Minimum of 300 words in the body texts Content must include: Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 wordsWhat you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 wordsMinimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course Jason Brady The purpose of this work is to explore this week’s core theme of evaluating the external environment. An organization must be able to analyze its external threats and opportunities to understand where there are areas of growth and improvement. It is vital for a business to understand how competition, politics, social issues, and geographic issues may affect their business processes. Process: Evaluating the external environment When evaluating external factors, a business must ensure that they first know what factors affect a business. The PESTEL analysis is a great way for an organization to evaluate its external factors. According to Gamble, Peteraf, and Thompson (2019), they explain using the PESTEL analysis stands for 6 principals: political factors, economic conditions in the firm’s general environment, sociocultural forces, technological factors, environmental forces, and legal and regulatory factors. Another factor to look at and study is the macro-environment. According to Gamble et al. (2019), the macro-environment consists of all relevant factors that have enough of an impact that would suggest a possible change in the long-term strategy and decision model. Businesses also need to consider how competitive forces function in a business environment. A business should utilize the five forces model of competition, which can evaluate a company's current market position. According to Gamble et al. (2019), the five competitive forces include: buyer bargaining, winning over substitute products, supplier buying power, the threat of entries into the market, and rivalry among competing sellers. A firm must be able to actively adjust to these five forces to stay competitive. When businesses ignore these five competitive forces, they can find themselves in a negative situation. Another step in evaluating the external environment is the utilization of strategic thinking. Strategic thinking: Discussion of a key source of power and weaknesses In strategic thinking, there are key sources of advantages and disadvantages that need to be brought to the attention of organizational leaders. According to Rumelt (2011), “no one has an advantage at everything. Team, organizations, and even nations have advantages in certain kinds of rivalry under particular conditions” (p. 161). Managers and leaders must try to exploit any competitive advantage contained in order to keep their firm successful. Improper usage of these advantages can lead to firms deteriorating financially and a loss in their market share. Another key source to effective strategic thinking is value-created changes. A weakness to value-created changes is the factor of an impatient leader. According to Rumelt (2011), “first, management may mistakenly believe that improvement is a ‘natural’ process or that it can be accomplished by the pressure or incentives alone" (p. 170). Impatient managers and leaders can be detrimental to the success and effectiveness of an organization. To become an innovative organization, one must utilize design thinking to influence the organization to improve business processes. According to Johansson-Sköldberg, Woodilla, and Çetinkaya (2013), “…design thinking has been described as the best way to be creative and innovative, while within the design realm, design thinking may be partly ignored and taken for granted, despite a long history of academic development and debate” (p. 122). In order to remain innovative, organizations must involve their whole organization to utilize their diversity. Diversity in the workplace is a key method to drive innovation and to improve strategic thinking. Decision model Utilizing a decision model in business processes will help guide an organization to a successful future. Feedback in any organization is a very important aspect to drive improvement and constructive criticism. According to Krogerus and Tschäppeler (2018): Feedback is one of the most difficult and sensitive processes in groups. It is easy to hurt people with criticism, but false compliments are also unhelpful. Compliments often make us too complacent, while criticism damages our self-esteem and can lead us to unwise choices. (p. 26) The feedback model is a great choice for organizations that are driven on some criticism on their job effectiveness and efficiency. Management giving feedback to its employees is vital to the improvement of an organization. If employees are not given accurate feedback on their job performance, then they will never have a chance to improve. Improvement in the human capital of an organization directly correlates with the improvement of the organization as a whole. According to Richardson (2010), “if used appropriately, 360-degree feedback can increase self-awareness, promote skill development, and foster a collaborative organizational culture—outcomes that reflect social work values and ethics” (p. 260). The value of feedback in an organization is priceless. Leaders must strive to give constant feedback to their subordinates in order to grow a stronger organizational team. Once this is done, then the feedback decision model will have brought value to any organization that utilizes it. Conclusion In evaluating the external environment, one must also remember that Satan is also a factor. According to Keller and Alsdorf (2012), “…but it is a mistake to think that the Christian worldview is operating only when we are doing such overtly Christian activities” (p. 179). Utilizing the five forces of competition are important to a business professional, but to a Christian business professional, it is even more important to utilize the Bible. Impatient managers can be a weakness to an organization and to the body of Christ. The Lord decides when and how he wants events to happen on Earth. As leaders, it is important to show patience with employees and give constant feedback to ensure their successful development. When an organization gives constant feed, it then positions itself to become a stronger organization. References Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2019), Essentials of strategic management, (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw - Hill Higher Education Johansson-Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., & Çetinkaya, M. (2013). Design thinking: Past, present and possible futures. Creativity and Innovation Management,22(2), 121-146. doi:10.1111/caim.12023 Keller, T. (2012), Every good endeavor, New York, NY: Riverhead Books, Penguin Group, New York, NY. Krogerus, M., & Tschäppeler, R. (2018), The decision book: 50 models for strategic thinking. (Revised ed.), New York, NY: W. Norton & Company, Inc. Richardson, R. (2010). 360-degree feedback: Integrating business know-how with social work values. Administration in Social Work,34(3), 259-274. doi:10.1080/03643107.2010.480933 Rumelt, R. (2011), Good strategy/bad strategy: The difference and why it matters., New York, NY: Crown Business Minimum of 300 words in the bodytexts Content must include:Summary of the author’s Main Thread – no less than 125 wordsWhat you agreed with, did not agree with and why – no less than 125 wordsMinimum of 2 sources from the literature in addition to course Krystal Hertenstein To gain more insight into planning strategic objectives, a view into understanding is needed. Evaluation of external environments is needed to understand the themes of the market and gain information in order to understand external threats and opportunities. The ability of an organization to capture areas for growth and improvement for their market can give the firm access to paths for competitive advantages. Seeking the information and context on competitors, political aspects, global issues, or social issues, will gain an understanding of the external environment. Process: External Environment When seeking external information factors, an organization must first decide what external factors impact their organization. According to Gamble et al. (2019), using a PESTEL analysis creates focus on reviewing six principals: political factors, economic conditions in the firm’s general environment, sociocultural forces, technological factors, environmental forces, and legal and regulatory factors. These factors create a cross-section of external factors that together make up the landscape for the macro-environment that organizations must operate in. Understanding the relevant factors form external sources, leaders and teams can then understand the external impacts and work to plan for impacts by creating a strategy model to react to the external factors. By using a strategy plan, organizations can create a decision model to decide how to react to external factors. Companies must also consider how competitive forces operate and create market completion in a business environment. Utilizing the five forces model of competition, a company can understand the current market position. According to Gamble et al. (2019), the five competitive forces are buyer bargaining, substitute products, supplier buying power, the threat of entries, and rivalry among competitors. Understand the active competitive forces, supports the planning need to stay ahead of the competition. If these five competitive forces are not understood, they can find themselves to be unprepared for market entry or a release of a product or service. “Therefore, one must consider the need to perform parallel interactive analysis exploring external and internal factors and different relevance ranks of the considered factors” Fernandes, 2019, para 8). Evaluating the external environment is an example of an active method of strategic thinking. Strategic Thinking: Power & Weakness Within strategic thinking methods, there are advantages and disadvantages that occur that leaders should be prepared for. According to Rumelt (2011), advantages in markets often cannot be held in every area (p.161). Organizations can have advantages in certain kinds of rivalry under conditions and not have them in others. This why focus is required to understand where a company should seek advantages that are most impactful. Leaders must seek competitive advantages to keep their firm successful. A power of effective strategic thinking is the value that is created in changing an organization to seek strength in the market. However, once a strategic direction is set, a source of weakness can occur if an impatient leader, changes the direction too often. “First, management may mistakenly believe that improvement is a ‘natural’ process or that it can be accomplished by the pressure or incentives alone" (Rumlet, 2011, p. 170). Effective plans work to maintain control over direction and information, and all should be conducted in a methodical approach. Methodical approaches work in an organized fashion to work to control plans and decision-making steps. This supports showing leaders' progress and can help impatient leaders not to pull focus from strategic objectives too early if their desired results are not seen early enough. Decision Models: Aid & Hinder Utilizing a decision model as an integrated process into operational workstreams will supporting guiding decisions on an ongoing basis. For organizations to have a successful future, strategic efforts and operational planning must remain ongoing. The ability to capture feedback on external factors will aid the organization to drive improvement and create more value in their strategic objectives. A feedback model drives effectiveness and efficiency since the information being gathered in the model is active and current knowledge. Information and feedback models are vital in organizations so that leaders can create stronger plans and stronger teams focused on the right objectives. All models and strategic methods work to gather information in order to make better choices. “All of them lead to the existence of a demand or request to an organization that is always trying to hold development in various ways for the betterment of the organization” (Budiyono et al.,2018, p. 38). Often feedback decision models bring value to organizations; however, they must be paired with ways to decide what factors to respond to. Conclusion When evaluating the external environment, it is important to note that the understanding of competition from external environment factor gathering is what supports strategic insights and planning. Leaders are vital is the process of decision making once the information is gathered and understood. Leaders can be a source of weakness to an organization if they do not follow the methods and guidance of the models. When an organization reaches out for constant feedback, in this review, reaching for external feedback, it then positions itself to become a stronger organization ready for entry to markets. References Budiyono, B., Budiyanto, B., & Suwitho, S. (2018). The influence of leadership and external environment on performance through learning organization, and the influence towards competitiveness through performance of institute of economic science in java. International Review of Management and Marketing, 8(4), 36-44. Fernandes, J. P. (2019). Developing viable, adjustable strategies for planning and management—A methodological approach. Land use Policy, 82, 563-572. https://doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.12.044 Gamble, J., Peteraf, M., & Thompson, A. (2019). Essentials of strategic management, McGraw - Hill Higher Education (6th ed.). Rumelt, R. (2011), Good strategy/bad strategy: The difference and why it matters., Crown Business. ISBN: 9780307886231.

M7: Discussion - Interactive Marketing Simulation MKTG561Interactive Marketing Simulation: Managing Segments and Customers V2How did you manage pricing or promotional discount in your single best round?Did you change your strategy over the course of your single best round ?What was the impact on the KPIs in your single best round?Word limit for posts is 300 and 150 for responses.Required : response to discussion based on number that what I put in the Simulation my last score in simulation 90. see the attachment. then reply to 2 class mate response. I post the classmates response below. 1) In the M7: Interactive Marketing Simulation, phase 2, I kept the same approach but tweaked the customer discounts and pushed to optimize the sales force to drive promotional discounts to the segments. In the last run I completed, I added as many members to the sales force as I could to optimize the discounts we were providing to customers in Segment A and B to impact the sales. By doing this I was able to keep in the mid 80's after each run but stayed steady to see the trend I was forming by maintaining Status Quo. Throughout the run, I did not change my strategy, due to it providing optimal results, but this week I will go extreme to optimize my best results in the program. This weeks best results KPI, resulted in a 84, with market share at 11.1%, cumulative revenue at $83 million and cumulative profit at $7.7 million. By the end of this simulation I hope to reach a final score of 90. I will be able to do this by looking at the trends I formed in prior decision's history and work on the area's I did not see a change in quarter over quarter. 2) In the M7: Interactive Marketing Simulation, phase 2, I kept the same approach but tweaked the customer discounts and pushed to optimize the sales force to drive promotional discounts to the segments. In the last run I completed, I added as many members to the sales force as I could to optimize the discounts we were providing to customers in Segment A and B to impact the sales. By doing this I was able to keep in the mid 80's after each run but stayed steady to see the trend I was forming by maintaining Status Quo. Throughout the run, I did not change my strategy, due to it providing optimal results, but this week I will go extreme to optimize my best results in the program. This weeks best results KPI, resulted in a 84, with market share at 11.1%, cumulative revenue at $83 million and cumulative profit at $7.7 million. By the end of this simulation I hope to reach a final score of 90. I will be able to do this by looking at the trends I formed in prior decision's history and work on the area's I did not see a change in quarter over quarter.

(2 Writing Assignments 1 Chart)Competency 1: Competency AssessmentCompetency 1Analyze the needs of organizations within a changing global business environment. Competency StatementUsing a SWOT analysis, the MBA candidate will be able to evaluate competitive advantage and present a proposal for adapting to changes in the global business environment.Assessment OverviewWorking in business management means taking on responsibility to lead your organization in a variety of situations. Part of that responsibility is understanding where an organization has been and where it’s going. In this course, you will put yourself in the shoes of a manager and use resources to make decisions on where an organization is heading in respect to business needs, organizational structure, leadership strategies, and change management. Some of the information needed will be easy to locate, but other information will take time and effort to find. You may even need to make assumptions based on research. These research and strategizing skills will be useful in your business management career.In this assessment you will evaluate the strategic needs of a company within a changing global environment.You will be able to submit this assessment after you've completed the Reflection assignments in Modules 1 and 2. There is a Competency 1 - Assessment Submission module that appears in the course after Competency 1 - Module 2: Managerial Planning and Strategy.Save and upload each part of the assessment as a separate file and title the files so it's clear to see what part of the assessment they serve. Include your name in your documents on the first page, upper left.Select a company - (BROOKFIELD PROPERTIES RETAIL) Complete: SWOT Analyses list - to use for the rest of the course (this will sometimes be referred to as “your organization”) and research its history. Managers at each level of the organization use SWOT analysis to identify strategies that will best position the company to achieve its mission and goals.The first step in a SWOT analysis is to identify and describe an organization’s strengths and weaknesses that characterize the present state of the company. The next step requires managers to identify potential opportunities and threats in the environment that affect the organization in the present or possibly in the future.When the SWOT analysis is complete, managers begin developing strategies. These strategies should allow the company to attain its goals by taking advantage of opportunities, countering threats, building strengths, and correcting organizational weaknesses.Congratulations! You’ve been hired as a manager and have been asked to analyze the current status of your organization (the company you selected in Part 1 of this assessment).Review your organization’s SWOT analysis and other available sources to evaluate the strategic needs of the organization within a changing global environment. Complete the Organizational Analysis worksheet for your evaluation.Respond to the following in a minimum of 500 words:Consider the four functions of management (e.g., planning, organizing, leading, and controlling).How would you characterize your current or past supervisor’s approach to management?For example, which particular management tasks and roles does this person perform most often? What kinds of management skills does the manager have?How does this approach affect a global environment ?Submit your assignment.Respond to the following in a minimum of 500 words:The global business environment is constantly evolving based on the forces in the general and task environment. In order to sustain the company and maintain a competitive foothold, organization leaders must consistently analyze the global environment and adjust their strategy as needed. Managers play an important role in implementing strategies to achieve a company’s mission and goals.Research a company with stockholder reports available. These reports can usually be found on a company’s website. Use the report to answer the following questions:What is (are) the main industry(ies) in which the company competes?What business-level strategy does the company seem to be pursuing in this industry? Why?What corporate-level strategies is the company pursuing? Why? Have there been any major changes in its strategy recently? Why?Include citations in your response.Submit your assignment.