This course has served as an introduction to Strategic Management. However, the course concepts are relative to your daily lives as a Whitman student in that to be truly successful, you need a plan of action. Thus, on the second day of class I asked you to articulate your strategy for achieving your goals at or by graduation. Some of you mentioned just your goals (e.g., graduate with a 3.7+ GPA) while some of you referenced a process (e.g., studying 3-4 hours per week and attending classes), and a few mentioned both. Now that you have completed the course, I want you to coherently tell the following story:
- What are your academic goals by the time you graduate from Whitman
- How you plan to accomplish them given
- The support (or lack thereof) of at least three stakeholders in your life (do a stakeholder analysis)
- Factors in the external environment that can either help or distract you. This will require an analysis of the general external environment. You must address each component of the external environment. Please support your analysis with at least 6 external references (e.g., USA Today and other periodicals).
Please note that you absolutely cannot use EEOC or Affirmative Action as an external threat or opportunity. I want you to use a piece of existing or potential legislation specifically related to your major.
- Your internal strengths (and/or resources) that you can use to your advantage and the weaknesses that you must minimize. This will require an internal analysis of yourself, however, for technological resources you may discuss all of those at your disposal including what is provided by the University. Similarly, in terms of organizational resources, you may discuss those provided by the University such as the career center, etc. You must address each category of resources. Please note that the human resource category refers to yourself and your skills/abilities.
- What specific steps are you taking currently to make your goals a reality (e.g., have you met with someone in the career center, have you gone to a career fair, have you actually utilized the network of your social fraternity or sorority?). I expect that students will provide a specific plan that covers the time period of our semester through the last semester of senior year and it should be more extensive than just the courses you intend to take.
I want you to tell this story succinctly in a maximum of 6 pages, including references and it must be double-spaced, 12-pitch Times Roman font with 1-inch margins (please check the standard settings because often they are 1-inch top and bottom with 1.25 on one of the sides). However, your actual plan can be in a table or timeline format that makes up the 7th page. I want this paper to be sincerely introspective and purposeful, meaning that it is actually feasible for you to carry out your plan. In other words, don’t just discuss dreams that sound good but may not be fulfillable by graduation. Your paper must be a minimum of 4.5 pages to qualify for an A.
The deadline is TuesdayNovember 11, 2014by class time. You must submit this assignment through Blackboard even if you e-mail me as well. I will notify everyone by e-mail by the next afternoon whether I have received your information so check your campus e-mail on this day.
Please let me know if you have questions.
I look forward to reading about your plans!
Kira Kristal Reed