MGT 680 WEEK 5
ToolsCorp Corporation
is a fictitious company that does exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located it in Tennessee. As members of the senior management team of ToolsCorp Corporation, your group has been asked to prepare a neat and organized report for the Strategic Officers Steering Committee (SOS-C) of ToolsCorp Corporation. The purpose of this paper is to obtain permission from them to go forward with the next step (developing a full-blown business plan) for ToolsCorp's strategic initiative to break into the global marketplace.
Your group's paper should discuss the following (at a minimum):
• A complete strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis (including at least 5 factors from each category and full explanations of why each factor is important and why it was placed in the category) of the environment that exists within ToolsCorp and the environment that ToolsCorp is proposing
• An outline of the business plan to be developed for ToolsCorp's strategic initiative
• A full mission statement containing the nine components and presented in a well written paragraph
• Key operating principles as you will apply them
• A preliminary market analysis
• The one-year, five-year, and ten-year strategic objectives of the strategic initiatives presented as one strategic proposal for each time frame (3 strategic proposals in all), complete with implementation plans, potential ramifications, and feedback mechanisms
• The additional material that your group considers necessary to support the case for going forward with ToolsCorp's global strategic initiative (This is not optional, you must input additional material.)
Background Information
ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located it in Tennessee. It builds power tools, lawn mowers, lawn furniture, microwaves, and ranges. All products are manufactured locally and sold through large retailers. They have sale papers inserted in every Wednesday and Sunday paper. Although they have a thriving business in the United States and Canada, ToolsCorp is trying to break into the global marketplace.
Deliverable Length
The deliverable length is at least 15 pages (cover page and reference page not included). As graduate business students, you are required to provide a well-researched and analyzed comprehensive response to every assignment question. Brief, vague, generic, or nondefinitive responses will not earn good grades.
This group project requires a minimum of 15 scholarly sources, a minimum of 1 per page. You are welcome and encouraged to use the David textbook and the course materials for this course.
For references, use the APA guide that is available as shown in the Virtual Campus under "Interactive Learning."
Remember that any paper longer than 10 pages requires the submission of an abstract.
Submit your group's Word document to your instructor via the Small Group Submitted Assignment area in APA format.
Objective
The Objective of the Unit 5 Group Project Assignment will involve the following the course outcomes and grading criteria with their respective percentages for the grading rubric:
• Identify examples of good and bad business practices in the use of strategy design components (30%).
• Research and discuss some of the changes occurring in the way that organizations structure themselves and their work (30%).
• Develop plans to improve business operations (20%).
• Use effective communication techniques (20%).
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.
This assignment will be assessed using additional criteria provided here.
Grading Criteria Percentage
Deliverable requirements addressed; understanding of material and writer's message and intent are clear 35%
Scholarly research which supports writer's position properly acknowledged and cited direct quotations may not exceed 10% of the word count of the body of the assignment deliverable (excluded title page, abstract, or table of contents if used, tables, exhibits, appendices, and reference page(s)). Inclusion of plagiarized content will not be tolerated and may result in adverse academic consequences. 20%
Critical thinking: position is well justified; logical flow; examples 20%
Structure: includes introduction and conclusion; proper paragraph format and reads as a polished, academic paper or professional presentation, as appropriate for the required assignment deliverable 10%
Mechanical - no spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors 10%
APA - deliverable is cited properly according to the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.) 5%
Assignment Objectives
Interpret examples of good and bad business practices in the use of strategy design components.
Analyze some of the changes occurring in the way that organizations structure themselves and their work.
Differentiate the relationships between a firm and the political and economic forces within its community.
Apply critical thinking skills to analyze business situations.
Appropriately use effective communication techniques.
USA 
India