The capstone assignment for BUS 460, Business Strategy, along with the assignments in this course are designed to demonstrate that students have achieved the learning outcomes established for the undergraduate program in the College of Business and Management. The learning outcomes for this assignment include:

• Explain the strategic planning process including values, mission, and vision (SLO 12.1).
• Apply the strategic options and tactics a firm may select to grow a business (SLO 12.2).
• Ethical and responsible decision-making and problem solving (SLO 13.1).
• Exhibit an understanding of how the external environment plays into the selection of strategic objectives through the use of a SWOT analysis (12.3).
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills (SLO 13.4).
• Demonstrate writing skills (SLO 13.6)
• Confirm the critical importance that appropriate communication plays in the execution of the strategic initiatives (12.4).
• Describe and explain aspects of the business plan including executive summary, mission statement, innovative and strategic posture, key issues.
• Demonstrate proficiency in business writing, including APA 7th ed. standards and citations, references, grammar, punctuation, headings, title page, and quality of sources with emphasis on scholarly references within the most recent two years (SLO 13.6)

This final project covers not only the cumulative course content throughout our term but also in other courses leading up to this capstone course. In your final project, you will identify an organization to analyze in several of the areas of business strategy discussed in this course. Your choice of organization can include either a) an organization of your choice that may be a non-profit, a social enterprise, or a different type of organization that is not necessarily a company, or b) an organization or company you propose as an entrepreneurial endeavor, for which you are willing to complete the final paper as a proposal including the components of the organization expected to be analyzed for this assignment. Regardless if you choose a. or b., all students must receive instructor approval of their choice for this final capstone assignment. Students should request pre-approval early in the term. Your assignment is a rendition of a business plan for your company along with the pitch to investors as to why this company is worth investing in, or worth working at (think Shark Tank) based on the goods or services offered.

This final project will include various topics that we have learned about in class, your analysis of the organization’s vision and strategic plan, along with the company’s efforts in succeeding, or where the company needs to improve.

Students will demonstrate proficiency in business writing, including APA 7th ed. standards and citations, references, grammar, punctuation, headings, title page, and quality of sources with emphasis on scholarly references within the past two years. Students are expected to present concepts supported by the literature on business strategy, leadership, and management. (Writing proficiency is worth 30% of earned grade).

Your paper should address how the organization’s leaders and managers are performing in these strategic managerial focus areas (the content of the paper is worth 70% of the earned grade):

Content:

Use the outline below when preparing your Strategic Plan. If you cannot find certain information, use your best judgment based on the information you can find. (For example, most companies do not state their exact objectives, but you can usually infer if management is focusing on profits, sales, customer service, product development, employee retention, etc.)

Format:

Your assignment has ten parts as described below. Include these ten parts as the section headings for your final paper and follow the order exactly. Have a cover page at the beginning of the assignment with your name and the company name (as well as the course code and professor's name). You must include a page for references and use APA style as well for citations and internal references. To reiterate, the written paper is to be typed double–spaced, 1-inch margins, Calibri 11-point font, page length between 10-12, with correct spelling and grammar, proper citation, references, with a cover page and organized with headings. Papers that are less than 10 pages of content will not be accepted. Students must use at least 5 current sources for this paper. Do not use Wikipedia.com as a source; it will not be counted as one of your sources.

Introduction

1. Abstract: The Abstract of your strategic plan should be completed last, and this section merely summarizes each of the other sections of your plan. Usually about a 250-word abstract, summarizing the main ideas.
2. Company Mission Statement: The company mission statement explains what your business is trying to achieve. For internal decision-making, the mission statement guides employees to make the right decisions; which should be in sync with helping the company achieve its mission. For external parties, such as partners, investors, and customers, your mission can help motivate them to take the actions you want.
3. Company Description: Outline your company’s history, products, and services and accomplishments.

Strategic Planning and Implementation

Corporate Governance: Corporate governance pursues integrative approaches to systems of governance, which controls how the organizations operates internally and externally. It use systematic approaches to implore people to work together to develop and sustain the interests of the organization for all stakeholders.

1. Analyze the goals (do not just list them, give your opinion about them):
2. Board of Directors (do you think there is the right mix of insiders and outsiders, do the members participate appropriately, and are there any issues?); Please do not copy and paste all the names with their pictures taking up pages toward this paper. It is alight to say who comprises this board of directors with their names as long as you also answer the questions in this section.
3. The company’s ownership structure (i.e. is ownership dominated by any single investor, are the largest owners institutional, family, etc.?); and
4. The top management team (i.e. do senior executives appear to have the appropriate skills and experience to manage the company into the future? Do they seem to show empathy or is that lacking?)

Strategic/SWOT Analysis: This section provides your reader with an overview of the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. It’s a good idea to present the material as an internal analysis and an external environment analysis. Make sure you clearly provide the issues you want to tackle.

1. Opportunities & Threats: Separate your analysis of the company’s threats and opportunities at the macro (societal) and industry (task) levels known as external.
2. Strengths & Weaknesses: Separate your analysis of the company’s strengths and weaknesses into the following categories: corporate structure, corporate culture, & resources (also known as internal/functional areas)
3. You may choose to put your SWOT into table format. Below is an example of a table to use. Be sure to give enough explanation of the item to be understood (do not just say “high inflation” or something like that) and provide references for information you include

Innovation and Strategic Posture: The process of innovation include improving products and actions inside and outside of the organization for all stakeholders. Therefore, the management of Innovation is a comprehensive approach to managerial problem solving and action based on an integrative problem-solving framework, and an understanding of the linkages among innovation streams, organizational teams, and organization evolution.

1. How does the company use innovation to develop strategy or what innovative ideas have they developed that set them apart from the competition?
2. Explain the company’s competitive positioning and cooperative strategies
3. State at least two key objectives for the company and explain one strategy the company is pursuing to achieve these objectives
4. Note: In addition to defining who your company's key competitors are, you should list their strengths & weaknesses. Most importantly, use this analysis to determine your current competitive advantages and ways to develop additional advantages.

Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

1. How is the company social responsible, provide examples where applicable if and if not.
2. Has there been any issues in the news regarding ethical or unethical behavior of employees of this company, including CEO’s and management.

Conclusion

Key issues and recommendations:

1. Identify the key issue facing the company at this moment. You must state and explain the one issue that you feel is most important to the company’s future success (examples could be a competitive threat, a recent strike, lack of cash flow, unhealthy corporate culture, pandemic, etc.)
2. Explain what the key issue is, how you identified it, and why it is so important to the company’s future success.

Recommendations:

1. Identify the key issue facing the company at this moment. You must state and explain the one issue that you feel is most important to the company’s future success (examples could be a competitive threat, a recent strike, lack of cash flow, unhealthy corporate culture, pandemic, etc.)
2. What is your recommended directional strategy for the company’s key divisions or business units?
3. What is your recommended competitive positioning strategy for the company?
4. What are the skills/professional experiences you feel are most important for the CEO of this company?
5. Review the organization’s vision statement presented in the first section of the paper. Analyze the organization’s ability to execute its vision. How might the vision be adjusted for the current business environment?

Instructor Note: Poor grammar, lack of references, typos, etc. may result in up to a 10-point reduction in your final grade. Be careful, run spell-check and grammar-check before submitting. Be sure to also check your work yourself as Word may miss an error.

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