Course Design Guide

BUS/475 Version 4

Course Syllabus
School of Business
BUS/475 Version 4
Integrated Business Topics
Copyright 2009, 2007 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

Course Description
The integrated business topics course examines strategic business management while integrating topics from
previously completed business foundation coursework. This allows students to demonstrate a comprehensive
understanding of the undergraduate business curricula with a significant emphasis placed on the assessment of
individual outcomes to determine content mastery.

Class Meeting Dates & Times

Chicago Campus
Homewood Suites Orland Park,
16245 LaGrange Road Orland Park, IL
60467

Wednesday, May 1, 2013-6:00pm-10:00pm

Wednesday, May 8, 2013-6:00pm-10:00pm
Wednesday, May 15, 2013-6:00pm-10:00pm
Wednesday, May 22, 2013-6:00pm-10:00pm
Wednesday, May 29, 2013-6:00pm-10:00pm

Policies
Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained
within the following two documents:

University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document.
Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum.

University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies
may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed
modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality.
Course Materials
Pearce, J. A. II, & Robinson, R. B. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control
(11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Thompson, A. A., Gamble, J. E., & Strickland, A. J. (2006). Strategy: Winning in the marketplace: Core
concepts, analytical tools, cases (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
All electronic materials are available on the student website.

Week One: Introduction to Strategic Management

Details

Due

Points

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Objectives

1.1 Define strategic management and planning.

1.2 Create an organizational mission and vision statement.
1.3 Analyze an organization in terms of its structure, culture, and
purpose.
1.4 Develop a strategic plan.

Readings

Read Ch. 13 & Ch. 2 Appendix of Strategic Management.

Read Ch. 7 of Strategy: Winning in the Marketplace.

Review this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.
Participation

Participate in class discussion.

Final Examination
Preparation

The Final Examination in this course is a comprehensive

examination that covers content from the core courses in the BSB
program. The Sample Examination in this week should prepare you
for the Final Examination you complete in Week Five. You are
encouraged to complete this Sample Examination as practice prior
to completing the Final Examination.

1/24

30

Week Two: Internal and External Environment

Details
Objectives

2.1 Conduct a SWOTT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,

Threats, and Trends) analysis.
2.2 Analyze the effect of the external and internal environments on
an organizations strategic plan.

Readings

Read Ch. 46 of Strategic Management.

Due

Points

Read Ch. 3 of Strategy: Winning in the Marketplace.

Review this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.
Participation

Participate in class discussion.

1/31

30

Individual
Strategic Plan, Part
I: Conceptualizing a
Business

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you explain the

importance of your selected businesss vision, mission, and values
in determining your strategic direction. Include the following:

1/31

100

Define your business, products or services, and customers

by developing a mission statement. Ensure that you are
differentiating your product or service.
Create a vision for this organization that clearly
demonstrates your decision on what you want your business to
become in the future.

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Define your guiding principles or values for your selected

business considering the topics of culture, social responsibility,
and ethics.
Analyze how the vision, mission, and values guide the
organizations strategic direction.
Evaluate how the organization addresses customer needs
and critique how they achieve competitive advantage.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Prepare to discuss this assignment with the class.
Learning Team
Value Alignment

Discuss with your Learning Team an existing organization with

which you are familiar that is different than the one you used for the
Conceptualizing a Business paper.

1/31

100

Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you analyze the

individual values and the organizations values as reflected by the
organizations plans and actions. Include the following in your paper:
Analyze the origin(s) and subsequent evolution of your
personal and workplace values.
Explain how your individual values drive your actions and
behaviors, and analyze the alignment between your values and
actions and behaviors.
Analyze the degree of alignment between the organizations
stated values and the organizations actual plans and actions.
Explain the differences and analyze the degree of alignment
between your values and the organizations values as reflected
by the organizations plans and actions.
Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Prepare to discuss this assignment with the class.

Week Three: Strategy Development

Details
Objectives

3.1 Develop strategic objectives.

3.2 Create organizational objectives and goals.

Readings

Read Ch. 7 of Strategic Management.

Read Ch. 4 of Strategy: Winning in the Marketplace.

Due

Points

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BUS/475 Version 4

Review this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.

Participation

Participate in class discussion.

2/7

30

Individual
Strategic Plan, Part
II: SWOTT Analysis

Conduct an internal and external environmental analysis for your

proposed business.

2/7

100

Discuss with your Learning Team the forces and trends below that
must be taken into consideration while developing a strategic plan.
Given todays business environment and each Learning Team
members selected business idea, provide a list of the lessons
learned from your Learning Teams discussion for each of the items
listed below. Use this discussion to complete this assignment.
Create a SWOTT table summarizing your findings. Your
environmental analysis should take into account, at a minimum, the
following factors. For each factor, identify the one primary strength,
weakness, opportunity, threat, and trend, and include it in your table.

External forces and trends considerations:

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Legal and regulatory

Global
Economic
Technological
Innovation
Social
Environmental
Competitive analysis

Internal forces and trends considerations:

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Strategy
Structures
Processes and systems
Resources
Goals
Strategic capabilities
Culture
Technologies
Innovations
Intellectual property
Leadership

Write a 1,400- to 1,750-word synopsis in which you analyze at least

seven of the forces and trends from the list above. Your analysis
must include the following:
Include economic as well as legal and regulatory forces and
trends.
Critique how well the organization adapts to change.

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Analyze the supply chain operations of the organization.

Identify issues and/or opportunities:
o
Identify the major issues and/or opportunities that
the company faces based on your analysis above.
o
Generate a hypothesis surrounding each issue and
research questions to use for conducting analysis.
o
Identify the circumstances surrounding each issue;
classify the circumstances; attribute the importance of each
classification; and test the accuracy of the importance for
each classification.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Learning Team
Functional Area
Interrelationships

Select one organization of the Virtual Organizations from the

student website.

2/7

100

Write a 1,400- to 2,100-word paper in which you complete the

following:
State the primary reasons for the organizations existence
from an analysis of the mission, vision, values, and goals.
Analyze the reason for the type of organizational structure
employed by the organization, and identify the key positions that
support that organizational structure.
Identify and explain the steps of the collaboration process
among the functional areas that must be employed to achieve
organizational goals, and prepare an action plan to implement
the collaboration process.
Identify and provide an example of the use of lateral
collaboration and vertical collaboration within the organization,
and prepare an action plan to use lateral and vertical
collaboration.
Identify the key stakeholders and their roles needed to
achieve the organizational goals, and recommend the
collaborative interactions among the key stakeholders to
facilitate the organizations success.

Week Four: Strategy Implementation

Details
Objectives

4.1 Recommend an implementation strategy for a strategic plan.

Readings

Read Ch. 1012 of Strategic Management.

Due

Points

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Read Ch. 8 of Strategy: Winning in the Marketplace.

Review this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.
Participation

Participate in class discussion.

2/14

30

Individual
Strategic Plan, Part
III: Balanced
Scorecard

Resource: Exhibit 7-1 in Ch. 7 of Strategic Management

2/14

100

Develop the strategic objectives for your business in the format of a

balanced scorecard. The strategic objectives are measures of
attaining your vision and mission. As you develop them consider the
vision, mission, and values for your business and the outcomes of
your SWOTT analysis. Consider the following four quadrants of the
balanced scorecard when developing your strategic objectives:
Shareholder Value or Financial Perspective, includes
strategic objectives in areas such as:
o
o
o
o

Market share
Revenues and costs
Profitability
Competitive position

Customer Value Perspective, includes strategic objectives in

areas such as:
o
o
o

Customer retention or turnover

Customer satisfaction
Customer value

Process or Internal Operations Perspective, includes

strategic objectives in areas such as:
o
o
o

Measure of process performance

Productivity or productivity improvement
Operations metrics

Learning and Growth (Employee) Perspective, includes

strategic objectives in areas such as:
o
o
o
o
o

Employee satisfaction
Employee turnover or retention
Level of organizational capability
Nature of organizational culture or climate
Technological innovation

Develop at least three strategic objectives for each of the following

four balanced scorecard areas identified above (Financial,
Customer, Process, Learning and Growth). Your objectives should
be selected, in part, based on an evaluation of a number of potential
alternatives to the issues and/or opportunities identified in the
SWOTT Analysis paper and table you completed in Week Three.

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Base your solutions on a ranking of alternative solutions that

includes an identification of potential risks and mitigation plans, and
a stakeholder analysis that includes mitigation and contingency
strategies. You should also incorporate the ethical implications of
your solutions into your selection.
For each strategic objective, develop a metric and target
using a balanced scorecard format. (For example, a strategic
objective in the shareholder or Financial Perspective is to
increase market share. A metric to actually measure this
strategic objective of market share increase is, "The percentage
of increase in market share." The target is the specific number to
be achieved in a particular time period. The target for the metric
of "Increase market share" could be "Increase market share by
2% for each of the next 3 years" of an increase of 2% per year
for 3 years.)
Write a 700- to 1,050-word summary that explains your critical
thinking on how you derived your objectives from your vision,
mission, values, and SWOTT analysis.
Format paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Learning Team
Communication
Plan Outline

Develop a generic communications plan and template. This

template will be used to develop a communication plan for your Final
Strategic Plan, due in Week Five.

2/14

50

Week Five: Monitoring and Control

Details
Objectives

5.1 Develop methods to monitor and control the implementation of a

strategic plan.

Readings

Read Ch. 13 of Strategic Management.

Due

Points

Review this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.

Participation

Participate in class discussion.

2/21

30

Individual
Final Strategic Plan
and Presentation

Resources: Vision, mission, values, SWOTT analysis, balanced

scorecards, and communication plan

2/21

150

Write a 700- to 1,050-word section for your strategic plan in which

you add your strategies and tactics to implement and realize your
strategic objectives, measures, and targets. Include marketing and
information technology strategies and tactics. Develop at least three
methods to monitor and control your proposed strategic plan, being
sure to analyze how the measures will advance organizational goals
financially and operationally. Finally, recommend actions needed to

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address ethical, legal, and regulatory issues faced by the

organization, and how they can improve corporate citizenship.
Combine your completed strategic plan. This includes the vision,
mission, values, SWOTT analysis, balanced scorecard, and
communication plan. Your consolidated final strategic plan should be
2,800 to 4,200 words in length.
Prepare three to five Microsoft PowerPoint slides in which you
briefly outline the vision, mission, values, and balanced scorecard
that you have developed for your business.
Individual
Final Examination

Select the link to the Final Examination on your student website.

The examination is available from the end of Week Four through the
end of Week Five.

2/21

150

Complete the final examination. Only one attempt is allowed, which

is timed and must be completed in 3 hours. Results are auto-graded
and sent to your instructor.

Copyright
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All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Use of these marks is not
intended to imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation.
Final exams contain third-party copyrighted materials. Portions are:
Copyright 2010 University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2010 Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Edited in accordance with University of Phoenix editorial standards and practices.