Select an organization that has leveraged Cloud Computing technologies in an attempt to improve profitability or to give them a competitive advantage.

Research the organization to understand the challenges that they faced and how they intended to use Cloud Computing to overcome their challenges.

The paper should include the following sections each called out with a header.

• Company Overview: The section should include the company name, the industry they are in and a general overview of the organization.

• Challenges: Discuss the challenges the organization had that limited their profitability and/or competitiveness and how they planned to leverage Cloud Computing to overcome their challenges.

• Solution: Describe the organization’s Cloud Computing implementation and the benefits they realized from the implementation. What was the result of implementing Cloud Computing? Did they meet their objectives for fall short?

Sample Solution

Competency
Assess strategic planning approaches and models used to achieve organizational goals.

Student Success Criteria
View the grading rubric for this deliverable by selecting the “This item is graded with a rubric” link, which is located in the Details & Information pane.

Scenario
Healthy Dynamics have been around for 25 years and has a company-wide strategy in place, but the old strategy has proven to be ineffective of late in generating new ideas and revenue streams. The current plan provides wellness strategies for their clients and a commitment from the staff of Healthy Dynamics to deliver high quality, effective customer service and comprehensive wellness strategies. Currently Healthy Dynamics offer its clients the following wellness program components: smoking cessation, health risk assessment, biometric screening, nutrition education, cooking demonstration, and chronic disease prevention education.

The company is considering either a merger or acquisition to prevent bankruptcy. Both options will result in layoffs, and your department will be affected with an anticipated 80% reduction in staff. You have been assigned to produce a strategic planning model to prevent either of these possibilities. Should Healthy Dynamics take a leap and dive into other healthcare services, such as medical equipment and digital health, or add new components to their wellness program offerings to make it more comprehensive for their clients? Your first steps are to figure out where you think the company should go (vision), what you are hoping to achieve (mission), and then identify how you will move forward (objectives).

Instructions
Compile a PowerPoint presentation using speaker notes and/or voiceover narration that includes:

A well-defined vision and mission statements that advances your winning idea to increase revenue for the future and drive business success
3-4 Strategic Objectives (What action will you take to achieve the vision and mission?)
Follow the “Verb + Adjective + Noun” format
Create strategic objective statements. How will you achieve each objective “explaining the objective’s intent and meaning?” (2-3 sentences each)

Sample Solution

Todd Robinson, president of Robinson Insurance Agency, couldn’t be happier. The company that Todd’s father, Edger, started thirty years ago is prospering and poised for future growth. Over the past three years, Robinson Insurance has successfully purchased two regional insurance agencies whose owners were ready for retirement. The acquisitions went smoothly, and the firms merged under Todd’s capable leadership. The company now has 13 branch offices, in five different cities, in the greater Portland metropolitan area. The headquarters office—the site of the original Robinson Insurance Agency office—is located in the bustling downtown district in Portland, Oregon.
At 56 years old, Todd Robinson has earned a reputation for being a savvy businessman and a successful entrepreneur. He hopes to acquire at least one other small agency in the next year—a move that will expand the company by two additional branch offices in suburban Portland neighborhoods. However, managing the company is beginning to consume more and more of Todd’s time and energy—time he would like to spend with his family. Todd realizes that he needs to identify potential middle and senior management leaders within the company who can be trained to play a larger role in both day-to-day and strategic decisions.
Todd knows that selecting individuals to fill future leadership positions will be extremely critical to the long-term success of the company. He wants to ensure that the individuals who are identified for growth opportunities have the knowledge, skills and abilities to move into new middle and senior leadership positions as these positions are created. He also wants to ensure that the new leaders will possess and exemplify the “Client First” philosophy that characterizes the company. Frankly, he has concerns that some current managers—especially those from the agencies purchased by Robinson Insurance—may not fully share the company’s values and may only give “lip service” to the company’s customer-oriented values and practices. However, with 13 branch offices, Todd isn’t as familiar with each manger’s potential as he would like to be.
Thus, Todd has retained your services to help plan an assessment-based professional development program. The goal of the program is to identify people within the company who have the potential for greater levels of responsibility and authority, and then to invest in these individuals by providing training and other professional growth opportunities. Todd also wants help creating a succession plan to position the company for long-term success, even after he retires in five to eight years.

sound defense of the feasibility of the plan, to meet the company’s leadership development objectives. In your paper, address the following:

1. Discuss the key factors for identifying leadership potential.
2. Identify an assessment-based approach for identifying potential among the managers at Robinson Insurance Agency. Describe how assessment processes and assessment instruments can be used to identify potential leaders and their leadership development needs.
3. Include in your assessment approach at least three specific assessment instruments to evaluate leadership potential, justifying the use of each assessment instrument for its intended purpose.
4. Identify the outcomes, data or information produced by each assessment you propose in your plan and review the considerations for facilitating feedback from each type of assessment.
5. Provide details of practical considerations of your plan, such as who will implement which parts of the assessment plan (an insider, an outsider, or a combination of both), what type of certification may be necessary to administer each assessment, and how the managers within Robinson Insurance will be consulted and involved in the assessment process.
6. Identify the potential legal ramifications that may arise if Robinson Insurance Agency implements an assessment-based approach to identifying potential. Discuss ways of ensuring that the approach you recommend for the company is legal and justifiable

Sample Solution