You have been promoted to Director of a mid-to-large sized company. You operate in 2 locations, on the east and west coast. Y

Strengthening Our Competitive Position

Star Student

BUS 390: Development of Business Strategy

Month Date, Year

Professor Fantastic

Strengthening Our Competitive Position

Introduce material here… Remember, each comprehensive learning assignment must have the headings listed below and must be answered according to assignment instructions; each heading is worth a percentage of each case grade and this is how your work should be submitted. Your audience is someone like your roommate – intelligent, educated, but has NO IDEA what the case study is about. You do not want to copy-and-paste the case, but put forth a brief summary so your reader knows what is going on.

This section is generally one paragraph. The easiest way to explain this section is to think of it like an abstract or introduction. If written properly, this section can actually serve as the abstract for the paper. It will, in a sense, set up the rest of the paper, which is the review of the case, analysis, recommendations, and the summary and conclusions sections. Remember that you obtained this information from the textbook. Consequently, you should cite Thompson, Williams, and Gamble (2017). You should NOT write According to the textbook or According to the readings as your reader has NO IDEA who or what is that. Do remember to take notes as you read through the case study information so that you are prepared to complete this report.

If there is a second paragraph, it will look like this. The paper should be written in third person narrative and not in the first person. Note: The required headings that must be in the paper are bolded and should be kept bolded. One other note: a business is an it, not a they. Remember that when using pronouns describing a business. Make sure you always include enough text to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section.

New Strategy Chosen

In this section, you will briefly describe what you will cover. It should only take a few sentences. This section will answer the mandate, “What type of strategy would you employ to counteract the decline in profits and market share.” Make sure you always include enough text to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section. Remember that your goal is to develop an APA-formatted paper, 3-4 pages in length explaining what strategy you would select and how you would execute the strategy. A good way to accomplish this is to include supporting information after your initial thoughts, then follow that with an explanation of how the information supports your thoughts. Always remember to correctly identify your supporting information as a paraphrase or direct quotation, and then properly cite and reference that information.

Strategy Type

Text starts here… This section will answer the mandate, “Would it be an offensive or defensive strategy, or a mix of both?” Make sure you always include enough text to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section. Make sure you also include information that demonstrates that your strategy is offensive or defensive, and why it is considered one or the other. Hint: Supporting material from a peer-reviewed source would be good here, and do not forget to follow that with your own words explaining how it supports your original thoughts.

Justification

Here you will justify the strategy that you chose. Make sure you also include information that demonstrates not only supports the strategy (pros), but also the cons that you will have to work through. Remember that a good strategy identifies both the good and the bad. Hint: Supporting material from a peer-reviewed source would be good here, and do not forget to follow that with your own words explaining how it supports your original thoughts.

In-Depth Strategy Details

Here you will give details pertaining to the strategy you have chosen, whether it is first mover, fast follower, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, or strategic alliances. You can include information on why that particular strategy was selected over others. Make sure you always include enough text to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section.

Five Competitive Forces

Here you will address the impact that the five competitive forces (e.g. Porter’s) had on your decline (the decline that you were hired to reverse). You can include information on which of the five competitive forces were impacting your company, the level to which each impacted your company, and which was the most severe that triggered the change in strategy. Make sure you always include enough text to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section.

Management Team Instructions

Here you will answer the mandate of “What would you have your management team do specifically?” Each of your management team should be responsible for a different portion of the strategy. Remember, that a good leader will delegate work to others rather than try to complete everything alone. Make sure you always include enough details for a fuller understanding, as well as to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section.

Management Roles

Here you will answer the mandate of “What role will they play in the recovery?” While each of your management team will be responsible for a different portion of the strategy, how will this impact the recovery? You will also include a response to the mandate of “how will you monitor or otherwise ensure that unethical behaviors are minimized” within this section? What other aspects of their position will enable the recovery to move forward? Make sure you always include enough details for a fuller understanding, as well as to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section.

Human Resources Impact on Recovery

Here you will answer the mandate of “What efforts will incorporate to ensure that you have a strategy for re-training employees, or hiring new employees?” Human resources are an important part of ensuring that the new strategy is successful. In most companies, this department is responsible for training and development. What training will be required for existing staff, and what training or requirements for hiring will be required for new staff? Make sure you always include enough details for a fuller understanding, as well as to form a complete paragraph before moving to the next section.

Summary and Conclusions

This section will tie together all sources used for this comprehensive learning assignment, conclusions drawn from the readings, and any inconsistencies. This section will generally be one to two paragraphs. Notice the paper has a continuous flow; there are no page breaks between sections. The only page breaks occur between the title page and the introduction, and between the summary or conclusions and the reference page. Note: If there is a header at the bottom of the page (on the last line), you will need to insert a page break immediately before the header to properly move it to the next page with its text. All references for the assignment must appear on a separate page (see the following page for an example). Best practice is to always have at least six (6) peer-reviewed or academic references, of which one should be your textbook or other assigned readings.

References

This section will reference all original work cited throughout the paper. It also gets its own page, meaning that it will not start at the bottom of a previous page. The heading should appear at the top of the page (first line of text) and all reference material should be listed below in alphabetical order by first last name. Also, the title for books is always in italic format and in sentence form. In contrast to book references, the title for articles is in sentence format, not in italic, but the name of the journal or magazine is in italics. Furthermore, references are formatted with a hanging indent, meaning the first line is never indented, and all subsequent lines are indented. See examples below:

Barzani, R. S. (2014). Studying the effects of business strategies on the organization's performance in regards to human resources' policies at the social security insurance companies based. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(5), 549-561. Retrieved from www.IJRBSS.com.

Chopra, M., Munro, S., Lavis, J. N., Vist, G., & Bennett, S. (2008). Effects of policy options for human resources for health: An analysis of systematic reviews. The Lancet, 371(9613), 668-74. Retrieved from www.thelancet.com.

Holt, D. (2016). Branding in the age of social media. Harvard Business Review (online). Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2016/03/branding-in-the-age-of-social-media

McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2017). Organizational behavior (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Thompson, Jr., A., Williams, E., & Gamble, J. (2017). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases. 21st Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

You must also provide a reference for all sources used to support the assignment (Note: As a minimum, the textbook and five additional peer-reviewed sources must be used and referenced).