MGT450 Ashford University Organization’s Strategy Questions

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Answer the 3 questions below and reply to each student.

Student Reply must be over 200 words.

Make sure all student replies you start it with Hello (Student Name),

Please upload each question in different word documents.

******Question 3 must 3-4 pages long in APA formatt. *************

Question 1:

In your own words, define strategic planning and explain why it is crucial to an organization’s survival. In your response, include a description of how strategic planning differs from strategic management. Lastly, explain how your current or previous organization’s strategy might influence its business model. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. You must create one initial post and at least two responses, for a minimum of three posts for this discussion.

Student Reply 1: Elmer Borja

Strategic planning is an articulated plan, which means the organization needs a mission, goals, objectives, and vision-based on external market data such what is the organization competitor is doing, what is customer wants/needs, what happening in your industries. The difference between strategic planning and strategic management is strategic planning is an organization’s strategy/plan in the future to reach its goals. It involves assessment of organizations internal SWOT analysis, then determining issues and then formulating the best strategic decisions to improve its operations and be competitive. Strategic management is the decisions and action to be taken to implement the strategies to reach its organizational goals.

Any organization can benefit by doing both strategic planning and strategic management to solve any internal issues and formulate the necessary strategy and implement it to adapt to continually changing external business environment.

Student Reply 2: Megan McKinney

In your own words, define strategic planning and explain why it is crucial to an organization’s survival.

The definition of strategic planning is an organization’s collaborative process to achieve and sustain long term and short term goals. Strategic planning is a process in which an organization collectively agrees on their future or vision, and how they are going to accomplish it, their strategy (Abraham, 2012). In today’s society competition is fierce. Without a strategic plan on how to stay up to speed with the constant change going on around them, organizations will fade away. Organizations should always be prepared to make changes in their strategy to match the consumer and business economy.

In your response, include a description of how strategic planning differs from strategic management.

Strategic planning is more of a process whose outcome is completely dependent upon participants within the organization who have a purpose (Abraham, 2012). The planning phase is an open forum to discuss what the most important goals and objectives are, and how to accomplish them. Strategic management involves decision makers who strive to sustain business for the long term, while also directing the company which way to go to do so; including what the company should produce, who their competitors are, and determining what to produce to keep up with its competitors (Abraham, 2012). A simple explanation is strategic planning involves the thought process, while strategic management provides the map to execute ideas.

Explain how your current or previous organization’s strategy might influence its business model.

One specific organization who supplies a variety of material for apartment complexes, has the growth potential to be a billion dollar industry. They are constantly trying to find ways to keep a competitive edge to be their customer’s first and only choice to conduct business. The business model they use focuses more on the services the company provides to the customer than the product. A business model is the strategic layout to obtain a successful operation of business through establishing a strong customer base, reliable products, and appropriate financial support. The product they sell can be purchased from competitors at a much cheaper price. They apply a business model that provides a different level of customer service to customers to make their jobs and lives easier. The sales team uses a consultative sales approach to build and establish trusting relationships with their customers prior to anything being purchased. They want to qualify their customers to limit returns, and to get it right the first time because they took the time to understand the customer’s business needs prior to asking for the sale. If the customer becomes overwhelmed with a specific project or the material did not work, the sales partner will allocate time to assist the customer in resolving their issues. The additional service provided makes for a competitive business model that differentiates them from their competitors.

Resources

Abraham, S. (2012) Strategic Management for Organizations. Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUMGT450.12.2/se…

Question 2:

After reading the article “UPS holiday season fiasco: a failure of strategic planning (Links to an external site.),” describe where the problem was with UPS’ and FedEx’s strategic planning. How did the fear of losing market share affect their strategic planning? What are potential solutions? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts.

Student Reply 3: Diana Rose Sapp

The term strategic planning refers to managing and steering a corporation towards success over a long period. It is the process of deciding the direction that should be taken by a company, its targets, and the implication of the competition. In the article, UPS Holiday Seasons Fiasco: A Failure of Strategic Planning, Steve Banker shows the challenges of having a flawed strategic management policy within a corporation. Based on the article, the company’s volume of air packages surpassed the capacity of its network, and further, the management was not specific on the number of affected shipments.

Strategic planning is critical to all companies. If properly implemented, it ensures that companies are aware of their clients, anticipate their needs, and determine the products and services the clients might need (Abraham, 2012). However, if not carefully implemented, it can attract many challenges of companies. In the case of UPS, the management under forecasted by it employing fifty-five thousand part-time employees and twenty-three extra planes to handle the Christmas package flow. The administration failed to understand that unlike warehouses, it is almost impossible for flex transportation to hire temporary employees to deal with the upsurge of holiday shipments (Banker, 2013). Some possible solutions include having higher ongoing charges to remunerate the supplementary budgets of sustaining added volume and charging an elevated amount of money during surge periods.

Ineffective strategic planning saw UPS surpass the capacities of its networks by under forecasting the demand of the company’s services by the clientele. By the time the company discovered this fact, it was too late, and the company incurred many losses. There are, however, several solutions that could have helped to salvage this situation. The management could have hiked the ongoing charges to cater to the losses incurred by the company.

References

Abraham, S. C. (2012). Strategic management for organizations [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://ashford.content.edu

Banker, S. (2013, December 30). UPS holiday season fiasco: A failure of strategic planning. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2013/12/30…

Student Reply 4: Byron Jacobson

Good day Professors and Classmates,

In this week’s discussion post, we are asked to describe where the problem was with UPS’ and FedEx’ strategic planning. Strategic planning is a process involving five steps which are the following: strategic thinking including external analysis, internal analysis, identifying key strategic issues, developing viable strategic alternatives, and choosing the best strategy using as criteria whatever the company defines as a success (Abraham, 2012). Out of all five steps, externally and internal analysis would be where the problem was is. The article spoke about how the companies planned a year out and probably checked every quarter to the plus-up, but what the article didn’t talk about was raw data they should have been collecting and analyzing throughout the year to project what type of volume to expect. We see this in everything we do throughout our daily lives.

The fear of losing market share affect both businesses creditability with their customers. Both businesses lost the basic concept of planning and the management of that planning. In the future, both companies can use a data collection plan and analysis the data to make it work for them. Since they’re both top shipping companies in the world, they could communicate and see how they could work together to hare the common goal.

References:

Abraham, S. C. (2012). Strategic management for organizations [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://ashford.content.edu

Banker, S. (2013, December 30). UPS holiday season fiasco: A failure of strategic planning (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.). Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2013/12/30… (Links to an external site.)

Question 3:

Evaluating Mission Statements

The mission statement describes the purpose of the organization (i.e., why the business exists). As outlined in the Mission Statements article, here are some things to consider when evaluating a mission statement:

  • Is the mission statement focused on satisfying customer needs rather than on the product?
  • Does the mission statement tell who the company’s customers are?
  • Does the mission statement explain what customer needs the company is trying to satisfy?
  • Does the mission statement explain how the company will serve its customers?
  • Does the mission statement fit the current market environment?
  • Is the mission statement based on the company’s core competencies?
  • Is the mission statement motivating and does it inspire employee commitment?
  • Is the mission statement realistic?
  • Is the mission statement specific, short, sharply focused, and memorable?
  • Is the mission statement clear and easily understood?
  • Does the mission statement say how the company wants to be remembered?

Review the following mission statements. Evaluate each mission statement based on the above criteria and explain how the mission statements meet or failed to meet those criteria.

Home Depot’s Mission Statement
The Home Depot is in the home improvement business and our goal is to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products, and the most competitive prices. We are a values-driven company and our eight core values include the following:

  • Excellent customer service
  • Taking care of our people
  • Giving back
  • Doing the “right” thing
  • Creating shareholder value
  • Respect for all people
  • Entrepreneurial spirit
  • Building strong relationships

Nike’s Mission Statement
Our mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.

In addition to the text, you must use at least one scholarly source. Your paper must be three to four pages in length (excluding a cover page and reference page) and be formatted according to APA style guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.