MGT 498 Complete Course

Week 1

. Individual Assignment: Strategic Management Process Paper

Write a 350 to 500 word paper in which you complete the following:

Describe the primary components of a strategic management process, and indicate why a strategic management process is needed for a company.

Research at least one company and describe the strategic management process that the company uses. (Please research a company other than your current or previous employers.)

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Reference the course text book as your primary source.

Learning Team Instructions

Introduce yourself to your Learning Team.

Create the Learning Team Charter.

Week 1 DQs

Why is strategic planning important to the organization? How does strategic planning help the organization? What kind of strategic planning tools are you familiar with? Have you used SWOT analysis in other classes? Do you know what the balanced scorecard is?

What is a mission statement? What is a vision statement? Review Cokes' mission statement:

To refresh the world...

To inspire moments of optimism and happiness...

To create value and make a difference

Does this statement give direction to the strategic planning process?

Why is an understanding in ethics important to the overall strategy process, and how does an understanding of ethics affect the strategy process as it pertains to the organizations stakeholders?

Provide an example of a company that used unethical behavior to gain profit. What was the unethical behavior and why was the behavior unethical? How did this unethical behavior affect the company?

How critical do you think having a mission statement is relative to the overall success of an organization? Explain.

How does a leader develop and articulate a compelling vision? Explain.

What is the relationship between strategy and tactics? Explain

Week 2

. Individual Assignment: Ethics Paper

Write a 700- to 900-word paper in which you do the following:

Explain the role of ethics and social responsibility in developing a strategic plan while considering stakeholder needs and agendas.

Include at least one example of a company overstepping ethical boundaries for stakeholder agendas, and what types of preventative measures could be taken to avoid this type of situation. (Please research a company other than your current or previous employers.)

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Reference the course text book as your primary source.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Weekly Reflection

Discuss this weeks objectives with your team. Your discussion should include the topics you feel comfortable with, any topics you struggled with, and how the weekly topics relate to application in your field.

Prepare a 350 to 1,050 word paper detailing the findings of your discussion and post as a new thread in your learning team forum.

Week 2 DQs

In week one we discussed mission statements and vision statements. These are used to develop goals and objectives for the organization. There are other things that also need to be done before goals and objectives are done. Please spend a few moments reviewing what a SWOT or SWOTt analysis is. How can the results of a SWOT analysis be used to develop goals for an organization. What do we mean by environmental scanning for strategic planning?

What is the role of strategic planning in creating value for the organization? Provide an example of how a company uses strategic planning to create value for the organization. What is a competitive strategy? Choose two or more competitive strategies and compare why each strategy may be appropriate for different companies. For example, one company may use a low-price strategy while another may go for high quality.

Think about the benefits associated with conducting a SWOT Analysis. Choose your own organization or an organization with which you are familiar and reply to this post with an analysis of the companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. After posting your SWOTT analysis, take a moment to read and comment on the responses posted by some of your classmates.

What models, tools, and techniques would you use in performing an environmental analysis of an organization?

What are two major environmental changes that you expect to have an impact on your organization over the next 5-10 years?

Why do we want to create measurement devices early in the strategy process? How do metrics allow us to track the strategy process once it is implemented? How is environmental scanning helpful in choosing the appropriate metric guidelines to use?

Week 3

Individual Assignment: Environmental Scan Paper

Write a 1,050 to 1,400-word paper in which you complete the following:

Research and describe the internal and external environments of 2 to 3 real-world companies using an environmental scan. (Please research a company other than your current or previous employers.)

Determine what competitive advantages each company has and what strategies each company is using.

How does each company create value and sustain competitive advantage through business strategy?

What measurement guidelines is each company using to verify its strategic effectiveness?

How effective are the measurement guidelines that each company is using?

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Reference the course text book as your primary source.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Weekly Reflection

Discuss this weeks objectives with your team. Your discussion should include the topics you feel comfortable with, any topics you struggled with, and how the weekly topics relate to application in your field.

Prepare a 350 to 1,050 word paper detailing the findings of your discussion and post as a new thread in your learning team forum.

Week 3 DQs

What do we mean by a sustainability strategy? How do we determine what we want to sustain? Is it profits, competitiveness, the environment or what?

Define risk and how it affects the strategy planning process. In relation to innovation, sustainability, and the global market, how would you decide whether a risk is worth taking the chance on when to create a strategic plan? How do you identify risk? What measures should you use?

Based upon plan preparation, how would one assess the impacts of organizational strengths and weaknesses related to the development of long-term objectives?

Describe at least four sustainability strategies. Review the Virtual Organization Riordan Manufacturing, which can be accessed through this courses reading from University of Phoenix student Web site. Which sustainability strategies would be most appropriate for Riordan Manufacturing and why?

Assume that you are a risk adverse manager in an industry experiencing rapid technological innovations. Which of the generic strategies would you be inclined to favor to mitigate risk? Why?

How does your organization select generic and grand strategies?

Week 4

Learning Team Assignment: Competitive Advantages Paper

Resources: Riordan Virtual Organization and Individual Environmental Scan Papers

Use the Riordan Virtual Organization and research from last weeks Environmental Scan Paper for this assignment. The Riordan Case can be found by clicking on the Materials tab on the top of your classroom and clicking on the hyperlink.

Decide which competitive advantages Riordan has in common with the companies researched last week, and estimate which competitive strategies Riordan could use to improve innovation and sustainability of business operations both in the United States and in the global market.

Explain why you chose these competitive strategies and estimate how they might affect sustainability of long-term organizational performance.

Explain how the global market would affect the business strategy of Riordan.

Summarize your findings in a 700 to 1,050 word paper.

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Reference the course text book as your primary source.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Weekly Reflection

Discuss this weeks objectives with your team. Your discussion should include the topics you feel comfortable with, any topics you struggled with, and how the weekly topics relate to application in your field.

Prepare a 350 to 1,050 word paper detailing the findings of your discussion and post as a new thread in your learning team forum.

Week 4 DQs

What steps need to be taken before we implement an organizational strategy? Why are time frames so important to the implementation of an organizations strategy? What role does the sequence of execution play?

Research a companys internal dynamics and the influence on business continuity along with cultural and structural leadership considerations incorporated into the implementation of the companys strategy. What resources are being used for the company to implement its strategy?

How have the ideas of constant improvement processes such as TQM, Six Sigma, and other improvement processes affected the overall strategy of organizations?

How are the tactical plan and the goals related to long-term objectives (LTO) and Critical Success Factors in your experience?

What are some structural, leadership, and cultural considerations that need to be included in the strategy implementation for the virtual organization, Riordan Manufacturing?

Week 5

Learning Team Assignment: Strategic Plan Paper and Presentation

The board of directors for Riordan Manufacturing has asked your team to create a strategic plan for the organization.

Create a 2,500 to 3,500 word strategic plan for Riordan Manufacturing starting from what you learned in Week One and using a similar strategic management process as Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy by Wheelen and Hunger. You may also use information from the team project you completed for Riordan Manufacturing in Week Four to create the strategic plan.

Cover thoroughly the areas of environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and evaluation and control.

Conduct a thorough environmental scan (internal and external) for Riordan.

Identify three competitive advantages for Riordan.

Develop a strategic plan for Riordan based on the competitive advantages your team has identified.

Through the process of creating a strategic plan, you should Address the following questions:

Why does Riordan need a strategic plan?

What role should ethical and social responsibility considerations have in Riordans strategic management plan?

What competitive advantages does Riordan have, and which competitive strategies should Riordan utilize to improve innovation and sustainability in both domestic and international applications?

What measurement guidelines should be used to verify strategy effectiveness?

What internal dynamics along with cultural and structural leadership considerations should be used in implementing business strategy for Riordan?

How do they influence business continuity?

What assessment and feedback controls should be used to determine the direction to take Riordan? If the strategy of Riordan does not go according to plan, at what point would you consider altering the strategic plan you have suggested?

Explain and justify all of the decisions you have made for your strategic plan, using research and understanding learned from the reading material.

Format your paper according to APA standards.

Reference the course text book as your primary source.

Present a completed strategic plan to the board of directors for Riordan Manufacturing.

Outline your strategic plan for Riordan Virtual Organization in a 20- to 30-slide presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Describe why Riordan needs a plan, and walk the audience through every step in the strategic management process.

Include ethical considerations, environmental scanning for competitive advantages, innovation and sustainability considerations, measurement guidelines, internal dynamic and resource considerations for strategy implementation, and what feedback considerations Riordan should put into place to ensure the success of the company.

Keep your audience in mind and make your strategic plan convincing.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Weekly Reflection

Discuss this weeks objectives with your team. Your discussion should include the topics you feel comfortable with, any topics you struggled with, and how the weekly topics relate to application in your field.

Prepare a 350 to 1,050 word paper detailing the findings of your discussion and post as a new thread in your learning team forum.