STR581 University of Phoenix Home Depot Strategic Plan Assignment 30 slide Powerpoint and Executive summary (min 350 words)Create the Final Strategic Plan.

STR581 University of Phoenix Home Depot Strategic Plan Assignment 30 slide Powerpoint and Executive summary (min 350 words)Create the Final Strategic Plan. The Final Strategic Plan contains the elements of all the previous weeks’ components and incorporates instructor feedback. The strategic recommendations will be evaluated and the best options chosen for recommendation. The final strategic plan contains: Table of Contents Executive Summary (350 to 700 words) Company Background Mission Statement Vision Statement Value Statement Environmental Scan Internal and External Environmental Analysis Strategic Recommendation Implementation Plan Organizational Change Management Strategies Risk Management Plan Conclusion References Create a 25- to 35-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation with speaker notes to present the strategic plan, combining all relevant elements from previous weeks. The objective is to sell the strategic plan to investors or company directors. Content Met Partially Met Not Met Comments: The final project includes all the elements of the previous parts of the strategic plan assignments. The final project includes a table of contents. The final project includes an executive summary (350-700 words). The final project includes company background. The final project includes a mission statement. The final project includes a vision statement. The final project includes a value statement. The final project includes an environmental scan. The final project includes an internal and external environmental analysis. The final project includes a strategic recommendation. The final project includes an implementation plan. The final project includes organizational change management strategies. The final project includes a risk management plan. The final project includes a conclusion. The final project includes references. The presentation includes all elements of Parts 1-4 of the strategic plan. The presentation is 25-35 slides with speakers’ notes and includes appropriate images and graphics. Total Available Total Earned 7 #/7 Presentation Guidelines Met Partially Met Not Met Comments: Organization The tone is appropriate to the content and assignment. The introduction provides a sufficient background on the topic and previews major points. Major points are stated clearly; are supported by specific details, examples, or analysis; and are organized logically. Paragraph transitions are present, logical, and maintain the flow throughout the paper. The conclusion is logical, flows from the body of the paper, and reviews the major points. Mechanics The presentation is laid out with effective use of headings, font styles, font sizes, and white space. Intellectual property is recognized with in-text citations and a reference slide. Sentences are complete, clear, and concise. Rules of grammar and usage are followed including spelling and punctuation. Total Available Total Earned 3 #/3 STRATEGIC EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATION
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Strategic Plan, Plan 3: Strategic Evaluation
Introduction
In order for Home Depot to keep up the excellent performance it has displayed in the past
as well as counter the upcoming threats with time, the organization can utilize strategic planning.
The use of strategies at different levels of the organization’s functionality is one way to achieve
these two goals. The organization can implement strategies at the business level in order to
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competitively interact with other businesses. At the corporate level, the organization can also
include some strategies to maximize the organizational performance. Finally, the organization can
implement some global strategies in order to enhance its participation in the global arena. Strategic
management is very important in any organization. A business creates an effective strategic plan
by analyzing its competitors as well as its market forces.
Business-Level Strategies
At the business level, the organization can best come up with strategies that guide them on
how they can compete in the business market (Gamble, & Thompson, 2014). The manner in which
they compete can be the distinguishing factor between them and their competitors thus earning
them a place at the top of the market. In order to stand out, the business can offer exemplary
services when it comes to the interaction with their customers (Gamble, & Thompson, 2014). By
providing customer care that is not possible to find in any other organization, the organization
gains a position well above the rest. Exemplary customer care can include the provision of quick
responses to customer needs, having promotions to their customers and even awarding prices to
their best customers.
On another level of business competition, the business can ensure that the goods and
services they offer are of the highest quality in the market (Gamble, & Thompson, 2014). Taking,
for example, the furniture, the organization can take it as an initiative to deal only with the best of
furniture in the market. They can provide furniture from the most elegant type of wood in order to
win over their customers and keep them interested in their products. The durability of their
products should also be the highest in order to enhance the customer trust in the organization. The
organization can offer services that keep it a notch above the rest of its competitors. This can be
by offering transport services for the goods that individuals purchase. Home Depot can also offer
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installation services for goods such as electrical appliances. By doing this, they stand above other
organizations that simply provide the goods needed and leave it at that point.
Corporate Level Strategies
At the corporate level, an organization strategizes on how to achieve goals that had been
set for it (Puranam, & Vanneste, 2016). At Home Depot, as a corporate strategy, a target can be
set for the merchandise to get sold by the end of the financial year. In order to accomplish this, the
organization can work with the available resources (Puranam, & Vanneste, 2016). To begin with,
in order to heighten sales, the organization can improve on its advertisement techniques. They may
opt to utilize ads on the website, market their products in forums that include various kinds of
people. In this way, the brand name is sold and the merchandise sold can go up. Home Depot can
also set a target of the profits they wish to make by the end of the financial year (Puranam, &
Vanneste, 2016). Profits for an organization can only be improved if the consumption of what they
have to offer is increased. For our organization, the manipulation of product prices can be a major
way to improve the profit accrued at the end of the financial year. This can be achieved by increases
the price range for products that fall under the high-quality category. For example, furniture made
from high-grade wood can be sold at a higher price to work towards the achievement of this target.
Another aspect that can be used is the charging of a small amount of fee for goods that include the
supplementary services (Puranam, & Vanneste, 2016). The fee should remain considerable in order
to keep customers still interested in the good.
Global Strategies
A global strategy is a plan of an organization to effectively take part in the global
environment (Johnson, 2016). This is the strategy that aids the organization to run its business at
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the international level. The global arena has far much higher competition. A global strategy is a
plan created in order for the organization to reap benefits from participating in business across its
national borders (Johnson, 2016). In order to succeed in a global environment, the business should
have some outstanding performance. Home Depot, in this case, can utilize its diverse workforce
in order to set up various branches all around the globe. With more market adherence, the business
should be able to pick up quite okay even after it’s established in a new locality. Due to the
workforce that is diversified, an employee from a specific cultural background can be given the
managerial position when it comes to the establishment of a branch there. This makes it much
easier to infiltrate the new market as an idea already exists on its nature.
Recommendation
A strategy the organization will uptake is the global strategy. “The global strategy offers
greater opportunities to take innovations developed at the corporate level or in one market and
apply them in other markets” (Hitt, p.237, 2015). Due to its diversified workforce, Home Depot
can use this to their advantage and expand the organization across more borders. The organization
can access new nationalities and avail their products here as a method of increasing their income.
Overseas customers can also feel catered for and due to this satisfaction refer more customers to
the organization. The access to other markets is also effective utilization of the organization’s
resources. The workforce is the resource that is made use of. This is much better than letting the
diversification go to waste.
Conclusion
The use of strategies for an organization comes at different levels. The organization may
strategize at the business level by coming up with plans on how to dominate a competitive
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environment (Johnson, 2016). It may also strategize at the corporate level in order to ensure the
successful completion of set goals for the organization. Finally, the organization can base a
strategy on the global arena. This strategy aims at the business’ interaction at international levels.
All these strategies are important for organizational success.
References
Gamble, J., & Thompson, A. A. (2014). Essentials of strategic management. Irwin Mcgraw-Hill.
Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D., & Hoskisson, R.E. (2015). Strategic management: Competitiveness
and globalization (11th ed). Stamford, CT: Cengage.
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Puranam, P., & Vanneste, B. (2016). Corporate strategy: Tools for analysis and decision-making.
Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, G. (2016). Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.
Internal Environmental Analysis
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Internal Environmental Analysis
Introduction
Analyzing the internal environment of an organization assists in identifying areas in which
it is competent as well as determining its ability to actively participate in a competitive
environment by utilizing the available resources. By carrying out an internal environment analysis,
an organization is then able to come up with a strategic plan on how to improve their performance
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while upholding the well-performing aspects. The analysis was done on the external environment
for Home Depot still holds water as part of its organizational success but the internal aspects also
have their role to play in relation to the competitive ability of the organization in its market field.
The completion of this paper will come with the analysis of the internal environment of Home
Depot by a SWOT analysis to identify major strengths and weaknesses (Grant, 2016). It will also
determine the organization’s resources alongside the identification of the most important internal
environmental factors. There will also be an analysis of the organization’s competitors and how
well the organization has performed in its competitive sector. There will also be an analysis of the
organization’s structural basis in order to highlight the position that the organization holds in its
respective market.
Home Depot’s Internal Environment
Looking into an organization’s internal environment is not simply an analysis but an
environmental scanning strategy. Through this, the organization gains more information about
itself in order to use it in the attempt to grow and enhance its competitive ability within its market
cluster (Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2014). By analysis, many organizations get to improve for the
better. An analysis is not conducted in order to gain knowledge on the positives only but as well
as the negatives too. By having information on where exactly the organization falls short, it is
possible for the organization to succeed in making major steps ahead. A common tool used in
analysis by many organizations is the SWOT tool. Through this tool, an organization gets to
identify its strengths and maintain them, pinpoint their weaknesses and strategize on their
improvement. It also enables an organization to have knowledge on the present opportunities, then
include them in the strategic plan and finally then identify the threats that face the organization
due to its operations and create ways of evading them and their repercussions (Grant, 2016).
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
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Through the successful utilization of SWOT, Home Depot has managed to remain actively
competitive even within the ever-evolving market environment that keeps presenting new threats
as well as opportunities.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Excellent track record
Business is contract based
Strong financial position
Involved in legal proceedings
Significant buying power
Lack of training in employees
Dominant in the lumber industry
Lack of advertising
Diverse workforce
Fast market expansion
Opportunities
Threats
Rising immigration rates
Declining housing market
Presence of Eco-friendly products
Contract shortages
The rise in independent women
The backlog of work.
The Most Important Strengths and Weaknesses
The fast market expansion is the most important strength of this organization. The ability
to infiltrate new markets at a fast rate is of great importance. This is because the market
demographics are constantly changing and having the ability to suit the needs that come with a
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new market while still holding on to previous ones can be quite difficult. This is a clear show of
the proper kind of leadership for an organization. By accessing new markets, an organization
broadens its income capacity. Depending on the availability of the commodities offered, market
infiltration is important for an organization. It also makes use of extra income which is used as
capital. A diverse workforce is also a very important strength. By having a diversified workforce,
the organization is placed well above other organizations. A diversified workforce is considered
more of an asset (Hunt, Layton, & Prince, 2015). The domination of a market is easy with diversity
within the organization.
One important weakness is the involvement in legal proceedings. This creates a negative
public image and leaves the customers with a changed mind on the genuine services of the
organization. Once an organization is involved in legal proceedings, its customers develop traces
of doubt. With this traces of doubt, it becomes possible for them to be swayed away by competitors.
Lack of advertising also takes quite a blow to any organization. An organization needs proper
advertisement in order ensures market success. People do not have interest in what they do not
know hence advertisement is of the essence (Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2014).
Home Depot’s Resources
Among its resources, the company’s biggest resource is the diversified workforce that it
has. The organization can boast of the workforce to be amongst its strongest assets due to the
accomplishments that have been made possible by this kind of workforce. The diverse workforce,
first of all, creates an accommodative environment within the organization. With the presence of
diversity, there is a higher probability that an individual may interact with the organization and
feel satisfied by stumbling among one of their people. The diverse workforce has been of the best
market expansion strategies (Hunt, Layton, & Prince, 2015). With the constant market expansion,
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the organization has witnessed the fruits of a diverse workforce for how this aspect has made some
market entrances quite swift.
Taking, for example, a foreign locality where a new culture and various kinds of trends
exist. A member of the workforce that is conversant with the society and its culture can lead the
market expansion process in the environment in order to simply have an easier time since they
relate better (Hunt, Layton, & Prince, 2015). From this, the organization can be far much ahead of
quick market expansions while their competitors still lurk around that same situation due to lack
of efficient means. Another advantage of the diverse workforce is that the organization is at a better
decision making position. The diverse workforce presents so many opportunities for an
organizations decision-making process. The existence of various kinds of ideas due to the various
intellectual compositions makes it possible to view a situation from various angles and enables the
conclusion of decision making processes to be very efficient and delivering very effective
decisions based on knowledge that it was sourced from different minds (Hunt, Layton, & Prince,
2015).
Competitor Analysis
The organization has quite a number of competitors but the biggest competitor remains to
be Lowe’s Corporation. The company was founded in the year 1946 and is a chain of retail stores
found in The United States of America and Canada. It deals in the retail of home improvement and
appliance commodities. The organization majors on environmental conservation as a marketing
strategy. The organization has been time and again recognized for its efforts in environmental
conservation. This kind of strategy is putting Home Depot in a fix in order to keep dominating the
general business market. Lowe’s has scooped some awards in line with environmentally friendly
products which creates some huge amount of pressure in Depot.
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According to Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt (2014), this process of using the environmental
conservation technique has been pushing other organizations that deal in the same commodities to
the edge when it comes to competition. Even though not the largest supply chain of retail home
improvement commodities, Lowe’s has given even the largest supply chain, Home Depot, a run
for their money. Lowe’s also delivers extremely high-quality commodities as well. Their services
are also very impressive thus their ability to be in constant competition with Home Depot over
market domination. Lowe’s is a healthy competition and its performance in the market has been
quite impressive since its introduction.
Structure of Home Depot and its Influence on Performance
An organizational structure is a link between different sections of the same organization.
The global interaction of the organization with the rest of the world has led to the evolution of
Home Depot’s organizational culture. The organizational structure has three main features;
Geographical Divisions, Global Functional Groups and global hierarchy (Knight, & Nelson, 2016).
These aspects play an important role in overseeing organizational success.
For geographical divisions, the organizations are based in America, Canada, and Mexico
(Bond, 2015). There are smaller sub-divisions within these regional groupings however these three
are the dominant ones. In the functional groups, the overall organizational operations are managed
by groups with specified tasks for the three different regions (Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2014).
An example is the Global Human Resource Management Group that takes care of HR needs
through the whole of the organization (Bond, 2015). Global hierarchy is simply the organization
of power. Despite the three regions seeming solitary, the American base is superior and the other
C.E.O’s answer to the one based in America (Bond, 2015). The effect of the organizational
structure is that I enable the management to be centralized. This enables the smooth running of
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
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operations within the organization with no conflict over leadership since the structure clearly
defines hierarchy and vesting of power (Knight, & Nelson, 2016). This predisposes organizational
success since a peaceful working environment is achieved.
Conclusion
The general analysis of an organization is very important when it comes to management.
Through organizational analysis, leaders can clearly get to know what is needed to push their
organizations to success. At the same time, they can assess themselves and learn which habits to
uphold and which to let go of. By getting to clearly understand the importance of the internal
environmental factors and their importance in business, a leader is able to steer their organization
in the right direction when it comes to decision making and other activities that fall in line with
the internal environmental factors.
References
Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley &
Sons.
Bond, J. (2015). The Home Depot builds an omnichannel supply chain. Modern Materials
Handling, 78, 18-22.
Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015). Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, 1, 15-29.
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
Knight, E., & Nelson, M. (2016). U.S. Patent Application No. 29/519,537.
Ireland, R. D., Hoskisson, R. E., & Hitt, M. A. (2014). Strategic Management: Concepts and
Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization. Boston: South-Western College Publishing,
201.
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Strategic Plan, Part 1: Environmental Scan
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Strategic Plan, Plan 1: Environmental Scan
Introduction
Home Depot Inc. is a retailing American company that deals with home improvement
supply selling construction tools, products, and services. Home Depot headquarter is in Atlanta
store support Centre within the unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia. The company is big in size
operating big stores across the US in its major states such as the Columbia. Other major states
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
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where it has these stores include Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam including all the ten
provinces of Canada and Mexico. Two major subsidiaries that are owned by the company include
The MRO, Interline Brands with 70 distribution centers across the United States. The purpose of
this study is the evaluation of the companies both internal and external environment in order to
formulate a strategic plan with the aim of creating competitive advantage. The company’s top
competitors include Lowes companies Inc., True Value Company companies and Menard Inc.
Creating Value and Sustain Competitive advantage using the Environmental Scanning
Strategy
Environmental scanning is the strongest tool that Home Depot needs to use to improve its
position in the market. This comes along with the significance of strategic planning which helps
to manage the organization accordin…
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