Running head: BUSIENSS POLICY DEVLEOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 1 BUSIENSS POLICY DEVLEOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 2 Business Policy Development and Implementation Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Business Policy Development and Implementation Introduction In a constantly changing organizational and business environment, companies are increasingly facing stiff competition. As such, they are compelled by the need to improve their performance and do things in the most desired ways in order to meet the needs of consumers (Gomes & Romão, 2013). In light of these patterns, organizations can no longer be dependent upon the traditional analytical tools. Instead, they have seen the need to use models and frameworks such as the balanced scorecard to examine the degree to which companies work to attain their mission and vision. In addition, strategic decision-making must also be done through observance of the constantly changing trends and patterns that may affect the status of an organization. In this report, I provide ways in which our team members made logical decisions and how we utilized the balanced scorecard framework. Decision Logic and What Supported the Decisions The decisions that we embraced in the Capsim project was driven by the desire to generate a competitive advantage over other rivals. Therefore, we saw the need to take a closer look at the use of decision-making strategies within our business and operational environment. The main decisions that we made were associated with issues such as product development, research and development, innovation, marketing, as well as human resources and finance. There are various factors that made it possible for the team to make strategic decisions. First, having ready access to information, ranging from the details of the potential markets for the organization’s products and services, as well as estimates of next year’s labor requirements, is important. The more accurate and complete the information is, the more effective the strategic decisions we made. For instance, we relied on technological tools such as information systems to provide the team with accurate information about business intelligence issues (Spetzler, Winter & Meyer, 2016).  Decision-making on production and product development functions heavily relied on technological tools such as spreadsheets and databases to calculate the efficacy of different machines, and to introduce new products in the production process. In order to support marketing decisions, we utilized Big Data technologies and analytics to determine the effects of different pricing strategies and to keep the records of consumer profiles. These tools were also utilized to plan the launching of new products and services. Human resources decisions were made with the purpose of planning for the next round and determining the pay awards. Planning decisions also sought to determine employee records and rewards. Finance decisions were also made to draw up p ...

1. Running head: BUSIENSS POLICY DEVLEOPMENT AND
IMPLEMENTATION 1
BUSIENSS POLICY DEVLEOPMENT AND
IMPLEMENTATION 2
Business Policy Development and Implementation
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Business Policy Development and Implementation
Introduction
In a constantly changing organizational and business
environment, companies are increasingly facing stiff
competition. As such, they are compelled by the need to
improve their performance and do things in the most desired
ways in order to meet the needs of consumers (Gomes &
Romão, 2013). In light of these patterns, organizations can no
longer be dependent upon the traditional analytical tools.
Instead, they have seen the need to use models and frameworks
such as the balanced scorecard to examine the degree to which
companies work to attain their mission and vision. In addition,
strategic decision-making must also be done through observance
of the constantly changing trends and patterns that may affect
the status of an organization. In this report, I provide ways in
which our team members made logical decisions and how we
utilized the balanced scorecard framework.
Decision Logic and What Supported the Decisions

2. The decisions that we embraced in the Capsim project was
driven by the desire to generate a competitive advantage over
other rivals. Therefore, we saw the need to take a closer look at
the use of decision-making strategies within our business and
operational environment. The main decisions that we made were
associated with issues such as product development, research
and development, innovation, marketing, as well as human
resources and finance. There are various factors that made it
possible for the team to make strategic decisions. First, having
ready access to information, ranging from the details of the
potential markets for the organization’s products and services,
as well as estimates of next year’s labor requirements, is
important. The more accurate and complete the information is,
the more effective the strategic decisions we made. For
instance, we relied on technological tools such as information
systems to provide the team with accurate information about
business intelligence issues (Spetzler, Winter & Meyer, 2016).
Decision-making on production and product development
functions heavily relied on technological tools such as
spreadsheets and databases to calculate the efficacy of different
machines, and to introduce new products in the production
process. In order to support marketing decisions, we utilized
Big Data technologies and analytics to determine the effects of
different pricing strategies and to keep the records of consumer
profiles. These tools were also utilized to plan the launching of
new products and services. Human resources decisions were
made with the purpose of planning for the next round and
determining the pay awards. Planning decisions also sought to
determine employee records and rewards. Finance decisions
were also made to draw up profit and loss statements and to
calculate the cash flow forecasts. Most significantly, the
strategic decisions that we made were instrumental in
conducting investment appraisals for current and future business
expansions.
The rationale of engaging in decision-making initiatives
also emerges out of the growing need for the company to

3. improve its ability to transform constantly and gain new
insights into innovative ways in relation to the changing
marketplace. This remained a major issue especially when it
came to our need to attain the goals of total quality management
programs. Decisions were made in order to develop and improve
organizational procedures, guidelines, and rules that improve
learning, creativity, and innovation (Papadakis & Barwise,
2012). As a team that involved itself in quality improvement
initiatives, we essentially operated in introspective ways. As a
team, we constantly sought to be dynamic and flexible, with the
ability to adapt to constantly changing business environments.
The decisions that we made were meant to increase our ability
to drive, respond, and anticipate the continuously changing
forces, requirements and expectations of both the external and
internal environment. In order to realize competitive advantage,
the team mainly utilized intelligence systems that store and use
domain expertise and knowledge to support the process of
problem-solving and decisions. These giant steps enabled us to
overcome the expenses of buying-in expertise to support
strategic decisions, which are often done in the short-run to
solve business problems. Moreover, if we utilized internal
experts and professionals, our knowledge and skills can be
stored within the intelligence system. This comes with various
benefits. For instance, conducting business intelligence supports
decision-making activities thereby allowing the experts and
team members to address more strategic or critical tasks. In
addition, it enables the organization to gather, capture, and
store valuable expertise that would otherwise been lost as a
result of employee turnover or retirements. Further, business
intelligence improved decision-making initiatives by enabling
the team members ton efficaciously distribute and exploit
knowledge throughout the organization, and thus proliferate a
consistently high level of expertise across a number of sites.
Decision-making activities that we engaged in entailed the
use of a collection of various analytical activities. They
included: comparisons, explanations, predictions, and

4. prescriptions. These activities are generic in the sense that they
can be viewed across a wide range of strategic consulting
engagements. Comparison entailed making decisions by
conducting analyses that contrasted two or more strategically
relevant entities along one or more dimensions. Examples of
comparative activities included competitive cost analyses,
analyses of consumer perceptions and behaviors, and
assessments of the organization’s products and services in
relation to competitors’ with the purpose of developing a
differentiation strategy. Explanations involved diagnoses of
competitive phenomena, including problems that specified
causal relationships among strategically important variables.
For instance, explanations included undertaking assertions such
as profitability declines due to increases in sector capacity and
price cutting by new entrants. Predictive decisions involved
conducting forecasting and estimating the future events and
occurrences, quantities, relationships, and impacts of present
activities. For example, we sought to predict whether or not
industry prices would reduce or increase in the next five years.
After undertaking these predictions, the final decision-making
activities involved developing solutions and recommendations,
a process referred to as prescription. Recommendations were
made to ensure that certain changes are implemented in order
for the organization to gain competitive advantage. It also
involved making specific decisions, initiatives, and policy
formulations meant to address problems or opportunities. For
instance, the company made recommendations to consolidate
product lines by 30 percent or improve its capacity to diversify
its products and services so as to increase its brand value and
reputation. In light of the above decision-making activities, I
have learned that strategic management has shifted its emphasis
away from substantive issues, with a bias towards the issue of
what is actually the best strategy. There is need to embrace a
process view in which the issue becomes more inclined towards
determining how best are effective strategies and decisions
made. Within the process view perspective of decision making,

5. controversies have emerged relating to the degree to which
effective strategy would be better developed via a formalized
planning system, or whether such systems act only as inhibiting
factors. Strategy can be more effectively developed via the ad-
hoc procedures in which choices emerge in reaction to the
constantly-changing business environments and conditions.
` One of the issues that dominated our group meetings is
how the organizational decision makers can actually act and
what modes they can use to describe and explain the procedures
of strategic decision-making. This enabled our group to
effectively identify situations and factors within which certain
processes are most efficacious (Tavana, 2012). Decision-making
can be defined as the choice for a course of action to attain a
desired future business and organizational state. In order for a
choice to be made, there is an urgent need for the availability of
interdependent participants or key factors. These participants
should also be aware of the likelihood of making choices, and
experience a degree of uncertainties on which course of action
to take. Rationality and logic are key behavioral concepts of
decision-making. They are founded on the presumption that
decision-makers can effectively identify their preferred
outcomes and seek methods of attaining them. In our case, we
regarded logic and rationality as procedural concepts for
describing how decision-makers seek to interpret their
ambiguous worlds in order to take sensible actions and optimize
outcomes. The most common approaches that are utilized in
rationality-oriented decisions included describing some
universal stages or procedures in decision-making, establishing
sequential patterns in which the participants first become
knowledgeable of, and formulate the problems. Thereafter,
solutions are generated and analyzed in order to finally test and
implement a solution that can generate the desired outcomes.
Balanced Scorecard
Five Principles of Strategy Focused Organization
The task of formulating organizational and team strategies
is often a complex phase of strategic and operational

6. management in which based on the given information, there is a
need to develop the future directions for the effective
functioning of the organization. In these processes, teams
normally rely on the financial reports to represent the financial
aspects. In so doing, they can overlook at first sight all the
activities that are a part of forming a business’s success. If
made wrong, these decisions can be fatal to an organization
(Stefanovska & Soklevski, 2014). Therefore, there is need for
the use of a balanced scorecard as a framework to enable teams
to make future decisions based on their strategic plans.
Organizations must never focus only on the financial aspects
alone, but also on the internal processes and human resources.
Strategic planning is a particularly important aspect that
influences the work of any group and organization.
Consequently, our team utilized the five principles of a
strategy-focused organization to complete the Capsim
competition.
The first principle sought to translate the strategy into
operational terms. As a strategy-focused team, we translated our
business strategy into rational architecture of a strategy map
and balanced scorecard. In so doing, we created a common and
understandable point of reference for all departments. Through
strategy maps, we were able to address the possible
shortcomings of the industrial age’s tangible asset measurement
systems (Stefanovska & Soklevski, 2014). The measurement
connections of cause and effect relationships in strategy maps
enabled the team to determine how the intangible assets would
be transformed into tangible and financial outcomes. In
particular, the scorecard’s utilization of quantitative but non-
financial metrics such as cycle time, market share, innovation,
and consumer satisfaction enabled the value creating process to
be described and measured as opposed to being inferred.
The second principle that guided our strategy portfolio is
the alignment of the team to the organizational strategies. Like
other organizations, our team was traditionally built around the
functional specialties such as finance, marketing, and research

7. and development. Thus, the team’s functional silos emerged
and became major deterrents to strategy implementation, since
the team experienced difficulties in communicating and
coordinating across these specialty functions. However, the
team broke down these barriers and ensured that we replaced the
formalized structures and reporting systems with strategic
themes and priorities. This effort enabled the team to have a
consistent message and collection of priorities.
The third principle will be used as a tool to make each
strategy to be every member’s everyday work. As a strategic-
focused team, we will encourage members and employees to
understand the strategy and undertake their daily business
environments in ways that contribute to the success of these
strategies. This may not be a top-down decision. Instead, it will
be in form of a top-down communication. Under this
arrangement he team will ensure that people who are far from
the corporate and regional headquarters still get ways of
undertaking their business tasks and activities. This will
contribute to the realization of the company’s overall strategic
objectives. Therefore, all employees will undergo training on
major concepts such as customer segmentation, variable costing,
and database marketing.
The fourth principle states that marketing should be made
to be a continuous procedure. In conformity to this principle,
the team put in place a program to ensure that the marketing
functions are done on a regular and endless basis. Instead of
being a yearly event, the team worked to ensure that marketing
functions are done perpetually and on a monthly basis. The fifth
principle states that there is need to mobilize change through
executive leadership. In order to work towards this goal, team
members expressed their commitment to provide openness and
willingness in embracing organizational changes (Niven, 2011).
This was attained by launching communication initiatives to
encourage team participation in change activities. The team also
ensured that there was team cohesion and active coordination of
these changes. Strategy implementation also required placing

8. attention and emphasis on the change agenda and performances
against the targeted outcomes. Our strategy-focused team also
nurtured energetic leadership to utilize every opportunity to
realize breakthrough performance and productivity. Using
collaborative approach to change management enabled company
leaders to make all members feel as part of the change agenda,
thus minimizing resistance to change.
Recommendations for Improving Team Performance
There are various strategies that could be employed to
ensure that the performance and productivity of the team is
improved. First, a training program could be introduced to
constantly sharpen and improve the skills of team members.
Training would enable team members to find effective ways of
addressing competitive challenges that constantly emerge on a
regular basis (Franz, 2012). The primary goal of team training
would be to improve competencies in order to allow effective
synchronization, coordination, and communication between
team members. The first step of team member training would
entail developing team training requirements. Team training
effectiveness would be designed and the tools, methods, and
competencies would be mixed to form the instructional
strategies utilized for team.
Team performance and productivity will also be improved
by introducing a participative and collaborative decision-
making environment in which team members differing views are
respected and welcomed. Reasonable tolerance for mistakes and
freedom for experimentation can help the team to improve the
task that members are assigned to perform. The benefits of
putting in place a positive team climate in the organization
include organizational protection, personal development, and
improved processes (Wildman & Griffith, 2014). By improving
the work environment, the company can effectively achieve the
goal of having better products and services, as well as mutual
give and take, cooperation, and mutual respect. By being
collaborative, team members’ environment of trust is improved.
This results in cooperation, mutual respect, and better processes

9. and products. Establishing a collaborative and participative
team environment also helps to provide members with positive
energy, enthusiasm, involvement, and excitement that energize
team members to maximize their performance.
Career Learning
There are several lessons that I have drawn from the
Capsim simulation. For instance, I have learned the importance
of performance measurement in organizational strategy
development. With performance measurement, an organization
can effectively monitor the implementation of its goals and seek
to understand when the plans are successful or not. In doing so,
team members will effectively improve their strategies.
Therefore, performance measurement systems such as the
balanced scorecard need to do several things for them to be
effective in monitoring and evaluating business success. For
instance, the balanced scorecard can enable the organization to
assess whether or not it is getting the expected contributions
from employees and suppliers, the elements of its internal
groups and the anticipated returns from customer groups. In
addition, performance metrics can help the organization to
evaluate whether or not it is providing each stakeholder group
with what it needs to continue contributing to the organization
to meet its primary objectives.
I have also learned the significance of research and
development programs in improving competitive advantage and
innovation. Research and development (R&D) refers to
activities that are taken on by an organization, group, and
individual entrepreneurs to develop new or improved products
and processes. These may include activities such as embarking
on scientific studies, product testing, refinements, and the
releasing of new products and services to target audiences. The
Capsim project has broadened my understanding of the
significance of R&D in generating creative ideas that result in
groundbreaking outcomes in the market. Most significantly,
R&D supports decision-making by providing comprehensive and
organized information from which the top companies and

10. leaders can act swiftly to make strategic decisions.
Conclusion
Organizational leaders and team members make numerous
decisions on daily, monthly, and annual bases. These decisions
have an immense impact on a team’s competitive advantage.
Therefore, the strategic decisions must be informed by the most
accurate bodies of evidence which may require the use of
metrics and models for monitoring performance. One of the
most popular measurements is the balanced scorecard, which
can guide leaders to make informed decisions.
References
Franz, T. M. (2012). Group dynamics and team interventions:
Understanding and improving
team performance. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Gomes, J., & Romão, M. (2013). How benefits management
helps balanced scorecard to deal
with business dynamic environments. Tourism & Management
Studies, 9(1).
Niven, P. R. (2011). Balanced scorecard: Step-by-step for
government and nonprofit agencies.
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Papadakis, V., & Barwise, P. (Eds.). (2012). Strategic decisions.
New York: Springer Science &
Business Media.
Spetzler, C., Winter, H., & Meyer, J. (2016). Decision quality:
Value creation from better
business decisions. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Stefanovska, L., & Soklevski, T. (2014). Benefits of Using
Balanced Scorecard in Strategic and
Operational Planning. Universal Journal of Management, 2(4),
165-171.
Tavana, M. (Ed.). (2012). Management theories and strategic
practices for decision making.
New York: IGI Global.
Wildman, J. L., & Griffith, R. L. (Eds.). (2014). Leading global

11. teams: Translating
multidisciplinary science to practice. New York: Springer.
Please ensure this work has scholarly references; free of
plagiarism, free of grammatical error. Ensure all free of
incorrect spelling.
The company we have decide to write about for this assignment
is Amazon.
This is a Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) assignment.
Develop a 750-1,000 word high level staffing and compensation
plan. The plan should contain an introduction and conclusion
that make relevant connections to the course objectives.
The purpose of this assignment is to simulate the thought
process that managers use when planning for staffing and
compensating employees. Students are not expected to produce
a detailed proposal. Rather, the expectation is that students
demonstrate consideration of the multiple complexities involved
in staffing and compensation.
Obtain the Instructor's approval on the selected organization
before writing the Staffing and Compensation Plan which
should include:
1. Introduction.
2. Discussion of the staffing needs of your organization.
3. Explanation of the compensation plan for your organization.
4. Description of the employee benefits offered.
5. Conclusion.
Incorporate three to five resources (including your textbook) to
support your Staffing and Compensation Plan.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the
APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An
abstract is not required.

12. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to
beginning the assignment to become familiar with the
expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please
refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.