scan of external environ

Assignment 2: External Environmental Scan

In order to develop effective strategies, it is critical to understand the marketplace environment. In this assignment you will explore the relationship between marketplace positioning based on environmental factors.

Throughout this capstone course, you will work on a strategy audit for a selected organization. In Module 1, you selected an organization for your course project activities. So far you have completed a market position analysis for your organization.

In this module you will conduct a comprehensive external environmental scan of your business unit, including a Five Forces analysis, to identify the relevant trends that pose opportunities or threats to your business. These will serve as inputs into a final SWOT analysis that will be due in Module 4: Assignment 2.

There are many elements that can go into an environmental scan, and your analysis will depend on the nature of your business unit, product portfolio, target market, and other factors related to the scope of your business.

Your environmental scan should include some or all of the following elements:

• Economic factors and trends
• Political factors and trends
• Regulatory and legal factors and trends
• Societal factors and trends
• Technological factors and trends
• Geographic factors and trends
• Porter’s Five Forces that consists of the following aspects:Threat of new competitionThreat of substitute products or servicesBargaining power of customers (buyers)Bargaining power of suppliersIntensity of competitive/industry rivalry

Although your analysis will be tailored to your specific business, be sure to cover the following:

1. A thorough Five Forces analysis of your industry
2. The key factors and trends in any other areas affecting your industry
3. A preliminary classification of the external factors and trends as either opportunities or threats which will be the inputs for the final SWOT analysis

Write a 3-page report in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2 .

By Wednesday, January 30, 2013, deliver your assignment to the M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

28

24

20

8

 80

Assignment Component	Proficiency	Maximum Points
Conduct a Five Forces analysis of your industry.	The Five Forces analysis is complete and clear.
Summarize the key factors and trends in any other areas affecting your industry.	Key factors and trends in other areas affecting the industry are clearly identified and concisely summarized. How they affect the industry is briefly explained.
Create a preliminary classification of the external factors and trends as either opportunities or threats (inputs into a SWOT) analysis.	Classification of external factors and trends is clear and accurate. It specifically identifies and labels the factors and trends as opportunities or threats.
Write using ethical scholarship and proper grammar and mechanics.	Writing is clear, concise, and in an organized manner; demonstrates ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and displays accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Total:

Running Head: CRAFTING A STRATEGY TO FIT A BUSINESS 1

CRAFTING A STRATEGY TO FIT THE BUSINESS 3

Crafting a Strategy to Fit a Business

Rajiv Pandey

Argosy University

Solution to Organizational Challenge: A Capstone Experience | B6028-P

Dr. James Marion

01/11/2013

I am a consultant for is Federal Reserve Bank of New York AKA The Fed.
The fed that basically prints the money and regulates the market whether in a good way or bad way I will leave it up to you. I am just a puppet consultant so I do not have any say in it.
My basic role at the fed is to update or replace user’s computers as its being moved from windows xp to windows 7 platform. My role in it is I have to build new and updated machine and give it to users and make sure that their old data is successfully transferred to the new machine.

The main problem within the bank is the organization problem; basically the left hand does not talk to the right hand and vice versa. When we have to deploy machines and people are scheduled to be at their desk they are not there. But we do not find that out until we call the users 10-20 minutes before the actual appointment.
The main thing is there are too many bosses and every one does not listen to IT professionals. People do what they seem is right and keep rescheduling their appointments or keep canceling and making it impossible to finish the project on time.
In a way it is good for the consulting company because the contract might get extended if the work is not finished on time. But on the other hand the contract company might get replaced because they did not finish the job on time.
So the problem is not just one person or one organization it’s multiple things and multiple problems that we as consultants face while working at the Fed and replacing their pc, laptops, and mobile devices.
My immediate lead have had several problems because whenever he gets a call from upper management to get something going he has no option to say no as he is a consultant. Keep in mind this project has been going on for 2 years and there has been there managers before my current one who has been replaced by the fed so the pressure is like mount Everest on him. He has gone to ER three times straight from work. So he is not in the best of shape to handle all this pressure.
The main issue here is that there is a group called markets which basically deals with the stocks and bonds and trades and they basically are the money makers and what they say is the law of the land.
So the strategic people did not do a good job of planning or responding to markets needs and wants in the planning stages and that is why I think it’s a mess in the system.
On one hand we have 3000 markets users that we have to deploy and on the other hand there are 2000 other groups like communications, statistics, and legal departments that we need to deploy machines to.
The best strategy should have been to deploy the small groups first one by one and then have all the resources allocated to deploy markets group all at once.
But now we only have 3 dedicated people for markets and 5 people dedicated to other groups. But when one person or two person calls in sick that are scheduled to deploy machine the whole day my manager starts going crazy as to how he will deploy the machines that are scheduled with the limited resources.
So they come up with a temporary solution to just built all the machines first and deploy them at a later time. Problem with that is encryption and user login is required to into the machine. And only few people have access to get into the machines and when they are out we have to use a central point of contact to get into machine and just authentication with them takes 30 minutes before they can let anyone in the machine. This wastes time and money of the fed and consulting company as there is double work involved.