As a business professional, you are expected to have a thorough understanding of business strategy and to be able to communicate your understanding with insight and clarity. This assessment allows you to examine business strategy in greater depth and to practice communicating your knowledge and insights.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
- Competency 1: Apply strategic theories, models, and best practices to understand and explain an organization's strategy.
- Explain why strategy is important and what impacts it has on an organization.
- Explain how strategy is formulated.
- Explain how strategy can be effectively integrated and implemented.
- Analyze how strategy informs (and how it is informed by) key activities of an organization.
- Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business professions.
- Write coherently to support a central idea (in appropriate APA format) with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a business professional.
Context
You are coming to the end of this fast-paced exploration of organizational strategy. It is important to recognize that the concept of strategy is ever evolving. There are many potential dramatic disruptions in the status quo. Do you recall how our world changed between September 10 and September 12, 2001? The world we knew on September 10 no longer exists.
Many analysts believe we are living in a time of intense global economic change. Some of these changes are revolutionary, but other changes are more evolutionary. For example, changes in technology are constant, but the effect on our lives and organizations tends to be incremental. In a similar way, changes in national and regional political landscapes tend to be evolutionary. Whether revolutionary or evolutionary, these factors change the context in which organizations compete and thus influence the creation and execution of strategy.
Strategists must develop keen skills in analyzing the current situation. The most successful strategists know how to read signs of what is to come and work to prepare organizations for those possibilities.
Questions
to Consider
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
- Are there places in the identification and development of strategy where an organization could make critical mistakes? If so, how would you recommend an organization avoid doing this?
- How does strategy help an organization? Why not just make a tactical plan and complete the relevant activities?
- What are key barriers to organizations successfully implementing strategy?
- Does successful implementation of strategy always provide a win for an organization? Is there a situation where an organization can implement its strategy flawlessly and still not win in the marketplace?
Resources
Suggested Resources
The resources provided here are optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The MBA-FP6024 – Organizational Strategy Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.
Capella Resources
Click the link provided for more background on your selected firm:
Capella University Library Resources
- Coyne, K. P., & Subramaniam, S. (1996). Bringing discipline to strategy. McKinsey Quarterly, (4), 14–25.
Harvard Business Review Articles
The following reading is available from the Harvard Business Review. Search for the article by following the instructions in the Library Guide:
- Johnson, M. W., Christensen, C. M., & Kagermann, H. (2008). Reinventing your business model. Harvard Business Review, 86(12), 50–59.
Bookstore Resources
The following resources are available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore.
- Grant, R. M., & Jordan, J. (2012). Foundations of strategy. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sons.
- Chapter 10, "Current Trends in Strategic Management."
- Assessment Instructions
Preparation
Identify at least five current scholarly or professional resources for use in this assessment.
Requirements
Write a 3–4-page analysis focused on the role of strategy, its relationship to different business activities across an organization, and how these business activities inform the formulation and implementation of strategy for your selected firm.
Include the following in your analysis:
- Explain why strategy is important and what impacts it has on an organization.
- Explain how strategy is formulated.
- Explain how strategy can be effectively integrated and implemented.
- Analyze how strategy informs (and how is it informed by) key activities of your firm, including leadership, marketing, accounting, finance, and others.
Use clear headings and subheadings to organize the key points of your report.
Your report should be clearly written and communicate effectively to organizational leadership; use correct grammar, spelling and mechanics as expected of a business professional. Cite and reference all sources using current APA style.
Additional Requirements
- References: Support your business analysis with at least five academic resources from the Capella University Library. Use proper APA style and format for citations and references.
- Length: The body of the business analysis must be 3–4 double-spaced, typed pages, not including the references list.
- Written communication: Demonstrate graduate-level writing skills through accurate communication of thoughts that convey the overall goals of the analysis and do not detract from the message.
- Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.
