Assignment 2: Course Project Task 5 Final Submission

Note: This course has major project assignments that will be due in Weeks 3 and 5. It will take more than a week's effort to adequately complete them. Plan time to start the research and other work for those assignments earlier than the week in which they are due.

Throughout this course, you have been analyzing the different facets of two organizations’ (GE and Alibaba) strategic development and implementation. This week you will pull all of these elements together, including the material you read this week about strategic leadership. This is a critical exercise as the final written work in the MBA capstone course. Although we broke up the topics we studied about corporate strategy into manageable chunks, remember that in reality business firms function and compete as integrated wholes. The various elements of business and corporate strategy we discussed and analyzed create value for shareholders when they complement one another. In particular, the logic of business strategy in general must be congruent with the particular firm’s overall strategies.

Develop an integrated analysis of the corporate strategy of your current workplace organization, a previous employer, or an organization you would like to work for. Reach out to your instructor early in the week (or earlier in the course) if you need assistance identifying a suitable organization for your final study.

Although you should review the Course Project Guidelines document for more detail as needed, the following summary of the major sections of the paper should help you focus your project:

• Executive Summary—1-page synthesis of major ideas in the paper. What is the organization? What is its corporate strategy? What are one or two important pieces of rationale for having that strategy? What are one or two brief examples of how that strategy is (or isn't) accurately implemented? What are one or two important recommendations you can make to the organization about the strategic development and implementation of its corporate strategy. Remember, the executive summary is a brief review that someone can read and get a quick snapshot of key points in your paper.
• General Analysis of Corporate Strategy—1–2-page analysis of the organization’s corporate strategy. What is the corporate strategy? What is the rationale that management uses to guide its decisions and actions at the corporate level? What is the business logic and reasoning behind the formulation of that strategy?
• Formulation of Corporate Strategy—1–2-page assessment of appropriateness and congruence of the various elements of the corporate strategy. Does each part fit with the logic and rationale of the overall corporate strategy? Is there internal consistency in how the corporate strategy is formulated?
• Implementation of Corporate Strategy—2–3-page evaluation of decisions and actions actually made by management and of its ability to make those decisions consistent with the stated corporate strategy. Are the organization’s decisions and actions consistent with or inconsistent with its corporate strategy? Does it possess the resources and capability to follow its corporate strategy (i.e., “make it happen”)? Does alignment exist between its strategy and its leadership, structure, systems, and culture?
• Conclusions and Recommendations—1–2-page justification of consultant-type recommendations to the organization. Does the organization need to change its corporate strategy? Does it need to address congruence among the corporate strategy elements? Does it need to address how decisions and actions are made and implemented? Provide clear research, rationale, and appropriate examples to support your conclusions and recommendations.

Present your report as an 8–12-page Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style.

Note: APA does not generally use an executive summary. However, consulting reports often do contain an executive summary. For purposes of this assignment, present the executive summary as the introduction paragraphs of your APA paper. Because the executive summary reflects information from the body of your paper, you will likely need to complete those sections before completing the executive