QUALITATIVE Journal Submit Article Reviews Here

You will review both quantitative and qualitative research.  The topic is up to you as long as you choose a peer-reviewed, academic research piece.  I suggest choosing a topic that is at least in the same family as your expected dissertation topic so that you can start viewing what is out there.  There are no hard word counts or page requirements as long as you cover the basic guidelines.  You must submit original work, however,  and a paper that returns as a large percentage of copy/paste to other sources will not be accepted.  (Safe Assign will be used to track/monitor your submission for plagiarism. Submissions with a Safe Assign match of more than 25% will not be accepted.) Please use APA formatting and include the following information:

• Introduction/Background:  Provide context for the research article.  What led the author(s) to write the piece? What key concepts were explored? Were there weaknesses in prior research that led the author to the current hypothesis or research question?
• Methodology:  Describe how the data was gathered and analyzed.  What research questions or hypotheses were the researcher trying to explore? What statistical analysis was used?
• Study Findings and Results:  What were the major findings from the study? Were there any limitations?
• Conclusions:  Evaluate the article in terms of significance, research methods, readability and the implications of the results.  Does the piece lead into further study? Are there different methods you would have chosen based on what you read? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the article in terms of statistical analysis and application? (This is where a large part of the rubric is covered.) 

 You have been appointed the director of strategic planning for the Fortune Global 500 company you selected in Module One. (Toyota)
The vice president of strategy and operations (VP) has confided in you that strategic planning has been a challenge for the company over the past year; specifically, crafting new strategies and aligning them to the company’s mission and goals. You have now been tasked with creating a new strategic planning proposal to help the company explore at least one new growth opportunity to increase its revenue or market share in the industry.
Your proposal should present a detailed analysis of the company’s internal and external environments as well as specific actions the company can take over the next five years to achieve the targeted growth. Your proposal will be presented to various stakeholders at different levels in the organization, so you will need to adapt parts of your proposal to suit different needs. Additionally, you will need to send a shorter executive summary of your proposal to the leadership team.
Directions
Strategic Planning Proposal
Complete an analysis of your company and organize this information into a presentation. Compile all slides from your milestone assignments to create a final presentation for your stakeholders. Use resources such as the company website, which will have pertinent information including its sustainability report, and other relevant sources to help complete this presentation. Be sure to address any feedback you have received on your milestone assignments.
Part 1: Presentation
Your final presentation should include the following elements:
Perform an internal environment analysis of your company to understand the company’s current business environment and future goals. Present the results of your analysis.
Overview (slide 1): Provide a brief overview of the company’s products, services, and customer base.
Existing entities (slides 2–3): Identify at least two existing partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions. Explain how these entities contribute to the company’s revenue or market share.
Five-year goals (slide 4): Speculate on what the company wants to achieve in the next five years by considering their mission statement, values and goals, and relevant sections of their sustainability report.
Perform an external environment analysis of your company to identify the company’s competitive environment and find an opportunity the company can utilize to grow its revenue or market share in the industry. Present the results of your analysis.
Competitors (slide 5): Identify at least two of your company’s top competitors and explain how they compete with your company.
Competitive advantages (slides 6–11): Evaluate your company’s competitive advantages.
Summarize the unique skill sets, products, location, and values of your company.
Use Porter’s five forces to analyze your company’s competitiveness and growth potential in its industry. Assign a rating to your company for each of Porter’s five forces as very high (VH), high (H), low (L), or very low (VL). Justify your ratings.
Area of opportunity (slides 12–13): Identify one area of opportunity that will help your company increase its revenue or market share over the next five years. Explain how this opportunity can lead to an increase in revenue or market share.
Conduct a buy-build-ally analysis for your company and recommend actions your company can take to realize your identified opportunity within five years.
Implementation strategy (slides 14–17): Recommend an implementation strategy for your company.
Determine whether the company will need to buy, build, or ally with another company. Consider the skills, facilities, products, and services the company will need, to capitalize on the identified opportunity.
Use the speaker notes of your presentation to explain the strategy behind your buy, build, and ally recommendations.
Timeline (slides 18–19): Construct a timeline of what your company should achieve by the end of each year for the next five years.
(Note: Use both on-screen text and speaker notes to convey your information effectively. For example, you can use brief bulleted lists summarizing the highlights of your analysis on the slide and include more detailed explanations where needed in your speaker notes.)
Part 2: Executive Summary
Create an executive summary of your strategic planning proposal. Remember to consider the audience and purpose of this report when drafting your summary.
Purpose: Briefly explain the purpose of the proposal.
Current business environment : Describe the internal and external business environments of the company.
Outline the various analyses you conducted and briefly summarize their importance.
Describe the opportunity for growth you identified and how it will impact the company’s revenue or market share.
Recommendations : Recommend actions, such as buy, build, and ally, that the company should take to utilize the identified opportunity and explain the reasons for your recommendations.
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit the following:
Stakeholder Presentation
Submit a PowerPoint presentation with 18–20 slides. Sources should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
Executive Summary
Submit a 2-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations. 

 Part 1 (recommend completing during Week 5)

In Part 1 of this activity, you will complete the following tasks: 

• Watch “How to Do an Informational Interview.”
• Select your prospective interview candidate. See below for guidance on identifying a suitable interviewee.
• Gather professional/biographical details about your prospective interview subject.
• Request an interview by email, by phone, or in person. If you’re going to send your request by email, review this site for suggested wording. Consider CC’ing me on the request.

To identify a suitable interview subject, find professionals in your career you would like to explore. Think about tapping these sources:

• Check with your personal and professional networks and professors to connect you with professionals in your field of interest.
• Check within Community Connect within CareerQuest or the UMUC/UMGC Alumni LinkedIn group for access to potential alumni and mentors. 
• Consider members within student or professional organizations you have joined or would like to join. 

There are no restrictions on your interviewee’s location. CareerQuest has a video chat feature you can use if you connect with your subject through that platform. 

After you explore your interviewee options, request the interview. Reach out in a timely manner, as many professionals have demanding schedules and may not be available right away. It is also wise to consider having more than one potential interview candidate, in case your first choice doesn’t pan out.

As you prepare for your interview, bear in mind these tips: 

• Maintain a professional demeanor, both in writing and orally.
• Draft a list of questions in advance.
• Schedule the interview for no longer than 20 minutes.

Part 2 (recommend completing during Week 6)

Prepare for your interview well in advance. In Part 2 of this activity, you will prepare for and conduct your informational interview by completing the following tasks: 

• Determine the logistics of your interview. Will you meet in person? Via video chat or web conference (Zoom, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, Skype, etc.)? An interview in real time is preferable, but if you and your subject are unable to arrange that, you can use email.
• Draft your interview questions. See below for guidance.
• Conduct the interview.

Here are some questions you might consider: 

• What sparked your interest in this career field? 
• What does a typical day entail in your line of work? 
• What do you like most about your career field? 
• What are some challenges you face in this career choice? 
• How do you handle your work-life balance? 
• What suggestions do you have for someone who is interested in this field? 
• Who else do you recommend I talk to? 

Part 3 (due by the end of Week 7)

After your interview, summarize your notes in two or three paragraphs. Include the name of the interviewee, a short biography describing his or her professional background and experiences, and a brief synopsis of your interview details/highlights. Be sure to include a reflection on why you chose to interview this person and what you learned relative to your career. Finally, make sure to include the questions you asked. You may find this template helpful.  This documentation is due by the end of Week 7.

A company wants to migrate their email, calendar, and other associated applications to the web. You are to write a plan to perform this migration so that it includes backups, storage, and whether email clients can also be used on the desktop i.e. Thunderbird. 

The requirements 

· The plan must address:

 Migration of email, calendar, and associated applications

 Backups and storage

Option for a desktop application

 Difference between POP3 and IMAP

 How encryption can be used to keep data protected and ensure it is not delivered in plain text

· APA formatted including title page, reference page, and in-text citations.

· Length of 2-3 pages, excuding the title and reference pages.

Minimum of 2 scholarly resources