Business policy and strategy milestone 1
Milestone Activity
This Milestone encompasses Course Learning Outcomes (CLO) 1, 2, and 3. You must complete all parts before moving to next section.
Part 1: Writing Mission and Vision Statements
In this Milestone Activity, you will practice writing mission and vision statements for a company to demonstrate CLO1. The statements drafted here will be integrated into the portfolio within the Final Assessment Project, and it is recommended that they are revised based on instructor feedback and student learning throughout the course before submission of the Final Assessment Project.
What do I want you to do?
Choose a company to analyze. It is usually easiest to work with a major corporation because their information is more likely publicly available and to choose one that is so interesting to you that you would want to continue analyzing it throughout the semester.
Locate and critique the company’s mission and vision statements.
Write a narrative about the company’s current operations and a proposed, idealized future as a draft.
Condense those narratives into simple mission and vision statements for the company you chose.
Why do I want you to do it?
Businesses use these documents as the foundation for a strategic plan and business model. So, strategic management often begins with these guides. Gaining experience working with and creating these documents will help you to gain understanding when you are managing strategy or evaluating business performance in the future.
How do I want you to do it?
What format(s) should the assessment be in? The company's current statements, critiques you may have, and narratives you create are only used for drafting. You can submit your mission and vision statements as a single Word document with each portion clearly labeled, no longer than a page.
What tools or resources might be needed/useful?
To find a company's mission and vision statements is not always easy. There are several methods to try:
Find the company's corporate website. This page houses the details of company information and is sometimes different than the web page that customers use to shop. In the simplest cases, it is usually labeled the "About Us" page, "Corporate Information," or "Investor Relations." These types of pages might have the mission, vision, values, purpose, company history, corporate ethics, and other company documents, such as annual reports.
Another method is to try to contact the company. If you explain that you are a student studying the company, they may be willing to share their statements. You can try visiting a local store, calling, or emailing a corporate contact.
You can try to explore the company's annual tax filings. The SEC EDGAR database houses documents that publicly traded companies must file every year by law. Sometimes, those documents list the mission statement.
It is not recommended that you use a simple web search to locate these documents because this method can produce wrong documents, outdated documents, and even cheat websites that could get you in academic trouble. Some common websites that result include comparably.com, panmore.com, mission-statement.com, bstrategyhub.com, and others. These websites are often created to look reasonable, but their information is not reliable. Some are merely personal blogs that have not been properly peer-reviewed. Some of them also are a front for an essay writing service (pay them to write your assignment for you), which would be an academic violation (e.g., Fern Fort University, Study Moose, etc.). While it is best to avoid these websites, if they are a last resort, you might return to contacting someone at the company and asking if the statements posted on these websites are correct and still in use. At least then, you receive verification and can cite the company rather than these noncredible websites to stay out of trouble.
You might also consider researching competitor's missions and visions or statements from companies that you admire. They might give you further inspiration about elements to include in yours.
Review Kennedy et al. (2020) Section 2.2: Vision, Mission, and Goals.
Review the course document "Tips for Writing Mission and Vision Statements."
What to include in your submission
Your assignment submission should include:
The mission statement you write
The vision statement you write
APA 7 citations for any sources from which you have copied information.
Part 2: Porter & PESTEL Analysis
Businesses must serve a market, but the market is always changing. From time to time, managers must assess the business landscape to determine whether they are serving the most opportune needs in the best ways and in terms of how they compare to their competition. This Milestone Activity analyzes business trends and power of competitors to gauge where opportunities and threats may arise. This practice can help you to maneuver an organization to a better competitive position in the future and will be included in the Final Assessment Project.
What do I want you to do?
This activity scans the external business environment for factors that could meaningfully influence strategy. The focus is on business trends and power nodes within the sector.
PESTEL Trend Survey
Research to find 10 meaningful trends or shifts of trends in the world of business today that could potentially affect the company you selected in the previous module. Remember, trends are patterns of action over a period of time. For this exercise, it would be helpful to identify trends that show a pattern of at least 3-5 years. Just as it is important to note trends, shifts in trends are also something meaningful to consider when planning strategy. For this exercise, consider shifts that have happened within the last 1-3 years. Obtain at least five trends and at least five shifts of different types.
Rank the trends one (most meaningful) through five (least meaningful) and identify which of the six PESTEL dimensions best categorizes the trend (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, or legal). When making your selections, avoid selecting more than one of any particular type.
Rank the shifts of trends one (most meaningful) through five (least meaningful) and identify which of the six PESTEL dimensions best categorizes the shift of trend (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, or legal). When making your selections, avoid selecting more than one of any particular type.
Include at least one reference that supports each trend and at least four total references because it is important not to get all of your information from the same source since it could create a biased perspective.
Porter's Five Forces Analysis
Distinguish competitors and substitutes - find three companies that can be considered competitors offering the same products or services as your company, and then, find three companies that can be considered substitutes offering a product or service that would be an alternative to your company's product or service.
Analyze whether competitors have more power in your industry than your company by asking these questions:
Are there many competitors?
Are there larger competitors?
Are competitors' offerings or strategies difficult to differentiate from each other?
Can customers switch between competitors easily?
Analyze whether substitutes have more power in your industry than your company by asking these questions:
Are there few substitutes with larger market share?
Are substitutes' offerings cheaper or of better quality?
Can customers switch between substitutes easily?
Identify three new startups in the industry of your selected company.
Analyze whether startups (new entrants) have more power in your industry than your company by asking these questions:
Are there low barriers to entry?
Is there a lack of economies of scale?
Is there a lack of intellectual property?
Is there a lack of brand loyalty?
Analyze whether suppliers have more power in your industry than your company by asking these questions:
Are there few suppliers?
Are suppliers' supplies difficult to differentiate from each other?
Is it difficult for companies to switch between suppliers?
Is it difficult to find substitutes for these supplies?
Analyze whether customers (buyers) have more power in your industry than your company by asking these questions:
Do many customers group together for collective action?
Are there few, big spending customers that constitute a large proportion of the income?
Are competitors' offerings difficult to differentiate from each other?
Can customers switch between competitors easily?
Are customers price-sensitive?
Rank the five industry groups based on how much power they have in the industry.
Why do I want you to do it?
Understanding the business landscape helps in identifying unmet needs in the market, which is a fundamental necessity for a business. Without needs to meet, the business has no customers for its good or services. Strategists need to develop a keen eye to capitalize on these opportunities. In addition, scrutinizing the competition helps to find ways to improve your business and find potential ways to catch up, keep up, or gain an advantage.
How do I want you to do it?
What format(s) should the assessment be in?
List the trends in a numbered form with included citations. Start each entry with the PESTEL category they exemplify after their numerical ranking. Then, list the shifts in the same manner in a separate list.
Copy the Porter's Analysis questions and put them in bold font, and write your answers after them in regular font. Cite any sources you use to support your judgments with parentheticals and a reference list at the end of the document in APA 7 form.
What tools or resources might be needed/useful?
Review Kennedy et al. (2020) Sections 3.3 & 3.4.
Porter's and PESTEL analyses are common; therefore, there are abundant non-credible results that appear in simple web searches using those terms. Be careful to analyze the credibility of your sources so that you do not choose personal blogs or cheat sites for support. Ask your instructor if you question the credibility of any of your sources. It is disingenuous to copy your analyses from one you find completed online.
What to include in your submission
Your assignment submission should include:
PESTEL Trend Survey
Porter's Five Forces Analysis
Part 3: VRIO Analysis of Strengths
To serve customers well and to gain leverage for competitive advantage, a business must assess their capabilities and resources from time to time. This Milestone Activity weighs criteria for determining which aspects of the business might provide strengths that could be leveraged. The skills practiced here can be used in the future to analyze your employer organization and will be used within the Final Assessment Project.
What do I want you to do?
In this activity, you will evaluate the resources and capabilities of the business you selected to determine how they can be strategically leveraged to provide better service and gain competitive advantage, using the VRIO method.
Identify five strategic resources or capabilities associated with the business you selected. Identify at least one tangible resource, one intangible resource, and two capabilities within those five. Analyze their strengths by asking the four VRIO questions:
Is it valuable?
Is it rare?
Is it difficult to imitate?
Is it organized to capture value?
Based on the answers to the preceding questions, which type of strength does it offer for the company?
Competitive Parity
Temporary Competitive Advantage
Sustained Competitive Advantage
Identify at least one resource or capability within the five you selected that is valuable, one that is also rare; one that is also difficult to imitate; and one that is organized to capture value.
Why do I want you to do it?
After finding unmet needs in the external environment, a business then needs to position itself to best fulfill those needs. In a similar way, students might reflect on how their talents can serve a community's or organization's needs in their future careers. This type of assessment drafted here will also be a component included in the portfolio of the Final Assessment Project.
How do I want you to do it?
What format(s) should the assessment be in?
List the five resources or capabilities in ascending order in terms of their strength. Write the resource or capability, its VRIO adjectives, and its strength. Cite any references you use to support your claims in APA 7 format.
What tools or resources might be needed/useful? Kennedy et al. (2020) Section 4.3
What to include in your submission
Your assignment submission should include:
VRIO Analysis
