MMBA 6570 Business Strategy for Competitive Advantage
Program Project Work
Table of Contents
Introduction
Resources
Application...... 3
Introduction
This week, you will spend most of your time working on your Program Project. Begin by considering the various matrices and strategic tools you have encountered in this course. Each of these tools profiles a business and its strategic goals in a different way.
Focus on the discrete units that comprise your actual or potential business. Each makes a contribution to the success of your enterprise, but each also has associated costs. You will look strategically at many of these components of your organization this week, in order to enhance your Program Project.
Resources
Prior Knowledge
You have probably heard of a personality inventory such as the Myers-Briggs, and you may even have taken one. Such questionnaires allow us to reflect upon our behavioral and value preferences. Once we know our tendencies as well as those of others, we can devise strategies for communication and interaction. Companies such as Best Buy are known to train their sales staff to look for certain personality traits in their customers, in order to employ proven communications strategies that generate sales.
Similar inventories and measures exist for businesses. If you were to profile your organization’s values and strategic behavior, what aspects would you need to consider?
Media
Access the following audio segment from the course DVD:
- Audio segment: "Program Project” featuring Dr. John Craddock (program length: 9min.)
In this audio segment, Dr. Craddock introduces you to the work you will undertake and complete this week for your Program Project, which is a continuation of the Business Analysis Planor Business Plan youhave worked on in each of the MBA core courses.
A transcript of theaudio filecan be accessed from the main project web site.
Supplemental Resources
Web Sites
- NetMBA.com. (2007). The BCG Growth-Share Matrix. Retrieved from
- NetMBA.com. (2007). The Value Chain. Retrieved from
- Value Based Management.net. (2008). Michael Porter Value Chain Model Framework. Retrieved from
Application
Program Project
Program Project: Overview
As described by Dr. John Craddock in the audio segment, you will continue working on your Business Plan or Business Analysis Plan by supplementing your plan with information related to topics covered in this course.
Before adding topics from this course to your plan, you must revise your plan based upon the feedback you received in prior courses. You will submit your Program Project Feedback Tracker with your updated plan so that you instructor can verify that past feedback has been addressed.
Areas to Address
For this assignment, you must complete a strategic analysis to submit to your instructor, which in turn will allow you to augment areas of your Business Plan or Business Analysis Plan such as Organizational Structure and Table of Organization, Situation and Industry Analysis, and Assessment of Risk. Some of the metrics and data will also enhance your Appendix.
Your task is to take a look at each of the operational areas of your current or intended business, and determine two aspects: the costs and benefits associated with each area; and the strategic importance of each area in relation to your organization’s overall mission and operations. Much of this information will be collected through the Value Chain strategic analysis as described by Dr. Craddock.
Helpful Questions for Getting Started
- What are the divisional areas and departments that comprise your business or potential business?
- What is your mission statement?
- How are your operating strategies aligned with your mission statement?
- How might you determine your current and potential market position?
- In what manner could you apply the concepts of value innovation and organic growth to the organization?
- What resources do you have, or expect to have, internally within your organization?
- What resources will you need to outsource or acquire?
- What metrics, analyses, models, and other measurements will inform you as you profile your current or potential business, from a strategic perspective?
- What are your strategies for value innovation, organic growth, and uncontested market space?
- Are there other areas that were identified in previous Program Project assignments, or in previous courses you may have taken, that portend a strategic aspect?
Your Business Strategy
Your updated Business Plan/Business Analysis Plan document will consist of the following elements:
a. A detailed Organizational Chart or Table of Organization
b. A detailed and specific Value Chain Analysis
c. A narrative section of the plan that delineates your formal business-level strategy, or, if you are working with a large multi-business corporation, addresses the BCG analysis
d. Any additional updates to applicable areas of your Business Plan or Business Analysis Plan
Description of Elements:
First, think strategically about the implementation of your business strategy. In order to execute this implementation, you must first identify the component aspects of your business, specifically in terms of its organization and structure. Create a descriptive chart or a table of activities that comprise the undertakings and activities of your organization. Which of these are outsourced? Which are carried out or produced in-house? If you have an existing Organizational Structure and Table of Organization as described in the outline in the Program Project area under Course Home, you may use or modify that. If not, you will need to create one.
Next, create a detailed Value Chain flow chart, with accompanying analysis, as instructed by Dr. Craddock and presented in the program project rubric. You may wish to review the links in the Learning Resources area for this week. Once you have created your Value Chain, you should engage in a comparison of its content to your Organizational Structure and Table of Organization noted above. Write a summary that compares the undertakings and activities to your Value Chain items. Note the strengths and shortcomings of the existing or planned structure, and what measures you will undertake to address them. This summary should be strategic in nature (see the Program Project rubric for details), and should incorporate a discussion of how you will employ metrics and strategy in order to address categories of your Business Plan or Business Analysis Plan. However, your work will likely inform other areas of the plan, and you should integrate the results of your comparative analysis accordingly.
Third, write a narrative section (four to five paragraphs) for your plan that formally identifies your business-level strategy for the organization and makes a persuasive case as to why your chosen strategy is the best one. You can refer to your Harvard Business Essentials text, pages 30-46, for details on variations of business strategy types. Be sure to argue why the strategy you have chosen is the best and most appropriate one.
Note: If you are doing a consultancy to a large, multi-business corporation, begin your strategy analysis with the BCG analysis as described by Dr. Craddock. You may wish to review the links provided in the Learning Resources for this week. To complete this analysis, profile the competitors in your industry and determine which category best describes them. How would you describe your existing or potential business—would it fit the same category or a different one? If your business would benefit by employing a different BCG profile type, and thereby occupying an uncontested space, you will need to strategize. Write a summary that applies the BCG analysis to the existing industry and to your current or potential business.
Instructions for Submitting Assignment
Remember that you must continue working on the same plan that you already began. You must submit two documents to the Dropbox: 1) your updated Program Project with all changes or additions highlighted 2) your Program Project Feedback Tracker.
For posting to the Discussion, you are only required to post your updated plan.
Submit your assignment to the Application Dropbox and to this week's Discussion area by Day 5.
Reminder: When posting this assignment to this week's Discussion area, you must offer at least two critiques of other class members' work.
Save your Application as a ".doc" or ".rtf" file with the filename APP7a+last name+your first initial. For example, Sally Ride’s assignment filename would be "APP7aRideS". Use the "Submit an Assignment" link, choose the Week 7: Application 2 basket, and then add your Application as an attachment.
Note: At the end of the week you will have received feedback from your instructor and your peer reviewers. Edit your project based on this feedback and be sure to saveit in at least two locations; such as on your computer's hard drive and then to an external medium such as a flash drive, DVD, or CD-ROM. There will be subsequent assignments in future courses that will build your Program Project. The final Project will be submitted at the end of the program.