Formulating Strategic Management Decisions

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Final project

Formulating Strategic Management Decisions

This final project is based on the following Harvard Business case study:

Khachatryan, D. (2014). Amarcord Incorporated: Combating money laundering using data analytics. Harvard Business Case Study. Retrieved from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/tu/789925b5

Assume your client accepted your urgent business proposal to design a data-driven approach to effectively accomplish the goal of fraud detection in financial institutions. Data analytics for fraud detection in financial institutions is the strategic management vision of Amarcord Inc.’s Chief Compliance Officer. Your work in teams is based on the average or aggregate monthly incoming wire transfer of $500,000 for a swimwear chain, considered highly unusual by business analysts for that business chain. In other words, it is impossible for a business chain of that size to earn such high monthly revenue.

After reading and analyzing the case, each team is required as part of the final project to address the following:

Identify and address the business problem and explain the need for a data analytic solution.

Explain the data analytic approach to tackle the business problem.

Explain the nature and structure of the received data (i.e., the average monthly revenue of $500,000)

and how data inconsistencies can be resolved.

To what extent is competitive intelligence and ethical standards relevant to your analysis and solution(s)?

How does cultural diversity impact the problem identification and or analysis of this case?

Elaborate on all the undertaken modeling and forecasting strategies.

Emphasize and summarize key findings as well as observations and recommend further steps that your client should undertake in the data analysis realm which could potentially lead to another engagement with your team.

Include how the company could work with various stakeholders currently and in the future; include desired outcomes.

Address how the organization’s culture influenced the situation within the case and give recommendations for culture improvements and your team’s ideas about changes that support innovation and ethical conduct.

Deliver your project report to provide clear and thorough answers that both technical and non-technical audiences will understand.

Your team’s written paper should meet the following requirements:

Be eight to ten pages in length, plus exhibits or illustrations

Be divided into the following sections:

Identification of business problem and evaluation of the need for a data analytic solution.

Explanation of the data analytic approach to tackle the business problem.

Explanation of the nature and structure of the received data (i.e., the average monthly revenue of $500,000) and how data inconsistencies can be resolved. Do you agree or disagree with the business analysts that the aggregate monthly revenue of swimwear is three times higher than the industry average? Justify your position.

Evaluation of all the modeling and forecasting strategies undertaken as brainstorming solutions and so forth.

Summary of key findings as well as observations and recommended further steps that your client should undertake in the data-analytic realm, which could potentially lead to another engagement with your team.

Deliver your project report to provide clear and thorough answers that both technical and non-technical audiences will understand.

Support your project with 10 to 12 peer-reviewed articles.  Be formatted according to APA.

Include a title page, introduction, conclusion, and references page.

In this assignment, you are to use the same corporation you selected and focused on for Assignment 1 (Public Corporation – Wal Mart)

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In this assignment, you are to use the same corporation you selected and focused on for Assignment 1 (Public Corporation – Wal Mart)

Using the corporation you chose from Assignment 1, examine the industry in which the entity operates. Use any or all of the following resources to conduct research on the company:

Company website

Public filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml)

Other miscellaneous sources. Note: the company’s annual report will often provide insights that other resources may not include.

Write a five to seven (5-7) page paper in which you:

1) Give your opinion on the corporation’s greatest strengths and most significant weaknesses. Choose either a strategy OR tactic the corporation should select to take maximum advantage of its strengths, and the strategy OR tactic the corporation should select to fix its most significant weakness. Justify your choices.

2) Determine the company’s tangible and intangible resources, core capabilities, and core competencies.

3) Choose the two (2) segments of the general environment that would rank highest in their influence on the corporation you chose. Assess how these segments affect the corporation you chose and the industry in which it operates.

4) Choose two (2) forces of competition that you estimate are the most significant for the corporation you chose. Evaluate how well the company has addressed these) forces in the recent past, going back no further than five (5) fiscal years.

5) With the same two (2) forces in mind, predict what the company might do to improve its ability to address these forces in the near future.

6) Identify what you consider to be the greatest external threat to this corporation. 7) Discuss how the corporation should address this threat. Justify your explanation.

8) Identify what you consider to be the greatest opportunity presented to the corporation, and discuss how the corporation should take advantage of this opportunity. Justify your explanation

9) Use at least four (4) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources .

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

This course requires use of APA Format using the attached Template.

Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

  • Identify how the six segments of the general environment affect an industry and its firms.
  • Identify the five forces of competition.
  • Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm.
  • Analyze the internal environment of a company for strengths and weaknesses that impact the firm’s competitiveness.
  • Use technology and information resources to research issues in business administration.
  • Write clearly and concisely about business administration using proper writing mechanics.

Research various standard form of franchising, post your assessment of franchising as potential sales and distribution strategy using at least one concrete example, be it positive or negative, to support your conclusion.

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Franchising, especially when considering international markets, has a number of desirable characteristics. Depending on the nature of the business and the vision and goals of the franchisor, it is possible to create partnerships with professionals around the world who more deeply understand their target markets, messaging and cultural-sensitive communication mechanisms, and as well as local laws, rules, and regulations. If such a path is taken, what can be done to remain effectively “connected” to the ultimate customers? Are there any current trends with the Internet, eBusiness, and social media that might be useful?

Research various standard form of franchising, post your assessment of franchising as potential sales and distribution strategy using at least one concrete example, be it positive or negative, to support your conclusion.

essay

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Hello Class,

I would like to encourage you to share excerpts of your rhetorical analysis essays.

Please feel free to use this thread to share your ideas, questions, doubts, lightbulb moments and resources as you work on your essays.

If you give feedback, make sure that it is positive. Respond to what is working well or is particularly engaging.

We have a wealth of talent in this class; let’s continue to share it.

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Synthesis Essay

List of Readings: “The Banking Concept of Education”, Freire; “Talk on Education”, Robinson; “Freewriting”, Elbow; “Multiple Intelligences”, Gardner; “How to Mark a Book,” Adler; “The Maker’s Eye”, Murray.

Essay Assignment:

In this essay you will be making a claim regarding your ideas on education. This claim will be derived from a synthesis of ideas drawn from at least two of the readings from this quarter and from your collective discussions. One of these texts must be Freire. Feel free to draw from ideas introduced in your first two essays.

On the path to developing a claim, you will, among other things, be analyzing and/or comparing the ideas of some of the authors you have read this quarter.

Some questions you might ask to get started: What are the writer’s ideas on learning or creativity? What are some of the claims made regarding power, poverty, transformation and society? Where do they agree, and where do they disagree? How have your classmates’ views on education informed your own or enhanced your understanding of the readings?

These are just ideas to get you started. (Be sure to read Ideas for the Synthesis Essay.)

Introduction: Use an engaging method to introduce the general topic and provide background for your thesis. Include a complex, multi-layered thesis statement.

Thesis: Your thesis will be created from your own ideas about some specific aspect of education that we have been learning about all quarter. You will, of course, use a careful analysis of the authors’ and classmates’ ideas and arguments. You may write about the ways these ideas have informed your own. You may compare and contrast the differences and similarities of several works.

When introducing any texts you are discussing, give the authors’ full names, their main ideas about learning/education and the titles of their essays. Any use of source material needs to be cited properly.

Body Paragraphs:

Do not completely summarize all the ideas in any essay. You do need to summarize the main points you are analyzing and illustrate your claims with material from the texts.

Ideas: Analyze the author’s ideas on education. Do the writers’ ideas inform each other? In what ways? Do the writer’s arguments support your own ideas? Can you present evidence or reasoning that disputes any of the writer’s arguments? Give examples. Be sure to use specific evidence from the texts to support each of your claims.

Conclusion: End your paper by referring back in some way to your introductory ideas and thesis (main claim).

(Be sure to properly introduce, integrate and cite all source material. See MLA Guidelines, Rules for Writers, Chapters 53-57.)

Your final, revised and corrected essay should be between 5-7 pages.

(Please do not write more than 7 pages.)