Strategic Audit Part V

Assignment Content

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Title of Assignment: Strategic Audit Part V

Type of Assignment: Project

Describe expectations for the assignment

Strategic Audit part V has final components that you MUST address to properly conduct a strategic audit. For this part, you will address the following questions about social responsibility, corporate governance, and make your own recommendations about strategies that your selected company can implement to improve their standing in the market. Make sure you research the company well before addressing the questions. Yes$/$No answers are not acceptable.

Corporate Governance

Board of Directors

Who is on the board? How many are internal$($employees$)$ or external members?

Which board members own significant shares of stock? What percentage?

Is the stock privately held or publicly traded? Are there different classes of stock with different voting rights?

What do the board members contribute to the company in terms of knowledge, skills, background, and connections? If the company has international operations, do any board members have international experience? Are board members concerned with environmental sustainability?

How long have the board members served on the board?

What is their level of involvement in strategic management? Do they merely rubber$-$stamp top management$$s proposals or do they actively participate and suggest future directions? Do they evaluate management$$s proposals in terms of environmental sustainability?

Top Management

What person or group constitutes top management?

What are top management$$s chief characteristics in terms of knowledge, skills, background, and style? If the corporation has international operations, does top management have international experience?

Has top management been responsible for the corporation$$s performance over the past few years? How many managers have been in their current position for less than three years? Were they promoted internally or externally hired?

What is top management$$s level of involvement in the strategic management process?

Are strategic decisions made ethically in a socially responsible manner?

Do top executives own significant amounts of stock in the corporation?

Do you believe that top management is sufficiently skilled to cope with likely future challenges?

Strategic Alternatives and Recommended Strategy

Strategic Alternatives

Can the current or revised objectives be met through more careful implementation of those strategies presently in use $($for example, fine$-$tuning the strategies$)?$

What are the major feasible alternative strategies available to the corporation? What are the pros and cons of each? $($Alternatives must fit the natural physical environment, societal environment, industry, and corporation for the next three to five years.$)$

Consider stability, growth, and retrenchment as corporate strategies.

Consider cost leadership and differentiation as business strategies.

Consider any functional strategic alternatives that might be needed for the reinforcement of an important corporate or business strategic alternative.

Recommended Strategy

Specify which of the strategic alternatives you are recommending for the corporate, business, and functional levels of the corporation. Do you recommend different business or functional strategies for different units of the corporation?

Justify your recommendation in terms of its ability to resolve both long$-$ and short$-$term problems and effectively deal with the strategic factors.

What is the impact of your recommended strategy on the company$$s core and distinctive competencies?

Implementation

What kinds of programs or tactics should be developed to implement the recommended strategy?

Who should develop these programs$/$tactics$?$

Who should oversee these programs$/$tactics$?$

Are the programs$/$tactics financially feasible?