Strategy Selection, Implementation and Evaluation

Notes for Week 8

The remaining sections are about strategy implementation (focus on content from weeks 6 and 7) and strategy evaluation (focus on section 9.3 of the eBook and week 8 content). Also regarding strategy evaluation, there are two articles from Week Two that may be helpful for you. First, the article, "The Perils of Bad Strategy" helps you identify any mistakes made while crafting the strategy (Rumelt, 2011). Second, the article, "Have you tested your strategy lately?" provides detailed ways of evaluating strategy effectiveness (Bradley et al., 2011).

Here are some points to remember:

· support from course materials will be expected in every section of this course. Remember all citations require a page or paragraph number, unless citing videos or podcasts.

· Follow the rubric as you’re writing to ensure you’re maximizing your grade for each section.

· This is a project that may call upon content from any week of this course – weeks 1 through 8. Remember that the focus of this report is strategy generation, selection, and execution. So the weeks with that content will be your focus.

· You will need the correct quadrant of the Grand Strategy Matrix from Project 3 to help with strategy selection for Project 4. Make sure you got that quadrant correct in Project 3. If you didn't get it correct, use the quadrant Dr. Kathy advised you was correct in your Feedback Document for Project 3.

· Refer back to Dr. Kathy's Notes for Week Five for more assistance with QSPM.

· Write section I last! This is, in essence, your Executive Summary.

I encourage you to reach out to me for any guidance either through Ask Dr. Kathy (if the guidance is general in nature) or email me (if the guidance is personal). I look forward to reading your work!

 

References:

Bradley, C., Hirt, M., & Smit, S. (2011, January). Have you tested your strategy lately? McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from  https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/have-you-tested-your-strategy-lately

Cook, B. (2012). Strategy evaluation and control [VIDEO]. Finance Learning Academy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfKLoGZiR4s

Rumelt, R. (2011, June). The perils of bad strategy. McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from  https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-perils-of-bad-strategy

The Saylor Foundation. (2014). Mastering Strategic Management. Retrieved from  https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/525837/viewContent/18557183/View

Week Eight Reading Outline: These Reading Outlines appear each week in Dr. Kathy's Notes. They are for your personal study use. You do not post the answers to these questions in learning activities. Completing this reading outline is optional and not for credit. While they are not for credit, completing these each week should help you organize your course materials and organize your notes according to topics as we cover them in class. This will be very useful to you in all weeks of this course, especially in the Weeks that a Project or Discussion are due.

Here's how to use this outline to your advantage: In creating the reading outline start with themes for the week as your main headings. As you read, answer the questions and note where you got the answers from in the class reading (including page or paragraph numbers). When you go to answer your project or discussion questions, refer to these notes and develop the themes as part of your answer.