Acme Mexico City: Construct and Explain the External and Internal Environment (ONLY PROFESSOR KERN)

Week 2 - Individual Assignment (W2IA) Instructions

Instructions:

The individual assignment recalls the Acme Mexico City (AMC) case and requests that you construct and explain the external and internal environment facing this American-owned, Mexico City-based do-it-yourself store.

· At a minimum you should update the work that you did befo

· re to reflect current conditions for such enterprises in both the USA and Mexico.Use the assigned readings, postings, online research (one of the current MBA Competencies that you have attained by now), and your personal knowledge to develop the factors that you will include to describe AMC's environment.

· Be sure to assess and report the relative importance in your judgment of each factor .

· Be succinct, a virtue in management reporting. Ten double-spaced pages should be more than enough for this assignment.

As to overall report format, you should use A Format for Your Text Assignments (Mandatory Use) .

Remember to include a results-filled executive summary at the beginning of your report

This is where we start to build on the Enterprise Strategy you discussed in week 1. Consider the Five Forces that Porter discussed. Look at the Resource Based model. Consider the strategic implications of moving into a foreign country. Can ACME make it work? Should ACME make it work? What are the risks? What are the possible benefits?

This is basically a small scale version of what you are doing the McDonald’s analysis as a team for week 2 and 3. You probably can’t do an in depth analysis, but, you can cover the basics in 10 pages. You will build on these skills from both an internal company perspective and an external industry and global perspective as we move through the course.

W2IA – Grading Rubics

Rubric for Individual Assignments and the End-of-Course Project 

1. Submit, on time.

a. Unexcused lateness will be penalized per AMBA policy, found in the course syllabus.

2. Meet each task specified by your section professor in their instructions for the IA/EOCP.         

a. /75 points

b. Includes: make few or no grammatical, spelling, or syntactical errors.

3. Show any or all of the following:        

a. /15 points

i. Critical thinking*

ii. Original thinking*

iii. Researched examples

iv. *Critical/Original Thinking: Demonstrate new approaches and/or ability to "push back" rather than simply reproducing another's thoughts. Use direct quotations sparingly and judiciously.  Properly identify any sources and integrate into own thoughts and ideas. 

4. Provide a straightforward, easy-to-follow arrangement with appropriate formatting (eg, section/paragraph headings) to speed reader comprehension.     /10 point

Includes: comply with APA-6 format. 

Includes: Answers clearly marked, and student name included both in file name(s) and within file(s).

Title – meaningful, interest-arousing   

Executive Summary

· Purpose of the paper

· How accomplished

· Key results and any recommendations   

Introduction

· Purpose of the paper

· Brief “roadmap” to contents   

Body

· Section heading 1, followed by paragraphs written as follows

· Topic sentence first

· Support for topic sentence - evidence, analysis

· Lead-in to next paragraph or section

· Section heading 2

· as above

· Section heading 3

· as above

          ... and so on, keepings paragraphs short (<= ~10 lines) to increase reader comprehension 

 

Examples of well-constructed paragraphs, with topic sentence first, followed by support and ending with a lead-in to the next paragraph or section:

Example 1

Researchers have studied the effectiveness of a variety of leadership theories in different contexts. Transformational leadership is often more effective than transactional leadership (Bass & Riggio, 2012). Supervision, a form of transactional leadership, can also be successful leadership practice (Kai, 2012). Executives, from Citibank and Target to local mom-and-pop hardware stores, can use transformational leadership in their executive models (B. Rye, personal communication, May 1, 2010). Both the leadership style and the organizational context can affect which leadership style is the best choice for each organization.

Example 2

Supervision, one practice in transactional leadership theory, can be effective for small business owners. The form of reward and punishment associated with this practice can increase employee retention rates (Duffy, 2011). Improved retention not only contributes to an efficient workplace, but it promotes local commercial stability and enterprise unity (Smith, 2012). However, other management styles that are informed by transactional theory can also benefit small businesses.

 

Conclusion

· Purpose of the paper restated

· Results and recommendations re-summarized as "takeaways"

· Must track with ES 

· Avoid new information in the Conclusion  

References - in APA-6 format - see sample provided in a following topic  

General guidance:

· Be succinct – your readers in management are busy

· Write the Executive Summary last – it must match what the paper says

· Use meaningful section (and subsection) headings, with a verb if you wish – example: How the West Was Won

· Again, keep paragraphs short

· Prefer active voice to passive voice as more emphatic and easier to understand

· Use graphics if they aid comprehension

· Spell- and grammar-check - lose no points to language errors

· Use pdf format for security and inviolability

· Remember to attach your Turnitin originality report in pdf format showing 10% or fewer matches (increase paraphrasing / limit quotations to increase your report's originality)