Assignment 3: Strategy Presentation
Due Week 10, Sunday, midnight of your time zone (Weight: 20%)
Introduction
“In order for strategy to be effective, it has to be clearly communicated.
Everybody in the organization has to understand why we are doing what we’re doing, and what they need to do in order to execute the strategy.”
– Jack Welch –
Time to Shine! You’ve done the hard work to evaluate the playing field and competition. You’ve looked at seven potential Moves and debated the pros and cons of each. Finally, you have arrived at the Game Winning Move that can help your company beat competitors and generate significant shareholder value – and create a sustainable competitive advantage. All you need now is a “yes” from your CEO!
You know that one of the most important skills leaders must develop is the ability to sell their ideas. They need to understand their audience, craft their presentation appropriately, have poise, and communicate clearly. But they also need to show their passion and demonstrate executive presence!
Now that you have identified you Game Winning Move, it is time present it to your CEO. You know your CEO’s time is valuable and you have only five minutes to “sell” your Move and explain the key rationale. You will synthesize your previous briefs to create a short, well-organized presentation based on Jack’s 5 slides and then present these during your five-minute slot.
The presentation is focused on selling the Move and your rationale – and this probably means that some of the slides are going to be more important than others. Your CEO wants you to touch on each slide during the 5- minute presentation, but doesn’t mind if you spend only a brief amount of time on some slides and more time on others.
You have a great Move. You have been perfecting your Executive Presence at JWMI. You have confidence. You are ready to impress!
Instructions
1. Distill the work you have done in Assignments 1 and 2 to create Jack’s 5-slide strategy deck (which can be found in Chapter 11 of Winning and is also included in summary form below).
Be aware that information needed for some of Jack’s questions would be available to a company’s strategy team leader but may not be in the public domain for our use. Therefore, your content in each slide will primarily be derived from what your research has produced in your first two assignments. This may mean that you focus on answering some of Jack’s questions, but perhaps not all of them.
© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. This course guide is subject to change based on the needs of the class.
2. You should approach your presentation from a senior executive perspective, with your intended audience being the CEO of the company. Your presentation should be both informative and inspirational. Your goal is to persuade the CEO to support your strategic plan.
3. You should assume that the CEO has already read your template and executive brief. However, you are unsure whether there is support or skepticism for of your Game Winning Move. Thus, you need to focus on “selling your strategy” and not just regurgitating your prior template and brief. Your CEO will be compelled by an enthusiastic presentation that explains why your Game Winning Move is the right one, but also presents a balanced, cogent understanding of the risks involved.
4. Your presentation should have a professional look andfeel. It should demonstrate your executive presence through professional dress, eye contact, clear and confident speech and body language. Think about Jack’s “4 E’s + 1 P” as you prepare and use this as a guide for your delivery.
Formatting and Submission Requirements
• Record your presentation using Zoom (required). Zoom will enable you to record your use of a PPT deck and webcam at the same time. Recording instructions and samples: https://www.kaltura.com/tiny/xgw5h
• Keep your presentation within a 4-6 minute timeframe.
• You may only present slides from Jack’s 5-slide methodology, and you must present all 5 slides. However, you are not required to allocate your time equally on to each of the 5 slides. Instead, spend your time on the slides that best enable you to convincingly sell your Game Winning Move. There are many tactics that allow you to very quickly cover a slide that is not essential to sell your Move (an example to quickly flash the competition slide: “You are well aware that our two key competitors are Ford and GM and I shared their recent moves in the template so I’d instead like to advance to Our Organization slide”.)
• Submit your Zoom video in mp4 format only. Note: Zoom offers several formats, so make sure you save to your computer and then upload only the mp4 formatted version.
• You do not need to submit a separate PPT file for grading because each slide should be visible in your Zoom video.
© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. This course guide is subject to change based on the needs of the class.
5- Slide Methodology Questions
Slide questions are not set in stone. Incorporate your understanding of important and relevant questions for your company and industry.
Slide 1: What the Playing Field Looks Like Now
• Who are the competitors in this business, large and small, new and old?
• Who has what share globally, and in each market? Where do we fit in?
• What are the characteristics of this business? Is it a commodity, high value, or somewhere in between? Is it long cycle or short? W here is it on the growth curve? What are the drivers of profitability?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are its products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
• Who are this business’s main customers, and how do they buy?
Slide 2: What the Competition Has Been Up To
• What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
• Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, new technologies, or a new distribution channel?
• Are there any new entrants, and what have they been up to in the past year?
Slide 3: What You’ve Been Up To
• What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
• Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor’s key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a startup?
• Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had—a great salesperson, a special product, a proprietary technology?
Slide 4: What’s Around the Corner?
• What scares you most in the year ahead—what are one or two things a competitor could do to nail you?
• What new products or technologies could your competitors launch that might change the game?
• What M&A deals would knock you off your feet?
Slide 5: What’s Your Winning Move?
• What can you do to change the playing field—is it an acquisition, a new product, globalization?
• What can you do to make customers stick to you more than ever before and be more loyal to you than to anyone else?
• Persuasively and logically present your “Winning Move”
© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. This course guide is subject to change based on the needs of the class.
RUBRIC Assignment 3
Criteria Unsatisfactory Low Pass Pass High Pass Honors
1. The 5 slides include the most important key findings and analyses and insights and are professional in appearance.
Weight 50% The 5 slides are not satisfactory in content and do not satisfactorily complement the overall video presentation. Three or more slides might be missing or unsatisfactory. The 5 slides are partially satisfactory in content. The appearance is partially professional and only partially complements the overall video presentation. No more than two slides are missing or unsatisfactory. The 5 slides have satisfactory content and are professional in appearance and satisfactorily complement the overall video presentation by illuminating key facts and insights and are reasonably graphically interesting. No more than one slide is missing or unsatisfactory. The 5 slides have good content and are professional in appearance and effectively complement the overall video presentation by illuminating key facts and insights and are graphically interesting. No slides are missing or unsatisfactory. All 5 slides are exemplary in content and professional in appearance and exceptionally complement the overall video presentation by illuminating key facts and insights and are graphically interesting. No slides are missing or unsatisfactory.
2. Persuasively and logically present the “Winning Move.”
Weight 20% The student unsatisfactorily presents the Winning Move. The student partially presents the Winning Move and presents at least 3 slides. The student satisfactorily presents the Winning Move and presents at least 4 slides. The student completely persuades and logically presents the Winning Move, presents information appropriate for a CEO, effectively uses all five slides, and manages to both persuade the CEO while providing some fair balance on risks. The student exemplarily persuades and logically presents the Winning Move, presents information appropriate for a CEO, effectively uses all five slides, and manages to both persuade the CEO while providing reasonable fair balance on risks.
3. Executive Presence.
Weight 20% The student demonstrates unsatisfactory presentation skills. The student demonstrates marginal presentation skills with regard to: confidence and poise, professional dress, appropriate background, consistent eye contact with the camera, voice is dynamic, and verbal cues are satisfactorily applied, sound and lighting are appropriate to provide good video quality. The student demonstrates satisfactory presentation skills with regard to: confidence and poise, professional dress, appropriate background, consistent eye contact with the camera, voice is dynamic, and verbal cues are satisfactorily applied, sound and lighting are appropriate to provide good video quality. The student demonstrates good Executive Presence including most of: confidence and poise, professional dress, appropriate background, consistent eye contact with the camera, voice is quite dynamic, and verbal cues are exemplarily applied, sound and lighting are appropriate to provide good video quality. The student’s voiceover does not primarily replicate the slides, nor does the student primarily read from a script. The student excels at Executive Presence including virtually all of: confidence and poise, professional dress, appropriate background, consistent eye contact with the camera, voice is quite dynamic, and verbal cues are exemplarily applied, sound and lighting are appropriate to provide good video quality. The student’s voiceover does not primarily replicate the slides, nor does the student primarily read from a script.
© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. This course guide is subject to change based on the needs of the class.
Criteria Unsatisfactory Low Pass Pass High Pass Honors
4. Presentation is within the 4-6 minute timeframe.
Weight: 10% The video is more than 3 minutes over or under the 4-6 minute time limit. The video is more than 2 minutes over or under the 4-6 minute time limit, but no more than 3 minutes. The video is more than 1 minute over or under the 4-6 minute time limit, but no more than 2 minutes. The video is slightly over or under the 4- 6 minute time limit, but by no more than1 minute. The video adheres to the 4-6 minute time limit.
© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. This course guide is subject to change based on the needs of the class.