...|[pic] |Course Syllaubus | | |School of Business | | |STR/581 Strategic Planning & Implementation | Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This capstone course integrates concepts from all prior courses in the program. Students apply the concepts of strategic planning and implementation to create sustainable, competitive advantage for an organization. Other topics include environmental scanning, strategic analysis, corporate social responsibility, implementation and evaluation, and risk management. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities,...
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...Strategic Plan Part 3 STR/581 Brian Carter 12-12-11 Strategic planning is a critical element of an organization’s annual business plan. A strategic plan consists of a number of components. In addition to analyzing a company’s strengths and weaknesses, a strategic plan also includes implementation and control techniques. While this may seem easy enough, implementing a strategic plan into an organization can be challenging. Barnes and Noble, like a number of corporations are seeking ways to improve productivity and profitability. This essay will identify business alternatives for the bookseller which will enable them to diversify their product offerings. The development of a strategic plan consists of many steps. One important step is identifying the best strategic alternatives. These alternatives include value discipline, generic strategy, and grand strategy. These three areas are especially important for Barnes and Noble. In recent years, the bookseller has experienced a slide in market share. While Barnes and Noble has been able to rebound over the past year, the company must identify ways to remain competitive. A generic strategy is very important for Barnes and Noble. A generic strategy is a basic approach to strategic planning that can be adopted by an organization in any industry to improve competitive advantage. Generic strategy is composed of three elements, differentiation, focus and low cost strategies. Differentiation strategy is the ideal strategy...
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...As you think about where your organization is now, you want to look at your foundational elements (mission and value) to make sure there has not been a change. More than likely, you will not revise these two areas very often. Then you want to look at your current position or your strategic position. This is where you look at what is happening internally and externally to determine how you need to shift and change You should review your strategic position regularly through the use of a SWOT. These elements are as follows: Mission statement: The mission describes your organization’s purpose — the purpose for which you were founded and why you exist. Some mission statements include the business of the organization. Others explain what products or services they produce or customers they serve. Does your mission statement say what you do? Why does your organization exist? Values and/or guiding principles: This clarifies what you stand for and believe in. Values guide the organization in its daily business. What are the core values and beliefs of your company? What values and beliefs guide your daily interactions? What are you and your people really committed to? SWOT: SWOT is an acronym that stand for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These elements are crucial in assessing your strategic position with your organization. You want to build on your company’s strengths; shore up the weaknesses; capitalize on the opportunities; and recognize the threats. Where are...
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...Week 2 – Research Proposal Ed Rutkowski STR/581 October 15, 2012 Richard Bowman * Validating the Organizational Vision, Mission, and Values Statements * Validation of the organization’s vision, mission statement, and values statements is an ongoing process. At a minimum, annual reviews should be accomplished to ensure the accurately reflect the direction laid out in our company’s current strategic plan. Our mission statement should provide a general description of our fundamental reason for being and the functional role that our organization plays in our competitive environment (Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn, & Goshal, 2003). All will be reviewed to certify that they accurately reflect our current status, competencies, and future direction as well. A focus group representing a cross section of employees will be convened to review these statements, with final approval for changes coming from the executive board. * External Environmental Analysis By conducting an external analysis, my goal is to identify the critical threats and opportunities in my company’s particular competitive environment. To a firm seeking a competitive advantage, an environmental threat is any individual, group, or organization outside the firm that seeks to reduce the level of that firm’s performance. Threats can increase a firm’s costs, decrease the willingness of a firm’s customers to pay, or in other ways reduce a firm’s performance (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). A considerable...
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...External and Internal Environmental Analysis Name STR-581 Date Instructor External and Internal Environmental Analysis “VIZIO, Inc. was founded in 2002 by William Wang with the idea that everyone deserves to own the latest technology”, VIZIO started out providing consulting services for Gateway computers with three employees, today there are over 160 employees, do to outsourcing a majority of the work. VIZIO is “still hard at work taking entertainment freedom by storm”, through adding computers, tablets, and Apps (VIZIO, 2012 para.1). There are various external issues that can persuade VIZIO to make the high-quality decisions in order to select a course of action, which will have an effect on the company’s internal structure. The external environment factors are influenced by one another they are: remote, industry, and operating environment. In a competition situation, these unified features summarize the core of the prospects and threats that VIZIO confronts. In order to track marketing prospects, VIZIO inc. should in addition be conscious of its own internal assets, qualifications, and skills. A method commonly applied by administrators or supervisors is the SWOT analysis denotes the internal Strengths and Weaknesses of an individual business and the environmental opportunities and threats a business confronts. This advance assists managers to consider VIZIO’s internal capabilities, while making use of the findings to enhance the strategic alternatives...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper University of Phoenix STR/581 Strategic Choice and Evaluation Organizational leaders and analysts develop business strategies to ensure that the organization is successful and operates to its full potential. Several factors have a significant impact on an organization’s success and its profitability. However, these factors are not solely based on finances. Some factors that will have a significant impact on the organizational strategic approach include organizational structure, organizational culture, and the leadership strategies chosen. In addition, organizational leaders and analysts seek to improve business processes and its related costs, improve customer satisfaction by improving product or service quality, and maintain a competitive advantage when compared to organizations offering the same or similar products and services. Businesses create competitive advantages when compared to its competitors because their product or service quality is highly distinguished from its competitors within the same market segment. Another factor that has a significant impact on the organization’s competitive advantage is the business’s cost structure (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). Merck & Co. is a pharmaceutical company that manufactures pharmaceutical prescription drugs for patients diagnosed with a variety of diseases. This organization is a scientific research-based organization. Therefore, to ensure the organization grows to its full...
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...Strategic Choice & Evaluation Paper STR/581 March 17, 2014 Victor Rayneri Executive Summary The University of New Mexico Medical Group, Inc. (UNMMG) was created in 2007 under the University Research Park and Economic Development Act in Albuquerque, New Mexico. UNMMG is classified as a not-for-profit corporation. UNMMG currently employs 900 clinical practitioners, represents 152 specialties who are exclusive caregivers to the state’s only academic medical center – University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) ("Review Of University Of New Mexico Medical Group, Inc. Operations", 2013). UNMMG is a multi-specialty group practice that operates 11 clinics in addition to attending at the 76 clinics at UNMH in Albuquerque area ("UNM Medical Group", 2014). UNMMG reports to the UNM Health Systems, which is comprised of the UNM School of Medicine, UNM Hospitals, UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center, UNM Cancer Center, UNM College of Nursing and the UNM College of Pharmacy. Being the only academic medical center, UNMMG has to compete with other healthcare facilities in the area and in the state to provide high quality and innovation academic medicine. In order to realize growth for any organization, they need to evaluate alternatives such as strategies to maintain a competitive edge among its competitors. Strategies such as the best value discipline, generic strategy, and grand strategy should be identified for the organization. Strategy recommendations and recognitions...
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...Business ethics is extremely crucial to the make up of any company. Business and management ethics goes beyond the law lo provide guidelines as to what is acceptable behavior in business transactions. Organizations that are committed to long term success recognize and realize that creating a culture where ethical behaviors are rewarded and encouraged is the ultimate key to survival today and growth in the future. While many businesses have codes of ethics, the words written in a formal code are valuable only if their intent is reflected in the actions of the people who represent the organization. The company that I choose for the code of ethics is Verizon: “We hold our people accountable for acting in accordance with our core values and making the right decisions. To carry this responsibility, our people need to know the rules and have the tools and training to act with integrity. Customers and shareowners need to know that we are responsive to their concerns and conduct our business in a fair and transparent way. Our systems must evolve to address emerging issues in the dynamic online environment in which we operate. And although we have made significant progress, we recognize that we need to continue integrating corporate responsibility into our decision-making frameworks and engaging our stakeholders”. I agree with this statement, I think this focuses on how to treat the customer as well as the fellow employee. As a organization I believe that Verizon recognizes the important...
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...STR 581 Entire Course For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com STR 581 Week 1 Individual Assignment Ethics Reflection Paper STR 581 Week 1 DQ 1 STR 581 Week 1 DQ 2 STR 581 Week 1 Knowledge Check STR 581 Week 2 Learning Team Activity (Innovation Strategy) STR 581 Week 2 Individual Assignment Research Proposal STR 581 Week 2 DQ 1 STR 581 Week 2 DQ 2 STR 581 Week 2 Knowledge Check STR 581 Week 3 Individual Assignment External and Internal Environmental Analysis STR 581 Week 3 Learning Team Peer Evaluation STR 581 Week 3 Knowledge Check STR 581 Week 3 DQ 1 STR 581 Week 3 DQ 2 STR 581 Week 4 Individual Assignment Strategic Choice and Evaluation STR 581 Week 4 Learning Team Peer Evaluation STR 581 Week 4 Knowledge Check STR 581 Week 4 DQ 1 STR 581 Week 4 DQ 2 STR 581 Week 5 Individual Assignment Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans STR 581 Week 5 Learning Team Peer Evaluation STR 581 Week 5 Knowledge Check STR 581 Week 5 DQ 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STR 581 Week 1 DQ 1 For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com What are the major components of a strategic management process? Which of these components is the most difficult for managers to perform? Explain your answer. -------------------------------------------------------------------- STR 581 Week 1 DQ 2 For more classes visit www.snaptutorial.com Where have you seen organizational mission, vision, and values statements...
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...Ethics Reflection Paper STR-581 February 4, 2013 Ethics Reflection Paper Ethics is a very important code of conduct in one everyday life because it plays a vital role in business. When organizations begin the process of creating a strategic plan they often take into consideration the vital role that ethics plays. Social responsibility can be affected in planning because it ensures the needs of the stakeholders in a company are content. In any organization ethic is a vital tool that is utilized to help employees within a organization understand how they should go about conducting themselves in a workplace environment. This should coincide with the values and standards that the organization they are employed with goes by. When strategic plans are created within a organization it should clearly state the expectations that the organization has set forth for employees so they will know how to conduct themselves. With the values set forth that each employee should make certain to make that ethics is a top priority (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). Within a organization values are typically stated in the mission and vision which will clearly explain the expectations and direction that the organization and its stakeholders wish to go in (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). In most organizations you can rely on the mission and/or vision statement to set standards on the principle from which organizations will develop a strategic plan and goals with...
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...Strategic Choice and Evaluation A multi-domestic strategy is defined as “a multi- domestic corporation that views itself as a collection of relatively independent operating subsidiaries each of which focuses on a specific market” (Miltenburg, 2009, p.7). The Coca Cola Corporation adopts the multi- domestic strategy. Coca Cola manufactures all products independently in each country depending on the external and internal environments of each country. Coca Cola must develop their strategies based on the nature of the culture, status, and people in each country. The factors that must be identified in order for Coca Cola to realize growth are value disciplines, the generic strategies, and the grand strategy. Value disciplines The value discipline model created by Michael Treacy and Fred Wierruna describes three alternative approaches to the generic strategy. Michael and Fred “believe that strategies must center on delivering superior customer value through one of the three value disciplines” (Pearson & Robinson, 2011, p. 185). The value disciplines are operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership (Pearson & Robinson, 2011). Operational excellence is accomplished by a focus on lean and efficient systems, cost efficiency, and convenience so that consumes are provided with products they require at a minimum cost. Customer intimate corporations focus on establishing a long-term relationship with consumers through a focus on products or services. Product...
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...Implementation Plan Ricky Cravens STR/581 Strategic Planning & Implementation Dr. Johnnie Bejarano September 15, 2013 * Cintas Corporation is an organization with a highly integrated intelligence network. Cintas highly integrated network consist of 30,000 employees worldwide. Cintas Corporation initially focused all its operations on uniform management but in modern times it additionally designs, manufacturers and implements corporate identity uniform programs, mats, bathroom supplies, promo products, fire protection, document management, first aid and safety for close to one million businesses. Cintas operates more than 430 facilities, including eight distribution hubs and six manufacturing plants. Cintas is a billion dollar revenue organization. Cintas has many competitors worldwide. Cintas operates with a unique approach to intelligence. It operates with a one-man intelligence team. Each employee at Cintas can make a significant impact with this one-man approach. Cintas relies on all of its 30,000 employees with this model. Internal market intelligence sales network model: * Quickly identify new business opportunities * Develop local tactics to attack/defend against the competition * Develop local competitive binders * Establish best practice sharing among regions * Greater competitive visibility at corporate level “Our intelligence function is neither centralized nor decentralized. I guess the best way to describe it is that...
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...Introduction Life Cares is a skilled care company established in 1970 by Forrest Preston. There are over 250 facilities across the United States with the furthest set of facilities located in Hawaii. The headquarters is located in Cleveland, TN and Forrest Preston is still the CEO of the company. As of 2014 the company built 5 new facilities and is still growing with an additional five more opening between 2015 and 2016. LCCA is a for profit business and depends mainly on reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Approximately 10% of the company’s resident population is private pay, but this population is dwindling rapidly due to the amount of disposable income available to those potential residents. Best Value Principle The concept “best value disciplines” refer to a model of disciplines by Michael Treacy and Fred Wierseman. These three discipline – operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy – are key to a company’s success and they must choose at least one to focus on. Life Cares best value discipline is customer intimacy. Customer intimacy focuses on the customer’s attention and providing exceptional customer service. This is a logical approach for LC specifically because the company is a part of the service industry. Throughout the year there are meeting held a the facility, divisional, regional and corporate level which provides training and support on strengthening customer services and customer outcomes as it relates to inpatient...
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...In this pack of STR 581 Entire Course you will find the next docs: STR-581 Week 1 Assignment.doc STR-581 Week 1 Discussion Questions.doc STR-581 Week 1 Individual Assignment Ethics Reflection Paper.doc STR-581 Week 2 Discussion Questions.doc STR-581 Week 2 Individual Assignment Research Proposal.doc STR-581 Week 2 Individual Assignment.doc STR-581 Week 2 Learning Team Assignment Innovation Strategy Paper.doc STR-581 Week 3 Assignment.doc STR-581 Week 3 Discussion Questions.doc STR-581 Week 3 Learning Team Assignment External and Internal Environmental Analysis.doc STR-581 Week 4 Discussion Questions.doc STR-581 Week 4 Learning Team Assignment Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper.doc STR-581 Week 4.doc STR-581 Week 5 Assignment.doc STR-581 Week 5 Discussion Questions.doc STR-581 Week 5 Learning Team Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans.doc STR-581 Week 6 Learning Team Assignment Strategic Plan and Paper.doc STR-581 Week 6 Assignment.doc STR-581 Week 6 Discussion Questions.doc STR-581 Week 6 Learning Team Assignment Strategic Plan and Presentation.pptx Business - General Business STR 581 Week 1 Individual Ethics Reflection Paper STR 581 Week 2 Individual Research Proposal STR 581 Week 2 Learning Team Innovation Strategy Paper STR 581 Week 3 Individual External and Internal Environmental Analysis STR 581 Week 3 Learning Team Capstone Review...
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...Assessed Discussion Question – Week One STR 581 November 5, 2012 Derek Osborne Major Components of a Strategic Management Process Organizations use the strategic management process to set goals and objectives that will help them to reach a higher level of performance (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). A continuous process, strategic management studies the businesses and industries in which the organization operates, examines the competitors, and establishes goals and objectives to counter competitors in the present and in the future. The strategic management repeats the process continuously. This process has four major components, which are environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation. Environmental scanning helps organization to analyze the internal and external factors that influence the flow of the organization (Pearson & Robinson, 2011). The strategy formulation helps an organization to charter the best course of action to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organization. The strategy implementation helps management to find ways to make the organization’s strategy works. The strategy evaluation looks at internal and external factors, measures performance, and makes necessary corrections. Most Difficult Strategic Management Process Component to Manage Strategy implementation involves change, and people tend to have a difficult time dealing with change (Mintzberg, Ghoshal, Lampel...
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