Week 8: Final Project
Week 8 Final Project – Strategic Assessment Project
(PowerPoint presentation plus References page)
Goal: Develop and present via PowerPoint a strategic plan
for your organization, integrating various concepts, components and processes
presented throughout this course. Submit
the presentation (ppt or pptx) along with a References page (.doc) that
verifies sources used.
Introduction: Managers who want to improve the effectiveness
of the future outcomes of their organization employ strategic planning. In a
20-25-slide PowerPoint presentation, present a strategic plan for your
organization, accompanied by a References-only page as a Word.doc that contains
the minimum 10 sources used in the development of the presentation. Your
presentation may be a re-developed plan based on the plan your organization
already uses. If you are in the military, you may elect to choose a company
where you previously worked, or select a company that is not detailed in the
text in this course, or in any of the materials used thus far in the course. In
any case, you will need to begin by providing a brief history of the company,
and then delve into the process detailed more fully below, and which draw from
various elements contained in our textbook. Accompany your writing with a
minimum five scholarly journal articles that support the assertions made in
your strategic plan. You will also need to use at least five other
sources—books, magazines, websites, and even interviews—to augment your data
support for the presentation.
Your strategic plan should address [Suggested number of PPT
slides in brackets]:
The Name of the Company/Firm
[1 PPT slide]
Brief History of the Company (or Organization), its Mission
and Vision [2-3 PPT slides]
Organizational Analysis [5-6 PPT slides] : This section will
present your identification of the firm’s strengths and weaknesses, which
emanate from your value chain and functional analyses. There is a maximum of
five strengths and five weaknesses and your presentation of them should be
prioritized. Exhibits are effective tools to provide strong support for each
strength and weakness. Please be as specific as possible and quantify your
analysis where appropriate. This section will provide the first part of the
foundation for your identification of strategic issues and related
recommendations through your analysis of the organization’s core competencies,
competitive advantages and organizational weaknesses.
Environmental Analysis [5-6 PPT slides]: This section will
present your identification of the major external threats and opportunities
currently facing the organization. These will be generated from your analysis
of the industry and general environmental factors in light of the
organization’s strengths and weaknesses. A maximum of five threats and five
opportunities should be identified and should be presented in a prioritized
order. Use power point exhibits to support your analysis, be specific and
quantify your analysis where possible. This section will provide the second
part of the foundation for your identification of a strategic issue and the
formulation of related recommendations through your analysis of driving forces,
key success factors and industry attractiveness.
Strategic Issues And Recommendations [6-7 PPT slides]:
Identify (with support) the most important strategic issue facing your
organization. It is extremely important that you clearly integrate the
strategic issue with your analysis to the organization’s SWOT. There may be
interrelationships between particular weaknesses and threats or missed
opportunities, which should be recognized. It may be possible that 2 different
weaknesses, 1 threat and 1 opportunity could be combined, due to their
relatedness, to form one strategic issue. Similarly, your recommendations
should attempt to capitalize and build upon strengths, competitive advantages
and opportunities that you identified. The point is to clearly ground your
issue and recommendations with the internal and external analyses so that the
presentation is clear.
Conclusion/Summary [1-2 PPT slides]
PowerPoint Suggestions:
The slides need to be detailed, ready for presentation, and
professional in appearance. View the example in the attachment provided
(below). Note how the citations are placed directly on the slides. Be sure to
provide a separate references page that links to the citations on the
PowerPoint. An example of how a references page should look is not provided,
since you already should be able to construct that document as you would any
other references page in APA.
The scholarship required for this project must be cited on
the slides, i.e., 10 overall sources minimum, as specified in the Introduction
above.
The PowerPoint rubric will be used instead of the Writing
Rubric for all PPTs.
Upload your PPT and references (.doc) in the Assignment
section, just as you would any other assignment.
NOTE about the use of pictures—the website upload limit per
PPT is 25MB.
Always present in “third person”
Do not forget to upload your separate references-only page
to support the citations that appear on the PowerPoint.
