Assignment Overview

The case assignments were designed before Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market. Now that WFM is owned by Amazon the data needed is no longer available or out of date. This makes doing the case somewhat difficult.

We are going to analyze a different company for the cases: JAKKS Pacific, Inc. This is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the symbol JAKK. The company is in the toy industry.

So when you are reading the case assignments, just substitute JAKKS Pacific, Inc. where ever you see Whole Foods Market. Here are some links to help you begin to get info and data on this company:

The most important part of the paper is answering this question: JAKKS Pacific and ABC Company want to know if we (meaning you) think they should make any strategic changes or continue with the status quo. Synthesize everything you have discussed, provide a final recommendation, and justify your reasoning.

What is your recommendation? - continue with the current strategy (status quo) or change to a different strategy, and be specific about that strategy (grand strategy, Porter's generic, and specific goals/actions). And the EXPLAIN and JUSTIFY your recommendation.

When you explain or justify that means discuss "why". And you should go at least three levels deep in your "why analysis".

Assignment Overview
XCG

The Excellent Consulting Group

Communication from Art:

I reviewed your report regarding Organizational Diagnosis, and I thought you did a nice job. I presented your recommendation to ABC Company and Whole Foods Market, and had several discussions with them.

They've finally decided that they want to use the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model to analyze the overall congruence in the company - they like the Input and Output analysis that this model provides.

First, the company's executives are interested in the Inputs, including the strategy. They are interested in getting an objective opinion of what their critical inputs are and how they align with their strategy. So I suggest that you very quickly brush up more on the Congruence model, particularly for this assignment on inputs.

Second, we need to analyze how Whole Foods Market has been doing in terms of its performance and how it stacks up against its goals. We will do this at three levels: the overall organizational level, the group level, and the individual level. The Congruence Model explains this well. You should be up to speed on this model.

The executives also want to know how congruent the outputs are across the three levels. Given your analysis of performance at each of the three levels, are the interactions of these outputs congruent - highly, somewhat, or very little? Make this determination and support it with a logical argument using the information that you obtain about Whole Foods Market's goals and performance.

Case Assignment

Using the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model, conduct an analysis of Whole Foods Market's inputs and how they align with the strategy, as well as its outputs.

For the analysis, I suggest that you start with strategy, since you have already done some work on this aspect in your first report. Review Whole Foods Market's strategy and then determine which one of Porter's competitive strategies fits with this strategy. Then review the company's inputs and determine one or two specific critical inputs from each input category: environment, resources, and history.

Ultimately, I want you to determine how aligned the critical inputs are with the strategy. Is there high congruence (alignment), some congruence, or little to no congruence? I expect you to support your claim with a good, logical argument using the information you have collected.

In order to make this case, you first need to review the strategy and then classify it as one of Porter's competitive strategies. Then identify the Key Input factors in the first three categories. Explain why these are the critical input factors. Then determine how congruent the three input factors are with the strategy.

Then use the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Module to analyze Whole Foods Market's outputs. Start with the Organizational Level. Identify the Outputs - what does it produce and sell? What are its goals? How has it been performing? Then go the group level. What are some groups that Whole Foods Market identifies, and the goals and performance of these groups. Finally, discuss the Individual level. Here you will find it difficult to get much detailed information, so identify five to seven key jobs and their outputs. How can the performance of these jobs be measured? Finally determine the congruence of the outputs and make a strong argument for your case.

Be sure to include references. Turn in the 6- to 8-page paper by the end of the module.

1. Discuss the organization's strategy and classify it according to Porter's three generic competitive strategies.

2. Identify the most critical inputs in each of the first three categories and justify why they are critical. Also explain what effect the inputs from one category have on inputs from the other categories.

3. How well does the strategy fit with the environmental, resource and historical inputs you identified?

4. Make a Case for your proposition as to how the Key Inputs support (are congruent with) the Strategy. Specifically make a claim: "The inputs at Whole Foods Market consisting of Organizational Environment factors, Internal Resource factors, and Historical Tradition factors are [highly, partially, or minimally] congruent with the company's strategy."

5. In order to make your case you need to identify the outputs of the organization at each of three levels. Also identify the goals that it has set and its current performance. Include the following:

- Outputs at the organizational level are the products and/or services that it provides to its customers. What are these and how does the company categorize them? How does it measure its organizational performance (e.g., sales, net profit, return on sales, return on assets, market share, customer satisfaction, etc.). Provide some specific performance data.

- What are some ways the company identifies groups? For example, are there geographic groups (or divisions), functional groups, etc. What are the outputs of these groups? How does it (or how might it) measure performance of these groups?

- What are some of the key individual functions, and what are their outputs? How do these outputs contribute to the group outputs? How do they measure individual performance?

- Evaluate how the outputs at the different levels interact with each other. Determine if you think the congruence of the outputs is high, medium, or low. Then make a strong case. It is very important that you support your position with evidence and information that you have discussed earlier in the report.

5. Support your analysis with objective evidence. Sources of information for the entire project may include interviews, organizational documents and reports, articles in newspapers, and trade publications. Be sure to cite your sources and provide a list of references.

Write up your report in a 6- to 8-page paper and submit it by the end of the module.