Module 1
discussion
Strategic Management: Vision, Mission, and Stakeholders
To begin, please note that you are required to post each
week (i.e., posting in Week 1 and Week 2 of Module 1 is a requirement of this
course). We are going to have discussions on strategic management topics, as
they apply to companies.
For this assignment, we will focus on General Mills, a
multinational food manufacturing company: http://www.generalmills.com/
WEEK 1:
As you research General Mills, you may want to compare and
contrast that company with the other food service retailers – such as Kraft
Foods, Nestle, Tyson Foods, ConAgra, and Kellogg.
Please visit the General Mills site, and identify the
company’s mission and vision, as well as their major stakeholders (you may need
to interpret and/or make assumptions here, as all mission and vision statements
are not crystal clear – nor are they always explicitly stated. You should note
that the stakeholders aren’t simply the shareholders. “Stakeholders”
include everyone and anyone who is affected by the success or failure of the
company).
WEEK 2:
In consultation with your peers, analyze how General Mills
represents and advances the goals of its stakeholders.
Module 2 discussion
SWOT
In Module 2, we focus on SWOT. In order to complete a SWOT,
we are required to identify and analyze the key opportunities and threats in
the external environment. Then, we need to identify and analyze the company’s
key strengths and weaknesses (internal analysis).
WEEK 1:
During Week 1, you are asked to address the following:
a) Evaluate the operating industry of General Mills using a
minimum of two forces included within Porter’s Five Forces model.
b) Using PEST, assess General Mills’ remote environment
using a minimum of two PEST forces.
c) Conclude your assessment about the overall environment.
Is it more or less favorable for General Mills? Give your ranking from 1-10 (in
which 1 = vast gloom and doom for this company; 10 = huge bonus this year!).
Where do you think General Mills fits on this 1-10 scale?
WEEK 2:
a) Assess what you believe to be the most important aspects
of the internal environment at General Mills. Do not try to analyze every
aspect of the internal organization — rather, identify a minimum of two
internal strengths and/or weaknesses. Do your best not to repeat the
observations made by your peers, although you are encouraged to build on each
other’s observations (or to disagree).
b) Complete your SWOT by integrating the external
environmental analysis you completed in Week 1 with your Week 2 internal analysis.
Use your SWOT to conclude whether the organization’s overall outlook is more –
or less – favorable.
It is very important for a company to assess its strengths
so that it can use them to neutralize (or better yet, to eliminate)
environmental threats and take advantage of opportunities. The organization
must recognize (and it must work to shore up) its weaknesses so that
opportunities are not missed, and such that threats are much less likely to put
the company at risk.
Be sure to respond to the conclusions of your classmates.
Module 3
discussion
Strategic Choices
Using the framework discussed in the background readings,
critically analyze General Mills’ strategic choices at the Corporate level
(remember that “corporate” level is the very highest level of the organization,
with lower levels being the “functional” and the “business” levels).
WEEK 1:
What are General Mills’ corporate-level strategies? What
generic Porter strategy does the company follow? Are General Mills’ strategic
choices aligned with the Porter generic strategy you believe the company
follows?
WEEK 2:
Using the Grand Strategy Selection Matrix, or GSSM (the GSSM
can easily be found via a Google search), decide which one of the four
quadrants General Mills fits best within? Defend your decision!
Module 4
discussion
Strategy Implementation and Strategic Control
Week 1:
In order to properly implement a strategic plan,
organizations use structure, various control systems (budgets, variance
analysis, policies and procedures, company rules), and culture.
Let us revisit General Mills and determine the relative
effectiveness of the company’s strategic controls. Choose two implementation
controls, and discuss whether or not you believe the controls you’ve selected
effectively support the company’s strategic choices. Be sure to defend your
answer (critical thinking is required)!
Be sure that you respond to the postings of your classmates.
Week 2:
Respond to the following:
As you’ve learned from the background readings, a key
strategic control is that of organizational culture. Culture must fit with an
organization’s strategic choices. Poor alignment between culture and strategic
choice is a sure-fire way to doom any strategic choice.
Of course, some organizational theorists would assert that
an organization’s culture cannot be “managed” in the truest sense of
how one “manages” the processes and activities and things that exist within
an organization. David Campbell (2000, p. 28) says that an organization
Is being constructed continuously on a daily, even momentary
[italics added], basis through individual interactions with others. The
organization never settles into an entity or a thing that can be labelled and
described, because it is constantly changing, or reinventing itself, through
the interactions going on within it. [At the same time, an organization] does
have a certain character to it, such that, like driving on the motorway, not
just anything goes (p. x).
Do you agree or disagree with the above? That is, can
culture really be “managed”? What might this interpretation mean in
the context of our current discussion related to “strategic controls”?
A few comments on the above: Many individuals believe that,
while the notion of “culture” can be defined, no single individual
(irrespective of his/her legitimate power) is capable of single-handedly moving
an organization’s culture in one direction or another. These individuals
suggest that the sheer number of formal and informal groups, structures, tasks,
functional operations, and individual interactions that exist and occur within
organizations (even moderate-sized ones) render the “management” of culture
impossible (consider the potential number – and combination – of individual to
individual, individual to group, and group to group interactions that are
likely to occur within an organization at each and every moment (and then,
there are endless numbers of contacts / interactions with external stakeholders
as well). The possibilities are seemingly infinite — or at least they are
indefinite. In this view, an organization’s culture is abstract, fragmentary,
fluid — and even relative and momentary – how can such a thing be “managed” in
the same sense that we “manage” people and organizational processes?
Reference:
Campbell, D. (2000). The socially constructed organization.
London: Karnac Books.
Module 4
reflective discussion
Course Integration and Reflection
In this final Discussion thread, please address the
following:
What concepts were most interesting to you?
What concepts and ideas will be most useful to you?
How do you believe you will use the concepts you have
learned in MGT599 in the future?
What actions will you take in the future to improve yourself
and your abilities in these two areas?
