MBA 610 Situation Audit

,this project demonstrates an understanding of some key project competencies. The rubric contains an assessment of each competency as well as comments. Rubric comments are also noted below.

Several competencies were not met; this course provides the opportunity to update your submission to demonstrate your competency grasp. As noted by the syllabus, this must be done within the 2-week project submission window (i.e., by Wednesday, 19 February). I encourage you to update and resubmit this project within the next week. The syllabus addresses the project resubmission process.

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.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.:

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Preponderance of sourcing used throughout project is focused on the organization, not course material or general business literature that describes the project concepts.

Demonstrated a general understanding of APA attribution process, though tighter proofreading is needed to ensure key facts are attributed/sourced and sourcing is appropriately formatted.

As noted in in-progress feedback, key concepts should be defined/described by building upon course material and/or quality business literature and then the concept should be applied to your organization.

The Kador, 2002 source is rather old given the way it is often used. This source’s use is confusing when on p. 7, it is cited as a source of activities that occurred in 2003 – 2004.

The Daft, 2007 source’s use on p. 11 is confusing. In context it appears to be used to explain Schwab’s operation though I notice the source is an organizational theory focused book. Perhaps the source uses Schwab as an example?

Also, as noted in the in-progress feedback, only cited sources are to be included in the Reference List. I don’t recall seeing the first and last sources in the Reference List cited; at least not cited by using the author/title and date noted in the Reference List.

In future projects, identifying and actively using relevant quality business sources in explicitly defining/describing key terms, as well as connecting research/best practices with proposed recommendations will be critical to project success. In providing the specified required update of this project, care should be taken to attentively use course materials and/or quality business literature in defining/describing key concepts and then applying those concepts to your organization. Additionally, key organizational details/facts need to be attributed (i.e., how do you know? What is the source of your information?)

1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.:

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Paper is designed and generally formatted consistent with APA style requirements; though, the content under the specified Headers is not always responsive to the project’s steps. Therefore, some competencies are not sufficiently addressed, as noted in this rubric feedback.

This paper reads more like a history/discussion of Schwab’s evolution, as opposed to a situation audit focused on the specified project steps. This variation in focus is evident in the Introduction’s phrasing in paragraph 2 of this paper’s focus, as opposed to the project’s purpose set forth in the “Start Here” and subsequent project steps.

Tighter editing and proofreading are needed to ensure logical flow that is responsive to project steps and consistency/accuracy of information (e.g., paper notes in different places two different CEOs Bettinger and Pottruck (p. 19)).

In providing the specified required update of this project, care should be taken to attentively edit and proofread to ensure project competency responsiveness, logical flow of discussion/analysis, and accuracy of information, with appropriate associated attribution.

6.3: Analyze an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses for strategic value.:

This section would be stronger by attributing sources of information and having this section connect with earlier project analysis and bridging to the recommendations.

6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.:

Recommendations would have been stronger if logically derived from the earlier discussion/analysis, including the strengths and weakness section.

The project’s 3 recommendations – 1) pay attention to cryptocurrency; 2) more attention to charitable activities; though then note using Charity Fund for workforce education; and 3) maintain culture, with follow-on comment regarding succession planning – are minimally developed and connected with earlier project discussion/analysis, and lack any bench-marking.

In future projects, explicitly connecting recommendations with course material/quality business literature will be critical for project success.

8.1: Evaluate major business/organizational systems and processes and make recommendations for improvement.:

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The Strategy Types and Competitive Advantage Section (Step 5) begins with a comment about business-level strategies, functional-level strategies, and global-level strategies, though these concepts are neither defined nor connected with the discussion within the Section which describes the organization’s evolution. This section needs to be updated to address the Step 5 requirements. In updating this Section key terms should be defined/described by explicitly connecting with course materials and then applied to Schwab. Recommend consideration to using the Porter model discussed within Step 5 in your analysis.

8.3: Identify and distinguish among organizational structural types and their respective implications for performance.:

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The Organization Size and Structure Section (Step 6) comments generally about some past organizational restructuring (p.11 – 12), though does not define the organization’s overall organizational structure and the implications of this structure for the organization’s operation.

This section needs to be updated. In updating this Section key organizational structure concepts, as discussed in Step 6 of the course materials need to be described and then applied to Schwab. This update also needs to include a discussion of the implications of Schwab’s organizational design/structure.

9.2: Evaluate how human capital serves as a source of competitive advantage.:

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While this project comments that human capital is the Schwab’s most critical resource and one of the recommendations is succession planning, it minimally discusses the organization’s human capital processes and none of the discussion is supported by attribution.

In updating this project to successfully address this competency recommend explicitly connecting with key human resource/capital processes explored in Step 7 and then applying those concepts to Schwab’s operation.

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