ENG115 Business Communications
Assignment 10 Team Project
STEP 10:
Not only does a strategic plan help you identify goals and the actions necessary for reaching those goals, but it also helps effectively communicate the process and progress of your idea to others. The strategic plan further enables you to check your progress to ensure you regularly identify your weaknesses in time to correct them, making your business – and your skills – consistently better. Be sure to read through the strategic plan description in its entirety before you begin, so as not to miss any requirements of this step.
First:
Based on the feedback you received from sharing your business ideas with your classmates to complete the Audience Analysis in Module 3 as well as your article review discussion and decisions in Step 9, each member of your team should separately complete the following tasks:
Identify the best suggestion for your company’s new goal.
Complete the strategic plan table below.
The new goal could be a related product; an improvement to the existing idea; a different method of promotion; a proposed participation in a community or national event; collaboration with another business; or a plan to act on any other ideas inspired by the team’s earlier discussions, the class’s input during Audience Analysis, or your research articles from Step 9. These are just examples; the choice is yours.
*** Use the Plan Key to understand the table headings and the type of information to be communicated in each column.
COMPANY STRATEGIC PLAN
What is your New Goal?
Action Step
Accountability
Resources
Timeline
Benchmark
Plan Key
New Goal: this is the new direction you have decided on – the big picture. As noted, it might be a new product, an extension of the current product/service, new promotion, etc. For help deciding, use the feedback gained from your classmates in the audience survey, or based on steps of the plan you missed during our semester.
Action Step: each step should be one specific action in the to-do list necessary to reach the new goal you’ve identified.
Accountability: this identifies who will be responsible for completing each individual step. It may be a person or it may be a job title. For instance, if one of your action steps is to make a community connection you might identify your Director of Community Outreach for this task – if you have one; otherwise, perhaps your new goal is to create this position! Do not use the same person or job description to be accountable for every step, as it is more effective to assign steps to several people for the value and benefit of their diverse talents and perspectives and to demonstrate your business’s commitment to the whole team.
Resources: this is anything you may need to complete the step successfully including money, supplies, manpower, a consultant, construction, etc.
Timeline: this specifies how long it will take to complete the step. This is important, as setting a deadline keeps you on schedule and ensures you achieve success in all three steps, especially if completion of one relies on prior completion of another. You might be very specific by naming a day and month or a little more general by naming a specific length of time – i.e. two weeks.
Benchmark: this is your measure of success. This is a specific achievement that lets you know whether or not each step has been successful, and to what degree. It might be a dollar amount, a customer amount, specific ratings, a recognized industry award, a tangible outcome like the opening of a new location, or something else. The benchmark should be directly related to the step as well as to the overall goal since, together, the steps should help you reach the new goal.
Second:
Together as a team, choose at least one idea from each teammate’s plan to create a unified strategic plan that represents the thoughts of the team as a whole.
Third:
Once the team choses and perfects the plan, discuss how the team strategy you have identified and planned out is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
STEP 12 Jumpstart: (+5)
This week you will begin building a website to promote your product or service. THE WEBSITE IS NOT DUE THIS WEEK; however, you ARE required to complete tasks 1-5 this week to prevent procrastination and ensure enough time to design your best work.
Keep in mind you can and should divvy up Step 12. But be VERY clear about what team member tackles each goal.
I hope so much you’ll have fun with this!
First, each of you should make a list of items, pages, or content you believe your website should contain. Don’t forget to consider the work you did for our past steps!
Second, you should explore the websites of other businesses similar to your own to get ideas about what your competitors have included. Identify a link for at least two websites you really like.
Third, you should review your teammates’ lists and reach a consensus on what to include on your website, creating a new list that incorporates the best of everyone’s ideas.
Fourth, you should review several free website hosts and collectively choose the one you like best. Here are some free and easy resources for you to review:
The 21 Best Free Website Builders of 2020: Their Pros & Cons (Links to an external site.)
Fifth, each of you should designate each team member’s responsibilities from the list you made for task 4. All team members should be working on the SAME WEBSITE. Be sure whichever one of you starts the design adds the emails of the other team members to the editors’ list to grant access to your website.
The completed website will be due in Module 7, when you will share it with the whole class! You may also want to identify a schedule in this step, so you can be sure each team member stays on track to meet the final deadline.
