Prior to completing this assignment, review your prior research and course submissions related to the company you selected for research in Week 2’s Environmental Scanning interactive assignment. Ensure that you have incorporated the feedback you received from your previous submissions. In your Final Project this week, you will pull the various elements you’ve created together to aid your creation of a Strategic Plan. From the perspective of an executive with the firm, your supervisor has tasked you with creating a strategic plan to grow the business over the next three years using this Strategic Plan Template. Continue to access the Mergent Ashford University Library online database which offers company financials, descriptions, history, property, subsidiaries, officers, and directors and the Business Insights database. (View the Mergent tipsheet and Business Insights tipsheet Tips document for suggested methods of searching Ashford University Library databases generally as well as specific advice for searching these two databases).
Your strategic plan must be future-oriented and must
- Describe the company, the company’s history and its 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion).
- Examine the company’s mission statement and assess its impact on the organization’s activities.
- Explain the current situation of the organization in the market (industry, market, and general environment analysis).
- Add your SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of your chosen company here. Evaluate areas that offer opportunities for
- Choose three or four areas from your SWOT analysis and assess why the areas you have chosen are essential to your strategic plan
- Summarize the results of your Environmental Scan and Porter’s 5 Forces.
- Evaluate the degree to which they aid in conceptualizing the company’s competitive position in its marketplace.
- Assess the company’s international performance in light of Cultural Barriers, Monetary Exchange Rates, and Political Instability.
- Assess the financial performance and condition of the
- Operational budget: Research and assess the company’s operational budget.
- Assess the performance in terms of key performance indicators.
- In your analysis, be sure to include profitability ratios relevant to your analysis.
- Debt to Equity ratio
- Debt to Assets ratio
- Based on the data, evaluate the overall current financial condition of the company.
- Support your analysis by referring to the company data
- Create a three year end trend analysis
- Assess how your Operational Budget analysis affects your three-year strategic plan.
- Recommend an organizational structure in terms of the organizational design as defined in Abraham (2012) section 2.6.
- Assess the impact of the strategic plan on the organizational culture.
- Strategic Goals: Create measurable core strategic goals for each of the three to four areas addressed from the SWOT analysis, addressing any contingencies associated with the strategies you are recommending and prioritizing them according to ease of achievement and time to completion.
- Recommend marketing positions and opportunities for growth in your strategic plan
- Add specific language to the strategic plan that addresses the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility
- Explain your plan to measure the success of your strategic
- Submit the Strategic Plan to the instructor.
The Final Paper
- Must be 8 double-spaced pages or more in length (excluding title and reference pages), and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
- Must include a title page with the following:
- Title of paper
- Student’s name
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Date submitted
- Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
- Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
- Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
- Must use at least five scholarly and/or credible resources (including a minimum of three from the Ashford University Library) other than the textbook. Use the Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources document for guidance.
- Must document all sources in APA styleas outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
- Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
