ON TIME BUSINESS MANAGEMENT A+ WORK, ON TIME, NO PLAGARIZING; ON TIME

DUDLEY ( RESPOND TO DISCUSSION 150-200 WORDS)

Within its industry, Apple Inc. is regarded as a company whose culture centers on secrecy, design perfectionism, and an unwavering commitment to user experience over cost-cutting. That said, this culture of intense product focus plays a pivotal role in influencing decision-making and the allocation of resources within the organization. Leadership consistently directs capital toward R&D and design refinement rather than spreading resources thin across a wide product lineup. For example, Apple deliberately limits its product portfolio compared to competitors like Samsung, choosing depth over breadth so that engineering and marketing resources concentrate on a handful of flagship devices each year. Within this framework, we recognize how the brand's culture facilitates the formulation and execution of strategic initiatives for this organization. The secrecy-driven culture allows Apple to control product narratives, generate market anticipation, and protect competitive advantages until launch, which strengthens brand loyalty and supports premium pricing power, both key drivers on the Financial and Customer perspectives of the balanced scorecard.

On the opposite end, though, that same culture can hinder decision-making when speed and flexibility are needed. Apple's top-down, consensus-driven approach and insistence on internal control have at times slowed responsiveness to market shifts, such as its delayed entry into foldable devices and generative AI features compared to competitors. Resource allocation decisions reflect this caution, since leadership often favors polish over speed to market. While this protects brand reputation, it can create missed opportunities in fast-moving segments, showing how a strong culture is both an asset and a constraint depending on the strategic initiative at hand.

GARRET ( RESPOND TO DISCUSSION 150-200 WORDS)

Working at Subway for two years gave me an opportunity to see organizational culture from inside the restaurant rather than simply studying it from a corporate perspective. At the time, I probably would not have described what I was seeing as “organizational culture.” Looking back now, however, I can see how much the attitudes of franchise owners, managers, and employees influenced the way individual restaurants operated. Corporate could establish the standards, but the culture inside each restaurant often determined how those standards were actually carried out.

As an assistant manager, I saw that difference play out in ordinary situations every day. Cleanliness, food preparation, customer service, inventory, and even how employees responded when a lunch rush suddenly hit were influenced by the expectations management established before things got busy. Having a corporate standard written down was one thing; getting an entire team to consistently follow that standard was another. Two restaurants could have the same Subway sign outside, sell the same products, and follow the same corporate procedures while still giving customers noticeably different experiences. To me, that is where culture stops being an abstract management concept and becomes part of actual strategy execution.

This is where I believe culture influences both decision making and resource allocation at Subway. Corporate leadership has to make decisions for the overall brand, while individual franchisees make decisions based on conditions within their restaurants. Those interests will not always align perfectly. Corporate leadership may believe additional training, equipment, technology, or restaurant improvements are necessary for the future of the brand. A franchise owner looking at payroll and operating expenses may see another expense being added to an already difficult month. Neither perspective is necessarily unreasonable. The challenge is creating enough trust and shared purpose that both sides understand why resources are being allocated in a particular direction.

Kennedy (2020) explains that organizational design requires decisions involving authority, responsibility, division of labor, organizational structure, and control systems. The chapter also identifies output, behavioral, and clan controls as different mechanisms organizations can use when executing strategy. Clan control was actually a term I had never heard before this week’s reading, but once I understood what it meant, I immediately connected it with experiences from my military career. Written rules can tell people what they are required to do. Culture can create an environment where people hold themselves accountable even when nobody is standing over them.

Before serving with the 82nd Airborne Division, I spent two years and nine months in the Army’s Special Forces training pipeline. That environment gave organizational culture a very different meaning to me. Standards were extremely demanding, accountability was constant, and teamwork was not optional. Everyone had to contribute because one person’s preparation and performance could directly affect the people around them.

My experience there also taught me that organizational culture is not simply about demanding more from people. It is revealed by what happens when those people face adversity. During one Special Forces training event, I was seriously injured in an explosion. I suffered perforated eardrums, damage to my vision, and a severe traumatic brain injury.

For about a year, much of my life revolved around rehabilitation. I underwent physical therapy and gait training to learn how to walk properly again, speech therapy to relearn how to communicate, and vision therapy to address the damage to my eyesight. Skills I had taken for granted my entire life suddenly had to be rebuilt through months of repetitive work.

That could have easily been the end of my military career. It wasn’t.

After completing that long rehabilitation process, I was able to continue serving as an 11B Infantryman and went on to have a successful Army career. My service afterward included deployments to Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, time in Colombia, Romania and Moldova, and multiple rotations through the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk. I went from having to relearn basic abilities to returning to demanding military environments around the world. Those experiences continued reinforcing something I had learned much earlier, organizations perform at their best when preparation, accountability, teamwork, and trust are already part of the culture before people are placed in difficult situations.

Looking at those experiences through the material from this week also gives the phrase “invest in your employees” a different meaning to me. Investing in people is easy to discuss when everything is going according to plan. The real test of an organization’s culture can come when someone experiences adversity, needs additional development, or temporarily cannot perform at the level they once could. My recovery required an enormous amount of determination on my part, but having the opportunity to recover, retrain, and continue contributing mattered as well. In a business environment, the circumstances are obviously very different, but I believe the underlying management lesson still applies. Developing people can create value that is not immediately visible on a financial statement.

My military experience also helped me understand Kennedy’s discussion of clan control. The Army certainly had regulations, measurable standards, inspections, and formal authority. However, some of the strongest influences on our behavior came from the culture itself. You prepared because other people depended on you. You maintained your equipment because someone else’s success might eventually depend on it. You did your job when nobody was watching because you did not want your teammates carrying weight that belonged to you. Trust was not something created by putting the word on a poster. It was earned repeatedly through competence, preparation, and accountability.

Later, while serving as an 11B Infantryman, I also served in the Operations NCO duty position for my infantry company. That gave me another perspective on organizational design because I was involved in coordinating training, requirements, resources, and operational preparation. Higher headquarters could establish priorities and provide guidance, but eventually those priorities had to move through the organization and become something Soldiers could actually execute. Kennedy’s discussion of delegating authority and responsibility particularly reminded me of that experience. A plan did not execute itself simply because somebody with enough rank approved it.

The stakes at Subway are obviously nowhere close to those of military operations, but the organizational principle transfers surprisingly well. Subway corporate leadership cannot personally supervise what happens behind the counter of every restaurant. The company therefore needs formal controls, but it also needs franchisees, managers, and employees who take ownership of the standards associated with the Subway name.

Output controls can measure results such as sales, order accuracy, customer satisfaction, or employee turnover. Behavioral controls can establish food safety procedures, recipes, training requirements, and operating standards. Culture fills a different role. Culture influences what happens when nobody from corporate is visiting and there is no inspection scheduled.

A strong culture can make Subway’s strategy considerably easier to execute. A franchise owner who invests in employees, develops managers, recognizes strong performance, communicates expectations, and holds people accountable creates an environment where new initiatives have a better chance of succeeding. Employees are also more likely to communicate problems and take some ownership over the restaurant instead of doing the absolute minimum necessary to make it through another shift.

Culture can become a hindrance just as easily. Subway’s franchise structure means individual owners can have very different priorities. One franchisee may consider employee training an investment, while another considers it primarily an expense. One may maintain high standards regardless of whether an inspection is approaching, while another becomes concerned about standards only when someone is checking. Those differences eventually become visible to customers, and customers normally do not blame an individual franchise owner. They blame Subway.

This is also why I believe resource allocation has to include investment in people. Technology, advertising, restaurant remodeling, and menu development all matter, but none of them eliminate the human side of execution. Resources devoted to franchisee support, manager development, employee training, communication, and meaningful recognition can strengthen the culture responsible for carrying out the larger strategy. This connects directly with this week’s emphasis on staffing an organization properly, strengthening organizational capabilities, and rewarding employees in ways that encourage commitment to strategic goals.

At the same time, Subway should be careful about trying to solve every cultural problem by creating another rule. Kennedy (2020) emphasizes organizational control systems, but effective control involves more than simply monitoring behavior. Subway needs inspections, standards, and accountability, but the company cannot audit its way into a healthy organizational culture. An inspection can determine whether a restaurant met a standard on Tuesday afternoon. Culture determines what happens Wednesday morning after the inspector is gone.

That may be my biggest takeaway from Week 6. I have experienced organizational culture in environments that could hardly be more different. I spent two years working at Subway. I spent two years and nine months going through Special Forces training. I experienced a catastrophic setback, spent approximately a year rebuilding abilities I had once taken for granted, and returned to serve as an 11B Infantryman. Later, serving in an Operations NCO duty position allowed me to see the planning, resource coordination, and delegation that take place behind execution. The consequences in those environments were dramatically different, but one principle remained remarkably consistent, people perform differently when standards become part of the culture instead of something they follow only when someone is watching.

For Subway, successful strategy execution will require balancing corporate standards with the realities faced by individual franchisees. Corporate leadership needs to establish clear expectations and protect the brand, but it also needs to listen to the franchisees, managers, and employees responsible for executing those strategies every day. Strong performance should be recognized, successful practices should be shared, and training should help people understand why standards matter instead of simply telling them what to do.

Ultimately, organizational culture is not separate from strategy execution. It is part of strategy execution. An organization can have money, technology, recognizable products, and an excellent strategic plan, but eventually people have to turn that plan into action. Subway’s challenge is not simply deciding where the company should go next. It is creating a culture across its franchise system where the people responsible for getting it there understand the strategy, have the resources to execute it, and take enough ownership to maintain the standard when nobody is watching.

LAWANNA ( RESPOND TO DISCUSSION 150-200 WORDS)

Additional Digital Strategies for Crown & Coil Hair Care

For my final digital marketing plan, I plan to incorporate several strategies beyond social media marketing and website design for Crown & Coil Hair Care. One of the biggest components will be email marketing because it gives the brand an opportunity to build an ongoing relationship with customers rather than relying solely on social media algorithms. I plan to use email segmentation to send customers content based on their interests, hair concerns, and previous purchases. For example, a customer interested in moisture products could receive educational content and product recommendations focused on hydration, while a customer interested in scalp care could receive information specifically related to maintaining a healthy scalp. I would also use A/B testing to compare subject lines, offers, images, and calls to action to determine what generates the strongest engagement. This approach would allow Crown & Coil to make marketing decisions based on customer behavior instead of assumptions.

Another strategy I plan to incorporate is paid digital advertising, particularly pay per click and retargeting campaigns. PPC could help Crown & Coil reach consumers who are already searching for solutions related to natural hair care, moisture, hair growth, and scalp health. Retargeting could then reconnect with visitors who viewed products or added items to their cart without completing a purchase. This creates multiple opportunities to move a potential customer through the buying process. According to Laudon and Traver (2014), ecommerce provides businesses with opportunities to use digital technologies to create stronger connections between consumers and businesses. For Crown & Coil, I want those connections to continue beyond the initial website visit.

Personalization and AI are two areas that could help Crown & Coil differentiate itself from competitors. AI could assist with analyzing customer behavior, identifying content trends, creating initial content drafts, and helping determine which products may be relevant to different customer segments. However, I would use AI as a supporting tool rather than allowing it to replace the human connection behind the brand. Personalization could also extend to an interactive hair care recommendation experience where customers answer questions about their hair type, concerns, current routine, and goals and receive suggested products and educational resources. This would make the shopping experience feel more individualized while also helping customers understand why particular products may be appropriate for their needs.

An innovative approach I would like to incorporate is an omnichannel strategy that connects the website, email, social media, and educational content instead of treating them as separate marketing channels. For example, an Instagram post about dry or damaged hair could lead customers to a Hair Education article, which could then introduce them to a moisture focused product collection. After the customer visits the website, email marketing could provide additional education or a personalized offer. This creates a consistent customer journey across multiple touchpoints. The goal is not simply to be everywhere, but to make each channel work together and move the customer naturally from awareness to education, consideration, and eventually purchase.

One opportunity that could give Crown & Coil an advantage is combining education with personalization. Many hair care brands promote their products heavily, but Crown & Coil can focus on helping customers understand their hair while also recommending products that fit their individual needs. The brand could create a Hair Journal containing articles, tutorials, ingredient education, wash day guides, and personalized product recommendations. This approach supports the idea that digital marketing should provide value rather than simply push a sale. It also gives customers a reason to return to the website even when they are not immediately ready to purchase.

Ultimately, my goal is to create a digital strategy that builds a relationship with the customer instead of focusing only on individual transactions. Crown & Coil will use social media to create awareness, the website to provide a strong shopping experience, email to develop relationships, PPC to reach high intent consumers, personalization to make the customer experience more relevant, and AI to improve efficiency and decision making. By connecting these strategies into one cohesive customer journey, Crown & Coil can create a stronger digital presence while developing the trust and loyalty needed for long term growth.

References

Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2014). E-commerce essentials. Pearson Education, Inc.

Biotnott, J. (2015). Tech is changing the way we get our news, and it's not stopping. Inc.