Walmart

Assignment Three. This is a group project. Your job will be to apply Hill’s Strategy Development Framework from chapter 4 to an organization of your choice. Note: You cannot select Starbucks, McDonalds, or e-Bay. This will require research to identify corporate objectives and competitive priorities. You can look at the McDonald’s example in the chapter for guidance and make sure that you emphasize OM concepts, capabilities, and execution. Your focus should be on the Operations Strategy in the last two columns. This analysis should be approximately 2000 words using a 12 point font and double spaced which is approximately 5 pages. If you go over the 2000 words I am not concerned. The instructions for this assignment are posted in Moodle in the module for November 16 and there is also an upload link for you to submit your project to me via Moodle. Note: only 1 upload is required per group – ensure you have all group member names on the document.
If you encounter participation difficulties with any group member(s), it is necessary that you speak with me immediately. If you come to me the week the project is due there is nothing I can do – you have to manage your team throughout the semester and deal with any group issues that arise immediately. For example, if a group member does not attend the first agreed upon meeting, that should be a warning to you and you need to find out the reason for the absence and determine as a group if the absence needs to be dealt with. I can tell you from experience that by giving too many chances to offending members you will find yourself waiting for work from that member(s) that may never materialize and you will be forced to submit a less than complete paper. This is the reality in the workplace so managing it in the classroom is good practice! Therefore, I suggest you keep either a Facebook tracking system or other documentation showing each individual group member’s participation, attendance and work submitted as part of the project and manage the team closely. All members will receive the same grade so if you feel your only resolution is to remove a member from your group you need to have that assessment to me on or before November 2.
Keep in mind that I am in Canada, NS.
Further instructions:
Hills’ Strategy Development Framework
This assignment is designed to force you to think strategically both in terms of operations and the organization as a whole. Although you will be applying the template from Chapter 4 – which very aptly ties in operations strategy with the overall corporate and marketing objectives – you will also find that you are identifying all of the topics covered in this course (eg supply chain management, inventory, processes, sustainability, etc). You can never look at your operations strategy in isolation. It always has to be interrelated and stem from the overall corporate objectives. The end result of your project should be to highlight how Operations Management issues contribute to the overall mission, corporate strategy and marketing objectives of the firm as a whole.
You can select your firm to analyze but ensure you do not take on too big of a task – if you select a large organization it might be useful to focus on one product line or aspect of the company. You must select a publicly traded company so I can view the sites to confirm information provided in your project.
The instructions tell you to use the Hill’s Strategy Development Framework and follow the McDonald’s example which is an exact replica/template of what I am looking for. Where I think students might struggle is that they try to find something to put into every bullet point in the Framework template. This is not rational or possible. On page 83, Exhibit 4.3 you will see the first three columns help you understand the organization’s objectives, marketing strategy and “How Do Goods and Services Qualify and Win Orders in the Marketplace.” There are 17 bullet points under this third column but if you look at the McDonald’s example (page 86, Exhibit 4.6) you will see for column 3 they have only identified 6 ways the firm qualifies and wins orders in the marketplace and they have linked these 6 methods with the corporate objectives. They have not tried to “fit” something into each of the 17 bullet points in the generic Hill’s Strategy Development Framework template! So use the bullet points as guidelines as to what you should be trying to find information on but address only those issues that apply. You can also find other methods that are not in the list but I strongly suggest you use the suggested guidelines from the bullet points first as these has been tried and tested for many major corporations and are the most common guidelines or areas where you will find relevant information.
Once you get the information gathered and can complete the first 3 columns then you can start linking how the last 2 columns under Operations Strategy help match the firm’s OM strategy to the overall organizational strategy. As this is an operations course I will be looking very closely at these two columns.
If you are looking for plentiful and fast information, go to the website for the company you have chosen. You will see in their site a location for “Investor Relations” or “Financial Statements” or perhaps some other wording similar to this. Find your way to the company’s financial statements and bring up the most recent ones and you will find significant information from the company – perhaps enough for all 5 columns to be completed! You are not looking at the numbers in these statements per se; rather, you are looking at all of the preamble given to shareholders by the company CEO or President as typically these preambles very specifically outline corporate objectives, strategies, infrastructure, etc. This is always where I go first when researching a company that is public. It does not mean you cannot make phone calls or do other research – in fact I encourage it as you might need to do so. But certainly make your first research stop for this project the company’s most recent financial statements. Keep in mind that the information in the financial statements is coming from senior executives of that organization so it is slanted towards making the company look favourable; however, information about the corporation is generally accurate such as markets, growth, products, corporate objectives, etc. It is just presented in the best light possible!
As part of your write-up you are required to include a summary similar to that shown in Exhibit 4.6 on page 86 and if you are required to present this in class that is what you should use as your main oral guideline. Also, I expect an analysis of whether your feel the operations strategy is a good fit with the corporate and marketing strategy and why or why not.
Final Comments: This project cannot be done in a few hours – just because the number of pages is suggested to be around 5 does not mean this is a short and easy project. This is a 3000 level course and my expectations are that the work submitted will include 5 pages of high quality research and critical assessment (and of course you may exceed the 5 pages). A good idea is to divide the framework components amongst your group members. Also, keep on top of group members. It will be too late if you come to me a few days prior to the paper being due to tell me a group member has not completed his or her part. There will be no extensions granted. If you leave it that late you will have to live with the consequences of not being able to complete your Framework properly.