Strategy Individual Capstone Project
Strategic Knowledge Integration MBAD 6990
Your capstone project is the final piece of your RMU MBA. It provides an opportunity for you to
undertake a thorough strategic assessment of an organization. The purpose is to identify and address
an issue closely tied to the strategic direction of an organization (or a major division or department). In
developing recommendations for how the organization can resolve the issue, students are expected to
utilize the tools of analysis, not only learned in Strategic Knowledge Integration, but also from your
overall MBA program.
Through research and analysis, you are expected to identify a strategic issue and develop a customized
solutions based recommendation that considers the practicality of implementation. Successful
completion of this requires a demonstrated ability to collect and analyze both primary and secondary
data sources. You will employ a variety of analysis tools and complete a thorough financial assessment
to assist in identifying the full scope of the issue and the associated recommendation.
The core deliverable is a major report in scholarly form with sound analysis, references and bibliography.
In a word document, using size 12 font, single spaced, conduct a thorough strategic analysis of your
organization. Provide a conclusion for each section and sub-section. Make sure you do not contradict
what you are stating in one section versus another.
Additionally you will also prepare and deliver a maximum 15 minutes presentation that identifies the
highlights of this report. The intent of the presentation is to inform your classmates of the results of
your analysis and your recommendation. You need to video yourself actually reading and presenting.
You can begin this project by identifying a firm to study, we prefer that if possible, it can be one you
work, if not, we recommend you select a publicly traded organization. Clear your choice with Dr. Potter
or Dr. Seth in week 1. You will be required to obtain and analyze a significant amount of data about this
firm (see list below). Use sources such as Edgar (www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), Firm's annual reports and
website, Proquest, Hoovers.com, finance.yahoo.com, Datamonitor, etc. Please consider all of the
following elements as you undertake your analysis:
1. External environment:
a. Identify the industry (or segment) the organization primarily operates in, describe the
industry structure in terms of size, scope, key players, history, current trends, and relevant
environmental factors.
b. Who are the organization's closest rivals? Why?
C.
What are the driving forces of change in the industry in which this organization competes?
d. Which of the five forces exert the most pressure? What has the organization done to relieve
this pressure?
e. Overall determine how attractive is this industry? Identify critical success factors that are
derived from your analysis. (i.e. market share is not a factor it is an outcome of strategic
choices made by the organization). 2. Internal environment
a. What are the organization's mission or value statements? How does it compare to those of
its competitors? What do these statements say about the organization and its leadership?
b. How well has the organization performed to stated strategic objectives or performance
targets? Pay particular attention to how they have performed from a financial perspective
over the last 5 years? Support your assessment with factual data.
C.
Compare the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organization to those
of its competitors.
d. What do you think is the core competency of the organization? Why?
e. How has the organization used its value chain activities to improve its competitive position?
What are your recommendations in regard to the organization's competitive position and
value chain activities?
f. Which of the generic competitive strategy options is your organization pursuing? How does
this strategy affect the strategic choice your organization makes?
g. How does pursuit of this strategy help your organization achieve sustained competitive
advantage?
h. What methods has the organization used to grow its business? Has this worked well for the
organization? Why or why not?
İ.
j.
Discuss which diversification strategy is used-diversification into related or unrelated
businesses, a mix of both or none, and/or divestiture and retrenchment? How has this
helped or hurt the organization?
Describe which method(s) has been used to enter foreign markets and if the organization
has gained competitive advantage through competing internationally.
k. How is the organization structured? What are the strengths and/or weaknesses of the
current structure?
I.
Does the organization have an ethics statement or code of conduct? Does it have a
comprehensive, proactive social responsibility statement? Do its actions support stated
policies in these areas?
m. Assess the organization's human resource policies, do they support its strategy? Identify the
key leaders in the organization? Assess their leadership styles. Are these styles effective? If
so why or why not?
Please remember, the purpose of the above list is for you to take into account factors that affect the
organization and allow you to determine a strategic issue and associated recommendation. Therefore
the above elements are designed to frame your analysis. This is not simply a laundry list where you
should expect to receive credit simply by having everything on the list as part of your submission.
Having all factors identified in your paper is important, but what is more important is how you tie this
information into your overall assessment.
