Question #1-Strategic Thinking (Rubric Items: 1, 3 and 4)

Many business organizations establish definitive generic and grand strategies to achieve its long-and short-term plans, based on the outcomes of internal and external environmental scanning.

These organizations must understand their internal capabilities and external threats and opportunities, so a decided-upon strategic direction will make business sense. In general terms, all businesses aspire to be competitive and relevant in the market place. Please identify an organization of your choosing that must go through this process to sustain its relevance in the market place. Describe its business product or service line, and its culture and background. Then, analyze its vision, mission and values.

Next, critically deconstruct the results of its SWOT to derive a reasonable set of generic and grand strategies. Lastly, explain the process by which the grand strategies would be institutionalized in the organization and develop an evaluation and feedback process to assure the correct grand strategies were chosen and refined once implemented. Use scholarly, academic literature to support your response.7- Pages

Question #2-Divergent Thinking (Rubric Items: 1, 2, 3 and 4)

Please discuss the challenges management will likely face to transition from a monolithic culture to a multicultural organization. Whether the leadership of the organization decides to go global or stay domestic, in the 21st century, many businesses find not only legal grounds, but moral and ethical as well as profound business reasons to build a healthy culture of diversity beyond race, gender and age.

Provide a contrast-comparison analysis discussing the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a diverse entity, challenges that both management and rank and file employees might face in the process of diversification, and how the various stakeholders of the organization might respond to such initiatives to attain multicultural diversity in a global setting.

To ground the discussion, describe the organization of your choice from real, recent trade magazines, popular news, and business web sites and/or your personal experience.

Provide a specific example where leveraging diversity supports an organization's competitive advantage. Use scholarly, academic literature to support your response.7- Pages

Question #3-Informed Decision Making (Rubric Items: 1, 3 and 4)

Identify and describe an American company of your choice that is challenged in it production operations to support its basic business needs to manufacture a high-quality product, safely, within budget and on schedule.

Its operations management is characterized by a culture that supports acceptable quality levels (AQLs), but in fact are laboring under a high scrap rate, and where at least 50% of the time they are late to market and to the end user; they are also under threat of OSHA audits and monitoring for an increasing rate of lost time accidents; they have a mismanaged supply chain, massive overtime wage payouts to make up for lost time injuries and high scrap rate, increasing turnover and no shows at the work site, and where there is a spike in customer complaints resulting in business loss and narrowing profit margins.

As a strategic operations analyst, what action plan would you recommend to the senior leadership of the organization to take it from its current conditions to bring it closer to its ideal operating conditions (to become a company known for zero-defects, safe and reliable high-quality products, value to the customer, safe work operations, and lean manufacturing)? Use scholarly, academic literature to support your response. 7- Pages

Completing the Assignment : Please follow the instructions

1. Start a new page for each examination question (i.e., questions 1, 2, or 3). Sub-questions (i.e., parts a, b, c, d) can begin on the same page as the last sub-question completed). Total 21-pages

2. Follow proper APA style and writing conventions (i.e., spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.).

3. Include references at the end of your assignment. (It is not necessary to include a separate reference page at the end of each question.)

4. Address all of the required aspects of the Assignment in less than 20-24 pages.

5. Required minimum 10 references. The important thing is to support your statements by integrating scholarly sources. Scholarly sources will primarily include texts and peer-reviewed journal articles. Some .gov and .edu internet sites are acceptable, but please say away from .com sites, Wikipedia, and blogs.