for the company. Finally, you will conclude your project with forward thinking summary of conclusions.
Outline of Final Project:
1. Introduction with Thesis Statement
• Describe the company you chose. Provide a brief overview and history of the company.
• Identify the types of products or services your company provides.
• Who are the main competitors for this company or business? Provide evidence for this selection. What is this company’s distinctive competence?
• What is the mission and vision of the company? Do they meet the criteria of a good mission and vision (according to our textbook)? Why or why not?
• How would you change the mission statement to be more effective for the company and employees? Provide a suggested statement.
2. Background of the Company (you chose to analyze)
3. Vision and Mission Statements
4. External Audit and EFE
• Develop an External Factor Evaluation for your chosen company. When developing your external factors (both opportunities and threats) make sure the factors meet the Actionable-Quantitative-Comparative-Divisional (AQCD) Test. While developing your EFE, assess your company for the 10 external forces that impact organizations. Provide a thorough analysis of your EFE.
• Review your company using Porter’s Five Force Model.
5. CPM
• Develop a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) for your chosen company. Provide a thorough analysis of your CPM.
6. Internal Audit and IFE
• Perform a brief internal audit (strategic management audit) for your chosen company adding your observations about the Management, Financials, Marketing, and Management Information Systems.
• Develop an Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) on your chosen company. When developing your internal factors (both strengths and weaknesses) make sure the factors meet the Actionable-Quantitative-Comparative-Divisional (AQCD) Test. Provide a thorough analysis of your IFE.
7. SWOT
• Develop a SWOT matrix for your chosen company. Provide a thorough analysis of your SWOT.
• When developing your SWOT matrix, make sure you have at least two strategies for each strategy section (SO, WO, ST, WT) utilizing the most important factors from your EFE and IFE.
8. Global Evaluation
• Global Evaluation: What is the global presence of your company? Evaluation can be based on cultural, political, financial, legal elements.
9. Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM)
• Develop a Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) on your chosen company. Use input information from Stage 1 (EFE, IFE, and CPM) to objectively evaluate feasible alternative strategies identified in Stage 2 (SWOT). Provide a thorough analysis of your QSPM.
• Assess the leadership strategy needed to support your preferred alternative strategy. What characteristics are critical (i.e., Planning, Organizing, Motivating, and Controlling)?
10. Leadership Strategy
11. Strategic Recommendation(s) detail and justifications
12. Balanced Scorecard (evaluating Strategic recommendations)
• Develop a Balanced Scorecard for your chosen company. Provide a thorough analysis of your Scorecard.
• The scorecard is utilized to understand how well your strategy ideas support the organization and achieves the balance of the company needs versus consumers. Some of the key categories are below, but you can also add items such as leadership or Corporate Social Responsibility.
o Financial Metrics: How will you measure success or progress for your alternatives?
o Operations / Internal processes: What processes will be used in support of your strategy alternatives?
o Learning and growth measures: What actions are required for employees?
o Customer Measures: What customer measures are needed to support improvements?
o Other (Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, Managers)
13. Conclusion – summarize your proposal and briefly reiterate the justification
14. References
15. Appendices (matrices)