BUS 486 Business Policy and Strategy
Individual Business Strategy Report
Outline 2020
Preliminary Material (The Preliminary Pages are NOT Part of the 20-25 Textual Pages Required)
Title Page
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Section I – Organization Profile (6-7 Pages)
- Background Information
- Brief Description
- Recent Successes and Struggles
- Current Industry Position
- Major Areas of Focus
- Vision and Mission
- Strategies
- Functional Points of Emphasis
a. Research and Development
b. Sales and Marketing
c. Finance
d. Human Resources
e. Operations
f. Information Technology
g. Distribution and Logistics
Section II – Organizational Assessment (8-10 Pages)
- SWOT Analysis
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
- Strategy Analysis
- Low Cost Provider Strategy
- Best Cost Provider Strategy
- Niche Market Strategy with Lower Cost
- Focused Strategy Base on Differentiation
- Policy Analysis
- Corporate Direction
- Business Ethics
- Social Responsibility
- Practices and Procedures
- Financial Analysis
- Income Statement
- Balance Sheet
- Cash Flow Report
Section III – Recommendations (6-8 Pages)
- Proposed Future Strategies
- Products and/or Services
- Marketing
- Technologies
- Distribution
- Operations
- Alliances
- Required Changes
- Organizational Structure
- Culture
- Resources
- Policies
- Conclusions and Summary
Post Material (The Post Material Pages are NOT Part of the 20-25 Textual Pages Required)
Exhibits
Reference List
The purpose of Section II – Organizational Assessment (8-10 Pages) is to evaluate the current internal and external business environment, to analyze the strategies and policies, to state the financial health of the organization, and to create continuous improvement recommendations for operational excellence in the future.
A. SWOT Analysis (See Chapter 6 in the Text)
1. Strengths (Internal)
What are the inherent strengths of the organization?
What are the things that the organization does better than the competition?
2. Weaknesses (Internal)
What are the areas for continuous improvement?
How could the major weaknesses be eliminated?
3. Opportunities (External)
What are the potential business opportunities for growth?
What is the organization not providing in terms of products or services?
How can the organization take advantage of these opportunities?
What are the opportunities in the entire value chain?
This could be basis for new strategies for the future. (Section III)
4. Threats (External)
What are the external forces that are not controlled by the organization that can have a negative impact on the success of the organization?
What economic trends, natural disasters, government regulations, or other risk factors does the organization face?
What should be done to reduce the negative impact of these threats?
B. Strategy Analysis (See Chapters 7 and 8 in the Text)
1. Low Cost Provider Strategy
Does your organization deploy a low cost provider strategy for some of its products or services?
If not, should the organization use this strategy?
2. Best Cost Provider Strategy
This strategy is based on being the best cost or value for the customer.
Is this strategy being used?
How could this strategy help the organization in the future?
3. Niche Market Strategy
Does your organization seek out niche markets?
If so, how can this strategy be exploited in the future?
If not, is there an advantage to using this strategy for your organization?
4. Focused Differentiation
Does your company use a broad or focused differentiation strategy?
Are all or some of the products and services considered better than the competition?
If so, does the differentiation lead to a higher value to the customer?
If not, how could this strategy be adopted in the future?
C. Policy Analysis (See Chapters 2 and 3 in the Text)
1. Corporate Direction
What is the current vision statement?
What is a new and improved vision statement for the future?
What is the current mission statement?
What is a new and improved mission statement for the future?
What are the current key performance indicators (goals)?
What are some new bold goals for the organization?
2. Business Ethics
Evaluate the current Code of Ethics for the organization.
What specific actions can assure proper business ethics in the future?
3. Social Responsibility
What does the organization currently do to meet Corporate Social Responsibilities?
How effective are those programs?
How could social responsibility be improved in the future?
4. Practices and Procedures
What practices and procedures are out dated?
What practices and procedures are solid and are considered world class?
D. Financial Analysis (Refer to previous course materials on Corporate Finance and Accounting)
1. Income Statement
Analyze the income statement results for the past few years.
What are the concerns?
How could the revenues be increased and the expenses be reduced in the future?
2. Balance Sheet
Analyze a recent balance sheet.
How can the Return on Assets (ROA) be improved?
How should Owner’s Equity be deployed in the business?
3. Cash Flow Report
Analyze the current cash flows?
How can the positive cash flow be continuously increased?
Balance Score Card (See Chapter 7 in the Text)
Create a Balance Scorecard for your organization using high-level objectives for each of the four areas of metrics.
Keep in mind that Sections I, II, and III of the Report must be in text format. You may want to develop tables, charts, or graphs to place in the Exhibit section of the Post Material and summarize the exhibits in the textual portion of the Report.
In order to address each of the elements in Section II, you will need to be clear and brief.