Activity Context
This discussion helps you master the following course competency:
- Analyze the strategic elements of organizations and their external environments using theories and models of strategy.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Applying strategic tools to identify and describe a firm’s strategy.
- Thinking and communicating strategically.
After reading Chapter 1 in Foundations of Strategy, identify the three components of the business model used by “Tough Mudder LLC: Turning Mud Runs Into a Global Business.” Using examples drawn from the case, distinguish the following concepts: corporate strategy and competitive strategy, strategy and tactics. What do you think is the role of Tough Mudder’s sense of identity (“we know who we are and what we stand for”) in influencing the effectiveness with which it implements its strategy?
Response Guidelines
Read the postings of your peers and respond to at least two other learners. When responding, seek clarification, share your personal experiences, and provide feedback.
dq 2
Activity Context
This discussion helps you develop the skills to master the following course competencies:
- Analyze organizations and competitive environments using theories and models of strategy.
- Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations of members of the business professions.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Researching data sources in order to frame the firm’s strategy.
- Thinking and communicating strategically.
- Applying critical reading skills to promote dialog.
Describe the strategy of the firm you selected for your project, using the strategy model in Figure 1.5 (p.13) of Foundations in Strategy, as a guide to frame the strategy description from the following two perspectives:
- First, the static perspective:
- Where is the firm competing? What is the product? What are the firm’s vertical and geographical scopes?
- How is the firm competing? What is the basis for the firm’s competitive advantage?
- Second, the dynamic perspective—the firm’s preparation for the future:
- What does the firm want to become?
- What does it want to achieve?
- How will it get there?
Response Guidelines
Critically read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. Your responses should seek clarification of assumptions or statements that lack evidence to support them. Remember, you are participating in a dialog with your peers for the purpose of ensuring their communication is clear, persuasive, and defensible, from both business and academic perspectives.
capella MBA6024 unit 2 dq 1 & dq 2 latest 2016 april
dq 1
Activity Context
This week’s discussions help you to develop the skills to master the following course competency:
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance organizational knowledge of strategic position and direction.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Identifying and appraising the resources and capabilities of a firm.
- Using the results from analyzing resources and capabilities to formulate strategies to exploit internal strengths and defend against internal weaknesses.
After reading Chapter 3 in your Foundations of Strategy text, use the functional classification and value chain perspectives to identify Harley-Davidson’s principal resources and capabilities. Can their resources and capabilities confer sustainable competitive advantage? What strategy recommendations would you offer to Harley-Davidson’s management team?
Response Guidelines
Critically read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. Your responses should seek clarification of assumptions or statements that lack evidence to support them. Remember, you are participating in a dialog with your peers for the purpose of ensuring their communication is clear, persuasive, and defensible, from both business and academic perspectives.
dq 2
Activity Context
This week’s discussions help you to develop the skills to master the following course competencies:
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance organizational knowledge of strategic position and direction.
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Analyzing the effectiveness of the core or mainline operations of the firm to create and deliver products and services.
- Identifying inconsistencies between the organizational design of the firm and its business strategy.
Analyze the firm key resources and core capabilities of the firm you selected for your project. Identify the functional areas of the firm’s organization or the activities in the value chain where the key resources and core capabilities reside (see Classifying Capabilities in Chapter 3). Are core or distinctive resources and capabilities structured and supported in a manner that aligns with the competitive advantage? What opportunities do you see to exploit the key capabilities of your project firm? Are there internal weakness that should concern the firm?
Read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. When responding, seek clarification, share your personal experiences that relate to their experiences, and provide feedback.
capella MBA6024 unit 3 dq 1 & dq 2 latest 2016 april
dq 1
Activity Context
This week’s discussions help you to develop the skills to master the following course competencies:
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance organizational knowledge of strategic position and direction.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Identifying important ethical issues with a firm’s strategy.
Focus on the goals and values of your project firm to identify important strategic ethical issues or dilemmas. Analyze the firm’s actions for instances of inconsistencies, or practices where the words in the mission, espoused values, or goals, don’t match the actions of the firm. Should the firm be concerned about its Corporate Social Responsibility or balancing stakeholder and stockholder needs?
Response Guidelines
Critically read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. In responses to your colleagues, comment on and respectfully challenge one another’s different conclusions.
dq 2
Activity Context
This week’s discussions help you to develop the skills to master the following course competencies:
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance organizational knowledge of strategic position and direction.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Identifying strategic issues that affect the sustainability of a firm’s competitive advantage.
- Conducting a competitive analysis of the firm, using resource-based theory or value chain model.
In Foundations of Strategy, review Case Insight 4.5: Singapore Airlines: Reconciling Differentiation With Low Costs, on page 141. Porter argues that a competitive advantage strategy of both cost leadership and differentiation is impossible to sustain.
Describe your project firm’s competitive strategy and mount an argument in favor of or against Porter’s assertion as it relates to your project firm. Does your critical thinking about the firm’s competitive advantage bring to mind concerns, or opportunities for how the firm could exploit its competitive advantage? Do you have actionable insights about exploiting strengths of the firm or insights about how the firm should defend against its weaknesses?
Response Guidelines
Critically read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. When responding, seek clarification, share your personal experiences that relate to their experiences, and provide feedback.
capella MBA6024 unit 4 dq 1 latest 2016 april
Industry Influences
Activity Context
This discussion helps you develop the skills to master the following course competencies:
- Analyze the strategic elements of organizations and their external environment applying theories and models of strategy.
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance organizational knowledge of strategic position and direction.
Activity Instructions
This discussion will help you further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Evaluating environmental and industry influences that create strategic opportunities or issues.
- Using theories and models of strategy to increase knowledge of an organization’s strategic position and direction.
After reading Chapter 2 in Foundations of Strategy, use the PEST and Porter 5-Forces Model to identify environmental and industry influences that should be a concern or present an opportunity to your project firm. Provide a rationale for your response.
Response Guidelines
Critically read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. When responding, seek clarification, share your personal experiences that relate to their experiences, and provide feedback.
capella MBA6024 unit 5 dq 1 & dq 2 latest 2016 april
dq 1
Activity Context
This discussion helps you to develop the skills to mater the following course competencies:
- Analyze the strategic elements of organizations and their external environment applying theories and models of strategy.
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
Activity Instructions
This discussion will help you further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Analyzing strategic issues.
- Formulating and proposing strategic changes for the project firm.
“Strategy has two major dimensions: positioning for the present and adapting to the future” (Jordon & Grant, p. 170). In adapting to strategic change, structures, systems, and culture are the most stable parameters of an organizational design and those that are malleable in crafting a strategic change.
For this discussion, consider changing one or more of these elements for a critical strategic issue you have identified for your project firm. Then, craft a strategic recommendation that your project firm could realize in no more than six months.
Reference
Grant, R. M., & Jordan, J. (2015). Foundations of strategy(2nd ed.). West Sussex, UK: Wiley & Sons.
dq 2
Activity Context
This discussion helps you to develop the skills to mater the following course competencies:
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
Activity Instructions
This discussion will help you further your knowledge of strategic development by:
- Formulating and proposing strategies based on changing strategic elements of the firm.
Review your Strategic Frame Assessment from Unit 1 and compare your initial finding about the corporate strategy that frames your project firm’s strategy. Recalling the distinction between corporate and business strategies, apply the key concepts for analyzing the scope of the firm. What corporate strategies should be considered to enhance the performance of your project firm?
capella MBA6024 unit 6 dq 1 latest 2016 april
Future Trends
Activity Context
This discussion helps you develop the skills to master the following course competencies:
- Analyze the strategic elements of organizations and their external environments by applying theories and models of strategy.
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance knowledge of organizational strategic position and direction.
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
Activity Instructions
In this discussion, you will:
- Analyze how trends impact the organizational strategy of a firm or industry.
- Evaluate the context of the global market, including sensitivity to economic and cultural diversity, for the impact on an organization’s strategy.
- Evaluate leading edge or contemporary strategies and their applicability to the strategy of the project firm.
Look into the future. Consider trends in society, technology, economics, environmentalism, and politics that can influence your project firm. Be sure to look beyond your company’s current market, product, and geographic boundaries. Identify two or three factors that are most likely to create dramatic turns in their future strategy. How can the organizations prepare today for what might happen in three years?
Response Guidelines
Critically read the posts of your peers and respond to the posts of at least two other learners. In responses to your colleagues, discuss the different factors others identified and how they might influence your own conclusions.
capella MBA6024 unit 1 assignment 1 latest 2016 april
Multimedia
Click Assignment Introduction – Unit 1 to launch the audio presentation from Terri Bell, a vice president of strategy and the fictional character that you will communicate with for your course project. This presentation will describe details and offer suggestions for success with this assignment.
Assignment Overview
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Analyze organizations and competitive environments using theories and models of strategy.
- Analyze a firm’s business strategy.
- Analyze a firm’s corporate strategy.
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance knowledge of organizational strategic position and direction.
- Analyze the firm’s business model.
- Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Assignment Description and Instructions
Review “How Do We Describe a Firm’s Strategy?” in Chapter 1 of Foundations in Strategy, on page 13. Write an executive memo to Terri Bell, the vice president of strategy for your project firm. Communicate the findings from your preliminary analysis of the organization’s strategy.
- Identify and analyze the firm’s generic business and corporate strategies. How is the firm competing? Specifically, which of the three generic business strategies—cost, differentiation, or hybrid—has it established to supply customer needs and beat the competition? Does the firm employ any of the following three corporate strategies: diversification, vertical integration, or globalization?
- Analyze the business strategy. What is the firm’s competitive game plan or its articulated strategy? Is there a strategy for different business units, if it has diversified? Does the strategy address how to strengthen its market position and gain a competitive advantage?
- Analyze the firm’s business model, that is, the core products and how the firm makes money. What is the customer value proposition? What is the profit proposition?
- Analyze the firm’s corporate strategy, including product, geographical, and vertical scope in which it operates. Has the firm expanded from its initial product line or field of operation? Does the firm own vertically related activities along the value chain for its products?
- Submit your report in a business format, adhering to the submission requirements below.
Submission Requirements
- Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
- Business formatting:
- Length: 2–3 double-spaced, typed pages.
- Font:Times New Roman, 12 point.
- APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (6th ed.) style and formatting.
Refer to the Strategic Frame Assessment Scoring Guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment.
capella MBA6024 unit 3 assignment 1 latest 2016 april
Multimedia
Click Assignment Introduction – Unit 3 to launch the audio presentation from Terri Bell, a vice president of strategy. This presentation will describe details and offer suggestions for success with this assignment.
Assignment Overview
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Analyze the strategic elements of organizations and their external environments, applying theories and models of strategy.
- Analyze inconsistencies between a firm’s strategy and its goals.
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance knowledge of organizational strategic position and direction.
- Evaluate how a firm leverages its resources and capabilities to execute the business strategy.
- Evaluate how the firm’s structure and systems support its capabilities.
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
- Analyze concerns or opportunities regarding ethical dilemmas.
- Analyze strategic fit issues between the firm’s capabilities, organizational structure, and management systems.
- Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Assignment Description and Instructions
Write a detailed report of your analytical findings and strategic issues from your analysis of the firm to the vice president of strategy. Explain that this analysis focuses on the three strategic elements of the firm and the concerns or opportunities about how the strategic elements fit the strategic frame. Note, henceforth the concerns and opportunities are to be referred to as strategic issues, and be managed toward and integrated with the Comprehensive Organizational Strategic Analysis.
- Analyze and synthesize inconsistencies between the firm’s strategy and its goals. Does the strategy establish a direction and set aspirations that motivate and inspire the members of the organization to achieve its goals?
- Evaluate how the firm leverages its resources and capability to execute the business strategy. Are the firm’s capabilities found in its functions or the value chain, or both? Referring to Figure 3.5, are the firm’s resources and capabilities allocated to establish and sustain competitive advantage? Does the strategy give coherence to decisions about allocation of resources?
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the organizational structure and management system design, and its ability to support the key resources and capabilities that execute the business strategy. Is the organizational structure suited for the particular tasks and particular business environment of the firm?
- Articulate concerns or opportunities regarding shareholders and stakeholders, distribution of excess profits, or other ethical dilemmas. Does the strategy consistently balance stockholders and stakeholder interests?
- Articulate concerns or opportunities about the strategic fit between the firm’s capabilities, organizational structure, and management systems.
- Compose a preliminary strategic fit report on the firm and its internal environment and how strategies are applied to product lines or market segments.
- Submit your report in a business format, adhering to the submission requirements below.
Submission Requirements
- Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
- Business formatting:
- Length: 2–3 double-spaced, typed pages.
- Font: Times New Roman, 12 point
- APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (6th ed.) style and formatting. Minimum of two sources required.
Refer to the Strategic Fit of the Firm Assessment Scoring Guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment.
capella MBA6024 unit 4 assignment 1 latest 2016 april
Click Assignment Introduction – Unit 4 to launch the audio presentation from Terri Bell, the vice president of strategy. This presentation will describe details and offer suggestions for success with this assignment.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Analyze the strategic elements of organizations and their external environments by applying theories and models of strategy.
- Conduct a competitive analysis of the firm, using resource-based theory or value chain model.
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance knowledge of organizational strategic position and direction.
- Analyze the strategic position and direction of the firm.
- Evaluate how the firm’s organizational structure and management systems support execution of the firm’s strategy.
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
- Analyze concerns or opportunities about the firm’s strategic fit with its competition, suppliers, and customers.
- Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Assignment Description and Instructions
Write a detailed report of your analytical findings and strategic issues from your analysis of the industry environment. Explain that this analysis focuses on the strategic elements of industry environment and concerns or opportunities of how the strategic elements fit with the strategy as reported in the Strategic Frame Assessment previously delivered to the VP.
- Conduct a competitive analysis of the firm, using the theories and models of strategic analysis. Are their vital PEST (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological) factors shaping the industry conditions? Which competitive forces (Porter’s 5-Forces Model) on the firm are most intense?
- Analyze the strategic position and direction of the firm. Evaluate its corporate strategy. In which market segments does the firm participate? What are the buyer’s purchase criteria and basis of competition (Key Success Factors) for the market segment? Should the firm reposition its resources and capabilities (change its product scope, vertical scope, or geographical scope) in anticipation of changes in industry structural factors or competitive forces?
- Articulate concerns or opportunities about the firm’s strategic fit with its competition, suppliers, and customers.
- Evaluate the degree to which the organizational structure and management systems enable the execution of the corporate strategy. Consider the organization of functional capabilities and value chain capabilities of the firm. Assuming the firm employs a diversification or vertical integration strategy, could costs be reduced or revenue be increased by economizing the scale of diversification? Could costs be reduced or revenue be increased by downsizing or outsourcing activities in the vertical scope of the firm?
- Submit your report in a business format, noting submission requirements below.
Submission Requirements
- Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
- Business formatting:
- Length: 2–3 double-spaced, typed pages.
- Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.
- APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (6th ed.) style and formatting. Minimum of one source required.
Refer to the Strategic Fit With the Industry Environment Assessment Scoring Guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment.
capella MBA6024 unit 6 assignment 1 latest 2016 april
Click Assignment Introduction – Unit 6 to launch the audio presentation from Terri Bell, the vice president of strategy. This presentation will describe details and offer suggestions for success with this assignment.
Assignment Overview
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Critically evaluate information from core business functions and the value chain to enhance knowledge of organizational strategic position and direction.
- Analyze strategic issues.
- Create a comprehensive organizational strategy assessment.
- Recommend approaches for strategic issues with significant organizational impact.
- Recommend approaches for strategic issues with significant impact to competitive advantage.
- Recommend strategies and approaches to mitigate ethical dilemmas in strategy.
- Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
Assignment Description and Instructions
First, synthesize the strategic issues articulated in the Strategic Fit of the Firm Assessment from Unit 3 and Strategic Fit With the Industry Environment Assessment from Unit 4. You will compare and contrast strategic issues and assign a nominal ranking of potential impact of the issue on the organization. Defend your synthesis by referring to specific information in the previous analysis reports.
Next, formulate strategic recommendations to address those issues you determine from your synthesis to be critical to the strategic fit between the firm and its industry environment. Recommendations will be explicitly cast using the Strategic Frame Assessment from Unit 1. Specifically, business strategy and competitive advantage recommendations will identify costs, differentiation, and hybrid type. Corporate strategy recommendations will identify diversification, vertical integration, and globalization. A recommendation to address ethical dilemmas will refer to the source of instability—economic, social, political, and technological—that is leading to societal pressure for change to enhance social legitimacy. Assumptions relative to the strategic elements of the firm will serve as a measurement of strategic progress.
Keep in mind the following points:
- Synthesize concerns and opportunities, and articulate them as strategic issues. What are the critical issues? Why are these particular issues critical?
- Evaluate the strategic issues including the degree to which they may impact the strategic position, direction, decisions, and activities of the organization.
- Propose strategies and recommend approaches to mitigate strategic issues that represent ethical dilemmas.
- Propose strategies and recommend approaches for strategic issues that have significant impact on the strategic direction of the firm, or sustained competitive advantage of the organization.
Ensure your report includes an executive summary that references the VP’s expectations communicated in the project kick-off meeting.
- Submit your report in a business format, adhering to the submission requirements below.
Submission Requirements
- Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
- Business formatting:
- Length: 4–5 double-spaced, typed pages.
- Font: Times New Roman 12 point.
- APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (6th ed.) style and formatting. Minimum of three resources required.
Refer to the Comprehensive Strategy Assessment Scoring Guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment.
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