Assignment 2: Internal Environmental Analysis/Strategy Analysis
and Strategy Selection (Week 6)
Purpose: This
assignment is the second of three assignments.
Students will use the tools and concepts learned in the course and in
previous business courses to develop an understanding of how organizations develop
and manage strategies to establish, safeguard and sustain its position in a
competitive market.
Students also have the opportunity to review an
organization’s objectives and goals and the key functional areas within the
organization. Performing an internal
environment analysis helps assess a firm’s internal resources and capabilities
and plays a critical role in formulating strategy by identifying a firm’s
strengths to overcome weaknesses.
Students will then 1) assess long-term objectives, 2) identify and
evaluate alternative strategies and 3) recommend strategies for a company to
pursue.
Instructions:
In completing the report, students will use the chapters in
the eBook as a guide and perform research on the company from Assignment 1,
answer the required elements below in narrative form following the steps.
NOTE: All submitted
work is to be your original work (and only yours). You may not use any work
from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse. You are expected to understand the Academic
Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy, and know that it is your responsibility to
learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper
citation of sources as specified in the APA Publication Manual, 6th Ed.
(Students are held accountable for in-text citations and an associated
reference list only).
Step 1: Preparation
for the Assignment
Before you begin writing the report, you will read the
following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements.
Read the grading
rubric for the assignment. Use the
grading rubric while writing the report to ensure all requirements are met that
will lead to the highest possible grade.
In writing this assignment, you will read and following:
Third person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words
such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you
or your” (second person writing). If
uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.
Contractions are not used in business writing, so you are
NOT to use contraction in writing this assignment.
You are expected to paraphrase and are NOT to use direct
quotes. You are expected to paraphrase,
which can be learned by reviewing this link:
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html.
You are responsible for APA only for in-text citations and a
reference list. Cite the page or
paragraph number.
In writing the analysis, writing in the third person. What this means is that there are no words
such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you
or your” (second person writing). If
uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person
In writing this assignment, students are asked to support
the reasoning using in-text citations with page or paragraph number and a
reference list. If information is taken
from a source document, it has to be cited and referenced with a page or
paragraph number. A reference within a
reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice
versa. No books other than course
eBook. View the sample APA paper under
Week 4 content and How to Cite and Reference, also under Week 4 content. There are also resources located under Course
Content>>Student Toolbox.
In writing this assignment, students are expected to
paraphrase and not use direct quotes unless citing the mission statement of a
company. Learn to paraphrase by
reviewing this link:
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html
Read all course material for weeks 1 through 6 and perform
independent research to provide a comprehensive internal environmental
analysis, strategy analysis and selection.
Jot down key facts about the company. Consider making an outline to capture key
points in the paper.
Step 2: How to Set Up
the Plan
Create a double-spaced, 12-point font Word or Rich Text
Format (RTF) document. The final product
cannot be longer than 16 pages in length, which includes all tables and
matrices but excludes the title page and reference page. Those items identified in the technical
analysis should appear under the appropriate heading in the paper. Do no use an Appendix.
Review assignment grading rubric and periodically throughout
completing the report, review.
Follow the following
format using these topics as headings:
Title page with title, your name, the course, the
instructor’s name;
Company Background/Information
Internal Environmental Analysis
Strategic Analysis & Strategy Selection
Reference page
Under the
appropriate heading, include the following:
Background analysis including vision and mission statements
and objectives
Internal Environmental Analysis
Corporate Level Strategy
Business Unit Level Strategy
Functional Level Strategy
Explain how these strategies align with the company’s vision
and mission statements;
Assess the company’s interactions with its stakeholders, the
organizational structure, the organizational culture, and
communication/decision making among managers within human resources, marketing
production, operations, finance and accounting, R&D, and computer
information systems, which can be accomplished by viewing the company’s
website, interviews, and surveys.
Financial analysis for the last reported fiscal year:
Use the company’s income statement and balance sheet to
calculate key, but no less than 10 key financial ratios to the business. There must be a mix of the different ratios
so that the ratios do not all come from
the same category. Show the
calculations.
Using Excel or a Word table, record key financial ratios in
the first column;
Research the industry average financial ratios for the same
ratios above and record in a second column.
If you cannot find an industry average, then select another ratio;
[Ratios presented should not all come from the same category]
In the third column, indicate whether the financial ratio is
a strength, a weakness or a neutral factor.
Explain the results and compare and contrast the company
financials to the industry.
Technique Analysis: develop and explain an IFE, BCG matrix,
Grand Strategy Matrix, and QSPM. The
expectation is not to copy from the Internet but to develop one’s own. The various tools are to appear in the
appropriate area of the paper and not in one section of the paper.
Strategy Analysis:
Identify and explain company strengths and weaknesses. Discuss
success factors and what the company must do to perform successfully in the
industry? Discuss what strategies would
allow the company to capitalize on its major strengths. Discuss strategies that would allow the
company to improve upon its major weaknesses
Generate a minimum of three possible alternative strategies
for the company;
Identify and discuss cultural factors that should be
considered in analyzing and choosing among the alternative strategies;
Prioritize and explain the selection of alternative
strategies
Recommend the best one or two strategies among the
alternative strategies and explain why these strategies are the best;
Step 3: Create an
introductory paragraph. The Introduction
should clearly and concisely convey the main points of the assignment’s
requirements. Review the following website to learn how to write an
introductory paragraph:
http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/faculty/donelan/intro.html
Step 4: Write a
summary paragraph. A summary paragraph
restates the main idea(s) of the essay.
Make sure to leave a reader with a sense that the essay is
complete. The summary paragraph is the
last paragraph of a paper.
Step 5: Using the
grading rubric as a comparison, read through the paper to ensure all required
elements are presented.
Step 6: Proofread the paper for spelling and grammatical issues,
and third person writing.
Use the spell and grammar check in Word as a first measure;
Have someone who has excellent English skills to proof the
paper;
Consider submitting the paper to the Effective Writing
Center (EWC). The EWC will provide 4-6
areas that may need improvement.
Step 7: Submit the
report in the Assignment Folder (The
assignment submitted to the Assignment Folder will be considered a student’s
final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor. It is incumbent upon the student to verify
the assignment is the correct submission.
No exceptions will be considered by the instructor.)
