The Strategic Plan

Write a strategic plan for any profit seeking, publicly traded company you choose, or one of the big four accounting firms. Use a heading for each section, and sub-headings within the sections. Each section should have a short introductory paragraph, each should be placed on its own page, and no section should exceed a page. Include a cover page for the final paper. Use 12 point font.

1. The Executive Summary is a one paragraph summary of the whole paper.
   Clearly describe the plan you finally chose, and why you chose it.
2. In the Background section include the company’s size, the businesses it’s competing in, and the strategy or strategies it’s following. Also include current performance, especially five-year stock price change, and the following one-year ratios: ROA, net profit margin, and asset turnover. Be sure to evaluate current performance, rather than simply reporting the numbers.
3. For the SWOT Analysis tell the reader about your company’s most important strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. With the introductory paragraph, this means five paragraphs. For the opportunity and threat you must use an item from figure 3.1 of our text. For the strength and weakness you must use an item from figure 4.1 of our text.
4. The Alternatives section is the creative part of the paper. Build on the SWOT and present two possible plans for your company, chosen from the six options below. Each should be complete enough that the reader can understand and evaluate it, and each should include a cost estimate.
   i. product/market exploitation – lecture
   ii. product development – lecture
   iii. market development – chapter 7
   iv. backward vertical integration – chapter 6
   v. forward vertical integration – chapter 6
   vi. diversification – chapter 8
5. In the Choice section choose one of the two alternatives, reject the other,
   and explain why. The justification should refer back to the SWOT analysis.
   This will probably be your shortest section.
6. In the Implementation section use material from chapter 10 of our text.
   For example, you might describe changes you’ll need to make in
   organizational structure, control systems or culture.

Sample Solution