Criterion 1: Construct a clear problem statement

Summarize the key issues and choices for MCM:

• Summarize the most impactful external opportunities and threats that have recently affected MCM
• Summarize the historically important strengths of MCM
• Summarize the dilemma the managers are currently facing

Excellent papers will provide a situation analysis that documents the relevant context and contributing factors to MCM’s main and most important strategic / business problem. (Suggestion: write this section last….)

Criterion 2: Analyze external factors

Provide an analysis of the macro environment and industry forces:

• Conduct a PESTEL analysis of the macro environment, identifying opportunities and threats.
• Conduct a Five Forces Industry analysis.
• Identify the macro environmental and industry factors that have the greatest potential impact on MCM.

Excellent papers will identify all the external factors that have been affecting, or have the potential to affect MCM performance – both in the macro-environment, and due to competitive forces. Those factors that are identified as most impactful are justified based on importance, urgency and/or potential impact to the organization.

Criterion 3: Analyze internal factors

Provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of MCM:

• List all the strengths and weaknesses of MCM in each functional area mentioned in the case.
• State and justify MCM’s core and distinctive competencies.
• Analyze whether the distinctive competencies provide a competitive advantage.
• Address the sustainability of the distinctive competencies.

Excellent papers will identify all stated strengths and weakness of organizational functions within MCM and use the valuable, rare, inimitable and organizational capabilities model to justify the core and distinctive competencies, as well as the sustainability of those competencies. The competitive advantage analysis will include past, present and future considerations.

Criterion 4: Determine current business level strategy

Provide an analysis and conclusion about the current business level strategy of MCM:

• State the business level strategy of MCM
• Discuss the evidence that leads you to your conclusion about their business strategy
• Discuss how their distinctive competencies support or do not support their business strategy

Excellent papers will justify the choice of business level strategy based on cost and price, differentiation of the product, breadth of the market. The discussion will show the connections between the distinctive competencies and the business level strategy, as well as consider how well MCM will be able to execute that strategy in the future (the sustainability of their business-level strategy).

Criterion 5: Make recommendation for future action

Provide concise yet thorough action-oriented recommendation

• Briefly summarize the most urgent and important problem, based on your analyses above.
• Provide a multi-step action plan based on the analysis above,
• Addresses limitations of the solution, and
• Outlines ways to monitor success of the action plan

1. Choose a short story that we have not read this semester and write an essay in which you argue whether it is an escapist or interpretive story and why you would categorize it that way.

This story does not have to come from the suggested reading list, but those stories are chosen because they are suited to this sort of assignment.

This essay is an argumentative/persuasive essay but it is based on YOUR judgement/opinion. What is important in this essay is not what that judgement is but, instead, how you can explain that judgement. you should assume that the reader of YOUR essay is already familiar with the story that you are writing about so you are not obligated to summarize the plot of it…, unless you are summarizing parts of that plot to help support a point that you are trying to make. I always tell my students to imagine that the audience for this essay is one of your fellow classmates who, although they have read the story you are talking about, is having trouble understanding the point you are trying to make about the story.

The final copy of this essay should be three to five pages in length and should be MLA format (double-spaced, 1” margins, size 10 or 12 font).

no outside research at ALL should be done for this essay (story im choosing is a rose for emily by william faulkner)

Stylistic Imitation

For this portion of your unit project, you will create an original creative piece in the style of Edgar Allan Poe.

Your work must have your own story, theme, and point. However, you will use the same 3-­4 poetic devices: first person narration, alliteration, rhyme.

Your stylistic imitation may be completed in either poetry or prose. You may choose to write:

• A poem
• A prose poem
• An essay
• A short story

Your stylistic imitation must use at least ten examples of poetic devices that we studied in this unit. The three devices that you analyzed in your essay must be represented at least twice.

If you write poetry, you must compose at least twenty lines of poetry. You may divide this up over multiple poems.

If you choose to write prose, your piece must be at least 200 words in length. Most importantly, remember this is a culminating project for your American Poetry Unit. Your essay should show everything you have learned throughout the class.

The CFO for your healthcare organization comes to you once again to ask for your assistance with budgeting. You are tasked with developing a budget for the open imaging center that is looking to forecast its next fiscal year to present to the board of directors.

For this assignment, in a 1-2 text page Word or Excel document, develop a department budget for the open imaging center. You are able to use any figures that you would like and you may be as creative as you like, however, be sure that the calculations are accurate. At minimum, your budget must include the following points:

• Number of procedures completed in a year.
• A fixed cost for each procedure.
• A variable cost for each procedure.
• A fixed expense that the center would include in the expense budget.
• The total annual expenses for the center which results from the above listed items.
• Next develop an income budget for the open imaging center.
• Finally, calculate an annual operating budget for the center which includes both expenses and income from above.

You plan to hold a weekly breakfast meeting with your team of strategic planners to practice how to conduct a SWOTT analysis. For the upcoming week’s breakfast meeting, you told your team that they should be prepared to conduct a SWOTT analysis of an organization in the consumer electronics industry.

Conduct a brief SWOTT analysis on any real organization in the consumer electronics industry. Provide a short introduction of the organization you chose, and describe the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends.

• Strengths: The internal and external characteristics of a company that are stronger than its competitors.
• Weaknesses: The internal and external characteristics of a company that are weaker than its competitors.
• Opportunities: The issues internal and external to a company that can affect the company and its competitors in a favorable way.
• Threats: The issues internal and external to a company that can affect the company and its competitors in an unfavorable way.
• Trends: The internal and external patterns in the organization, market, or industry.