Capstone Forum: Selecting an Organization for Your Strategy Playbook

As you know from reading the introduction to the course and this week's required Briefing Note, by the end of this course you will complete a Capstone Strategy Playbook for Exceptional Results, in which you will apply lessons from your case analyses and concepts in this course, plus your application of relevant prior MBA program content, to identify cross-functional, organization-wide opportunities for organizational improvement, and a develop a playbook for how the organization could address these important issues.

This set of analytical, consultant-style skills will help you, even if you are not a senior leader, because you will have demonstrated the ability to think across functional boundaries and you will be able to communicate about complex ideas more clearly—thus making you more valuable in your current and future roles.

To see details on what will be included in the playbook, please review the media piece Capstone Strategy Playbook for Exceptional Results: Description of the Playbook now.

The first step in creating your Strategy Playbook is to select an appropriate company or organization for your study. For your Strategy Playbook, you must select a publicly traded company that has more than 100 employees. Ideally, you should select an organization that you are very familiar with and/or very passionate about.

To prepare for this Discussion, you should complete the following tasks by Day 3:

• Review the media piece Capstone Strategy Playbook for Exceptional Results: Description of the Playbook. This media piece provides a description of the contents of the Strategy Playbook. (http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/WMBA/6990/CH/mm/game_plan/index.html )
• Consider:
• You may want to study your current organization if it is publically traded (all names of people within the organization must be disguised).
• You may want to study a direct competitor of your current company, if it is publically traded, and apply lessons learned as appropriate.
• You may want to study an exemplary public company where you could use your analysis to model a new business start-up you are considering.
• You may want to study a failing public company, and analyze what you think are the root causes of the failure and offer strategies for an effective turnaround.
• Be sure to choose an organization/industry that you are really interested in and will commit to studying for the remainder of the course.
• Remember it is likely that no one company or organization will be a perfect selection. So, log on to Walden Library and explore what information is available about your target company.
• There are a variety of databases and resources available that can help you with your research. Explore them to find the most effective ones. Since you are working with a public company, the Hoover's database is a good place to start. Remember that research and information literacy are two important MBA program level skills that you are expected to demonstrate.

post a summary of the following:

• The name of the company that you will study and an explanation that demonstrates how your choice meets the criteria given, and why you think you'll learn the most from it, and have the most fun analyzing it
• A sentence or two that verifies that you have been able to find annual reports and other information about the company at the Hoover's, Business Source Complete, or other relevant source within the Walden Library