Identify the issue; do an external/internal analysis (external analysis: porter’s 5 forces, internal analysis) to understand the firm’s current strategy

Identify the issue; do an external/internal analysis (external analysis: porter’s 5 forces, internal analysis) to understand the firm’s current strategy

Identify the issue; do an external/internal analysis (external analysis: porter’s 5 forces, internal analysis) to understand the firm’s current strategy; understand the organization’s current design, leadership, and culture; recommend a course of action to solve the issue; outline the implementation the course of action and consider the impact of the new strategy, changes to org design, etc.

Necessary elements:

(1) Executive summary

should summarize the entire paper: what you did, what you discovered, what it means – all in a page or less

(2) Introduction

should tell the reader: what the paper is about, why it’s important to read the paper, and then describe the layout of the paper

(3) Issue identification

should identify the tools you used to understand the external environment and the organization, and explain why you used that tool

should tell the reader what the analysis discovered

should state the issue that your analysis uncovers

VRIO is not for GE: stating GE is valuable, it’s hard to copy, etc., is not the proper use of the model (VRIO looks at GE’s resources and capabilities individually, not the firm as the resource)

(4) Analysis of fit

is there a fit between the strategy of GE and your analysis of the external environment and the firm: state your position and build an argument to support the position? Did CEO make good decisions about the strategic direction of GE?

cite relevant papers from the course to discuss the idea of strategic fit (e.g., The coherence premium)

(5) Analysis of organizational design and culture

explain the model you used to understand the organization’s design: why this model?

should identify the GE case facts in relation to each element of the model

should discuss these elements with reference to the course readings (extrinsic rewards are good because paper X said so)

should link all of the elements (strategy, structure, people, rewards, processes) together to discuss whether or not there is alignment – this is the point of this analysis, is the organization designed well? What should have been changed, or what was changed to bring the design into alignment?

what is the take-away? Is Welch doing a good job in changing the organization?

(6) Analysis of leadership

should describe the type of change at GE

should describe and discuss CEO’s leadership style and its relation to the type of change

should describe the way in which CEO went about the change at GE in relation to implementation – how did he lead the change?

should describe the process through which leadership is developed (is there a thought to succession?)

should cite readings from the course

(7) Format

should cite the case in the references

should spell the names of authors correctly

should cite the papers correctly (e.g., Bartlett & Wozny, not Wozny & Barlett, and other combinations and spellings)

should spell the CEO’s name

should cite ideas that aren’t your own: the definition of leadership is…… (cite the author who said it)

should check grammar and spelling (e.g., it’s not “off of” – a personal no-no, we don’t say “on of”)

should check formatting: don’t leave hanging titles at the bottom of a page, don’t have a header without an exhibit

exhibits should be aids to the discussion: GE org charts don’t really lend anything to the discussion of structure when pasted into the middle of your essay, leave it for the appendix if you think it’s important

leave the document for developing your analysis, and leave discussion of Porter’s Five Forces (for example) to an appendix (e.g., discuss in the text that strong supplier power in the aircraft engines industry means….for GE’s strategy)

each appendix should be numbered sequentially based upon its first appearance in the text: Appendix 2 should not first appear after Appendix 3