LASA 1 Assignment—The Leader as a Strategist Report For this assignment, you will choose an organization to analyze. This organization can be one you are personally familiar with, or one you have observed to be an effective organization, You now become a newly appointed senior leader in that organization. As a new leader, you must prepare a report for the CEO that assesses the organization’s overall alignment between its vision, mission, values, and strategy. This report should consist of the following sections: An analysis of the strategic cascade of the organization  This includes assessing the organization’s strategy and market position. Use the framework implied in Michael Porter’s (1997) article “What is Strategy.” When describing the business strategy of your organization, consider the following questions: What is the target market (target customer)? What is your organization's value proposition (How does it deliver value that satisfies the target’s wants and needs?)? How is your product or service positioned in the market (What specific features and attributes define the product/service and how is its value reflected in its pricing, distribution, marketing communications, etc.?)? How is your organization sustainably different from your competitors (What is the source of uniqueness and how sustainable is it from being diminished by competitors?)?  A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis  A SWOT analysis is a strategy planning tool that examines both internal and external environments for factors and trends that should shape planning and operations over the next five years. Environmental factors internal to the company are classified as strengths (to be leveraged) or weaknesses (to be mitigated), while external factors are classified as either opportunities (to be pursued) or threats (to be monitored and responded to).  Some primer questions for the SWOT analysis include the following: Strengths What advantages does your organization have? What do you do better than anyone else? What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others cannot? What do people in your market see as your strengths? What factors mean that you "get the sale"? What is your organization's unique selling proposition (USP)? Weaknesses What aspects of your product or service could you improve? What market segments or competitive areas should you avoid? What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses? What factors can make you lose sales? Opportunities What good opportunities can you spot? What interesting trends are you aware of? Useful opportunities can come from such things as the following: Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale Changes in government policy related to your field Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on Local events Threats What obstacles do you face? What are your competitors doing? Are quality standards or specifications for your .

1. LASA 1 Assignment—The Leader as a Strategist Report
For this assignment, you will choose an organization to analyze.
This organization can be one you are personally familiar with,
or one you have observed to be an effective organization, You
now become a newly appointed senior leader in that
organization.
As a new leader, you must prepare a report for the CEO that
assesses the organization’s overall alignment between its vision,
mission, values, and strategy. This report should consist of the
following sections:
An analysis of the strategic cascade of the organization
This includes assessing the organization’s strategy and market
position. Use the framework implied in Michael Porter’s (1997)
article “What is Strategy.” When describing the business
strategy of your organization, consider the following questions:
What is the target market (target customer)?
What is your organization's value proposition (How does it
deliver value that satisfies the target’s wants and needs?)?
How is your product or service positioned in the market (What
specific features and attributes define the product/service and
how is its value reflected in its pricing, distribution, marketing
communications, etc.?)?
How is your organization sustainably different from your
competitors (What is the source of uniqueness and how
sustainable is it from being diminished by competitors?)?
A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
analysis
A SWOT analysis is a strategy planning tool that examines both
internal and external environments for factors and trends that
should shape planning and operations over the next five years.
Environmental factors internal to the company are classified as
strengths (to be leveraged) or weaknesses (to be mitigated),
while external factors are classified as either opportunities (to

2. be pursued) or threats (to be monitored and responded to).
Some primer questions for the SWOT analysis include the
following:
Strengths
What advantages does your organization have?
What do you do better than anyone else?
What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that
others cannot?
What do people in your market see as your strengths?
What factors mean that you "get the sale"?
What is your organization's unique selling proposition (USP)?
Weaknesses
What aspects of your product or service could you improve?
What market segments or competitive areas should you avoid?
What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?
What factors can make you lose sales?
Opportunities
What good opportunities can you spot?
What interesting trends are you aware of?
Useful opportunities can come from such things as the
following:
Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow
scale
Changes in government policy related to your field
Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle
changes, and so on
Local events
Threats
What obstacles do you face?
What are your competitors doing?
Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products,
or services changing?
Is changing technology threatening your position?
Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your
business?

3. A summary of the internal environment, including the
organization’s values and the key elements of the organization
architecture that influence worker behavior.
Include the following characteristics when analyzing the
internal environment:
Structure: This includes the ways the organization assigns
formal roles and responsibilities, decision-making authority,
expertise and skills, and work tasks. Think of the organization
chart and how its implied structure directs the decision making,
resource allocation, and workflow of the organization. Is it
consistent with the strategy?
Systems: This comprises the information flows that coordinate
activities between groups and across the organization structure
while helping direct worker behavior, including performance
management, financial management, operating, forecasting and
planning, and other regulating mechanisms. How do these
systems help align workers and their actions with the strategy?
Culture: This consists of the unwritten rules and norms that
govern worker behavior and help coordinate the activities
across structural boundaries. Is the organization culture an
enabler or impediment to the corporate strategy? What specific
behaviors embedded in the culture support the strategy? What
specific behaviors block the strategy?
A synthesis of the information evaluating the ability of the
organization to implement the strategy using Kouzes and
Posner’s Five Practices (for example, modeling the way) as a
framework.
Include answers to the following:
Company Culture
Describe the values and culture of your organization.
What are the values of your organization?
How are they reflected in the behaviors you see at work?
Employee Behaviors
Describe the behaviors in your organization.
Are these behaviors consistent with the business strategy?
Where do they conflict with the strategy?

4. What new behaviors are required to align with the strategy?
Leadership
How might you and other leaders create new behaviors to
support the strategy?
What specific actions would you implement to communicate,
motivate, model the way, coach, inspire the vision, challenge
the process, and encourage the heart?
Your response to each part of the assignment should be
approximately three pages.
Your final product will be in a word document and be
approximately 10–12 pages in length and utilize 4–7 scholarly
sources in your research. Your paper should be written in a
clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical
scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of
sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and
punctuation.
By
Week 3, Day 7
, deliver your assignment to the
M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox
.
Assignment Component
Proficient
Max Points
Content Knowledge: Understanding
Communicates understanding of the organization’s current
vision, mission, and strategy.
Response incorporates analysis and synthesis of central
concepts of the assigned topic.
Response reflects understanding of the nature of the specific
topic within the discipline and its applications in contemporary
times.

5. Response provides necessary details and specific examples.
/ 80 pts.
Content Knowledge: Application Component 1
Communicates the ability to analyze the “strategic cascade” of
the organization and complete a SWOT analysis.
Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary
content knowledge.
Response examines the specific issue within the context of the
topic area using relevant details and examples.
Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable
areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world
contexts.
Response is adequately supported by current and relevant
literature.
/ 40 pts.
Content Knowledge: Application Component 2
Communicates the ability to summarize the internal
environment, including the organization’s values and the key
elements that influence the worker’s behavior.
Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary
content knowledge.
Response examines the specific issue within the context of the
topic area using relevant details and examples.
Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable
areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world
contexts.
Response is supported by current and relevant literature.
/ 40 pts.
Content Knowledge: Application Component 3
Communicates the ability to state the ability of the organization
to implement the strategy.
Response demonstrates a working command of the disciplinary
content knowledge.
Response examines the specific issue within the context of the
topic area using relevant details and examples.
Response analyzes the specific aspect of the issue to applicable

6. areas within the discipline and their relevance to real world
contexts.
Response is supported by current and relevant literature.
/20 pts.
Written Communication/Personal Effectiveness
Conveys through written word understanding and application of
the essential assignment components.
Writing is concise and clear in content, language use, grammar,
organization, and sentence structure.
Writing is free of major grammatical and usage errors.
/ 20 pts.
Total
/200 pts