Final Report

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT CANTON

Principles of Management, BSAD 301 Due 12:00 noon, Monday, May 6, 2019

Culminating Project

This semester, you have been introduced to a number of theoretical constructs that help you assess the effectiveness of managers and business leaders. Some have spoken to very broad concepts of what good management looks like. Others have focused on particular aspects of the discipline. All (hopefully) have made a contribution to your understanding. Stanford Professor Jim Collins has provided you with one of the most robust frameworks in GOOD TO GREAT. He is more than descriptive (as in Linda Hill). He is highly normative. He believes that his approach is the right approach. At the same time, you have been introduced to a number of people in the automobile industry as management models. You have been asked to take particular theories and apply them to those models and draw conclusions. This has been done through both your Reading & Reflection and exam essays. (So you should be old hat at sketching out a theoretical framework, applying it to a particular model, and drawing conclusions.) In this exercise, you are asked to take Collins, apply his ideas to what you know about Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and draw your observations. In preparation for this assignment, you should watch https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI1yx5Z0Lrv7vSu4BMeULh3A9-GIz4mHR. However, you will discover (in Youtube.com) that there have been several 60 Minutes interviews with Musk over the past 10 years, and you are encouraged to watch any (or all) to gain a greater understanding of this entrepreneur. If Musk does not align well enough with Collins, identify any theorists that you have been exposed to that create a better alignment. If Musk-Collins iss not a good match, which practitioner(s) have you been exposed to this semester who does align with Collins? Why? Apart from fleshing out your understanding of Musk, you should not need any other outside sources. In fact, please clearly demonstrate that you have mastered the material that you have been introduced to in class. Please note: You do not need to agree with Collins, nor should you automatically infer that Musk is a perfect model (or contra model) of Collins’ theoretical framework. Let the evidence speak for itself. Whatever conclusions you draw must be supported by your evidence. Now, to the particulars:

 Due by 12:00 noon, Monday, May 6 in a Blackboard dropbox

 7 pages, spaced 2 with 1” margins

 Citations in APA style. If you add outside material, provide a supplemental with that information. Otherwise, it will be presumed that “[Mulally Video, 32:07]” means that you have extracted information from the video you were asked to review at that particular point. You have also viewed a video on Henry Ford, and you can use the format. “[Williams, 114]” would refer to something on p. 114 of your textbook.