W3

Context: In the discussion this week are you prompted to further explore your company’s strategy. This milestone will use the research and insights gained in your discussion and build on it to further assess your company.

Requirements: Use the research and information you gained in the discussion this week to critically assess your company’s strategic planning process. Research the strategy of one of your company’s top three competitors, then compare and contrast their strategy to your organization’s strategy.

Your second milestone submission should address the following requirements:

1.  Provide a brief summary of your company’s strategy (do not copy word for word from your discussion post) and how it is impacted by the organization’s structure as well as the environmental factors you outlined in your first milestone.

2.  Describe the strategy of at least one of your company’s top three competitors and how their strategy is impacted by the environmental factors you outlined in your first milestone.

3.  Critically assess both strategies. Consider the following questions to help develop a full assessment:

a.  How are the strategies the same?

b.  How do the strategies differ?

c.  Are they impacted by the structure of the organization?

d.  Are they impacted by the same environmental factors?

e.  Is one better than the other? Or more successful than the other?

f.  What could your company change to improve their strategy?

Your second milestone submission should follow APA format, be well supported with a minimum of five recent sources, and be a minimum of four pages long.

Remember: The goal is to demonstrate critical thinking and application of concepts as well as how they interact. Focus the bulk of your efforts in this milestone not on summarizing strategies but rather in comparing and contrasting the two company’s strategies, assessing their effectiveness, and exploring what environmental factors are at play that impact the strategies.