The document discusses collaborative approaches to science education, emphasizing the analysis of lesson plans from various grade levels and their alignment with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). It further explores corporate strategy through Best Buy's evolution, highlighting the importance of leveraging and building competencies for market adaptation and competitive advantage. The article contrasts traditional strategic frameworks with new dimensions that account for rapid business changes and continuous renewal.

1. Module CLC Assignment
Collaborative Learning Community: Constructivist Teaching:
Then and Now
Group Name
Grand Canyon University: EED 364
Date
(INTRO)
REFLECTION
Within your collaborative group, locate three separate science
lesson plans from different grade levels that are aligned to the
same discipline and core idea across the NGSS. In a 500-750-
word discussion: deconstruct the lesson plans and describe the
components within the lesson plans that reflect how the students
are actually engaging in science practices. Use the ASPA
subheadings below to evaluate the lessons.
Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for
engineering)
Developing and using models
Planning and carrying out investigations
Analyzing and interpreting data
Using mathematics and computational thinking
Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions
(for engineering)
Engaging in arguments from evidence
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Conclusion

2. Reference
Why Best Buy has always had the best
strategy
Two new roads in search of continuous renewal
I
n the few decades since corporate strategy really took off as a
serious academic
discipline, several luminaries such as Michael Porter have made
their mark by
developing a theory, refining it and testing it, and in turn
having a huge impact on how
the subject is studied by business students and practitioners
alike. Other academics have
tried to challenge the theories, pick arguments or just plain put
down these seminal theorists.
Others tinker with the formulae to try and make their own
impact. However some try to
genuinely expand on the original and attempt to take it into new
directions and dimensions
that, crucially, take account of the rapid changes in business
practices.

3. An example of early corporate strategy theory is a matrix
devised by Gary Hamel and CK
Prahalad that shows the importance of core competencies to an
organization, and can be
used to develop strategies to take advantage of those core
competencies. This is done by
plotting existing and new competencies alongside existing and
new markets, which reflects
the competencies needed to consolidate position and compete in
the new areas. But are
these the only choices open to firms where competencies are
concerned?
Accident or design?
In the 1980s and 1990s there was a CEO of a UK pest control
business nicknamed ‘‘Mr 20
percent’’ on account of his promises to grow the company by
this much each year. He pulled
the trick off for several years, but not unsurprisingly he
eventually became unstuck – but how
much of his and the company’s success down to cunning
strategy, or luck? Similarly, did
Steve Jobs know how successful the iPod would be when he
signed off Jonathan Ive’s iconic

4. design in 2001? And therefore, were future designs and
functions based around it to gain
continuous growth? The answer is of course a mixture of the
two, however some strategists
think that firms can at least maximize their capabilities to
ensure the best chance possible for
year-on-year growth. This involves more than merely assessing
core competencies, but
sometimes doing away with them altogether.
Existing or new?
One of the trickiest business decisions surrounds the entry into
new markets or areas of
expertise, as they come with three problems: competition for
resources between business
units is intense, the question of the allocation of those resources
fraught with difficulty, and
these questions often lead to confused management and blurred
vision in assessing what is
best for the business in the short-term and long-term. However
these problems seem to lie in
the assumption that whatever decisions are made are for the
survival of the business in its
current state, and some argue that incredible speed of change,
radical ideas and huge

5. adaptability are needed to set sights much higher by risking the
very core competencies that
are judged key for the firm’s equilibrium in a strategy known as
‘‘creative destruction’’.
DOI 10.1108/02580540810860823 VOL. 24 NO. 4 2008, pp. 21-
23, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0258-0543 j
STRATEGIC DIRECTION j PAGE 21
Present or future?
What is important is that everything has to be on the table when
firm’s start to make choices
about competencies and markets, but the decision regarding
time can still be muddled. In
their article ‘‘Continuous renewal, and how Best Buy did it’’,
Bala Chakravarthy and Peter
Lorange argue that businesses can have the best of both worlds
by developing the Hamel
and Prahalad matrix and adding two new dimensions – leverage
and build. Leverage
involves entering new markets, but leveraging existing
competencies and adding new ones.
Build involves new competencies actually being created such as
assets or new skills, and

6. together with leverage forms a fluid model where the present is
not juxtaposed with the
future, but ‘‘morphs’’ into it.
Evolution or revolution?
Using a case study of the US electronic retailing giant Best
Buy, the authors seek to show
how its phases of development since the early 1980s have seen
it grow into the biggest
name in its market with 16 percent share and sales of $130
billion in 2006. From humble
beginnings of a single store in St Paul, Minnesota in 1966, it
steadily grew until it started to
formulate its strategy more radically and things really took off.
Six phases were identified that
involved leverage and build in varying degrees:
(1) 1983-1988 – Leveraging competencies to develop a state-
wide chain of stores.
(2) 1989-1994 – Became every day, low price cost leader,
expanded market reach and
became much more operationally efficient through build and
leverage.
(3) 1995-1998 – Built a hybrid strategy of low end and top end
product offerings while

7. leveraging competencies to expand reach further.
(4) 1998-2000 – New digital products meant a new strategy of
building skills to become the
retailer of choice to help consumers.
(5) 2001-2004 – A blend of building new skills to keep pace
with technological change and
acquiring new stores in new territories, along with leveraging
retailing skills.
(6) 2004 onwards – New CEO wanted to increase customer
focus and developed
concentrations on different consumer groups to ward off being
squeezed by general
retailers such as Wal-Mart moving into electronic retailing.
Right or wrong?
The final question concerns whether what proved successful for
Best Buy in its particular
market and sector could be duplicated for other businesses.
Perhaps other firms could learn
from the new model and Best Buy example by renewing and
improving on competencies
continuously, committing to profitable growth, set aspirational
goals, renewal of vision as well
as execution and constant monitoring and reaction to market

8. demands.
The key to the expansion of the decision matrix into leverage
and build and the example of
Best Buy, is for organizations to realize that decisions based on
competencies and markets
do not occur in isolation, as a matrix suggests, with a snapshot
in time of the firm’s situation. It
is a constantly evolving picture that develops over time, and
like Best Buy will have small
eras of a few years defined by one or two characteristics or
visions. Rather like a trickle of
‘‘ Did Steve Jobs know how successful the iPod would be when
he signed off Jonathan Ive’s iconic design in 2001? And
therefore, were future designs and functions based around it
to gain continuous growth? ’’
PAGE 22jSTRATEGIC DIRECTIONj VOL. 24 NO. 4 2008
water finding its way across a path of least resistance, the
momentum of the business must
always be maintained.
Comment
The article ‘‘Continuous renewal, and how Best Buy did it’’, by
Bala Chakravarthy and Peter

9. Lorange in Strategy & Leadership, seeks to provide a
development on original work by Gary
Hamel and CK Prahalad by adding two further dimensions to the
traditional strategy of
renewal. It is a fascinating insight into strategic development,
complemented by a case
study of major US retailer Best Buy. It is an intriguing study,
and it would be interesting to see
the model developed further and tested against other
organizations in different market
sectors.
Keywords:
Corporate strategy,
Organizational development,
Competitive advantage
Reference
Chakravarthy, B. and Lorange, P. (2007), ‘‘Continuous renewal,
and how Best Buy did it’’, Strategy
& Leadership, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 4-11.
‘‘ Decisions based on competencies and markets do not occur in
isolation, as a matrix suggests, with a snapshot in time of the
firm’s situation. It is a constantly evolving picture that
develops over time. ’’

10. VOL. 24 NO. 4 2008 jSTRATEGIC DIRECTIONj PAGE 23
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Best practices at Best Buy: a turnaround strategy
Gibson, Elizabeth;Billings, Andy
The Journal of Business Strategy; 2003; 24, 6; ProQuest Central
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Nahavandi, A. (2015). The Art and Science of Leadership (7th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.