Unit 1 discussion Part 1. Introduce yourself to your fellow students and Professor. Share your college degree plans briefly explaining what degree you are pursuing why and how you think taking this course will assist you in achieving your personal or professional goals in life. Part 2. Think of a company that you believe has a good business strategy. Briefly explain what you think the strategy of the company is and why you believe it is successful. Unit 2 discussion Select one of the “Big 3” automobile companies in the US or another large US manufacturing firm that interests you. Identify one or more Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats for that firm. Read and comment upon the choices of others in the class. Unit 3 discussion Chrysler chose merger as a strategy in 1998 when it merged with Daimler a German automobile manufacturer. This merger was not successful. Why in your view did this merger fail? Unit 4 discussion Provide an example of a wellworded objective and a poorly worded objective. Why is one better than the other? Explain your rationale. For a second comment revise either your poorly worded objective or the poorly worded objective posted by someone else. Explain why your revision is now a properly worded objective. Unit 5 discussion What role if any does the Internet play in market segmentation strategy? Provide at least one specific example and briefly discuss. Unit 6 discussion In light of strategy evaluation activities how often should an organization’s vision/mission be changed? Explain your reasoning. Unit 7 discussion If you owned a small business with at least 10 employees would you develop a code of business conduct? If yes what elements would you include? If no how would you ensure that your employees were following ethical business standards? Unit 1 assessment Question 1 Do you feel an organization should maintain their original mission and vision statement(s) or do you feel these statements should be periodically updated? Please explain your answer. Your response should be at least 75 words in length. Question 2 Distinguish between the concepts of mission and vision. Provide examples in your explanation. Your response should be at least 75 words in length. Question 3 Describe the strategic management process and include how it is used by organizations. Your response should be at least 75 words in length. Question 4 Within this unit we discussed how businesses may need to adapt to changing times in order to stay competitive. Their initial practices may have worked well previously but may not serve them well in the long term. The newspaper industry is one that may face extinction. Explain why they may need to rethink their business strategy and provide some advice on possible strategic management changes. Be specific to include goals/objects strengths and weaknesses. Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Question 5 Colleges and universities like all business have strengths weaknesses and competitors. What would you consider to be an online university’s internal strengths and weaknesses? Why? Also who would you say are the competitors to online universities? What are three external opportunities and three external threats? Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Unit 3 assessment Question 1 Explain why communication is so important in management. Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Question 2 The global recession forced thousands of firms into bankruptcy. Does this fact alone confirm that external factors are more important than internal factors in strategic planning? Discuss. Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Unit 5 assessment Question 1Describe the relationship between annual objectives and policies. Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Question 2 Define and give an example of business analytics. Why is this technique becoming so widely used in organizations today? Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Question 3 Describe a conflict situation that requires you to use 1) avoidance 2) defusion and 3) confrontation in order to solve the problem. Your response should be at least 200 words in length. Question 4 Briefly explain seven of the guidelines to follow in developing an organizational chart. Unit Assignments Unit II Essay Over the course of this unit we have discussed the importance of mission and vision statements. As a part of that discussion we analyzed mission and vision statements for their effectiveness. For the Unit II Essay you will expand on this topic. Using your favorite search engine research the mission and vision statements of different fortune 500 companies. Then you will write an essay in which you compare and contrast the mission statements of two companies and the vision statements of two companies. You may use the same companies for both the mission and vision comparisons or separate companies. Within your essay include the following: ? Explain the principle value of two vision statements. ? Explain the principle value of two mission statements. ? Compare and contrast vision statements of each organization in terms of composition and importance. ? Compare and contrast mission statements of each organization in terms of composition and importance. ? Do you think organizations that have comprehensive mission statements tend to be high performers? How do mission and vision statements assist in selecting an industry-specific strategy? ? Explain why a mission statement should not include monetary amounts numbers percentages ratios goals or objectives. Your essay should be a minimum of three pages in length or approximately 750 words not including the title and reference pages. You must also include an outside source from the CSU Online Library to support your explanations. Follow APA standards for formatting and referencing. Information about accessing the Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. BBA 4951 Business Policy and Strategy 3 Unit III Case Study Read “Excellent Strategic Management Showcased: Priceline.com Inc.” on page 90 of your course textbook. As you read pay close attention to Priceline’s strategy and write a case study describing the following points: ? What are Priceline’s internal strengths and weaknesses? ? Who are Priceline’s competitors? ? Do you see Priceline’s strategy as effective or ineffective? Why? Your case study must be at least one page in length not including a title and reference page. Outside sources are not a requirement for this case study but if you choose to use them they must be cited and referenced according to APA standards. Information about accessing the Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit IV Case Study Implementation Plan: Part 1 During Unit IV VI and VIII you will be working on an implementation plan for a business. The components within these three units combined will create this plan. Please take a look at the case studies located in your textbook on pages 372-636. There are multiple corporations that provide a large array of services and products. Please select an organization that interests you. You will use this company for the Unit VI and Unit VIII assignments as well. For Part 1 describe the company that you selected the products/services they offer and the history of the company. Next analyze the company’s strategy mission and organizational structure. In your analysis include the following: ? What does the strategy mission and organizational structure say about the company? ? What are the positive aspects of the strategy mission and organizational structure? ? What are the company’s short-term and long-term goals? ? What are ways to improve the strategy mission and organizational structure? Much of the information you will need to complete this segment can be found in the case study in the textbook. However you are welcome to conduct further outside research as needed. Some details such as the short-term and long-term goals may not be explicitly stated. Please use your best judgement and analytical skills to determine that information. Your project must be a minimum of two full pages in length not including the title and reference pages. Include an introduction paragraph. Information about accessing the Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VI Project Implementation Plan: Part 2 In Unit IV you started to create an implementation plan. You selected a company and analyzed their strategy and mission. In Unit VI we will continue your work with this company and develop a SWOT analysis. Remember that a SWOT analysis identifies strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats of an organization. This is an important analysis for any organization as it can be used for strategic planning. Your SWOT analysis must be a minimum of two pages in length. Once you have completed your SWOT analysis write a minimum of one page explaining how this information could be used by the company. Please use the template below to complete the SWOT analysis and explanation. Save the template using your last name and student ID. For example John Smith whose student ID is 12345 would save his assignment as Smith12345. The information you need to complete this analysis can be found in the case studies located in your textbook on pages 372- 636. Outside research is not a requirement. BBA 4951 Business Policy and Strategy 4 Click here to access the Unit VI Project template. Much of the information you will need to complete this segment can be found in the case study in the textbook. However you are welcome to conduct further research as needed. Information about accessing the Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VIII Project Implementation Plan: Part 3 For the final assignment of this course you will continue your work with the company you used in Unit IV and Unit VI. For the Unit VIII Project you will complete the final components of your implementation plan. For Part 3 you will focus on the following points: ? internal and external issues ? competition ? future outlook for the organization and ? implementation of tools for measuring business success. Much of the information you will need to complete this segment can be found in the case study in the textbook. However you are welcome to conduct further research as needed. For the future of the organization you may be creative and add your own insight on where you see the company going. Your project must be a minimum of three full pages in length not including the title and reference page. Make certain to include an introductory paragraph. Information about accessing the Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.