Business
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finaldiscussionpost.docxPost 1.
After reviewing the links, post two takeaways for each link you feel are important and why to understand moving forward in your leadership and organizational goals. Be specific and detailed
For the first link on Strategic Management I feel it is extremely important to put controls in place to evaluate your strategic plan. Setting up measurement controls will allow an organization to determine if they are on track to hit their goals. With these measurement controls they will also establish a plan for corrective actions should the plan go astray and what is needed to get back on track. The second important feature would be the balanced scorecard. This is extremely helpful for senior leaders because it communicates their mission to all employees and identifies their particular task as part of the organization's strategic plan. The big problem with the balanced scorecard is that it has only a 20% success rate (Finance, E. 2012). Even though this can be hard to maintain, tough to determine what to measure, hard to interpret, as well as difficult to compare I still feel this is crucial to the success of a strategic plan ( Finance, E. 2012).
The second link closing the strategy was interesting as well. Paul Leinwand mentioned that only 8% of leaders are able to create a strategy and have the ability to execute the strategy (Closing the Strategy, n.d.). This to me is important for leadership to develop a team that all can contribute to the success of the strategy as studies show most leaders can not achieve this on their own. I found the concept of bench-marking and best in class something that is very interesting. It sometime easy to look at another successful company and try to mirror their plan, but this would lead most companies to failing at their plan. Leaders must identify what their own capabilities and strengths are within their company and determine the best game plan to closing the gap between their strategy and executing their strategy.
The final link discusses how companies with long term views outperform their peers. I found an interesting fact that long term firms spend substantially more on R&D than other companies. It is extremely important to leverage your R&D team during both good and bad economic times. I feel this will make or break your company and their plan. You must spend money to make money. This was seen during the recent financial crisis where long term firms spent more while other companies reduced their spend ( Barton, D., Manyika, J., Koller, T., Palter, R., Godsall, J., & Zoffer, J. (n.d.). Companies that take the long term view will almost always grow substantially larger than their brethren and generate more return for their shareholders. This to me is extremely important takeaway for me of why it is important to take the long term vision for an organization.
Reference
Barton, D., Manyika, J., Koller, T., Palter, R., Godsall, J., & Zoffer, J. (n.d.). Where companies with a long-term view outperform their peers. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/long-term-capitalism/where-companies-with-a-long-term-view-outperform-their-peers
Finance, E. (2012, September 24). 10 Strategic Management: Strategy Evaluation and Control. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfKLoGZiR4s
510: Closing The Strategy - Execution Gap. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/hbrideacast/510-closing-the-strategy-execution-gap
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Post 2
When considering all three projects, what did you enjoy most about the projects and why? Did you enjoy one better than another? Explain.
I enjoyed learning how to do a more comprehensive strategic analysis. It’s valuable information that I think should be reviewed more in the lower level courses. I wouldn’t say I “enjoyed” any of the projects, but I would have liked doing the financial analysis in the second project if I had the information I needed. Financials, balancing, etc., is the part of business that I enjoy.
What did you appreciate the least about the projects and why? Was there one less enjoyable than another? Explain.
It was extremely difficult to find good information on the company I had (Sierra Wireless) without having to pay a large amount of money for a report. Their balance sheet was also conflicting and close to impossible to decipher. I spent the bulk of my time (which was much more than I anticipated) on trying to get enough information to do my analysis and figure out how to stretch it enough to complete the projects. Therefore, I would say project 2 was less enjoyable because it needed the most of the virtually unobtainable financial information.
Considering this is a Capstone course meaning this course brings it all together where you apply the knowledge and skills you have gained throughout your time at UMUC, what are two takeaways from either this course or the content within the program you will take with you? Explain.
Actually, I hate to admit it and I thoroughly dreaded the class, but I probably learned the most and most interesting things from Statistics. It’s something we all use in our everyday lives, from deciding what to wear and what time to leave for work to bargain shopping and choosing insurance. It was interesting to see the actual equations and statistical data on a bigger scale.
Another key takeaway for me is the in-depth internal and external analysis from this course. I’ve done plenty of SWOT analyses, but not to the extent of the projects we did. The financial ratios, matrixes, strategy levels, etc., give a much more detailed picture of the company’s sustainability and information for defined strategic planning.
What are your goals moving forward in either an organization, as a student, or both and how will what you learned in this program help you?
Finishing my degree was a goal that I put off for far too long. Taking a semester off is dangerous because it’s so easy to get used to having and utilizing that extra time and finding excuses to put off going back. Adding a degree to my military experience will allow me to get a higher GS position and a higher paying job with my contracting company while I wait until I can apply for civil service.
Any additional comments regarding the course or course material?
I loved how the course was set up. The design of the UMUC portal is not the most user friendly and the way some of the courses I’ve taken were laid out made it difficult to figure out what/when was due. Professor Golbluff made it pretty much dummy proof.
One thing I didn’t like was the grading. I understand it’s a capstone, but I haven’t been this harshly graded in any of my classes or any of the schools I attended. The rubric is great to tell you what is required, but just placing a check mark in the box without specific feedback to where the points were taken is not helpful at all. And I’m not going to lie and say that working so long and so hard on a project to get a C is not frustrating and demotivating.
