Overview:
All students completing MGMT4000 should be able to apply general management and research related skills and knowledge by proposing, researching and writing a Strategic Plan. This is an applied skills, term project, a ‘hands on’ assessment where students will experience the steps in developing a strategy and related strategic plan, and conducting relevant business research. The student will demonstrate that have identified a business/marketing challenge or, opportunity, and have carefully considered how to help the firm move forward to a desired future situation.
The purpose of the Strategic Plan is to provide a set of business recommendations for the management of a (business) organization. The plan is based on the analysis of the company’s current situation, it proposes and evaluates the competitive, functional and corporate strategy, together with relevant strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the plan outlines how to implement the proposed business recommendations.
Some plan templates may vary, but a good strategic plan captures basically the same information that should:
a) answer key questions about the operations of the organization, about the business;
b) act as a reference document to help execute the business strategy; and
c) develop a structured approach to address the business/marketing challenge/opportunity, and to creating services and products that satisfy buyer`s needs and wants.
The Strategic Plan is based on sound research conducted during the duration of the course, about one of the companies below
Instructions:
This assessment requires student to prepare the Proposal, plan and conduct research for one Strategic Plan, present the strategy, and deliver one Strategic Plan. Students are also required to have regular and relevant contributions every week, contributions that help to prepare the Plan and respective Proposal.
The assessment is valued at 30% of the overall course grade, and is graded as per below:
1)
Strategic Plan Proposal: weekly contribution and well-written plan proposal (5%)
2)
Strategic Plan: presentation of the strategy, with SWOT analysis (10%)
3)
Strategic Plan: weekly contribution and well-written plan (15%)
Since each of the three assignments is dependent upon preceding one, students are required to attend and contribute during all classes/labs. In this way, each student can demonstrate individual progress, and can receive assistance when needed. Accordingly, missed time will result in significantly lower grades on the mark for this assessment.
Note: Demonstration of contributions and work progress, online or in-classroom, will have a significant impact on grade achievement for each part of the assessment. Missed classes, or lack of contribution will result in reduction of the marks.
Strategic Plan Proposal:
The Strategic Plan Proposal is a brief business document that “proposes” what is planned for this assessment. The proposal should also provide students with some directions and idea about the scope of their assessment. The Strategic Plan Proposal must be approved by the instructor.
Students prepare a well-written, keyed Strategic Plan Proposal (business document) of ONE page, no more than 2 pages, in length (500 to 1,000 words).
Each student is to act as member of a management consultant that provides strategic management services. The ‘client’ is the organization that would potentially offer the product the team has chosen to investigate (hypothetical or practical). The client organization has requested the team investigate a business/marketing opportunity/challenge. The client organization has requested the team develop a strategic plan for addressing the business challenge/opportunity. The client organization is the teams’ choice. The product offering to be investigated is the teams’ choice, and can be ONE existing product offering that would generate revenue.