[SOLVED] WEEK 1-9 PROJ - Business Finance - Operations Management

This module week starts the planning of your Strategic Audit Report. The Strategic Audit Report will enable you to gain an understanding of a business’s strategic position, financial posture, leadership team, internal and external environment that impacts them, and corporate resources (which include marketing, finance, human resources, information technology, and other elements).
In Module 9, you will compile and submit all of the information for your report, which will then be implemented into a formatted final strategic audit report.

Select an Aviation or Business related organization to research and then write an introductory overview to use as part of the strategic audit report that you will create throughout the term. Do not use an organization you have researched in another course; use only original researched material.
It is recommended you select a publicly traded company (one that sells stocks) for your strategic audit company. Public traded companies are required to make all of their financial information and board of directors’ information available to the general public, which makes it easier for you to collect the data needed for your strategic audit report.
Your Introduction overview should include the following:

The name of your business.
History and background of the business.
Detail of what the business does and who its target audience is.
Use a minimum of two (2) outside sources (cited and referenced).

You will continue to develop Section IV of the Strategic Audit Report (started in Activity 4.3) by adding three more parts to include Operations and Logistics, Human Resource Management (HRM), and Information Technology (IT).
It is imperative as a global business leader to understand all concepts and internal working in an organization to be able to make the right decisions for the future. Researching these three sections will enable you to understand further how your company operates from a technical and personal perspective.
Complete Your Deliverable
Provided are the guidelines to complete each part:

Operations and Logistics

Provide a one-page detailed report of your strategic audit company’s products, services, and manufacturing facilities.
Do they produce their products internally or have them outsourced?
If they are service-oriented, how are these services provided and what resources do they use? An example would be a healthcare provider of medical staff who works in a hospital, but the hospital is not owned by your company.
What is their logistics set up and/or how are their goods and services transported and supplied to the customer?

Human Resource Management (HRM)

Examine your company’s workforce.
How many employees do they have?
What benefits do they offer?
Are they union or non-union?
What are the working conditions (especially if they have facilities in other countries)?
Have they been protested by human rights groups for employment practices, or fined by the government?
What is your strategic audit company’s human resource office’s overall mission or goals?

Information Technology (IT)

Explain how your company incorporates Information Technology into its business model.
Are administrative and customer services automated?
Are the manufacturing and logistics systems automated?
What IT trends do they follow and what is the future outlook for your company’s IT utilization?

Review the Strategic Audit Report Guidelines page for additional details on this course project.
Submit Your Results

Each part of your assignment should be one page in length.
All pages should be double-spaced, with sources cited and referenced using current APA formatting.

You should have a total of three (3) pages upon completion of all parts. Compile all pages of your document to submit to this assignment.
Save your assignment using a naming convention that includes your first and last name and the activity number (or description). Do not add punctuation or special characters.
You are submitting your paper as a draft to Turnitin so that you can check the originality report, but the paper will not be stored in the Turnitin repository at this time.

For this activity, you will work on sections V and VI of the Strategic Audit Report by researching, evaluating, and selecting strategies for your strategic audit company. Finding the right strategy that aligns with your company’s mission, vision, culture, and business objectives takes continuous evaluation and research. The better the focus, appraisal, and calculations, the easier it will be to select the best strategy for your company to be successful in the future.

Provided are the guidelines to complete each section:

Using the worksheet, guidelines, and example sheets provided, create an SFAS matrix for your strategic audit company.

SFAS Worksheet (DOCX)Download SFAS Worksheet (DOCX)
SFAS Guidelines (DOCX)Download SFAS Guidelines (DOCX)
SFAS Examples (DOCX)Download SFAS Examples (DOCX)

Using the guidelines and example documents (attached below), create a TOWS analysis matrix for your strategic audit company.

TOWS Guidelines (DOCX)Download TOWS Guidelines (DOCX)
TOWS Analysis Example (DOCX)Download TOWS Analysis Example (DOCX)

From your completed TOWS Analysis recommend the one strategy that you feel best meets the future needs of your firm.

Support your decision by writing a detailed explanation justifying your selection. Use at least two outside sources properly cited and referenced to support your decision.

This may be the most important section in the strategic audit report, as it should tell the reader what you are going to do with all of the information presented in the audit and the best future strategy for the organization.
Review the Strategic Audit Report Guidelines page for additional details on this course project.
Submit Your Results

Parts 1 and 2 of your assignment should consist of the completed SFAS Worksheet and TOWS Analysis
Part 3 of your assignment should be a one-page assessment of your recommended strategy.
All pages should be double-spaced, with sources cited and referenced using current APA formatting

Compile all pages of your document to submit to this assignment.
Save your assignment using a naming convention that includes your first and last name and the activity number (or description). Do not add punctuation or special characters.
You are submitting your paper as a draft to Turnitin so that you can check the originality report, but the paper will not be stored in the Turnitin repository at this time.

You will complete Section VII: “Evaluation and Control” of your strategic audit report.
Measuring performance is a vital element of evaluation and control which includes many elements, data, and parts. Performance can be simply defined as the end result of activity and includes measures such as Return on Investment (ROI), Earning per Share (EPS), and many others.
Measuring performance correctly will enable you to gain a comprehensive understanding of how profitable a business is.
Complete Your Deliverable
Provided are the guidelines to complete each part:

Write an overview of how your strategic audit company measures performance, what specific measurement tools or programs they use, and if it is effective or not. Additionally, recommend one change or new measurement tool they should make or use, and why.
Controls are established to focus on actual performance results (output controls), activities that generate the performance (behavior controls), and resources used in performance (input controls). Output controls stipulate what is to be accomplished by looking at the results of behaviors using objectives, performance indicators, and markers. Behavior controls state how something is to be accomplished using policies, rules, and procedures as directed by management. Input controls focus on resources such as skill sets, abilities, values, and intelligence (Wheelen, Hoffman, Hunger, Bamford, & Deresky, 2016).

Write a description of the types of Output, Behavior, and Input controls your strategic audit company is using. Then explain if they are effective or not.

Review the Strategic Audit Report Guidelines page for additional details on this course project.
Submit Your Results

Part 1 of your assignment should be one (1) page in length.
Part 2 of your assignment should be one (1) page in length.
All pages should be double-spaced, with sources cited and referenced using current APA formatting.

You should have a total of two (2) pages upon completion of all parts. Compile all pages of your document to submit to this assignment.
Save your assignment using a naming convention that includes your first and last name and the activity number (or description). Do not add punctuation or special characters.
You are submitting your paper as a draft to Turnitin so that you can check the originality report, but the paper will not be stored in the Turnitin repository at this time.

EXTERNAL FACTOR ANALYSIS SUMMARY (EFAS) – Microsoft Corporation

FACTORS

WEIGHT

RATING

WGTD
SCORE

COMMENTS

OPPORTUNITIES

Tablets and Smartphones

.15

.45

Tablets and Smartphones have provided a brand new market avenue for Microsoft. Microsoft is competing in this new sector via their Surface and Windows 8 phone, but they have not quite met market expectation with this (Jones, 2018).

Gaming – Xbox and Kinect

.15

.75

Until 2010 Microsoft has been struggling in the gaming sector behind Sony (PlayStation) and Nintendo (Wii). But the launch of Kinect in late 2010 turned the corner in Microsoft’s favor and Microsoft has excelled in Gaming sector ever since launch of Kinect (Bloom, 2018).

Online Service offerings via cloud

.10

.40

The cloud computing has brought a new era of service offering across the software industry that enable small and medium companies to make use of advance software technologies without large investment. Microsoft has a dedicated online services division to compete in this sector and has been performing relatively well (Microsoft, 2018)

Emerging Markets

.05

.20

The technology sector in north America and Europe has matured, but there is enormous business to be tapped in emerging economies such as India and China as well as South America. Microsoft has done relatively well in getting their foothold in those markets (Smith and Simpson, 2018)

Global Talent pool

.05

.20

Attracting and retaining a very advance technical workforce is the key for success for any technology company. Microsoft has done relatively well to attract technical workforce from across the globe and created an environment to nurture and foster that talent to new heights (jones, 2018).

THREATS

Competition

.15

.45

Competition is the biggest threat for a technology company. In 80s and 90s Microsoft had performed very well compared to its competitors, but in the new millennium Microsoft had to face fierce competition in every sector from companies such as Apple, Google and so on (Microsoft, 2018).

Piracy

.05

.15

Piracy has been a threat to Microsoft and other software companies ever since beginning of the software industry. Piracy does make significant dent in Microsoft revenue. Companies like Microsoft have to keep developing new safeguard to prevent piracy as best as they can (Nelson, 2018).

Legal challenges

.10

.30

Government regulation and legal challenges cause significant loss of revenue for Microsoft. Most recently Microsoft was fined €561 million ($732 million) buy European Union for failing to respect an antitrust settlement with regulators (Graham, 2018)

Cyber security

.10

.40

Over last decade cyber security has become one of the key challenges for any large corporation and more so for technology companies like Microsof

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External Factor Analysis Summary Worksheet

FACTORS

WEIGHT

RATING

WGTD
SCORE

COMMENTS

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

TOTAL SCORES

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External Factor Analysis Summary Guidelines

Here are the guidelines for completing the EFAS table.
External Factors (Column 1)
· Select five strategic opportunities and five strategic threats facing your selected strategic audit company.
· List each of these factors as either opportunities or threats in the appropriate column in the EFAS table.
· Provide a detailed description of each factor.
· If outside information is used in the comments section, then it must be cited and referenced correctly in APA format.
Weight (Column 2)
· The total weight for all of the factors should be 1.00.
· Decide how strategic each of the ten factors is in comparison to each other. As an example, a factor might have a high strategic significance for your company with a weight ranging from .15 to .20. On the other hand, a factor may have little in the way of strategic significance, when compared to the other nine factors, and might have a weight of .05.
Rating (Column 3)
· In this column you are to rate how effective the firm has been in meeting the opportunities and threats, with 5 being the top score for any factor. As an example, if you feel a firm is doing a super job of moving into Asia then give a rating of 5.0.
Weighted Score (Column 4)
· Now multiple the scores you have in Columns 2 and 3 for each factor.
· This will produce a weighted score for each factor.

Comments (Column 5)
· Provide a detailed description reflecting why you gave the rating for each factor.
· If outside information is used in the comments section, then it must be cited and referenced correctly in APA format.
Total Scores
· At the bottom of the matrix record the totals of the Weight Score (Column 2), and Weighted Score (Column 4).
· The Total Weighted Score should indicate how effective your firm has been in handling its opportunities and threats.

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Strategic Audit Report.

Jason Palmer-Janvier

Embry-Riddle

3 April 2022

All businesses strive for success. Some have managed to do it while Others have failed.

Those businesses that succeed may have challenges in sustainable development and eventually

fade. Nevertheless, some companies have already been capable of achieving and maintaining

success for decades. Such businesses have earned and claimed excellent results that meet or

exceed the expectations of their various stakeholders (Rajendran, 2021). FedEx Corporation has

created and sustained exceptional performance in terms of revenue, market dominance, and

expenditure by basing on human resources activities and applying the five competitive forces,

creating value, and civilization training.

Performance of the Company for the past years.

During the firm’s debut in the worldwide market, it had sustained considerable losses.

The reason for this was because of the high cost of growth tactics. In addition, the Corporation

applied the US model to a global market, such as the Chinese. There were numerous cultural

variances, acquisitions, organizational changes, organizational policies, and human capital

difficulties adapted to reflect and strengthen FedEx’s style (Qing et al., 20320). Due to regulatory

measures that do not favor foreign businesses, the firm’s efforts to capture the Chinese market

were unsuccessful. Adopting the area’s culture was difficult for the organization. On the other

side, FedEx counterparts, including UPS and DHL, recognized the Chinese market and slowly

expanded their strategies.

To achieve exceptional performance, FedEx depends on a combination of production

parameters. The essential techniques are managerial tactics, organizational resources, and

logistical, technological know-how. The organization has established dependable logistic

procedures to ensure that its complicated processes run smoothly. Simultaneously, the

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Corporation has indeed been able to maximize the use of its assets and human facilities,

including ports and highways, to achieve higher results.

Segmentation and market diversification have also contributed to the firm’s capacity to

provide excellent service. FedEx, for example, has formed various units to provide quality value

to different market segments based on the necessity, region, and kind of item. FedEx charges a

greater rate than the majority of its counterparts. Most clients perceive such fees to be excessive

and assume that they will receive the same level of service value for their money. The company

has continued to set itself beside its competitors by providing high-quality services.

The Mission and Vision Affirmations of FedEx Company

The vi

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Strategic Factor Analysis Summary

SWOT
#

FACTORS

WEIGHT

RATING

WGTD
SCORE

COMMENTS

TOTAL SCORES

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Strategic Factor Analysis Guidelines

1. Use your completed EFAS and IFAS assignments from weeks three and four.
2. Ensure you have made corrections to the EFAS and IFAS table based on the feedback and comments from your instructor when they were graded.
3. To start building your SFAS matrix, select the ten most strategic factors from your EFAS and IFAS tables.
4. Ensure you select at least two factors from each of your S,W,O, and T factors EFAS and IFAS assignments, for a total of ten. Some will have more than two factors total.
5. Label each factor on your SFAS matrix, such as S1, S2, W1, etc. These numbers need not corresponding with the numbers you used on your EFAS and IFAS assignments.
6. So now you have the “SWOT #” for each SFAS factor and ten “SFAS factors” total. Now a “Weight” for each factor can be developed.
7. Make sure the total weights for these ten factors equals 1.0.
8. Now you can work on the “Comments” for each factor. Ensure you revise your comments to reflect the instructor’s remarks on your EFAS and IFAS assignments. The comments should link directly to the weight you listed for each factor.
9. Use your comments to develop your “Ratings” for each factor.
10. Remember, good comments should be reflected in ratings of 3.8 and higher, average comments should have ratings of 3.3-3.5, and poorly performed comments tend to have ratings below 3.3.
11. Multiply your “Weight” and “Rating” for each factor, and place these numbers in the “Weighted Score” column.
12. Total up the “Weighted Score” column and enter at the bottom of the matrix.
13. Make sure the “Total Weighted Score” matches your perception of how well a firm is operating.

Page 2 of 2

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TOWS Analysis Guidelines

1. Review your SFAS Matrix and identify what you believe to be the two most strategic S,W,O, and T factors facing your firm.
2. Place these eight factors on your TOWS matrix, with the two Opportunities and the two Threats going down the first right column. Place your two Strengths and your two Weaknesses in the first row at the top of the TOWS matrix.
3. Review a sample TOWS matrix example template to ensure you have your S,W,O, and T factors correctly positioned.
4. Designate each factor as either #1 or #2.
5. Crate what you think are the four best strategies using the S,W,O, and T factors.
6. Create a SO Strategy using either one of your Strengths and Opportunities.
7. Create a WO Strategy using either of your Weaknesses and Opportunities.
8. Create a ST Strategy using either of your Strengths and Threats.
9. Create a WT Strategy using either of your Weaknesses and Threats.
10. Designate which factor (S2/T1, W1/T1) you are using.
11. Each of these strategies should incorporate the two factors you have selected. You can use the same factor, say S1 in both strategies.
12. See the TOWS analysis example for guidance.

Page 2 of 2

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Strategic Factor Analysis Summary

Progressive Auto Insurance

SWOT

FACTORS

WEIGHT

RATING

WGTD

SCORE

COMMENTS

Claims Handling

.15

4.8

.72

Progressive is considered a leader in the industry (Jones, 2018).

Customer Service

.05

3.5

.18

Progressive policy holders rate high but none policy holders rate low. Gap needs bridged (Bloom, 2018).

Employee Satisfaction

.10

3.5

.35

Most employees are happy but limited advancement opportunities frustrates some (Microsoft, 2018).

Out Dated Technology

.10

2.5

.25

Progressive operating systems are over 10 yrs old (Smith and Simpson, 2018)

Claims Errors

.05

2.5

.13

Progressive has a goal of below 10% currently around15% (Jones, 2018).

Technology

.15

.30

Progressive needs to grow its technology reach by using more social media and other online support tools to consumers vs. the competition (Microsoft, 2018).

Department of Insurance

.05

.10

Progressive has had a difficult past with the DOI. Improvement on relationship needed to make business easier (Nelson, 2018).

Competition

.10

2.5

.25

Progressive needs to diversify its product offering. Many other companies offer multiple lines of coverage for easy to the consumer (Graham, 2018).

Stock Market

.10

3.5

.35

Progressive’s profitability is tied to the stock market heavily. If the market falls, so do Progressive’s profits. This accounts for a large sum of profits (Jones, 2010).

Weather

.15

.60

Progressive sets aside a certain reserve each year. If weather is more damaging than predicted the cash flow of the company is put in serious jeopardy (Smith and Simpson, 2018).

TOTAL SCORES

1.00

3.23

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TOWS Analysis Example

US Airways (USA) TOWS ANALYSIS

Internal Factors

External Factors

Strengths (S)

S1: Innovative Thinking
S2: Employee Incentives

Weaknesses (W)

W1: Fleet Variety
W2: West Coast Presence

Opportunities (O)

O1: Merger & Acquisitions
O2: Special Events

SO Strategies

S1/O1-USA used an innovative thought process by talking to the unions of American Airlines (AA), which gained their support for a merger with USA prior to going into negotiations with AMR, parent company of American Airlines.

WO Strategies

W2/O1- A merger between USA and AA would increase the routes and presence of the consolidated airlines on the west coast. In addition, a hub would be gained in Dallas – Fort Worth that would present stronger routes in the mid-west.

Threats (T)

T1: Government Regulations
T2: Fuel Prices

ST Strategies

S2/T2- There is not much the airlines can do about the price of fuel. However, innovative thinking on the part of employees has developed ways of reducing fuel consumption of the aircraft.

WT Strategies

W1/T2- USA operates a number of different aircraft. The use of smaller aircraft in many cases result in the consumption of less fuel.