Throughout this course, you have been analyzing the different facets of two organizations (GE and Alibaba) strategic development and implementation. This week you will pull all of these elements together, including the material you read this week about strategic leadership. This is a critical exercise as the final written work in the MBA capstone course.

Although we broke up the topics we studied about corporate strategy into manageable chunks, remember that in reality business firms function and compete as integrated wholes. The various elements of business and corporate strategy we discussed and analyzed create value for shareholders when they complement one another. In particular, the logic of business strategy in general must be congruent with the particular firms overall strategies.

Develop an integrated analysis of the corporate strategy of your current workplace organization, a previous employer, or an organization you would like to work for. Reach out to your instructor early in the week (or earlier in the course) if you need assistance identifying a suitable organization for your final study.

You should review the Course Project Guidelines document in the Supplemental Material below for more detail as needed.  The following summary of the major sections of the paper should help you focus your project:

Executive Summary1-page synthesis of major ideas in the paper. What is the organization? What is its corporate strategy? What are one or two important pieces of rationale for having that strategy? What are one or two brief examples of how that strategy is (or isn’t) accurately implemented? What are one or two important recommendations you can make to the organization about the strategic development and implementation of its corporate strategy. Remember, the executive summary is a brief review that someone can read and get a quick snapshot of key points in your paper.
General Analysis of Corporate Strategy12-page analysis of the organizations corporate strategy. What is the corporate strategy? What is the rationale that management uses to guide its decisions and actions at the corporate level? What is the business logic and reasoning behind the formulation of that strategy?
Formulation of Corporate Strategy12-page assessment of appropriateness and congruence of the various elements of the corporate strategy. Does each part fit with the logic and rationale of the overall corporate strategy? Is there internal consistency in how the corporate strategy is formulated?
Implementation of Corporate Strategy23-page evaluation of decisions and actions actually made by management and of its ability to make those decisions consistent with the stated corporate strategy. Are the organizations decisions and actions consistent with or inconsistent with its corporate strategy? Does it possess the resources and capability to follow its corporate strategy (i.e., make it happen)? Does alignment exist between its strategy and its leadership, structure, systems, and culture?
Conclusions and Recommendations12-page justification of consultant-type recommendations to the organization. Does the organization need to change its corporate strategy? Does it need to address congruence among the corporate strategy elements? Does it need to address how decisions and actions are made and implemented? Provide clear research, rationale, and appropriate examples to support your conclusions and recommendations.
Note: APA does not generally use an executive summary. However, consulting reports often do contain an executive summary. For purposes of this assignment, present the executive summary as the introduction paragraphs of your APA paper. Because the executive summary reflects information from the body of your paper, you will likely need to complete those sections before completing the executive summary.
Support your responses with examples.

Now that you’ve done some research into your state and its legislature, the next step is to delve into the issue itself and start to work on a strategy to pass (or stop) your bill. Also, find attached previous assignments so it can guide you. Read them first.

Part I: Interest group analysis

Your task here is to analyze the likely interest group players who will be involved in your bill. Start with the entity you are representing. What are its resources as well as weaknesses? Analyze your group and possible coalition partners for how you plan to work together. Part of this is actual research in terms of who these groups are, who they represent and of course their relationships with legislators. Next, work on the opposition. Who are they? What will they say and do? Who can they influence?

Part II: Committee and Floor strategy

Pick one of the committees your bill is going to be assigned to (if your bill has not yet be introduced, choose a likely committee). Analyze that committee and its members. What is its culture, reputation and history of legislation? Who are the members you plan on reaching out to? Who are the supporters, opponents and swing votes? Provide an outline of what your grassroots efforts will look like for both the committee vote and when the bill is heard on the floor. What will you do and when?

Grading Rubric

Your papers will be graded based on the following rubric.

Answered specified questions: Paper addresses fully all the questions posed in the assignment. 30 points
Integration of lecture/reading materials and analysis: Paper addresses and integrates key themes from lecture materials and pulls from these themes to assert well-argued conclusions. 40 points
Writing/concise: Paper is well written, avoids grammatical and spelling errors, observes page constraints, and is succinct.10 points
Creativity: Paper creatively applies lessons from parliamentary procedure and interest group strategy to find a solution in passing their bill. 20 points