BUS/475: Integrated Business Topics
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words each question.
1. Structure and Culture
- How important is structure/culture compared to the other primary internal considerations for a strategic plan? (175 words)
- What is Strategy? (175 words)
- Explain the role of strategic leaders and what they do. (175 words)
2. SWOT Analysis
- Do you think organizations differ from each other when placing importance on areas of the SWOT analysis? (175 words)
- Describe a real-world example of an organization that would place more importance on one area of the SWOT analysis compared to another area. (175 words)
- How do the five competitive forces in Porter’s model affect the average profitability of the industry? For example, in what way might weak forces increase industry profits, and in what way do strong forces reduce industry profits? Identify an industry in which many of the competitors seem to be having financial performance problems. Which of the five forces seems to be strongest? (175 words)
- External analysis. Why is it important for any organization (firms, nonprofits, etc.) to study and understand its external environment? (175 words)
3. Balanced Scorecard
- Explain when a Balanced Scorecard would be most useful for a company and who would be in charge of creating one. (175 words)
- Describe how different aspects of the scorecard can be more beneficial for some companies rather than others. (175 words)
- For many people, the shareholder perspective is perhaps the most familiar measure of competitive advantage for publicly traded firms. What are some of the disadvantages of using shareholder value as the sole point of view for defining competitive advantage? (175 words)
4. Components and Considerations of a Strategic Plan
- In strategic planning, what components would you consider necessary for creating a strategic plan? (175 words)
- Using your chosen company for this course, explain what components they use and whether they do a good job of communicating their plan to their workforce. (175 words)
- Describe a firm you think has been highly innovative. Which of the four types of innovation—radical, incremental, disruptive, or architectural—did it use? Did the firm use different types over time? (175 words)
5. Evaluating Strategic Plans
- Keeping in mind the aspects of planning, leading, organizing, and controlling, explain how you would evaluate the effectiveness of a strategic plan. (175 words)
- What do you think is the most important piece of information to consider when determining effectiveness? Why? (175 words)
- Why is it important for an organization to have alignment between its strategy and structure? (175 words)