see attachments

Question:

Professional Assignment 1 (PA1) – CLO 1, CLO 2, CLO 3 

In a 2 to 3 page APA formatted paper:

Read: “Watch Out All Retailers, Here Comes Amazon; Watch Out Amazon, Here Comes Other Competitors” On page 67-68 

Answer the questions below (With six peer-reviewed sources for support): 

1. Can any firm beat Amazon in the marketplace? If not, why not? If so, how can they best do so? 

2. How formidable a competitor is Google for Amazon? Please explain. 

3. What are Amazon’s major strengths? Does it have any weaknesses? Please explain. 

4. Is Jet.com a potential concern for Amazon? Why or why not? 

CLO’s need to cover for assignment.

1. Describe all facets of a sound business strategy and the reasoning behind strategy implementation and execution. Explain the four strategic approaches for setting a company apart and decide what how each strategy can gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

2. Describe how a clear strategic vision and initiatives can help a company achieve performance targets in the US and abroad.

3. Evaluate a company’s strategic plan and assess a company’s strengths and weaknesses with regards to market opportunities and external threats. Examine how a diverse perspective and contribute to the decision-making process.

Sample Paper

Vision Statement Effectiveness

Star Student

Westcliff University

BUS 525: Strategic Management in a Globalized Economy

Fantastic Professor

Month Date, Year

Vision Statement Effectiveness

Briefly providing the contextual background of the leader. This will contain the person’s background. This is how I want your paper turned in. Your audience is someone like your roommate – intelligent, educated, but has NO IDEA what the case study is about.

This is generally one paragraph, but two or three may be fine. The easiest way to explain this section is to think of it like an abstract or introduction. This section, if written properly, can actually act as the abstract for this paper. It will, in a sense, set up the rest of the paper, which is the review of the case, analysis, recommendations, and the summary and conclusions sections. Cite authors. You should NOT write “According to his book” as your reader has NO IDEA who or what is that. Instead, use “According to Gamble, Peteraf, and Thompson (2018), …” In this section, you will let your reader know what will be covered in your paper.

If there is a second paragraph, it will look like this. This is difficult for many to get used to and takes practice. The paper should be written in third person narrative, but for this paper, the first person will be accepted. You will NOT use the first person plural, “we,” or the second person. One other note: an organization is an “it,” not a “they.” Remember that when you use pronouns describing an organization.

American Express Company (AMEX) Vision Statement

Here, you will answer the mandate, “Critique the adequacy and merit of the vision statements on page 33 of your textbook, listing effective elements and shortcomings.”

Hilton Hotels Corporation (Hilton) Vision Statement

Here, you will answer the mandate, “Critique the adequacy and merit of the vision statements on page 33 of your textbook, listing effective elements and shortcomings.”

Mastercard Inc. (Mastercard) Vision Statement

Here, you will answer the mandate, “Critique the adequacy and merit of the vision statements on page 33 of your textbook, listing effective elements and shortcomings.”

BASF SE (BASF) Vision Statement

Here, you will answer the mandate, “Critique the adequacy and merit of the vision statements on page 33 of your textbook, listing effective elements and shortcomings.”

Ranking the Visions Statements

Here you will follow the mandate, “Rank the vision statements from best to worst once you complete your evaluation.”

Also, you must provide at least six peer-reviewed references and cite the references in the form of in-text citations in the body of the paper (i.e., the textbook and six additional peer-reviewed sources). Again, when you reference material in your paper, you must also have in-text citations in the body of the paper for each reference. Remember, EVERY citation must correspond to a reference and EVERY reference must correspond to a citation. You CANNOT have one without the other.

Summary and Conclusions

This section will tie together all sources used for this case study, conclusions drawn from the reading and any inconsistencies. This section will generally be one to two paragraphs. Notice the paper has a continuous flow; there are no page breaks or gaps between sections. The only page breaks occur between the title page and the introduction, as well as and the summary/conclusions and the reference page. All references for the case study must appear on a separate page (see the following page for an example).

References

This section will reference all original work cited throughout the paper. The heading should appear at the top of the page and all reference material should be listed below in alphabetical order by first last name; also, the title for books is always in italic format and in sentence form. In contrast to book references, the title for articles is in sentence format, not in italic, but the name of the publisher is in italic. See examples below:

Barzani, R. S. (2014). Studying the effects of business strategies on the organization’s performance in regards to human resources’ policies at the social security insurance companies based. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(5), 549-561.

Chopra, M., Munro, S., Lavis, J. N., Vist, G., & Bennett, S. (2008). Effects of policy options for

human resources for health: An analysis of systematic reviews. The Lancet, 371(9613),

668-74.

Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. A. (2018). Essentials of strategic management: The quest for competitive advantage (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education

Holt, D. (2016). Branding in the age of social media. Harvard Business Review (online). Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2016/03/branding-in-the-age-of-social-media

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2013). Organizational behavior (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Wallace, P. (2015). Introduction to information systems (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

You must also provide a reference for all sources used to support the case study. (Note: As a minimum, the textbook and six additional peer-reviewed sources shall be used and referenced.)