Assignment 3: 21st Century Challenges
Assignment 3: 21st Century Challenges – Submit Files
Hide Submission Folder InformationSubmission Folder
Assignment 3: 21st Century Challenges
Instructions
Project Three: 21st Century Challenges
Purpose:
The saga of Global Delivery Direct (GDD) continues in assignment 3. Students evaluate 21st century leadership challenges and relate them to the issues GDD has been experiencing.
Outcome Met by Completing This Assignment
• use leadership theories, assessment tools, and an understanding of the role of ethics, values, and attitudes to evaluate and enhance personal leadership skills
• develop and implement methods for establishing a constructive organizational structure and culture that fosters positive employee and employer relationships
• evaluate the culture and policies of an organization to recommend and implement improvements that support its vision, success, and sustainability
• assess the interactions between the external environment and the organization to foster responsible and effective leadership and organizational practices

Instructions
Step 1: Preparation for Writing the Assignment

Before you begin writing the paper, you will read the following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements. Not reading this information will lead to a lower grade:

Review “How to Analyze a Case Study” under Week 8 Content. You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario focusing on using this information to determine opportunities and to solve problems.

Read the grading rubric for the assignment. Use the grading rubric while writing the paper to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.

In writing this assignment, you will read and following these tasks:

• Third person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.
• Contractions are not used in business writing, so you are NOT to use contraction in writing this assignment.
• You are expected to paraphrase and are NOT to use direct quotes. You are expected to paraphrase, which can be learned by reviewing this link: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html.
• You are responsible for APA only for in-text citations and a reference list. Cite the page or paragraph number.
• You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario paired with the weekly courses readings to develop the analysis and support the reasoning. No more than three (3) external resources can be used in completing the assignment. The expectation is that you provide a robust use of the course readings. If any material is used from a source document, it must be cited and referenced with a page or paragraph number. No books can be used as resource documents. A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa. View the sample APA paper and the How to Cite and Reference file located under Week 4 content.

Step 2: How to Set Up the Paper

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is single-spaced, single-spaced between paragraphs, 12-point font. The final product will be between 3-5 pages in length excluding the title page and reference page. You may not exceed five (5) pages so it is important to write clearly and concisely.

Follow a memo format.
• To:
• From:
• Subject:
• Body
Students will also create a title page with title, your name, the course, the instructor’s name; date.

Note: Students are not writing an essay paper so the assignment should reflect a memo format that is appropriate for the workplace.

Step 3: Read and use the Global Delivery Direct (GDD) Company Profile.

Step 4: Read critically and analyze the following scenario:
An emergency meeting was called in London by John SmytheHeathering, the Executive Director of Corporate Services, when the 2015 numbers came out for the business. Sales dropped 7% overall in a quarterly downward spiral with the largest portion of decline having been in the American division at 3.8%. The move to “Business First” in America prevented the loss from being as great as 6.5%. This change helped but not enough to overcome the full 6.5%. The competition continues to make inroads into the business not just in America but Asia as well.
The purpose of the emergency meeting is to discuss the decline in sales and make whatever decisions necessary to reverse the trend with immediate implementation. The question before the group is how do we reverse the downward trend? A competitive edge is necessary. As 21st century leaders, the Executive Directors realize that five challenges have to be examined if they are to find ways keep the company running at a profit. Further, they know that as company leaders they will have to lead the change required to make the recommendations work.
In the emergency meeting, the Directors decided that they needed professional help. They turn to you, a leadership consultant to help them discover ways in which they can improve sales of the company and set the company up for long-term financial health.

Step 5: Explain each leadership challenge facing the 21st century leader: adaptability, sustainability, innovation, knowledge management, and globalization and the relationship each has to developing a competitive edge in business today.
Task 1: Read the course readings on leadership challenges in the 21st century.
Task 2: Read the course readings on competitive advantage
Task 3: For each of the identified challenges, discuss the relationship each has to the 21st century businesses competitive edge.

Step 6: Evaluate GDD’s status regarding each of these challenges.

Task 1: Analyze GDD’s current business status in terms of each of the leadership challenges. Note that an analysis goes beyond making statements or regurgitating facts.
Task 2: Discuss GDD’s current business status in terms of each of the leadership challenges. Be specific in evaluating the status against each challenge. Do not expect that any one response is correct, as what is presented has to be reasonable and fit with GDD’s vision, mission and goals. Support the reasoning with rigorous, focused thinking that demonstrates the analytical skills GDD is looking from you.

Step 7: Make at least two practical recommendations for each leadership challenge that will put GDD on the path to financial success and sustainability and explain the reasoning for doing so.

Task 1: Provide a minimum of two practical recommendations for each leadership challenge. Recommendations should integrate the facts from the scenario and from the company profile and be specific to the GDD business. Do not take information from outside sources and present as though it fits the scenario.
Task 2: Make sure to use the grading rubric to complete this step.

Step 8: Select one of the challenges for which you made recommendations and explain how the Executive Directors, as change agents, will go about implementing the recommendations.

Task 1: Select one of the challenges discussed in Step 7. Explain how the Executive Directors will implement the recommendation. Make sure the explanation is well thought out and does not present what the Executive Directors should do but how they will do it. In doing so, be specific and support the reasoning with examples and be sure to use the Company information and the course readings.

Step 9: Review the Paper

Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present. Use the grading rubric to ensure that you gain the most points possible for this assignment.

Proofread the paper for spelling and grammatical issues, and third person writing.

• Read the paper aloud as a first measure;
• Use the spell and grammar check in Word as a second measure;
• Have someone who has excellent English skills to proof the paper;
• Consider submitting the paper to the Effective Writing Center (EWC). The EWC will provide 4-6 areas that may need improvement.

Global Delivery Direct, Inc.
Company Profile
Welcome to Global Delivery Direct!
The assessment projects for this class course will examine different facets of the leadership of Global Delivery Direct, Inc. (GDD) and students will be exploring various scenarios and providing analysis and recommendations from the perspective of a leadership consultant. Each project has been carefully designed to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate mastery of various leadership concepts which have been presented in the classroom (both in the face-to-face and online discussions). The projects focus on the following areas:
In project 1, students will demonstrate Anunderstanding of the broad role of a
leader within an organization. In project 2, students are expected to apply course concepts and materials to provide real-world leadership skills with respect to personnel development.In project 3, students will present their analysis and recommendations that demonstrate their ability to create a report that examines ways a leader blends their social architect role with soft skills and business acumen to fix the problems of a failing business merger.
Global Delivery Direct, Inc.
modest success. The now aging owners are looking for ways to grow the company. The Pan Asian market is still strong for the company as is the small business market for national sales in America. The company is currently owned by the four founders who hold 60% of the stock equally, with capital investors holding the remaining 40%.Current Company Vision:
The delivery company to the business world.Current Mission: To provide cargo and mail services to businesses around the globe with excellent service and direct simplicity. Employees will seek to foster a personal relationship with customers through the anticipation of their needs, understanding the
logistic challenges facing their deliveries, and always finding ways to succeed in getting the customer served.

HOW TO ANALYZE A CASE STUDY:Hands-On Guide: How to Analyze a Case Study
Management Information Systems,Ninth Edition provides anumber of case studies for you to analyze. Included in thesecases are questions to help you understand and analyze thecase. You may, however, be assigned other case studies thatdo not have questions. This Hands-On Guide presents astructured framework to help you analyze such cases as wellas the case studies in this text. Knowing how to analyze a casewill help you attack virtually any business problem.
A case study helps students learn by immersing them in areal-world business scenario where they can act as problemsolvers and decision makers. The case presents facts about aparticular organization. Students are asked to analyze the
case by focusing on the most important facts and using thisinformation to determine the opportunities and problemsfacing that organization. Students are then asked to identifyalternative courses of action to deal with the problems they
identify.A case study analysis must not merely summarize thecase. It should identify key issues and problems, outline andassess alternative courses of action, and draw appropriateconclusions. The case study analysis can be broken downinto the following steps:
1.Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.
2.Identify the key issue or issues.
3.Specify alternative courses of action.
4.Evaluate each course of action.
5.Recommend the best course of action.
Let’s look at what each step involves.
1.Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.Read the case several times to become familiar withthe information it contains. Pay attention to the information in any accompanying exhibits, tables, or figures. Many case scenarios, as in real life, present a greatdeal of detailed information. Some of these facts aremore relevant that others for problem identification.One can assume the facts and figures in the case aretrue, but statements, judgments, or decisions made byindividuals should be questioned. Underline and thenlist the most important facts and figures that wouldhelp you define the central problem or issue. If keyfacts and numbers are not available, you can makeassumptions, but these assumptions should be reasonable given the situation. The “correctness” of your conclusions may depend on the assumptions you make.

2. Identify the key issue or issues.
Use the facts providedby the case to identify the key issue or issues facing
the company you are studying. Many cases presentmultiple issues or problems. Identify the most important and separate them from more trivial issues. State
the major problem or challenge facing the company.You should be able to describe the problem or challenge in one or two sentences. You should be able toexplain how this problem affects the strategy or performance of the organization.You will need to explain why the problem occurred.Does the problem or challenge facing the companycome from a changing environment, new opportunities, a declining market share, or inefficient internal orexternal business processes? In the case of informationsystems-related problems, you need to pay specialattention to the role of technology as well as thebehavior of the organization and its management.
Information system problems in the businessworld typically present a combination of management, technology, and organizational issues. Whenidentifying the key issue or problem, ask what kind ofproblem it is: Is it a management problem, a technology problem, an organizational problem, or a combination of these? What management, organizational,and technology factors contributed to the problem?

To determine if a problem stems frommanagement factors, consider whether managersare exerting appropriate leadership over theorganization and monitoring organizationalperformance. Consider also the nature ofmanagement decision making: Do managers havesufficient information for performing this role, or
do they fail to take advantage of the informationthat is available?

To determine if a problem stems from technologyfactors, examine any issues arising from theorganization’s information technologyinfrastructure: its hardware, software, networksand telecommunications infrastructure, and the
management of data in databases or traditionalfiles. Consider also whether the appropriatemanagement and organizational assets are in placeto use this technology effectively.

To determine the role of organizational factors,examine any issues arising from the organization’sstructure, culture, business processes, work groups,
Appendix 1
Hands-On Guide: How to Analyze a Case Study631divisions among interest groups, and relationshipswith other organizations, as well as the impact ofchanges in the organization’s externalenvironment—changes in government regulations,economic conditions, or the actions ofcompetitors, customers, and suppliers.You will have to decide which of these factors—ora combination of factors—is most important in
explaining why the problem occurred.
3.Specify alternative courses of action.List the courses ofaction the company can take to solve its problem ormeet the challenge it faces. For information system-
related problems, do these alternatives require a newinformation system or the modification of an existingsystem? Are new technologies, business processes,
organizational structures, or management behaviorrequired? What changes to organizational processeswould be required by each alternative? What management policy would be required to implement eachalternative?Remember, there is a difference between what anorganization “should do” and what that organization
actually “can do.” Some solutions are too expensive oroperationally difficult to implement, and you shouldavoid solutions that are beyond the organization’s
resources. Identify the constraints that will limit thesolutions available. Is each alternative executablegiven these constraints?
4.Evaluate each course of action.
Evaluate each alternative using the facts and issues you identified earlier,given the conditions and information available.Identify the costs and benefits of each alternative. Askyourself, “What would be the likely outcome of thiscourse of action?

State the risks as well as the rewardsassociated with each course of action. Is your recommendation feasible from a technical, operational, andfinancial standpoint? Be sure to state any assumptionson which you have based your decision.
5.Recommend the best course of action.State your choicefor the best course of action and provide a detailedexplanation of why you made this selection. You may
also want to provide an explanation of why otheralternatives were not selected. Your final recommendation should flow logically from the rest of your case
analysis and should clearly specify what assumptionswere used to shape your conclusion. There is often nosingle “right” answer, and each option is likely to have
risks as well as rewards

Assignment 3: 21st Century Challenges
Assignment 3: 21st Century Challenges – Submit Files
Hide Submission Folder InformationSubmission Folder
Assignment 3: 21st Century Challenges
Instructions
Project Three: 21st Century Challenges
Purpose:
The saga of Global Delivery Direct (GDD) continues in assignment 3. Students evaluate 21st century leadership challenges and relate them to the issues GDD has been experiencing.
Outcome Met by Completing This Assignment
• use leadership theories, assessment tools, and an understanding of the role of ethics, values, and attitudes to evaluate and enhance personal leadership skills
• develop and implement methods for establishing a constructive organizational structure and culture that fosters positive employee and employer relationships
• evaluate the culture and policies of an organization to recommend and implement improvements that support its vision, success, and sustainability
• assess the interactions between the external environment and the organization to foster responsible and effective leadership and organizational practices

Instructions
Step 1: Preparation for Writing the Assignment

Before you begin writing the paper, you will read the following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements. Not reading this information will lead to a lower grade:

Review “How to Analyze a Case Study” under Week 8 Content. You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario focusing on using this information to determine opportunities and to solve problems.

Read the grading rubric for the assignment. Use the grading rubric while writing the paper to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.

In writing this assignment, you will read and following these tasks:

• Third person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.
• Contractions are not used in business writing, so you are NOT to use contraction in writing this assignment.
• You are expected to paraphrase and are NOT to use direct quotes. You are expected to paraphrase, which can be learned by reviewing this link: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html.
• You are responsible for APA only for in-text citations and a reference list. Cite the page or paragraph number.
• You are expected to use the facts from the case scenario paired with the weekly courses readings to develop the analysis and support the reasoning. No more than three (3) external resources can be used in completing the assignment. The expectation is that you provide a robust use of the course readings. If any material is used from a source document, it must be cited and referenced with a page or paragraph number. No books can be used as resource documents. A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa. View the sample APA paper and the How to Cite and Reference file located under Week 4 content.

Step 2: How to Set Up the Paper

Create a Word or Rich Text Format (RTF) document that is single-spaced, single-spaced between paragraphs, 12-point font. The final product will be between 3-5 pages in length excluding the title page and reference page. You may not exceed five (5) pages so it is important to write clearly and concisely.

Follow a memo format.
• To:
• From:
• Subject:
• Body
Students will also create a title page with title, your name, the course, the instructor’s name; date.

Note: Students are not writing an essay paper so the assignment should reflect a memo format that is appropriate for the workplace.

Step 3: Read and use the Global Delivery Direct (GDD) Company Profile.

Step 4: Read critically and analyze the following scenario:
An emergency meeting was called in London by John SmytheHeathering, the Executive Director of Corporate Services, when the 2015 numbers came out for the business. Sales dropped 7% overall in a quarterly downward spiral with the largest portion of decline having been in the American division at 3.8%. The move to “Business First” in America prevented the loss from being as great as 6.5%. This change helped but not enough to overcome the full 6.5%. The competition continues to make inroads into the business not just in America but Asia as well.
The purpose of the emergency meeting is to discuss the decline in sales and make whatever decisions necessary to reverse the trend with immediate implementation. The question before the group is how do we reverse the downward trend? A competitive edge is necessary. As 21st century leaders, the Executive Directors realize that five challenges have to be examined if they are to find ways keep the company running at a profit. Further, they know that as company leaders they will have to lead the change required to make the recommendations work.
In the emergency meeting, the Directors decided that they needed professional help. They turn to you, a leadership consultant to help them discover ways in which they can improve sales of the company and set the company up for long-term financial health.

Step 5: Explain each leadership challenge facing the 21st century leader: adaptability, sustainability, innovation, knowledge management, and globalization and the relationship each has to developing a competitive edge in business today.
Task 1: Read the course readings on leadership challenges in the 21st century.
Task 2: Read the course readings on competitive advantage
Task 3: For each of the identified challenges, discuss the relationship each has to the 21st century businesses competitive edge.

Step 6: Evaluate GDD’s status regarding each of these challenges.

Task 1: Analyze GDD’s current business status in terms of each of the leadership challenges. Note that an analysis goes beyond making statements or regurgitating facts.
Task 2: Discuss GDD’s current business status in terms of each of the leadership challenges. Be specific in evaluating the status against each challenge. Do not expect that any one response is correct, as what is presented has to be reasonable and fit with GDD’s vision, mission and goals. Support the reasoning with rigorous, focused thinking that demonstrates the analytical skills GDD is looking from you.

Step 7: Make at least two practical recommendations for each leadership challenge that will put GDD on the path to financial success and sustainability and explain the reasoning for doing so.

Task 1: Provide a minimum of two practical recommendations for each leadership challenge. Recommendations should integrate the facts from the scenario and from the company profile and be specific to the GDD business. Do not take information from outside sources and present as though it fits the scenario.
Task 2: Make sure to use the grading rubric to complete this step.

Step 8: Select one of the challenges for which you made recommendations and explain how the Executive Directors, as change agents, will go about implementing the recommendations.

Task 1: Select one of the challenges discussed in Step 7. Explain how the Executive Directors will implement the recommendation. Make sure the explanation is well thought out and does not present what the Executive Directors should do but how they will do it. In doing so, be specific and support the reasoning with examples and be sure to use the Company information and the course readings.

Step 9: Review the Paper

Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present. Use the grading rubric to ensure that you gain the most points possible for this assignment.

Proofread the paper for spelling and grammatical issues, and third person writing.

• Read the paper aloud as a first measure;
• Use the spell and grammar check in Word as a second measure;
• Have someone who has excellent English skills to proof the paper;
• Consider submitting the paper to the Effective Writing Center (EWC). The EWC will provide 4-6 areas that may need improvement.

Global Delivery Direct, Inc.
Company Profile
Welcome to Global Delivery Direct!
The assessment projects for this class course will examine different facets of the leadership of Global Delivery Direct, Inc. (GDD) and students will be exploring various scenarios and providing analysis and recommendations from the perspective of a leadership consultant. Each project has been carefully designed to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate mastery of various leadership concepts which have been presented in the classroom (both in the face-to-face and online discussions). The projects focus on the following areas:
In project 1, students will demonstrate Anunderstanding of the broad role of a
leader within an organization. In project 2, students are expected to apply course concepts and materials to provide real-world leadership skills with respect to personnel development.In project 3, students will present their analysis and recommendations that demonstrate their ability to create a report that examines ways a leader blends their social architect role with soft skills and business acumen to fix the problems of a failing business merger.
Global Delivery Direct, Inc.
modest success. The now aging owners are looking for ways to grow the company. The Pan Asian market is still strong for the company as is the small business market for national sales in America. The company is currently owned by the four founders who hold 60% of the stock equally, with capital investors holding the remaining 40%.Current Company Vision:
The delivery company to the business world.Current Mission: To provide cargo and mail services to businesses around the globe with excellent service and direct simplicity. Employees will seek to foster a personal relationship with customers through the anticipation of their needs, understanding the
logistic challenges facing their deliveries, and always finding ways to succeed in getting the customer served.

HOW TO ANALYZE A CASE STUDY:Hands-On Guide: How to Analyze a Case Study
Management Information Systems,Ninth Edition provides anumber of case studies for you to analyze. Included in thesecases are questions to help you understand and analyze thecase. You may, however, be assigned other case studies thatdo not have questions. This Hands-On Guide presents astructured framework to help you analyze such cases as wellas the case studies in this text. Knowing how to analyze a casewill help you attack virtually any business problem.
A case study helps students learn by immersing them in areal-world business scenario where they can act as problemsolvers and decision makers. The case presents facts about aparticular organization. Students are asked to analyze the
case by focusing on the most important facts and using thisinformation to determine the opportunities and problemsfacing that organization. Students are then asked to identifyalternative courses of action to deal with the problems they
identify.A case study analysis must not merely summarize thecase. It should identify key issues and problems, outline andassess alternative courses of action, and draw appropriateconclusions. The case study analysis can be broken downinto the following steps:
1.Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.
2.Identify the key issue or issues.
3.Specify alternative courses of action.
4.Evaluate each course of action.
5.Recommend the best course of action.
Let’s look at what each step involves.
1.Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.Read the case several times to become familiar withthe information it contains. Pay attention to the information in any accompanying exhibits, tables, or figures. Many case scenarios, as in real life, present a greatdeal of detailed information. Some of these facts aremore relevant that others for problem identification.One can assume the facts and figures in the case aretrue, but statements, judgments, or decisions made byindividuals should be questioned. Underline and thenlist the most important facts and figures that wouldhelp you define the central problem or issue. If keyfacts and numbers are not available, you can makeassumptions, but these assumptions should be reasonable given the situation. The “correctness” of your conclusions may depend on the assumptions you make.

2. Identify the key issue or issues.
Use the facts providedby the case to identify the key issue or issues facing
the company you are studying. Many cases presentmultiple issues or problems. Identify the most important and separate them from more trivial issues. State
the major problem or challenge facing the company.You should be able to describe the problem or challenge in one or two sentences. You should be able toexplain how this problem affects the strategy or performance of the organization.You will need to explain why the problem occurred.Does the problem or challenge facing the companycome from a changing environment, new opportunities, a declining market share, or inefficient internal orexternal business processes? In the case of informationsystems-related problems, you need to pay specialattention to the role of technology as well as thebehavior of the organization and its management.
Information system problems in the businessworld typically present a combination of management, technology, and organizational issues. Whenidentifying the key issue or problem, ask what kind ofproblem it is: Is it a management problem, a technology problem, an organizational problem, or a combination of these? What management, organizational,and technology factors contributed to the problem?

To determine if a problem stems frommanagement factors, consider whether managersare exerting appropriate leadership over theorganization and monitoring organizationalperformance. Consider also the nature ofmanagement decision making: Do managers havesufficient information for performing this role, or
do they fail to take advantage of the informationthat is available?

To determine if a problem stems from technologyfactors, examine any issues arising from theorganization’s information technologyinfrastructure: its hardware, software, networksand telecommunications infrastructure, and the
management of data in databases or traditionalfiles. Consider also whether the appropriatemanagement and organizational assets are in placeto use this technology effectively.

To determine the role of organizational factors,examine any issues arising from the organization’sstructure, culture, business processes, work groups,
Appendix 1
Hands-On Guide: How to Analyze a Case Study631divisions among interest groups, and relationshipswith other organizations, as well as the impact ofchanges in the organization’s externalenvironment—changes in government regulations,economic conditions, or the actions ofcompetitors, customers, and suppliers.You will have to decide which of these factors—ora combination of factors—is most important in
explaining why the problem occurred.
3.Specify alternative courses of action.List the courses ofaction the company can take to solve its problem ormeet the challenge it faces. For information system-
related problems, do these alternatives require a newinformation system or the modification of an existingsystem? Are new technologies, business processes,
organizational structures, or management behaviorrequired? What changes to organizational processeswould be required by each alternative? What management policy would be required to implement eachalternative?Remember, there is a difference between what anorganization “should do” and what that organization
actually “can do.” Some solutions are too expensive oroperationally difficult to implement, and you shouldavoid solutions that are beyond the organization’s
resources. Identify the constraints that will limit thesolutions available. Is each alternative executablegiven these constraints?
4.Evaluate each course of action.
Evaluate each alternative using the facts and issues you identified earlier,given the conditions and information available.Identify the costs and benefits of each alternative. Askyourself, “What would be the likely outcome of thiscourse of action?

State the risks as well as the rewardsassociated with each course of action. Is your recommendation feasible from a technical, operational, andfinancial standpoint? Be sure to state any assumptionson which you have based your decision.
5.Recommend the best course of action.State your choicefor the best course of action and provide a detailedexplanation of why you made this selection. You may
also want to provide an explanation of why otheralternatives were not selected. Your final recommendation should flow logically from the rest of your case
analysis and should clearly specify what assumptionswere used to shape your conclusion. There is often nosingle “right” answer, and each option is likely to have
risks as well as rewards