Business Finance Homework Help

Cecilia Brown (C.B.)

What are the critical elements of your strategic plan?

Aligning our mission, vision, “values,” and culture in a strategic plan that clearly articulates accountability, ensuring “KPIs accurately reflect what success looks like.” (Wright, 2021) (Welch, 2005)

How will this plan, if successful, advance the mission of the organization?

If successful, the team would have demonstrated tested assumptions backed with an agile, flexible, easy to follow, sustainable roadmap and “data story” connecting the risk, cost, and return on investment in R&D (avoiding “wasting money” on “half-baked ideas”). (Siciliano, 2015) (Duarte, 2019)

Bing Image, 2021
 

Going above and beyond means investing in sustainable solutions stakeholders believe in; this includes being accountable for mistakes.  Our approved R&D budget includes identifying bottlenecks in the process of moving from A.I. to an Explanatory Artificial Intelligence (XAI) infrastructure.  “The power of the stem” will provide agile solutions leading to reduced risks and avoid irreversible damage from floating under the radar.  The team’s plan of action creates an easy-to-follow roadmap with controls decreasing lack of understanding and implementation through identifying training needs with upward mobility infrastructures, timelines, regularities, consistency, and significance of current best practices alignment with stakeholders’ needs. The saying “the cherry on the cake” is a positive topper to good news in casual or business conversations. My imagination pictured a cake with icing and a shiny red cherry on top with a long stem. Then I thought about the stem and wondered if anyone ever inspects the stem?  It reminds me of how the person(s) listening is aware of the ingredients and recipe and has already bought the cake. So, the stem represents critical risks that could fly under the radar with the potential to cause irreversible damage if gone unnoticed. Companies like “Zillow” are paying a hefty price based on overreliance on A.I. (cake) programming (ingredients) and blindly trusting projected ROI resulting in irreversible damage caused by signs of wear that did not register as threatening until it was too late. Zillow lost the trust of stakeholders and employees due to layoffs leading to millions of dollars in write-offs. (Metz, 2021) (Macmillian, 2021)

How will your plan strengthen your organization’s economic moat and create a position of sustainable market leadership that your competitors can’t easily replicate?

Maintaining a competitive advantage over our competitors includes more than just protecting “long-term profits” and “market share.” It’s about building relationships. Taking immediate ownership of mistakes, offering sincere apologies followed by continuous action steps rebuilding trust, loyalty, and showing authentic empathy. In this author’s opinion, companies that do not own up to mistakes increase the risk of losing stakeholders’ trust and loyalty. In 2018 the Starbucks ‘ CEO offered a second apology after the first was not well received by stakeholders. (Bariso, 2018)

An excellent example of the importance of “moat strength” is depicted in a show called “Escape to the Chateau” on the Peacock channel. A couple took the time to research several chateaus in France before deciding on one that happened to have a moat. By taking the time to research, they can explain where they are, what wanted, and an “action” plan on how they will get there. By understanding what they want in a chateau (cake), they gained enough facts that clearly defined their understanding and explanation while thinking outside the box while setting a solid foundation to build on.  Therefore, they foresaw the “power of the stem” in the roof’s condition in their case. The roof was a significant risk they identified with, significantly impacting their bottom line and quality of life.  Therefore, when they found the chateau of their dreams with a roof in good condition, it was “the cherry on the cake.” The team took the time to research and come to a consensus early on an easy-to-follow flexible plan (ingredients) with a clear mission, aligning values and culture (recipe) with sustainable bottom-line results (the cake). By establishing an easy-to-follow flexible decision flowchart/roadmap/timeline with controls aligning with a budget to confidently make fast decisions with the flexibility to recognize and meet adversities (“cherry stem”). For example, when touring chateaus, they started with an inspection of the roof first. If the roof was in bad shape, they gathered ideas from the property for their future purchase without further steps forward on the property viewed with a bad roof. There was a clear stop with an explanation based on facts. They later found that as the show progressed, they learned that the moat’s drainage (cherry stem) area needed regular waste clearance to maintain the health of their moat and avoid flooding of their chateau investment. Hence, the importance for knowing how to get to the root of a problem quickly, communicate an easy-to-follow solution that eliminates bottlenecks (waste), the ability to get rid of waste (blockages), and keep moving forward without losing trust, time, and money. Therefore, action steps (recipe) with precise details align with what stakeholders want to include a flexible, agile risk plan of action. Consequently, the “cherry on the cake” saying underestimates “the power of the stem.” It is essential to include a plan of action to identify significant risks and have a flexible procedure to overcome adversities by implementing controls that spot potential issues (stem) early on with a clear roadmap (controls/best practices/regularity/communication/training) development) and ability to adjust. Jack Welch’s eight leadership rules include having “the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.” It is critical to take the time to research, understand and explain (to the best of your ability) why metrics, data (ROI) (ingredients) are relevant before building a roadmap.  (Brown, 2021) (Davenport, 2013) (Gallant, 2021) (Strawbridge, 2021)

Similarly, providing updates, identifying training and development needs and regular communication with c-level, identifying clear goals and objectives, and answering questions while meeting defined deadlines (recipe) creates a winning solution (cake) for expanding into two new market segments by 2023. (Brown, 2021) (Macmillian, 2021) (Strawbridge, 2021) (Welch, 2005)