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    Purpose: 

    This project is the last of four projects. You will generate a pool of alternative strategies, evaluate these alternative strategies, and select the best strategy using the tools and concepts learned throughout the course. You will develop implementation plans, evaluative plans to control the implementation process, and plan for post-evaluation measures. You will also draw from previous business courses to understand how organizations develop and manage strategies to establish, safeguard, and sustain their position in a competitive market. 

    Skill Building:

    In this project, you build many different skills, including research, critical thinking, writing, and developing analytical skills related to various financial analysis tools and strategy tools used in business. In addition, you will select optimal strategies, design how to implement them, and evaluate the implementation process of the optimal strategies.

    Outcomes Met With This Project:

    Examine the impact of ethical decision making, social responsibility, stakeholder analysis, and corporate governance on organizations and society;
    Utilize a set of useful analytical skills, tools, and techniques for analyzing a company strategically;
    Integrate ideas, concepts, and theories from previously taken functional courses including, accounting, finance, market, business, and human resource management;
    Analyze and synthesize strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to generate, prioritize, and implement alternative strategies to revise a current plan or write a new plan and present a strategic plan;
    Evaluate the outcomes of identified strategies to determine their success and impact on short-term and long-term objectives.
    Instructions:

    Step 1  Course Material and Research

    You must research information about the focal company and the environment for this project. You are accountable for using the course materials to support the ideas, reasoning, and conclusions made. Course material’s use goes beyond defining terms and explains the ‘why and how’ of a situation. Using one or two in-text citations from the course materials and then relying on Internet source material will not earn many points on the assignment. A variety of source material is expected, and what is presented must be relevant and applicable to the topic being discussed. Avoid merely making statements but close the loop of the discussion by explaining how something happens or why something happens, which focuses on importance and impact. In closing the loop, you will demonstrate the ability to think clearly and rationally, showing an understanding of the logical connections between the ideas presented from the research, the course material, and the question(s) being asked.

    Note: Your report is based on the research results performed and not on any prepared documentation. What this means is that you will research and draw your own conclusions that are supported by the research and the course material rather than the use of any source material that puts together any of the tools or techniques whether from the Internet, for-pay websites, or any pre-prepared document, video or source material. A zero will be earned for not doing your own analysis.

    Success: The analysis is based on research and not opinion. You are not making recommendations, and you will not attempt to position the focal company in a better or worse light than other companies within the industry merely because you are completing an analysis on this particular company. The analysis must be based on factual information. Any conclusions drawn have to be based on factual information rather than leaps of faith. To ensure success, as stated above, you are expected to use the course materials and research on the focal company’s global industry and the focal company. The opinion does not earn credit, nor does it use external sources when course materials can be used. It is necessary to provide explanations (the why and how) rather than making statements. Avoid stringing one citation after another, as doing so does not show detailed explanations.

    Step 2  Research

    In completing the report, you will use the chapters in the eBook as a guide and perform research on the same company as in Projects 1 and 2. Answer the required elements below in narrative form following the steps.

    Note: Your report is based on the research results performed and not on any prepared documentation. What this means is that you will research and draw your own conclusions that are supported by the research and the course material rather than the use of any source material that puts together any of the tools or techniques whether from the Internet, for-pay websites, or any document, video or source material. A zero will be earned for not doing your own analysis.

    Library Resources

    On the main navigation bar in the classroom, select Resources and then select Library. Select Databases by Title (A – Z). Select M from the alphabet list, and then select Mergent Online. Dun and Bradstreet’s Hoovers Database, among others, is another excellent source for competitors and industry information. You are not to depend on one resource to complete the analysis. Moreover, it is impossible to complete Porters Five Forces, a competitive analysis, or an OT by using only the course material.

    You should not be using obscure articles, GlassDoor, or Chron, or similar articles. 

    Research for Financial Analysis:  Financial Research

    Research for Industry Analysis CSI Market

    The UMGC library is available for providing resources and services. Seek library support for excellence in your academic pursuit. 

    Library Support

    Extensive library resources and services are available online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week at https://www.umgc.edu/library/index.cfm to support you in your studies. In addition, the UMGC Library provides research assistance in creating search strategies, selecting relevant databases, and evaluating and citing resources in a variety of formats via its “Ask a Librarian” service at https://www.umgc.edu/library/libask/index.cfm.

    Scholarly Research in OneSearch

    To search for only scholarly resources, you are expected to place a checkmark in the space for Scholarly journals only before clicking search. 

    Step 3  Specific Company for All Four Projects

    For this project, your instructor has specifically assigned each student to write an independent report on one focal company. The assigned company must be used for all four projects in this course. You cannot write reports on any other company different from the company specifically assigned by your instructor. Students who fail to use the specifically assigned companies from the list or use an unapproved company will receive a zero for the project.

    The company that your instructor has assigned to you will be used for this project.

    Step 4  Preparation for the Project

    Before you begin writing the report, you will read the following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements. 

    You will be analyzing the selected company. When doing analysis, you are not merely making statements that may be cited. Instead, you will be supporting the statements made. Support is the process of explaining, discussing, and analyzing why and how, which is a higher-level critical analytical skill that is required for this class. Support is needed to do well on this project.
    Read the grading rubric for the project. Then, use the grading rubric while writing the report to ensure all requirements are met, leading to the highest possible grade.
    Step 5  How to Set Up the Project

    The document has to be written in Word or RTF. No other format is acceptable. No pdf files will be graded. Use 12-point font for a double-spaced report. The final product is expected 10-12 pages. The final project may not be more than 12 pages, excluding the title page and reference page. Those items identified in the implementation and action plans should appear under the appropriate heading in the paper. Do no use an Appendix.
    Create a title page with the title, your name, date, the course number, the instructor’s name.
    Create Topic Headings that correspond to exact sections of the project requirements.
    Use the following template using the headings to separate elements. Do not use bullets in your paper as the required format is in narrative format with indented paragraphs and no extra space between paragraphs.

    Introduction

    (The Introduction paragraph is the first paragraph of the paper and will describe to the reader the intent of the paper, explaining the main points covered in the paper.  This intent should be understood before reading the remainder of the paper so the reader knows exactly what is being covered in the paper. Therefore, write the introduction last to ensure all of the main points are covered.)

    Alternative Strategy Generation

    To generate a pool of strategies, you will look at the organizations business-level strategy, corporate-level strategy, and global strategy. Then, using the information and data collected from your research and the analytical outcomes from (a) external factor analysis in your Project 1 and (b) internal factor analysis in Project 2, you will generate a pool of strategies.

    Generate a minimum of three possible alternative strategies for the company.
    Identify and discuss cultural and organizational factors that should be considered in analyzing and choosing among the alternative strategies.
    Strategy Prioritization

    Prioritize strategies and explain using the course material to support the reasoning Use the tools learned in the course.
    Strategy Selection

    Your strategy selection will be based on the use of the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM). The QSPM produces a composite analysis. A composite analysis is one in which you will bring in a combination of relevant factors from the various analyses (EFE Matrix, IFE matrix, CPM matrix, SWOT, Grand Strategy Matrix, and QSPM). The QSPM is a tool that helps determine the relative attractiveness of feasible alternative strategies based on the external and internal key success factors.

    Develop a Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) analysis. 
    Discuss the value of a QSPM analysis for strategy selection. Be specific.
    Strategy Implementation

    Recommend procedures for strategy implementation.
    Discuss who, what and how to implement the selected strategy or strategies at the corporate level, business-unit level, and functional level.
    Strategy Evaluation

    Use frameworks and tools discussed throughout the course. Support the reasoning and conclusions made.

    Discuss procedures for strategy review and evaluation
    Discuss the appropriate evaluative measures (including who, what, when, and how at the corporate level, business-unit level, and functional level)
    Discuss a corrective action plan (including who, what, when, and how) at the corporate, business unit, and functional levels.
    Conclusion

    Create a conclusion. The Conclusion is intended to emphasize the purpose/significance of the analysis, emphasize the significance/consequence of findings, and indicate the wider applications derived from the main points of the projects requirements. Finally, you will conclude the findings of the external environment analysis.
    References

    Step 6  Review the Paper

    Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present.

    The following are specific requirements that you will follow. Use the checklist to mark off that you have followed each specific requirement. 

    Checklist

    Specific Project Requirements

    Proofread your paper.

    Read and use the grading rubric while completing the paper to ensure all requirements are met to lead to the highest possible grade.

    Third-person writing is required. Third-person means that there are no words such as I, me, my, we, or us (first-person writing), nor is there use of you or your (second-person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.

    Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them. 

    Paraphrase and do not use direct quotations. Paraphrase means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document. Removing quotation marks and citing is inappropriate.  Instead, put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage to the source document. There should be no passages with quotation marks.  Using more than four consecutive words from a source document would require direct quotation marks. Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks. If more than four consecutive words are used from source documents, this material will not be included in the grade. 

    You are expected to use the research and weekly course materials to develop the analysis and support the reasoning. Therefore, there should be a robust use of the course material. The material used from a source document must be cited and referenced.  A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa. Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks. 

    Use in-text citations and provide a reference list that contains the reference associated with each in-text citation.

    You may not use books in completing this problem set unless it is part of the course material. Also, do not use a dictionary, Wikipedia, Investopedia, Fern Fort University, or any other for-free website.

    Provide the page or paragraph number in every in-text citation. Since the eBook does not have page numbers, you must include the chapter title, section heading, and paragraph number.

    For citations using a video, you must provide the minutes and second of the cited material.

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