Week 10 Discussion 2

Strategy Implementation and Strategic Controls

Assignment Overview

This final case involves an analysis of strategy implementation at the Coca-Cola Company. You will use the resources you identified in the SLP to gather information about the company and relate that information to your work in the previous four cases.

Required Reading

Refer to the required and optional readings related to strategic implementation and strategic controls, the themes for this module.

Case Assignment

In Module 4, we will conclude the case study process by researching the Coca-Cola Company’s strategic controls and their fit with the company’s chosen strategy.

Keys to the Assignment

• Step One: Review your Case papers from Modules 1-3 so that you are familiar with the mission, vision, SWOT, strategy, and strategic choices you have identified over the course of the class.
• Step Two: Research the structure, systems, people, and culture at the Coca-Cola Company. You will not be able to get answers to every single question, but you will need to answer at least one or two for each component.
• Step Three: Describe the Coca-Cola Company’s organizational design, key strategic control systems (e.g., budgeting and variance analysis systems), primary human resources concerns, and cultural factors, and the effect that these have had on the implementation of the Coca-Cola Company’s strategy.
• Step Four: In a 6 to 8 page paper, critically evaluate the fit—or the lack of fit—between the company’s mission, strategy, and organizational components crucial to implementation. Do these components complement the strategy? Why or why not?
• Step Five: Choose three (3) of the thirteen ethical “prescriptions” included in the following article: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/bu…. Next, discuss the extent which the company’s sense of business ethics has been embedded within its strategic management process, as evidenced by your chosen three indicators.
• Step Six: What changes would you—as the CEO—make to better assure the success of the company’s strategy? This is the most important section of the Module 4 Case.
• Step Seven: Consider the Case as a formal business report that you are developing for the Board of Directors and CEO as the Coca-Cola Company’s consultant. This is a professional document. Follow the format below:
  • Executive summary: This is a synopsis of the main points, conclusions and recommendations made in the longer report. If you would like a refresher on writing an executive summary, check this website: http://www.csun.edu/~vcecn006/summary.html
  • Introduction: State the main purpose of the paper (thesis statement), what you hope to accomplish, and how you will go about doing it.
  • Main Body: The “meat” of the paper. Emphasize analysis, not just description. Delineate separate topics or sections with headings.
  • Conclusion: Summarize your paper in the light of your thesis statement.

Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the grading rubric.

Tips and Suggestions

Note the following tips and suggestions:

• Business school case-study assignments are meant to offer practice opportunities for future businesspeople who are earning their MBA degrees. Consider yourself a consultant hired by the company to make these critical assessments. There are no right or wrong answers to the Case question, as long as your position is well defended.

• Study the theoretical concepts provided in the Background materials section of the module, and identify main strategy concepts.
• Include a cover page and reference page, in addition to the 6-8 pages of analysis described above. You must meet minimum length requirements.
• Include section headings as appropriate.
• Cite and reference all sources, including those you paraphrase. This means include citations and quotation marks for direct quotes of more than five words, and citations for information you have “borrowed” or paraphrased from other sources.
• Follow TUI Guidelines for Well-Written Papers.
• Submit your analysis by the end of this module.

• Review the case, titled “Ingraham v. Wright”, located at http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/edu/fn125/Abst…. Be prepared to discuss

From the first e-Activity, specify the key reasons why legislatures inflicted capital punishment in the history of the United States. Next, debate whether or not legislatures today should inflict capital punishment. Provide a rationale to support your position.

From the second e-Activity, take a position on whether or not the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Ingraham v. Wright should continue to be the law today. Provide a rationale to support your response.

RESPOND TO FOLLOWING STATEMENT:

It appears from the Mojo video that capital punishment saw increases at times of national strife and decreases in peace time. Historically, it was important for the nation to appear stronger in times of conflict. Presently, first degree murder and treason are the primary crimes that result in execution. Yet in the past we killed people for many far less serious crimes.

Personally, I am on the fence about capital punishment. Although this may sound strange coming from a long time police officer, it seems that in almost all cases there are some mitigating factors. From a mental health standpoint, is it even appropriate to kill mentally ill people for crimes they may or may not have even understood, the conundrum to that is aren’t we all a little crazy? Especially when committing a crime? I believe capital punishment needs to exist, however, with adequate guidelines to limit the executions to the most extreme cases.

READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY:

As I mentioned earlier in the day to you via telephone call, one of our insured, Kowalski’s Supermarket, has apparently been served with a civil complaint by one of its customers, known to us at this time only as “Maria” (we’ll get more details after the weekend from Mr. Kowalski), who is apparently a regular shopper at the store. The complaint against Kowalski’s centers around a recent shopping trip Maria made to the store, during which she asked for a particular product (a breakfast cereal) that was out of stock on the shelves. She expressed her dismay in a somewhat bothered fashion to Kowalski, who in turn immediately asked one of his employees, a stockboy by the name of Billy, to go to the rear stockroom to try to find a box of the product to bring back into the main retail space to give her.

  Billy took some undetermined amount of time to undertake a careful search for the product in the stockroom, which was apparently excessive for Maria. Ignoring warning signs on the stockroom doors which clearly indicated the space was for employees only, she pushed her shopping cart into the stockroom and confronted Billy verbally about the delay at that point. Maria saw the product for which she was looking in a nearby part of the stockroom and went to retrieve it, only to injure her ankle in a fall during her attempt to recover a box of it. Billy rushed to provide aid since it appeared Maria had been severely enough injured to be unable to stand or walk; she is claiming, however, that both the initial fall and Billy’s subsequent aid were both factors in her final injury. As a result of the injury, the complaint alleges, Maria was unable to go to a job interview she had immediately after the shopping trip and she subsequently lost that opportunity along with its appreciable fixed annual salary; she was also unable to return to her current employment as an aerobics instructor on an hourly rate at a nearby health club for a period of two months thereafter, and claims damages for loss of work, medical expenses and pain and suffering.

 I have been summoned to a meeting with representatives from Claims and Legal tomorrow, and although one of our attorneys will be there, I need to know the following ASAP so I may make a responsible recommendation about whether we should attempt to settle this matter or proceed to go to court with it (under our subrogation agreement with Kowalski’s, our company will defend Kowalski’s in court since it’s our money that will pay the plaintiff if she is successful on any claim). I need to know, specifically, (A) what tort claims plaintiff Maria may have against us, (B) what the legal elements of those claims are, and whether they’re intentional or negligent acts, (C) any legal defenses we have to those claims and (D) any counterclaims we may have against Maria to offset any potential liabilities Kowalski’s may have in this matter.

Assigning team members to task roles is a delicate and critical task. When done correctly, the team members will be excited about their role on the project, feel confident they can successfully complete the tasks assigned, and know they will have some conquerable challenges as they move through the project.

To effectively assign tasks to people (and people to tasks), the project manager must perform the following:

• Identify the roles needing to be filled.
• Determine the skills required for each role.
• Determine the skill sets of the team members.
• Assign team members to roles.

The objective for this assignment is to effectively select your team from the following people:

• Pat is available for 24 hours a week at $115 per hour. Pat was involved in several upgrade projects for this package and can act as business analyst, developer, or tester. Pat is very comfortable with the legacy system and does not see the benefit of moving to the Web-based version. He feels that the end users do not fully utilize the functionality they already have and will not use this new functionality effectively.
• Terry is available for 24 hours a week at $100 per hour. Terry was involved in the original installation and every upgrade since then. She tends to be in developer or tester roles for this system but acts as business analyst for other systems. She is very excited about the Web-based package and the functionality it provides. She is concerned, however, that the end users do not have the computer savvy to use it.
• Robin is available for 30 hours per week at $100 per hour. She was involved in the last two upgrades as a business analyst and has been trying to become involved in other systems and business areas. She was actively involved in the development of a custom Web-based application as a programmer. This was considered a skills development opportunity because her Web programming skills are not strong.
• Chris is available for 24 hours per week at $80 per hour. He is new to the IT department; he was previously a customer service representative. He just completed his undergraduate degree in computer science and has experience with Web programming and software testing techniques.
• Jan is available for 16 hours per week at $115 per hour. Jan is also new to the IT department. She was previously a consultant and was on process reengineering projects, including several for billing functions. She previously worked with the Web version product of the vendor’s competitor.

Assignment Guidelines:

• In this assignment, you are planning to fill the roles for the following 3 positions:
  • End user
  • Business analyst
  • Team leader
• For each role,
  • Describe the main responsibilities of the role.
  • Identify the skills that are necessary.
  • Select one of the candidates listed in the assignment description, and thoroughly explain why you have chosen each person for his or her role.
    • Explain any conflicts or problems that you encountered while making your selections.