Select a leader in an organization of your choice. This leader must be a decision-making manager; an executive or CEO is preferred. This must be a manager who understands the company's strategy and has a level of authority and responsibility to answer questions on macro environment factors that impact his or her organization as well as on assessing, to some degree, how well the company is performing according to its stated strategy. While an executive or CEO is ideal, most decision-making managers will implement the organization's strategy, for example, through the allocation of resources, assignment of tasks, or appraisal of employees in meeting company objectives.

This interview consists of a series of interview questions, some of which are listed on the interview questionnaire. You must also add three of your own strategy-related interview questions that pertain to company's strategy, factors that can impact a firm's strategy, a firm's competitive advantage and that are relevant to this leader or his or her organization. You will reflect on the interviewee/leader's responses and incorporate your own research about strategy topics in an analysis paper about the role of leadership in the creation and execution of strategy.

Reflect on what you have learned about the role of leadership and strategy from your interview. Analyze the importance of leadership in crafting and executing strategy. Incorporate meaningful research in your analysis; your research into strategy creation and execution topics could and should begin before the interview.
Include your entire interview questionnaire, including the interview questions you created, and your leader's responses in an appendix.

The appendix does not count in the page requirements for your analysis. Your own analysis should be 4 pages and incorporate research on strategy topics (Discussion on the importance of a sound, well-executed corporate strategy, Description of the key tasks in the process of crafting and executing a company's strategy, description of macro environment factors and the impact they can have on corporate strategy, ways to assess factors that impact strategy like rivals and drivers of industry change, Porter's five forces of competition to corporate examples, the concept of SWOT analysis to corporate examples, the value chain and its role in developing competitive advantage)

The analysis total pages (4) don't include the answers to the interview. The interview answers should be part of the appendix.

Interview Questionnaire

Name of Organization:

Name of Leader/Interviewee:

Date of Interview:

Delivery Method of Interview:

Predefined Interview Questions:

Part 1:Introduction (If you cannot find this information ahead of time, you will need to ask during the interview):

What is the name of your organization?

What are your organization's primary products and/or services?

Please provide a brief description of your organization's current mission/purpose and its vision for the future.

Does your organization have a stated strategy that it shares with stakeholders? If so, what is that strategy?

What are your responsibilities, and what is your title?

Part 2: Crafting Strategy

Are there forces outside your organization that put pressure on how your business is run? Briefly describe them.

How has your organization changed its strategy in response to outside forces?

How do your biggest rivals compete to try to gain an advantage with customers in your markets?

What do you believe is your organization's competitive advantage over rivals?

Describe how your organization involves the leadership team in developing strategies during challenging economic times.

Describe how your organization involves other employees in developing strategies.

Part 3: Executing Strategy

How does your organization communicate its vision and strategy to employees?

Briefly describe how your organization builds internal capabilities.

Describe how your organization determines and communicates objectives.

Describe how you and your organization evaluate performance towards stated objectives.

Plus 3 more questions of your own.

The best back-and-forth interview exchange is through a face-to-face meeting with your interviewee/leader. Other methods for the interview can include phone or web conferencing or interview by email.