Running Head: CAPSTONE PROJECT: STRATEGIC PLAN 1 CAPSTONE PROJECT: STRATEGIC PLAN 3 Capstone Project: Strategic Plan Student’s Name Institutional Affiliations Course Professor’s Name Date Rapid urbanization has put social services such as housing under enormous pressure. Cities have to cope with tremendous inflow of people searching for employment, family ties and immigration. Mumbai city of India is reported to be the most populous of all the cities India with an estimated population of 12.4 million people. Meghdoot Housing Agency is the chosen organization. It has has to be a clear road map for improvement of the quality of life among the city residents. Being a developing nation, India is struggling with poverty and has one of the most restrictive laws governing housing and real estate sector. It is surprising since huge junk of these laws goes back all the way to the 19th century (UNHSP, 2008). Moving forward, there is need to ensure that the quality of life is elevated and improvement in living conditions amongst the residents of major cities and rural areas (Ahluwalia et al, 2014). This is the primary function of Meghdoot Housing Agency. In contribution to the improving quality of housing among the residents, Meghdoot Housing Agency should adopt wide ranging reforms which include: Developing strategies that promote development of affordable housing that meets local needs. Besides that, the organization should come up with options for the people with special needs in the city which may include development of exclusive homes for seniors. It order to achieve this, it would be important to form strategic alliances alliances to broaden revenue streams. The need to keep up with the emerging business trends calls for a well thought plan cutting to accommodate most of it. If implemented well, aforementioned strategies of focus will not only keep agency afloat for the foreseeable future but also help improve the quality of life for the people it serves. References Top of Form Ahluwalia, I.J.,Kanbur , R. .,Mohanty, P.K. (2014).Urbanisation in India: Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward. SAGE Publishing India United Nations Human Settlements Program. (2008). Housing finance mechanisms in India. Bottom of Form Introduction to Juanita’s World This continuing scenario will develop further in each module and will capture glimpses of Juanita Espinosa a 24 year old Hispanic woman, who has recently been hired to the position of HR Manager for a regional branch of an international non-profit organization from another non-profit. In her role she was an unpaid intern working on a Bachelors degree thesis. She is highly motivated and embraces their mission to “stamp out hunger among the young and elderly in our lifetime”. The national organization is doing well but this regional branch is struggling with donations, retaining personnel, and numerous other issues related to motivation, pay, and training. She has been told by the US he.

1. Running Head: CAPSTONE PROJECT: STRATEGIC PLAN
1
CAPSTONE PROJECT: STRATEGIC PLAN
3
Capstone Project: Strategic Plan
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Course
Professor’s Name
Date
Rapid urbanization has put social services such as housing
under enormous pressure. Cities have to cope with tremendous
inflow of people searching for employment, family ties and
immigration. Mumbai city of India is reported to be the most
populous of all the cities India with an estimated population of
12.4 million people.
Meghdoot Housing Agency is the chosen organization. It has
has to be a clear road map for improvement of the quality of life
among the city residents. Being a developing nation, India is
struggling with poverty and has one of the most restrictive laws
governing housing and real estate sector. It is surprising since
huge junk of these laws goes back all the way to the 19th
century (UNHSP, 2008). Moving forward, there is need to
ensure that the quality of life is elevated and improvement in
living conditions amongst the residents of major cities and rural
areas (Ahluwalia et al, 2014). This is the primary function of
Meghdoot Housing Agency.

2. In contribution to the improving quality of housing among the
residents, Meghdoot Housing Agency should adopt wide ranging
reforms which include: Developing strategies that promote
development of affordable housing that meets local needs.
Besides that, the organization should come up with options for
the people with special needs in the city which may include
development of exclusive homes for seniors. It order to achieve
this, it would be important to form strategic alliances alliances
to broaden revenue streams.
The need to keep up with the emerging business trends calls for
a well thought plan cutting to accommodate most of it. If
implemented well, aforementioned strategies of focus will not
only keep agency afloat for the foreseeable future but also help
improve the quality of life for the people it serves.
References
Top of Form
Ahluwalia, I.J.,Kanbur , R. .,Mohanty, P.K.
(2014).Urbanisation in India: Challenges, Opportunities and the
Way Forward. SAGE Publishing India
United Nations Human Settlements Program. (2008). Housing
finance mechanisms in India.
Bottom of Form
Introduction to Juanita’s World
This continuing scenario will develop further in each module
and will capture glimpses of Juanita Espinosa a 24 year old
Hispanic woman, who has recently been hired to the position of
HR Manager for a regional branch of an international non-profit
organization from another non-profit. In her role she was an
unpaid intern working on a Bachelors degree thesis. She is
highly motivated and embraces their mission to “stamp out
hunger among the young and elderly in our lifetime”.
The national organization is doing well but this regional branch

3. is struggling with donations, retaining personnel, and numerous
other issues related to motivation, pay, and training. She has
been told by the US headquarters that they must show
significant improvement in HR related matters within twelve
months or the regional office will be closed.
Current staff consists of 30 full time personnel who work in
fundraising, transportation, marketing/communications, and HR
plus nearly 60 volunteers who work in the same offices as well
as directly serving the constituency they are trying to serve.
During this course you will read as Juanita goes about visiting
with various paid and unpaid managers during her first week.
During these conversations she will hear the good, and the bad.
You will assume her personality as she will be taking notes
during each visit and will sit down with her notes at the end of
the day to reflect and strategize on her priorities and actions
that can best drive short term changes in performance that
improve the organizations quality and efficiency of services
while also building commitment and performance among the
paid and volunteer staff.
She has a target date of establishing her priorities and
developing her strategic plan from an HR perspective for 5
weeks from her hire date in order to track with the course
modules.
Juanita’s World part 1
Juanita is meeting with her new boss, Rich Ryblessi, the
Director of Regional Services. Rich highlights his concerns in
the following areas: analysis and design of work, recruitment
and selection, training and development, performance
management, compensation and benefits, employee relations,
personnel policies, compliance with laws, and strategies for
supporting the mission.
At the end of the meeting Juanita returns to her office and
reflects on the meeting. As best as she can determine, HR has
typically been relegated to simply processing paperwork and
counseling people who had questions about issues like health
insurance and paychecks. And although Rich has identified

4. many important areas for HR, Juanita senses that he really
expects no more from her than he did of the previous HR
Manager. However, Juanita believes she can and should
contribute more to the mission and vision and can help Rich
overcome a number of challenges.
Consider these reflective questions as you will discuss them
further in your assignments:
1. What skills might Juanita have to develop to better fulfill her
role?
2. How might Juanita engage line managers to become more
involved in what has traditionally been HR’s function in this
organization?
3. Which aspects of human resource management would she
want to entrust to specialists?
Juanita’s World part 2
Yesterday was a bit of a surprise for Juanita as she sensed a gap
between what her boss said he wanted and what he conveyed as
expectations and limits on her authority. It is now Day 2 and
she is excited and ready to go with her early afternoon
appointment with fundraising’s Director of Development.
As she is reviewing past reports on fundraising efforts and
success a visitor stops in to see her. When Melissa, introduces
herself Juanita finds that she is the previous HR Manager who
left the organization about 3 months earlier. Juanita perceives
this is an ideal time to glean what she can about challenges and
opportunities. While speaking with Melissa, Juanita finds out
who the real workers are and who just seems to be filling a spot.
She learns that since resources are limited they have struggled
to find qualified and committed personnel to fill numerous
important positions. Juanita finds that the people do care…a
lot…about the mission but hardly think beyond their current
circumstances and most are discouraged with their perceived
lack of impact on their community. When Juanita questions
Melissa about why she left she finds that Melissa had aspired to
have greater responsibility and make a bigger impact but felt

5. limited in her role in this organization. In a way, this confirmed
for Juanita that she would definitely have to speak with Rich
sooner than later to be sure she understood her authority to do
all she thought she was hired to do.
As she visits with Jackie, the Director of Development, she
learns that the economy has had a negative impact on their
historical donor base. Cash gifts are down and have been
trending down for about 2 years. Gifts in kind, like food, are up
but since it is perishable they must distribute it quickly or it
must be thrown away. And, since gifts are down they have had
to rely more heavily on volunteers. This means their drivers and
those who distribute food are less consistent and reliable. This
is beginning to impact their gifts from donors since they are
finding out that much of what they are giving is being thrown
away.
As Juanita sits in her office at the end of the day she feels she is
beginning to understand the complexity of the issues. It seems
she has limited authority over areas that most HR Managers
have and that the lack of cash is negatively impacting their
ability to hire and retain the right people. Since she cannot
control the availability of cash she will have to come up with
some innovative ways to better hire and retain the right people.
Juanita’s World part 3
While attending one of her last classes last night Juanita learned
of an assignment she has related to Equal Employment
Opportunity (EEO). As she is driving home from class she
realizes that her new employer would be a great source for the
assignment and help her better understand how to do her job
better.
When she met with Rich he never mentioned laws and
regulations that may impact the organizations. And, when she
thinks about it, she had assumed that since they were a non-
profit doing work to alleviate hunger that they would somehow
be exempt from government oversight.
Her appointment for Day 3 has cancelled so she decides to use

6. the day to learn what she can about laws and regulations that
they could be potentially violating and also try to better
understand how they could use them to their advantage.
After about 2 hours of research she has learned:
· Full time employees number between 15-30 people depending
on the year and workload.
· They receive both federal and state contracts. Each is for
$20,000 per year.
· Periodically they hire people who serve in the National Guard
and Reserves.
Juanita’s World part 4
It is Juanita’s 4th day on the job and it has been both exciting
and scary. The more she learns the more she realizes she has to
learn if she is to be successful in this new role. Based on her
observations in previous jobs and as an intern at her last non-
profit experience, it seemed as if the pace was slow and easy.
To her surprise and with great anticipation, she is finding that
there is much to be done to help this organization that she is so
committed to.
Her passion and commitment runs deep as a first generation
Hispanic American in her family. She remembers the trouble her
family had finding suitable housing, food, and work when they
first came to America when she was just 6 years old. Much has
changed for her and her family but not without pain and
sacrifice. Juanita is determined to make a difference for those
who have little ability to help themselves. And, as far as she is
concerned, this applies to all the stakeholders she will serve
including the hungry, employees, employer, and the community
at large.
Although there is much to do she remembers what her mama
taught her….you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Based on
this counsel she decides to establish some short term priorities
based on what she has learned so far. From what she has heard
during her first conversations with managers and what she hears

7. from various employees, it seems the greatest need the
organization has is to stabilize the employee base.
Her own job description seems inadequate for what the job will
entail and she wonders if this is true of other jobs. She wonders
if job descriptions are designed to reflect what is or what used
to be when the organization was just getting started. And, how
have they historically planned for their needs or have they
merely reacted to changing requirements?
Juanita’s World part 5
Juanita feels she is developing rapport and trust with a number
of the people she has visited with. It seems obvious that hiring
and retaining the right people is critical to long term success.
As she has probed deeper into the issues she has turned up some
details on performance appraisals…or lack thereof, a weakness
in employee and volunteer development and a significant lack
of training.
Given these difficulties she decides the best way to gather
information without having to schedule more appointments with
people she has already visited is to simply engage in some
discussion via email. She builds her group list and then begins
to compose her email.
“….thank you for taking the time to help me feel welcome and
for sharing your perspective on how HR and I can better help
you accomplish your goals as well as the mission that we share.
As I continue to meet with various people I find that most
challenges we face point back to training and development, our
performance evaluation system and related feedback, and a lack
of a career track for full time employees. I am hoping you will
help me out by responding to a few questions by email so I can
keep thinking about these issues without having to make another
appointment with you so soon after our initial meeting.”
Juanita’s World part 6
When Juanita visited with Melissa, the previous HR manager,

8. she felt Melissa was a bit evasive on issues like hiring, firing,
and retaining employees and volunteers. It is Day 6 since her
hire start date and already she has received two notices of
resignation from key personnel. She was hoping that she could
analyze the situation before trying to implement solutions. But,
Rich, her boss, is applying a lot of pressure because his boss
seems to be applying pressure on him.
Although she did not know the two people very well, she did
conduct exit interviews. Much of what she was told fit with
what she sensed about training and development, compensation,
recognition, and career development. Both individuals seemed
genuinely committed to the mission of the organization, but
expressed frustration with people they work with due to their
incompetence and also with the organization, due to its
unwillingness to invest in its employees.
As Juanita considers a short-term strategy she considers that it
may be best in the short-term to voluntarily separate individuals
who are unwilling to perform and replace them with new hires
who exhibit an interest in development. As she considers the
implications she is certain she will get significant “push back”
from Rich and other more tenured managers. Plus, she knows
that the organization falls under some federal guidelines for
what they can and cannot do.
In preparation for making this issue a priority with an
actionable tactical plan, she knows she must be fair, above
reproach, and demonstrate grace in order to preserve the dignity
of the workers and to attempt to build a system of
accountability.
Juanita’s World part 7
As part of Juanita’s plan to revise her organizations hiring and
retention practices she decides to focus on issues that could
differentiate their organization from others that have a similar
mission.
From her interviews she has learned that most employees who
voluntarily separate move to other humanitarian organizations

9. that include employee recognition and some basic benefits. As
part of her plan Juanita hopes to convince Rich that they can
revamp the entire compensation system to better reward high
performance employees and yet continue to hold the costs down
to fit the current budget. She feels Rich will think this will be
disruptive to the sense of security that employees have but she
is convinced that they have been balancing the scales of justice
in terms of work output for the small compensation they
receive.
At the end of the day Juanita believes pay has been based on
equality rather than equity. She believes if performance is to
improve they must pay competitively for those who they want to
retain.
Juanita’s World part 8
It has been a year since Juanita finished her degree and about
two years since she has been promoted to HR Director status.
As part of her training her boss has offered to send her to their
HQ in Uzbekistan for one year. The office is staffed with
several Americans and English speaking Uzbeks. She has spent
some time studying the people and culture and thinks this will
be an “adventure of a lifetime”. Of course, she knows that it
will be a very different world for her. She intends to be a
student of the culture and apply all that she has learned in the
last few years.
Juanita has asked for a week to do research on the culture and
how it has impacted the way their organization fulfills their
mission. This is a former Soviet country that is populated with
mostly Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Tajiks. She has
learned that they think of themselves as European but are
primarily Muslim in their religious beliefs but motivated by
pursuing material wealth.
As she contemplates how little she knows about this country and
its people, some anxiety begins to creep in along with the
excitement of the challenge of the unknown. To ensure she is

10. reasonably well prepared before she goes, she decides to
communicate with the Uzbek Director, Ludmilla Kovalenko.
Ludmilla, is Ukranian and has offered to provide her insights
into the areas Juanita is interested in. In her first email she told
Ludmilla that she will be sending some emails with questions
related to the cultural context and other issues that may impact
how work gets done and the mission accomplished.