Week 2 – Research Proposal
Ed Rutkowski
STR/581
October 15, 2012
Richard Bowman

* Validating the Organizational Vision, Mission, and Values Statements * Validation of the organization’s vision, mission statement, and values statements is an ongoing process. At a minimum, annual reviews should be accomplished to ensure the accurately reflect the direction laid out in our company’s current strategic plan. Our mission statement should provide a general description of our fundamental reason for being and the functional role that our organization plays in our competitive environment (Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn, & Goshal, 2003). All will be reviewed to certify that they accurately reflect our current status, competencies, and future direction as well. A focus group representing a cross section of employees will be convened to review these statements, with final approval for changes coming from the executive board. * External Environmental Analysis
By conducting an external analysis, my goal is to identify the critical threats and opportunities in my company’s particular competitive environment. To a firm seeking a competitive advantage, an environmental threat is any individual, group, or organization outside the firm that seeks to reduce the level of that firm’s performance. Threats can increase a firm’s costs, decrease the willingness of a firm’s customers to pay, or in other ways reduce a firm’s performance (Pearce & Robinson, 2011).
A considerable amount of collected works on techniques for and approaches to conducting an external analysis has evolved over the last several years. Therefore, I will examine how competition in this environment is likely to evolve and what implications that evolution may have for present and future threats and opportunities I am likely to face. To accomplish this, I will gather all of the competitive