Clearly and concisely list CSFs in each of the 4 categories identified in the text.

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Individual Learning Project 1 Instructions

Company Analysis and Evaluation Project

In this project, you will select an organization, or a segment of an organization, and interview key employees in order to gather information concerning the organization’s critical success factors (CSFs). Be sure to inform your interviewees that any proprietary information included in this project will be kept confidential. You will then develop a SWOT analysis to clarify and aid in the identification of the organization’s/segment’s CSFs. The written project requires you to prepare and submit the following in order:

  1. Brief description of the organization/segment (1 paragraph)
  2. SWOT analysis in chart form containing the following 4 categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Each item must be clearly and concisely stated.
  3. Balanced Scorecard in chart Clearly and concisely list CSFs in each of the 4 categories identified in the text. For each CSF, explain in a separate column how the measurement of the CSF will transpire.
  4. A discussion of the CSFs chosen for the organization/segment – Why were these particular factors selected? Why are they important in accessing the success of the company? (2–3 pages)
  5. An evaluation of the organization/segment to determine if it is achieving each of the CSFs. Analyze each CSF and use data from the measures indicated in the Balanced Scorecard as support for the conclusions. (2–3 pages)

Additional guidelines:

  1. The project must be at least 5 pages, excluding the 2 charts.
  2. The project must be written in current APA format.
  3. Avoid using first and second person (e.g., “I,” “we,” “you,” etc.).
  4. You must reference a minimum of your textbooks and 2 additional scholarly sources. Wikipedia, Investopedia, and the like are not considered scholarly sources and should not be used. Any use of these sources will be grounds for a 100-point deduction.
  5. Any personal communication must be cited appropriately within the text; however, citations of personal communication are not needed for the reference section.
  6. The project must include a properly formatted cover page.
  7. An abstract and table of contents are not needed.
  8. If the information within the SWOT chart or the Balanced Scorecard chart needs to be cited, you may deviate from current APA format and use superscripts, with the citations placed underneath the chart. This is the only deviation from the current APA manual that is allowed.

 

Which aspects (‘problems’) of the organisation are the priorities to be addressed first?

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Assignment – Mastering Strategic Consulting

This is a long document. Please read, and reread. And discuss.

Your assignment paper should take the form of a consultant proposal. You should write to the client.

Your goal in your paper is build the trust and confidence of your client in you, so that they will be willing to take you up on your proposal. The proposal must therefore be professional, effective, efficient and acceptable.

Your client must see that you understand ‘business’, that you understand their business, that you understand their problems and needs, and that you are a capable consultant who can converse comfortably with top management.

Clients don’t want an ‘academic’ paper. Your proposal must communicate everything that needs to be said in a quick and easy-to-read way. The paper requires an economy of language, with short sentences, short words, and an absence of non-essential jargon. It should pass the readability test. (Look online for free readability tests.) Make use of charts, tables and graphics. Have a look at business sections in newspapers, magazines, online blogs, etc. Look at how business journalists write about organisations.

When we say we don’t want an ‘academic’ paper, this does not mean you should ignore references to authors of the concepts and tools you use. For example, if you use Porter’s five forces framework, then you should say so. You might write something like, “Using Porter’s five forces framework (1979), it can be seen that the industry that Company X operates in is……….” If you are a good consultant (!), you might say something like, “Using Porter’s five forces framework (1979) but updated by Tony Grundy (2006) in ‘Rethinking and reinventing Michael Porter’s five forces model’, it can be seen that the industry that Company X operates in is……….”

Your proposal should be accurate and objective. Your analysis of the current situation MUST be based on facts such as available hard data and information from reputable industry reports; of lot such hard data is available if you search for it. If you have the opportunity to have an initial conversation with the client, you should include information from that. Where this is not possible, or where some facts are not readily available, this should be noted in the proposal, for example by explicitly stating, ‘It is unknown whether….’ And in the recommendations section of the proposal you should state, ‘It is recommended to collect more facts about…..’ It is better to say something is unknown than to make a guess.

Observations, conclusions and recommendations need to be made objectively. They must be based on the facts presented. Conclusions range according to their level of certainty, from, “It can certainly be concluded that…..” to “It is possible to conclude that…….” Using language carefully will increase your credibility as a consultant; it is important to communicate the right degree of certainty in

You can however express personal opinions, based on your expertise and experience elsewhere, and even based on your intuition, but these need to be flagged up so the client does not mistake them for conclusions based on facts. You can say, for example, “The situation is similar to what I have seen before, so I think that….”, “In my experience, this means that….”, “In the absence of clear facts, my sense is that…..”

Proposals can range from speculative proposals, in situations where you are an outsider and you have little inside knowledge of the organisation and limited access to industry data, to more concrete proposals that you might expect from an internal consultant.

Your varied access to hard data and industry reports will mean that proposals will be more or less concrete and more or less detailed. Whatever the situation, even if there are gaps and there are a number of personal opinions expressed, your proposal must have a clear internal logic that means it makes sense. Remember, your goal is to ‘build the trust and confidence of your client in you, so that they will be willing to take you up on your proposal.’

Your proposal must be sensitive to the feelings and political issues of the potential client, or it may not be accepted by them. Wherever possible, you should try to estimate and address any possible negative reaction by the client. For example, the client might think something is excellent, but your analysis and conclusion might be that it is actually poor. You must find the language to communicate the reality so that the reader will accept it.

The assignment has four parts:

Part 1) A critical review of the current strategic position of an organisation of your choice, reflecting on past and current antecedent activities and providing an analysis of emergent strategies and/or strategic perspectives. (Approximately 45% of the proposal.)

In effect, this means an analysis of the industry the organisation operates in, and an analysis of the position of the organisation in the industry. You need as much hard data as you can get. This section should form the main part of your proposal. Divide Part 1 into two elements:

  1. a) Analysis of the industry (the industry that the organisation operates in):
  • industry boundaries (it is not always straightforward to define the industry the potential client organisation operates in)
  • PESTLE
  • five forces
  • analysis of key players (a competitor analysis)
  • KSFs (key success factors) needed to be successful in the industry
  • industry status (is it growing, stable, in decline, evolving, profitable)
  1. b) Analysis of the organisation:
  • brief history of previous changes that the organisation has made to address changes in the industry, and the changes that have been made to the organisation’s mission and strategies. (What changes has the organisation made in the past to fit better with external changes in the industry?)
  • current situation, for example:
  • stated mission
  • stated vision and current plan/ploy
  • position in industry value chain
  • brand, reputation among customers
  • outline of the main company structure
  • products and services, and the value proposition offered to customers
  • customers, segments served
  • main competitors, competitive position (cost, differentiation, broad/narrow focus, blue ocean) and % of market held
  • organisational culture
  • performance (profitability, and/or mission achievement)

The above is a long but not complete list of concepts and tools you should consider using; you may use other concepts and tools as well.

Some of the above may be answered in a single sentence, while others may be worth paying more attention to. It is your job to determine the most appropriate structure of the analysis and the degree of detail to go into. Your choice will be based on the hard data you have readily available to you and what you believe will convince the client to engage further with you.

The assignment requires you to take a ‘critical’ approach.  This means you should:

  • weigh up the quality of the data you have available to you before reaching any conclusions
  • identify when the data is conflicting, and use your judgement to reach a considered conclusion
  • evaluate the potential client organisation’s performance – for example, to what extent is it meeting its mission? To what extent is it creating value? How does it compare with competitors? Are its strategies working? Answering these questions requires sensitivity.

You might think that your client will know all of the above. Maybe they will know a lot, but often they will have the knowledge but they will not have organised it to turn knowledge into understanding. You, as the potential consultant, can help them a) by organising all the bits and pieces into a clear and coherent view of the organisation and the world it operates in, and b) by bringing some fresh insight or new knowledge. (Look at the Belbin team roles – a strategic consultant is often expected to be a resource investigator and plant – https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/ )

Part 2a) A critical analysis (using a method, or methods, of your choice) of the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and the determination of possible strategic options for the future direction of the organisation. You should justify any recommendation for strategic posture(s). (Approximately 25% of the proposal.)

You might as well use the SWOT/TOWS matrix. If you have done a thorough analysis of the industry and the organisation in Part 1, you will have much of the data needed to fill in the SWOT. Remember, if there are gaps in your knowledge or you have uncertainties, you must say so.

Do some reading about how to produce an effective SWOT/TOWS to make sure you don’t make the usual mistakes. You must avoid producing a long list of factors. You must identify the ‘critical few’ factors that are the most important and urgent, perhaps following the 80/20 Pareto rule, and you must prioritise.

You should provide a brief commentary giving your reasoning for the results.

You should then use the SWOT results to outline a number of possible corporate and business level strategic options; you are NOT expected to go into great detail about each one.   The TOWS framework is good for addressing the specific findings in the SWOT. You can use it to define a number of business level strategies to address the most important Ss, Ws, Os, and Ts. Bundled together, this may form a sufficient corporate level strategy in which the internal aspects of the organisation ‘fit’ with the external environment. (Achieving ‘strategic fit’ is one approach to strategy.) But, you should also be proposing options identifying alternative future states of the organisation, alternative visions of what the organisation should be doing, what it should look like in the next 3-5 years or so.

You can also use one or more other strategy frameworks for identifying strategic options, for example, Reeves et al’s 5 approaches to strategy, Porter’s generic strategies, scenario planning, Miles and Snow’s aggressiveness, Kim and Mauborgne’s blue ocean,  Ghemawat’s AAA framework, etc. Your choice of framework(s) will depend in part on the situation and what you think will be attractive to the potential client.

How many options to identify? You need at least two options to choose from; more than five options is difficult to handle.

You should make a brief assessment of the options; this will be an approximate assessment only. To make the assessment more systematic and objective, you should apply a framework, for example, SAF – Suitability, Acceptability, Feasibility, de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats, a risk analysis model, etc.

Part 2b) A proposal outlining your recommendations/general approach to further develop a future strategy. (Approximately 10% of the proposal.)

In this part of your proposal, you are NOT making a recommendation for a particular strategy; you are making recommendations for what needs to be done by you and the client to ‘further develop a future strategy.’

You need to address questions such as:

  • Which aspects (‘problems’) of the organisation are the priorities to be addressed first?
  • What uncertainties identified in the proposal need to be addressed?
  • What further information needs to be collected to make the analysis in the proposal of the current situation, the SWOT and the identification of options accurate and complete?
  • What process of strategy development could be followed (who, how, what, when and where)?
  • What type of consulting relationship you can offer the client?

Part 3) A critical reflection on the concepts and tools used. (Approximately 20%)

In this Part, you are no longer writing a Proposal to a client; instead, you are required to ‘step back’ and look objectively and critically at the concepts and tools you used in Parts 1 and 2. This is an ‘academic’ piece of writing. You should look for research articles which have identified their strengths and weaknesses in practice, and compare what they say to your own experiences. You should make proper references to the research in your discussion.

As a result, if the client asks you as a consultant to explain why you have used the concepts and tools that you have, you will be able to do so.

Part 4) A consulting CV (résumé) as an appendix, highlighting specific projects and experience that evidence the skills you have to develop your strategic recommendations. (Part 4 does not count in the word count, and is not graded, but it MUST be included for the assignment to be passed.)

Executive Summary. When you have finished, write an Executive Summary. You place this at the start of your proposal. It should summarise what is in your proposal. It should be written in such a way to make the client want to read in more depth what you have to offer. In the Executive Summary, add a statement saying why you are making your proposal. For example, something like, “Company X has been growing rapidly but it is facing capacity limits in a number of areas. It needs to make a choice about the next steps, for example to continue rapid growth, which will entail risk of overstretching itself, or to take a break and consolidate its gains. Other options identified in this proposal are also available for consideration.” This is a form of ‘problem statement’.

Produce a time plot of the data and describe the patterns in the graph.

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5.1 The data below (data set fancy) concern the monthly sales figures of a shop which opened in January 1987 and sells gifts, souvenirs, and novelties. The shop is situated on the wharf at a beach resort town in Queensland, Australia. The sales volume varies with the seasonal population of tourists. There is a large influx of visitors to the town at Christmas and for the local surfing festival, held every March since 1988. Over time, the shop has expanded its premises, range of products, and staff.

##            Jan       Feb       Mar       Apr       May       Jun       Jul

## 1987   1664.81   2397.53   2840.71   3547.29   3752.96   3714.74   4349.61

## 1988   2499.81   5198.24   7225.14   4806.03   5900.88   4951.34   6179.12

## 1989   4717.02   5702.63   9957.58   5304.78   6492.43   6630.80   7349.62

## 1990   5921.10   5814.58  12421.25   6369.77   7609.12   7224.75   8121.22

## 1991   4826.64   6470.23   9638.77   8821.17   8722.37  10209.48  11276.55

## 1992   7615.03   9849.69  14558.40  11587.33   9332.56  13082.09  16732.78

## 1993  10243.24  11266.88  21826.84  17357.33  15997.79  18601.53  26155.15

##            Aug       Sep       Oct       Nov       Dec

## 1987   3566.34   5021.82   6423.48   7600.60  19756.21

## 1988   4752.15   5496.43   5835.10  12600.08  28541.72

## 1989   8176.62   8573.17   9690.50  15151.84  34061.01

## 1990   7979.25   8093.06   8476.70  17914.66  30114.41

## 1991  12552.22  11637.39  13606.89  21822.11  45060.69

## 1992  19888.61  23933.38  25391.35  36024.80  80721.71

## 1993  28586.52  30505.41  30821.33  46634.38 104660.67

5.1a Produce a time plot of the data and describe the patterns in the graph. Identify any unusual or unexpected fluctuations in the time series.

Write a paper that creates a forecasting plan for the organization you work for or another organization with which you are familiar.

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BFO-701: BUSINESS FORECASTING

Final Project

OVERVIEW
For the final project, you will create and execute a forecasting plan for an organization of your choice. The purpose of the plan is to synthesize the concepts from the course. The project requires that you create a forecast for sales, budget, future events, or any other information that is used to make a business decision. You will be applying the information from your previous assignments to a practical forecasting situation.

Consider using a current or past situation in your organization where you are now or were previously employed. Or consider a potential business that you may want to start. Find a decision that could be helped by information that a forecast can provide. Choose the forecasting technique you think will best provide that information. Then, create and execute your forecasting plan. Explain, in detail, how you developed and implemented your forecast and how that information could help the organization make the decision you have chosen. Be as specific as possible explaining the forecasting technique you would use and why it applies to your scenario.

GENERAL PLAN
Write a paper that creates a forecasting plan for the organization you work for or another organization with which you are familiar. You will choose one of the forecasting tools discussed in the course to forecast the company’s sales, overall budget, or some other significant metric for the company. Ideally, the data would be real from the company, but if the information is not available, information can be estimated. Alternatively, you can create a plan for a business that you may want to start.

The forecasting paper should include the following:

Analyze the current situation. What is the business for which you are making your forecast? How will the forecast you are creating help the business? For what metric will you create a forecast? Why is it important? Why does a forecast need to be done? What do you know about this so far? How is it being measured?

What forecasting tool will you use? Which of the forecasting tool(s) in the course can be applied to the company and the metric you want to measure? Explain why you think this forecasting tool makes sense.

Apply the tool. Use the chosen tool to create a forecast for the project. Use real data if it is available; create data if the real data is not available.

Analyze the results. What do the results mean to the organization? How can the organization use this information to make better decisions? What do the results mean about the organization? What recommendations would you make to the organization based on the results?

Analyze the process. If you were going to do the project over, what would you do differently? What worked well? What did not work well?

What is the organization’s WORKFORCE profile? Identify your KEY WORKFORCE groups by department and function.

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P.1 Organizational Description: What are your key organizational characteristics? Describe your organization’s operating environments and your key relationships with residents, stakeholders, suppliers, and partners.

Within your response, include answers to the following questions:

  1. ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
  2. What is the organization’s environment: urban, suburban, rural, etc.?

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an organization that is fortunate enough to operate in many countries, to be exact it is about 170 countries across the globe. IBM’s headquarters are based in Armonk, New York. Meanwhile the organization operates in many countries and its headquarters are based in the city, the type of organizational environment for IBM is urban.

  1. What are your organization’s main product or service offerings? What is the relative importance of each to your organizational success (e.g., skilled nursing, subacute, assisted living, etc.)?

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a business that attentions mainly on computer-based products. This organization produces and sells computer products like software, hardware and it also conducts professional consulting services. Although the main focus of the company is computers, it is very much so involved in patenting. The company has invented various products like the floppy disks and the automated teller machine among other products (Heckscher et al., 2017). By producing and inventing computer-based products, the company has higher value and it has been profitable in the market.

  1. What is the organization’s MISSION/VISION statement (verbatim) and the specific methods used to communicate it across the organization? What are your organization’s CORE COMPETENCIES and their relationship to your MISSION?

Mission statement

International Business Machines Corporation’s positions that the company aims to lead in the creation of the most advanced information technology products which include computer hardware and software. The company intends to transform these products to value creation for the customers.

Vision Statement

IBM’s vision statement is to become the most prosperous information technology organization in the world. The company aims to help its customer to use technology to solve the problems they face in their daily lives (Jörn, 2016).

More importantly effective leadership and instant response to customer needs are two key methods that are used to communicate both the mission and the vision statements of IBM. The core competencies of IMB are problem solving, client focus, communication, teamwork and commitment to success (Heckscher et al., 2017). These competencies are so important because they help this organization achieve its missions and visions.

  1. What is the organization’s WORKFORCE profile? Identify your KEY WORKFORCE groups by department and function. You may use a table to provide your response.

what companies and suppliers form the supply chain for the company’s products.

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Here is the scenario:
You have an exciting new job as the Director of Production at a major candy and cookie company. Your job is to purchase the products necessary to create all of the tasty treats the company makes, including chocolate candies and peanut butter cookies. Basically, you decide what companies and suppliers form the supply chain for the company’s products.
The company you work for has been getting a lot of consumer complaints about the palm oil usage in their products. They know that other companies like Pepsi, Kroger, The Girl Scouts and even Starbucks have gone palm oil friendly, but no one really knows what that means at your company.
You have to create a report providing an explanation of what palm oil or orangutan friendly means, what organization establishes whether or not a company is designated as friendly, how they determine that status and what you need to look for when deciding which companies to work with.

Critically examine a leadership scenario (single critical incident, dilemma or challenge which you have identified and reflected on throughout your career journey).

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The assignment carries a possible 60% of the overall module weighting (available marks).
Your assignment should be 2,500 words in length (10% allowance), appropriately referenced using the Harvard Reference Style. This assignment is split into two parts:

Section 1: (approx. 1250 Words)

This first is a reflective activity which requires you to critically examine a leadership scenario (single critical incident, dilemma or challenge which you have identified and reflected on throughout your career journey). During this reflection you are required to consider:

How the role and nature of the organisation affected the leadership approach.
What knowledge, skills and behaviours were required.
How the response could have been improved.

Section 2: (approx. 1250 Words)

In the second part, you are required to develop a 12-month personal development plan considering the development of your leadership skill set.

Throughout, you may wish to draw from:
The outcomes of your reflection in part one.
The results of a leadership assessment/ diagnostic tool.
Professional diary or journal.
Professional guidelines.
The plan should be realistic and implementable, with suitable associated timelines.The plan should identify how you will initiate, work toward and sustain improvements in your leadership skillset.

Reflective cycles can and must be ideally be used to structure the assignment. Contemporary literature should also be drawn to evidence your arguments.

Your assignment is linked to the following learning outcome:
Analyse critical incidents to judge organisational leadership performance.
Critically consider how the role and nature of the organisation affects the leadership knowledge, skills and behaviour needed by senior managers.
Formulate personal development objectives based on the outcomes of assessment and diagnostic tools.
Design and implement a plan to develop leadership behaviour.
Departmental guidelines on preparation and submission of coursework
Assignments should be submitted in either MS Word or Open Office format unless stated otherwise on the assignment submission page.
Use standard margins: 1″ (2.5cm) on all sides.
Use standard Arial 12-point font size.
Use double-line spacing.
Pages should be numbered consecutively.
Your work should be correctly referenced using the Harvard Referencing style.
Turnitin Originality Check
Before submitting your assignment, it is important to check the originality of your work by submitting your assignment to Turnitin.

By submitting your assignment to this tool you will receive an originality report which can be used to check that you have not included other authors work without correct citation. It is important to note that submitting your work to the Turnitin Originality Check tool does not count as a submission of your final work.

How does Cipla’s business model differ from that of the traditional pharmaceutical companies?

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1. What is your assessment of how well the various parties are handling the global

2. How does Cipla’s business model differ from that of the traditional pharmaceutical companies? What are the key drivers and challenges to Cipla’s success?

3. In your view, do Cipla’s business practices constitute unfair competition?

4. What should Dr. Hamied and his company do in response to the challenges they face?

5. What, if anything, should the following parties do to combat the global AIDS crisis: (1) “Big Pharma,” (2) “rich country” governments, (3) non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-profits such as the Clinton Foundation?

Analyze how the questions you asked and the data you collected during the interview support your chosen leadership theory.

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This is the last assessment that is related to your leadership interviews. For this assessment, use the narrative and summary of your interviews to complete the following analysis:
Leadership theory: Summarize the leadership theory that you used to develop your interview questions. Analyze how the questions you asked and the data you collected during the interview support your chosen leadership theory. You might have used servant leadership, Kevin Cashman, Margaret Wheatley, articles from the Center for Creative Leadership, leadership stage theory, or other sources. Demonstrate your understanding of your chosen mastery (personal, purpose, change, interpersonal/being, balance, or action). Use examples from your interviews to demonstrate your mastery topic.
Common Learning Themes: Reread the New Business Realities and the Thinking Habits of Mind, Heart, and Imagination, linked in the Resources. Select one topic from each and discuss its relevance to your experience interviewing leaders. The following are two examples:
New Business Realities: Did the interview reflect the dynamics of transformational change in complex systems in the change mastery questions?
Thinking Habits: Did the interview encourage professional self-development through conversational reflection in the questions on personal mastery?
Self-Reflection: Self-assess your experience as an interviewer. What seemed to work? What did not work? What would you do differently next time? How would you change your explanation of your leadership topic, the medium you chose, or your behavior during the interview, to enhance the quality of your data? What did you learn about interviewing? What did you learn about your topic and its potential for helping leaders examine their leadership skills and characteristics?
Summary Statement: Think about your experience interviewing leaders at this level. Describe the primary lessons you gained from this experience, the value of interviewing leaders, and the impact this approach has on leadership development. Include your recommendations to your current organization or an organization with which you are familiar about the development of leaders at this level and on your mastery topic and the use of interviews to propel personal development.

Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm.

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Write a six- to eight-page paper in which you do the following:
Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
Analyze the corporate-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the corporate-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
Analyze the competitive environment to determine the corporation’s most significant competitor. Compare their strategies at each level and evaluate which company you think is most likely to be successful in the long term. Justify your choice.
Determine whether your choice from Question 3 would differ in slow-cycle and fast-cycle markets.
Use at least three quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other websites do not quality as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
This course requires use of new Strayer Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details.
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow SWS or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.
Use the Assignment 3 Template [DOC] to ensure that your assignment meets the above requirements.
The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is as follows:
Determine business-level and corporate-level strategies for Walmart corporation’s long-term success comparable to the competitive environment.