...Strategic Initiative Paper FIN/370 Strategic Initiative Paper Starbucks Strategic Planning Initiative Strategic initiatives are a special set of strategies that an organization sets up to help that organization reach certain goals and achievements that are set up in that strategic plan. The platform in the strategic planning initiative of the Starbucks organization is to make certain they use only high quality goods, and they treat their customers and employees with respect. Starbucks is “committed to ethically sourcing and roasting the highest quality Arabica coffee in the world” (Starbucks Corporation, 2012). Starbucks’ mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks Corporation, 2012). Starbucks Corporation uses this statement as a fulfillment to their success: Under ethical sourcing the company outlines the goal that by 2015 the organization will use coffee that is only produced and obtained through the use of ethical trading and responsible growing (Starbucks Company Profile, 2011). The initiative discussed in Starbucks Annual Report says “Blair Taylor, Starbucks Chief Community Office, announced the launch of a new nonprofit corporation with a $1 million seed grant to introduce job skills, leadership and apprenticeship programs to young people across the company’s multi-billion-dollar supply chain, and further expansion of the company’s support for U.S. manufacturing through an order...
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...Common Core: Should the Government Participate in Education Standards? The Common Core Initiative is something that is very important to the growth of youth in the world of education. It provides a standardized education outline in hopes of making the United States a more intellectually competitive nation. Yet, while nearly all states have adopted this Initiative, there is little faith in its influence on the intelligence of the average student. There are many attributes and subtle nuances in the whole of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. This makes it difficult to say whether or not the education system is benefiting from this initiative. While Common Core set out to define when and what children should learn, was the change necessary and/or successful? Ever since people have been attempting to standardize education the question of “What is important?” has been asked. State education standards have been around since the early 1990s. By the early 2000s, every state had developed and adopted its own learning standards that specify what students in grades 3-8 and high school should be able to do. Every state also had its own definition of proficiency, which is the level at which a student is determined to be sufficiently educated at each grade level and upon graduation. This lack of standardization was one reason why states decided to develop the Common Core State Standards in 2009. America’s decreasing intelligence average became a public matter. Many people knew...
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...LEADERSHIP Six Ways to Sink a Growth Initiative by Donald L. Laurie and J. Bruce Harreld FROM THE JULY–AUGUST 2013 ISSUE T he CEO is confronted with a dilemma: The revenue and profits of his company’s existing businesses are rising slowly, and the businesses have already slashed their costs as much as they dare. Because their markets are mature, he knows that the company must grow if the share price is to increase, but acquisitions are expensive and risky. So he launches a slew of initiatives in areas with high growth potential and appoints some promising young managers to lead them. To ensure that the new ventures aren’t stifled, he has their managers report to a special growth committee headed by a trusted staff executive and locates them a safe distance from the established businesses. Sound familiar? It should, because that story has played out at hundreds if not thousands of large and midsize companies over the past 20 to 30 years. But after working for, advising, and studying scores of companies, we have learned that this conventional wisdom about how best to pursue growth is a recipe for failure—which explains why most new businesses launched by established companies die, and why only a tiny fraction of companies around today, including major corporations, will be here in 25 years. All too often CEOs and their senior teams see managing today’s earnings as their main job and don’t spend enough time on the pursuit of growth and building the...
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...(SOS-C) of ToolsCorp Corporation. The purpose of this paper is to obtain permission from them to go forward with the next step (developing a full-blown business plan) for ToolsCorp's strategic initiative to break into the global marketplace. Your group's paper should discuss the following (at a minimum): • A complete strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis (including at least 5 factors from each category and full explanations of why each factor is important and why it was placed in the category) of the environment that exists within ToolsCorp and the environment that ToolsCorp is proposing • An outline of the business plan to be developed for ToolsCorp's strategic initiative • A full mission statement containing the nine components and presented in a well written paragraph • Key operating principles as you will apply them • A preliminary market analysis • The one-year, five-year, and ten-year strategic objectives of the strategic initiatives presented as one strategic proposal for each time frame (3 strategic proposals in all), complete with implementation plans, potential ramifications, and feedback mechanisms • The additional material that your group considers necessary to support the case for going forward with ToolsCorp's global strategic initiative (This is not optional, you must input additional material.) Background Information ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is...
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...Sample Leadership Roles and Responsibilities for Quality Improvement: VTE Prevention This is a multifunctional document that leaders can use to negotiate and coordinate their individual responsibilities and make sure that all of the essential activities are covered. It can be used by the BOD, CEO, CMO, chief quality officer (CQO), C-Suite champion (CSC), and physician champion (PC) as a starting point for discussion. It is provided in a native file format (MS Word) so that it can also serve as a template for the final, approved version of leadership accountabilities. Board of Directors (BOD, or Board)—can include whole Board or just its Quality Committee • Approves a blood-clot prevention initiative as a high priority • Sets performance standards and benchmarks for blood-clot prevention • Approves the format, frequency, and level of detail expected for the quality reports the Board receives • Appropriates specific funds for clinic\al quality improvement activities • Formally reviews and discusses venous thromboembolism (VTE, or blood clots) performance data and seeks explanations for rates that fail to meet standards and benchmarks • Establishes and revises priorities for improving patient safety and clinical quality of care • Assures structure is clearly delineated for: a) obtaining stakeholder input; and b) approving materials for improving clinical quality and patient safety (e.g., policies, protocols, standing/pre-printed order sets, patient education/staff...
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...charge of a large inventory reduction effort within her organization. Through hard work and practices such as those presented in The Leadership Challenge, Ms. May successfully achieved her goal of leading a change initiative in her organization. I first asked Ms. May a little about her company and what exactly her leadership role was. She explained to me that her company manufactures heavy-duty commercial locks and security systems. Her role specifically is in the Accounting and Finance department because of her background education in Finance. She is in charge of daily accounting transactions, evaluating the performance of the company based on numerous performance metrics, and constantly cutting costs for the organization. She was tasked with the role of leading a small group of individuals throughout her organization to reduce inventory by $125,000 dollars in a time span of about 2 weeks. This group was comprised of individuals from numerous departments throughout her organization, including Purchasing, Product Management, Warehouse Control, Engineering, and others within her own Accounting department. When I asked Ms. May why she was chosen to lead this group she explained to me that she had the background knowledge of the costs of the inventory, the necessary skills to generate reports off of the organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP)...
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...Financial Managers and Quality Initiatives in Health Care Post University Tina M Dixons Abstract This paper will discuss the importance of why financial manager should be concerned with quality initiatives in the health care setting. The topic will describe why quality initiatives are a key role in the financial success and failures in healthcare. Delivery of healthcare is synonymous with finance and the task related to quality improvement and quality initiatives that support accuracy in documentation and treatment. There is a strong correlation between providers and finance. Key words: Finance, Quality initiatives, Providers, Patient care. Financial Managers and Quality Initiatives It is clear that if good quality of services, successful outcomes and customer satisfaction are presented in a healthcare setting, then the financial stability may sustain. As financial managers collaborate to achieve health care quality, they know that there are several variable factors that must manifest in order to sustain and earn profits for their organization. Some variables include reduction in medical error, appropriate diagnostics, medical analysis, education programs, staff training, prevention, primary care, financial reimbursements, technological advancements and minimizing waste. Error and Accuracy Medscape reported that “Eight years ago, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report To Err is Human revealed that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans...
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...various reasons. Organizations are important to the community, individuals and society that they represent. Organizations have a social responsibility to be ethical and moral. The community they represent, when making key decisions they will need to consider the responsibility that will impact the community, the resources, and funding for various project and initiatives that they wish to carry out, also holds them at a high standard. Organizations and Social Initiative If an organization wants to develop social initiative they must first make sure that they are ethical in their business practices. If the organization has current ethical issues they must fix the issues so they can build trust and contribute to the effort. Every community has the task of recruiting necessary funds, manpower, and support from local organizations that can help accomplish the goals of the community. They all have a social initiative, special project, or particular interest they take in providing their support and assistance, such as community fundraising, children’s programs, support for the lower income brackets, and green initiatives just to name a few. So when an organization supports a social outreach program they are reinvesting in the community, and helping the community is a great way to build a relationship with customers as each project builds a relationship with the members of a community. When organizations support and give back to the community, they build a reputation for the...
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...Leaders and Leadership in Organizations Abstract The success of an organization is dependent upon the leadership. Leadership is essential in providing vision, direction, and motivation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of leadership in organizations by exploring leadership theories, styles, traits, and behaviors of effective leaders as well as challenges organizations face in developing and identifying effective leadership. Importance of Leadership Ultimately, the success and failure of an organization is dependent upon leadership. Although there are a number of factors impacting the performance of organizations, the quality of leadership remains at the key focal point. Effective leadership casts vision, provides direction, and influences organizational behavior, good or bad. Leadership academic studies agree leaders possess common qualities and attributes. Leadership styles may differ, but qualities and attributes remain consistent. The role of a leader is critical to the evolving dynamics of an organizational structure. Organizations are more aware of the role leadership has in their organization and are seeking leaders with the style, qualities and attributes needed (Yukl & Lepsinger 2008). An organizations understanding of leadership is often limited to assessing a leader’s ability to motivate others to go beyond what is expected, benefiting from subordinates full potential efforts. Influencing the group of an organization...
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...Qn1: Why was it necessary to implement a program aimed at improving labour, hygienic, and social and health conditions of outsourced shop workers? By 2005, Inditex’s Growth and sales had expanded beyond Spain and Europe at large. Though Inditex had undertaken CSR Initiatives before, most of the Initiatives were a knee-Jerk reaction at best. As Inditex expanded globally, it was grappling with close to 1800 External Suppliers, with little or no oversight/control over the working condition of the people under these many suppliers. Being a global player in retail now, it was imperative to come up with a CSR Initiative which was interwoven with the Company’s Corporate Policy. This Served 2 purposes: 1. As a profit making Organisation the initiatives undertaken to improve labour, hygiene,health and social condition would make the Supplier and the supply chain seamless and in the long run delivery tangible benefits(translates to lower cost and better quality of work force and hence the supplier can deliver better value) 2. These CSR Initiatives also would deliver Intangible Benefits in the form of extended cooperation from the local community, enhanced Corporate Image among stake holders, support from the local government and better brand value from well informed customers of Inditex. According to Porter, Four major justifications for CSR initiatives are: • Moral Obligation • Reputation Out-in Linkages • License to Operate • Sustainability...
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...to succeed may be headed for disaster. At the very least the business will have difficulties growing or meeting its full potential. Part of the planning process is setting goals and how the company will go about achieving set goals. It is necessary for corporate leadership set these goals and clearly focus objectives for the organization. Goal setting can be a challenging task. Corporate or company leadership needs to define what is the vision of the company. What are they trying to accomplish? From there they must begin to set the goals for the company. From our readings we know there are three types’ goals. Each of these goals has an important role in the success of any given company. “Strategic goals: are set by and for top management and focus on objectives for the organization as a whole.” (Kinicki & Williams, 2016 P.144) Setting strategic goals is a key element in a business. It is here that top organizational leadership puts down what the companies objectives will be. These objectives may be short term or long term. They may be in response to a change in market conditions, or world events. Whatever the case may be top management sets these goals to steer the organization in what they deem is the right decision. So why is setting strategic goals important? This redacted excerpt from Review of Marketing Research, Volume 7 illustrates its importance. “Consider the case of a Fortune 100 communications firm that faced a very serious erosion of its core business...
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...from ODR ® Culture—“the way we do things around here”—provides guidance, whether intentional or de facto, on what is done (or is not), how it is done (if it is), and why it is or isn’t done. Culture permeates every organization, and has the ability to either support or destroy even the most critical change initiatives. The power of culture is an important consideration when planning change. This paper will help you understand the dynamics of organizational culture and what contributes to supporting or obstructing change initiatives. It will also address whether or not to attempt shifting a culture, and how it should be approached if such an endeavor is warranted. Understanding how culture is formed and knowing how and when to take it on are essential foundations to successful strategy execution. You can deliver on transformative change promises only to the extent that you build a supportive culture. The Dynamics of Culture While there are many viable definitions of organizational culture, within this paper it is important to work with a definition that centers on the relationship of culture to major change. In this context, culture is defined as the patterns of mindsets and behaviors shared by people in an organization. Thus, an organization’s culture consists not only of what is done; it includes why. Corporate culture is, in effect, an organizational self-concept roughly analogous to an individual’s personality. Like its human counterpart, an organization’s self-image...
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...1. Why are data analysis skills and thinking so important to spend analysis? Can’t software applications be used to generate the information needed automatically? In today’s world, advanced technology has provided us with a lot of tools to help sift through and process huge amount of data. However, in spite of all this, the fact remains that data is useless without the skills to analyze it. Critical thinking is still a skill inherent only to humans. Software applications are much capable of generating data automatically, however, only one equipped with data analysis skills can translate that data into information that can support corporate decision-making. Equipped with the right data analysis skills, one would be able to select the significant data from the wide array available and turn it into actionable information. These skills are important in spend analysis as the most critical stage is making sense of the output and deriving strategic solutions based on the information available. The employment of data analysis skills and critical thinking in spend analysis is necessary to reach the goal of enjoying the benefits of spend data management which include reduced material and services costs, better supplier and product management, and lower inventory costs. 2. How might a structured process such as Six Sigma methodology be useful here? The Six Sigma Improvement Model known as DMAIC can be used in implementing spend management in the enterprise with the aim of continuous...
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...protagonist that realizes the society is backwards and he takes initiative to make a change to it. To be specific, Montag realizes burning books isn’t really what he want from society. As a result, I can connect to Guy Montag. Throughout the book, Guy Montag expresses his opinion of the way society runs. He believes it’s society that makes him unhappy in life. As he burned books he thought, “So it was the hand that started it all...His hands had been infected and soon it would be his arms...His hands were ravenous” (Bradbury 41). This shows how unhappy he was conforming to society’s standards. Just like today’s society, where people are judged if they don’t conform to these standards created by society. Just like Guy Montag, I feel that society should not be the way it is. Overall, I can relate to the viewpoints of Guy Montag....
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...Case study 1 Kira Morris 3/14/2015 Identify the people, organization, and technology factors responsible for slow adoption rates of internal corporate social networks. Incorporating social networking systems in a business setting doesn’t always work out as desired. There are a few factors as to why these systems don’t return on the investment put into them, and they are factors such as people’s habits, organization’s needs, and technology competition or issues. To begin identifying these factors, let’s start with why people won’t want to change what they’re used to. When a company begins using something like a new social network to try encouraging workers to collaborate in new ways, most of the time the workers don’t feel comfortable with the change. In a work area, it’s more common to collaborate with your colleague face-to-face or by sending emails, and having to learn how to use/navigate a new social networking program may prove to be nothing more than stressful. As for the factors of organization, it would be a burden to keep these systems up to date, and having to rely on them for organization may not end well if any details were missed/left out. A common complaint is that social media efforts are severely under-resourced, so gaining accurate, factual resources can be proved difficult (1). Not only would maintenance be an issue, but most companies also lack the capability to measure performance/value the network creates. The other factors that may make adoption...
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