Assignment 1: Starbucks’ Strategy

 

Due Week 3 and worth 280 points

 

 

 

Using the Internet and Strayer University databases, research Starbucks’ organizational culture and the key leadership and management traits used to execute the business strategy.

 

 

 

Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

 

1. Suggest the key elements of Starbucks’ organizational culture that contributes to its success in a global economy. Indicate management’s role with creating and sustaining the organizational culture.
2. Assess the effectiveness of Starbucks’ management decisions in providing innovative offerings for its customers (e.g., WiFi, style of coffee, etc.) in order to achieve its current competitive marketplace advantage. Provide support for your rationale.
3. Determine one (1) key management competency that a successful manager at Starbucks is likely to have. Indicate one (1) way in which this particular competency is a good fit for the organizational culture.
4. Evaluate Starbucks’ ability to achieve long-term sustainability as a global leader in the coffee industry without the organization’s CEO, Howard Shultz.
5. Use at least two (2) quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

 

 

 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

 

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

 

 

 

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

 

• Examine the concepts of management related to modern-day work environments.
• Analyze the corporate environment, culture, and challenges for managing in a global environment.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in modern management.

Write clearly and concisely about modern management using proper writing mechanics

For this assignment, you will choose an organization to analyze. This organization can be one you are personally familiar with, or one you have observed to be an effective organization, You now become a newly appointed senior leader in that organization.

As a new leader, you must prepare a report for the CEO that assesses the organization’s overall alignment between its vision, mission, values, and strategy. This report should consist of the following sections:

1. An analysis of the strategic cascade of the organization
   This includes assessing the organization’s strategy and market position. Use the framework implied in Michael Porter’s (1997) article “What is Strategy.” When describing the business strategy of your organization, consider the following questions:
   • What is the target market (target customer)?
   • What is your organization’s value proposition (How does it deliver value that satisfies the target’s wants and needs?)?
   • How is your product or service positioned in the market (What specific features and attributes define the product/service and how is its value reflected in its pricing, distribution, marketing communications, etc.?)?
   • How is your organization sustainably different from your competitors (What is the source of uniqueness and how sustainable is it from being diminished by competitors?)?
2. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis
   A SWOT analysis is a strategy planning tool that examines both internal and external environments for factors and trends that should shape planning and operations over the next five years. Environmental factors internal to the company are classified as strengths (to be leveraged) or weaknesses (to be mitigated), while external factors are classified as either opportunities (to be pursued) or threats (to be monitored and responded to).

   Some primer questions for the SWOT analysis include the following:
   Strengths

   • What advantages does your organization have?
   • What do you do better than anyone else?
   • What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others cannot?
   • What do people in your market see as your strengths?
   • What factors mean that you “get the sale”?
   • What is your organization’s unique selling proposition (USP)?

   Weaknesses

   • What aspects of your product or service could you improve?
   • What market segments or competitive areas should you avoid?
   • What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
   • What factors can make you lose sales?

   Opportunities

   • What good opportunities can you spot?
   • What interesting trends are you aware of?

     Useful opportunities can come from such things as the following:

     • Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale
     • Changes in government policy related to your field
     • Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on
     • Local events

   Threats

   • What obstacles do you face?
   • What are your competitors doing?
   • Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products, or services changing?
   • Is changing technology threatening your position?
   • Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
   • Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?
3. A summary of the internal environment, including the organization’s values and the key elements of the organization architecture that influence worker behavior.

   Include the following characteristics when analyzing the internal environment:

   • Structure: This includes the ways the organization assigns formal roles and responsibilities, decision-making authority, expertise and skills, and work tasks. Think of the organization chart and how its implied structure directs the decision making, resource allocation, and workflow of the organization. Is it consistent with the strategy?
   • Systems: This comprises the information flows that coordinate activities between groups and across the organization structure while helping direct worker behavior, including performance management, financial management, operating, forecasting and planning, and other regulating mechanisms. How do these systems help align workers and their actions with the strategy?
   • Culture: This consists of the unwritten rules and norms that govern worker behavior and help coordinate the activities across structural boundaries. Is the organization culture an enabler or impediment to the corporate strategy? What specific behaviors embedded in the culture support the strategy? What specific behaviors block the strategy?
4. A synthesis of the information evaluating the ability of the organization to implement the strategy using Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices (for example, modeling the way) as a framework.

   Include answers to the following:

   • Company Culture
     • Describe the values and culture of your organization.
     • What are the values of your organization?
     • How are they reflected in the behaviors you see at work?
   • Employee Behaviors
     • Describe the behaviors in your organization.
     • Are these behaviors consistent with the business strategy?
     • Where do they conflict with the strategy?
     • What new behaviors are required to align with the strategy?
   • Leadership
     • How might you and other leaders create new behaviors to support the strategy?
     • What specific actions would you implement to communicate, motivate, model the way, coach, inspire the vision, challenge the process, and encourage the heart?

Your response to each part of the assignment should be approximately three pages.

Write a 10–12-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. By Wednesday, September 18, 2013, .

Assignment 2 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
Assessed the organization’s current vision, mission, and strategy to ensure that they are current, appropriate, actionable, and integrated.	36
Analyzed the “strategic cascade” of the organization (includes assessing the organization’s strategy and market position using the framework implied in Porter’s article “What is Strategy?”) and completed a SWOT analysis.	48
Summarized the internal environment, including the organization’s values and the key elements that influence worker behavior.	48
Synthesized data to state the ability of the organization to implement the strategy using Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices as a framework including answers to additional required questions.	48
Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.	20
Total:	200

	Unit 3 Discussion Board
Deliverable Length:	2–4 paragraphs
Details:	The Discussion Board (DB) is part of the core of online learning. Classroom discussion in an online environment requires the active participation of students and the instructor to create robust interaction and dialogue. Every student is expected to create an original response to the open-ended DB question as well as engage in dialogue by responding to posts created by others throughout the week. At the end of each unit, DB participation will be assessed based on both level of engagement and the quality of the contribution to the discussion. At a minimum, each student will be expected to post an original and thoughtful response to the DB question and contribute to the weekly dialogue by responding to at least two other posts from students. The first contribution must be posted before midnight (Central Time) on Wednesday of each week. Two additional responses are required after Wednesday of each week. Students are highly encouraged to engage on the Discussion Board early and often, as that is the primary way the university tracks class attendance and participation. The purpose of the Discussion Board is to allow students to learn through sharing ideas and experiences as they relate to course content and the DB question. Because it is not possible to engage in two-way dialogue after a conversation has ended, no posts to the DB will be accepted after the end of each unit. The United States is becoming more health conscious, and as a result,the problem of obesity has gotten more attention.The Body Mass Index (BMI), relates a person’s height and weight, and is often used to determine if someone is overweight.The table below tells the weight status for a given BMI.   BMI Weight Status Below 18.5 Underweight 18.5 – 24.9 Normal 24.9 – 29.9 Overweight 29.9 and above Obese   The BMI is calculated using the formula: BMI = 703*w / h2 where w is the weight in pounds and h is the height in inches. Solving this formula for h, we see that h = sqrt[703w/BMI] 1. Find the weight of your favorite celebrity.This could be a movie or television personality, athlete, politician or even yourself. 2. Using the weight from part 1, determine the height the celebrity would need to be in order to fall into each of the four weight status categories listed in the table. In other words, select a BMI less than 18.5 (any value, you make it up) and find “h”; then repeat using a new BMI in the range from 18.5 to 24.9, and so on. 3. Using the internet or other Library resource, find the actual height of the celebrity. 4. Determine his or her actual weight status (underweight, normal, overweight or obese) using the original BMI formula at the top of the instructions. 5. How tall would he or she need to be for the normal weight status? 6. Think about why there may be differences in your calculations and the actual figures. 7. Summarize your findings in writing using proper style and grammar. Include references formatted according to APA style. Respond to a classmate’s posting. If you think there may be an error, feel free to help your classmate without providing the correct answer. Otherwise, analyze the post in comparison to yours or add new information to the discussion. In your own words, please post a response to the Discussion Board and comment on other postings. You will be graded on the quality of your postings. For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Leaders today must be able to create a compelling vision for the organization. They also must be able to create an aligned strategy and then execute it. Visions have two parts, the envisioned future and the core values that support that vision of the future. The ability to create a compelling vision is the primary distinction between leadership and management. Leaders need to create a vision that will frame the decisions and behavior of the organization and keep it focused on the future while also delivering on the short-term goals.

 

To learn more about organizational vision statements, do an Internet search and review various vision statements.

 

In this assignment, you will consider yourself as a leader of an organization and write a vision statement and supporting values statement.

 

Select an organization of choice. This could be an organization that you are familiar with, or a fictitious organization. Then, respond to the following:

• Provide the name and description of the organization. In the description, be sure to include the purpose of the organization, the products or services it provides, and the description of its customer base.
• Describe the core values of the organization. Why are these specific values important to the organization?
• Describe the benefits and purpose for an organizational vision statement.
• Develop a vision statement for this organization. When developing a vision statement, be mindful of the module readings and lecture materials.
• In the vision statement, be sure to communicate the future goals and aspirations of the organization.
• Once you have developed the vision statement, describe how you would communicate the statement to the organizational stakeholders, that is, the owners, employees, vendors, and customers.
• How would you incorporate the communication of the vision into the new employee on-boarding and ongoing training?

Write your response in approximately 4 pages in Microsoft Word. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. ($ page count does not include cover page or reference page)

 

 

By Wednesday, June 1, 2016, deliver your assignment 

 

Assignment 3 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
Chose and described the organization. The description included the purpose of the organization, the products or services the organization provides, and the description of its customer base.	16
Developed a vision statement for the organization. Ensured to accurately communicate the goals and aspirations of the organization in the vision statement.	24
Ensured that the incorporation and communication strategy for the vision statement is clear, detailed, well thought out and realistic.	28
Evaluated and explained which values are most important to the organization.	24
Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.	8
Total:	100

Choose one of the distribution methods. Write 1-2 paragraphs of 100-200 words that explains the distribution method that you have chosen. In your response, be sure to answer the following questions: Who receives the good or service from this distribution method? Who does not receive the good or service? What are the advantages of this method? What are the disadvantages of this method? Is this method efficient (or not wasting resources)? Is it fair (or free from bias)? Can your chosen method be used to distribute large amounts of goods and services to many people each day? Why or why not?