Strategic Program Management Research Worksheet

Strategic Program Management Research Worksheet

Task A: Problem/Opportunity Statement

Instructions for Task A: In the Response row, write out the problem/opportunity statements for the scenario for each of the team members.

Response to Task A:

Education and skills are a necessity in today's changing economy. Limited locations in only a formal school setting can limit the number of students who will attend. By offering classes in non-conventional settings gives more students the opportunity to be present in a learning environment and open the doors for more funding sources.

One of the current challenges that Foundation School is going through is lack of motivation for staff educators in increasing their 1:1 teacher/student ratio due to their current pay scale. Increasing the 1:1 ratio to 4:1 student/teacher ratio will increase bottom line and help stay on track in their 3 year plan.

Generic Benchmarking--The purpose of generic benchmarking is to identify potential solutions to the problem statements defined in Task A. You will do this by looking at how companies in other industries have dealt with similar issues.

Topic A: Leadership in Program Management

Instructions for Topic A: In the Response row, each team member must identify at least one company that has faced and addressed similar situations (successfully and unsuccessfully).

* In the Response row, identify whether the company has been successful or unsuccessful.

* In the Response row, summarize your key findings for the company as they relate to the scenario.

* In the Response row, identify at least one alternative solution for Foundation Schools from each company researched.

Response to Topic A:

Lake Forest School of Management recently hired Christopher C. Multhauf. Multhauf will assume a newly created position titled Executive Vice President - Educational Programs and Solutions (EVP - EPS) (Lake Forest, 2011). "Chris Multhauf's depth and breadth of experience both in business and in higher education make him uniquely qualified to join our senior management team as our new EVP - EPS," said LFGSM President & CEO John Popoli."(Lake Forest, 2011, par 2). Lake Forest School of Management, like Foundation School who has inducted new Board members for their abilities to continue to improve the school's effectiveness and expand the enterprise (University of Phoenix, 2011). Christopher's position is similar to John's, they both have extensive business knowledge, excellent leadership skills, and are both well respected by faculty and in the business community. They are also responsible for strategic program planning that is aligned with the organizations vision.

1. Lake Forest has been successful in the strategic planning of mixing business model that is entwined with an educational purpose.

2. Introducing outside talent with good leadership skills and expertise aligned with the vision the organization is geared toward proves successful.

3. An alternative solution for Foundation School that Lake Forest has implemented would be to work with Human Resources to develop a pool of teaching candidates that are passionate about where the company is headed

The United States Army gives very straightforward bonuses based on enlistment length, level of education upon enlistment, and any special skills that are in the desired scope. Once in the military, pay is based on rank, and housing allotment is based on the rank in combination with the cost of living in the zip code in which the base is located. Further bonuses are allotted based on whether a member of the army is in active combat, or hazardous duty. When signing on for additional time with the military, further bonuses are assigned, again based on how long the soldier is signing up for ("U.s. Office Of Personnel Management", 2011).

All of the above incentives are completely situational based, focusing on tangible decisions to limit the soldier's options for the incentive. Although rank is a deciding factor in many of the rewards above, it is primarily assigned by the amount of time a soldier spends in the military. Performance is frequently the reason for a demotion, and promotion follows a formula of time-served plus positive performance. However, this means that the amount of monies and benefits given to a person of a certain rank is nearly identical to another person of the same rank. Therefore, a person who is coasting and a person who is a high performer will receive the same level of bonuses and monies if all other factors of their employment and work history are the same. Since they are staffing a large amount of employees this type of pay scale plan is successful and motivates employees to want to stay in for as long as possible since it brings job security.

This can lead to a similar situation as that seen at Foundation School, where employees are not encouraged to perform compared to other employees, but just to stay on for a certain time to hit the time requirements for a certain benefit. Although this system has been in place for the military for a long time, in the private sector this leads to a diminishing of the brain-mass since it drags down the collective effort of the group. Foundation School at least has an option to change how it empowers employees to perform at their peak, with incentives that may be based on performance and don't focus solely on the seniority, but take into account the amount of effort being exerted, and the successfulness of that effort towards completing tasks.

Topic B: Effective use of data and metrics in achieving optimal performance

Instructions for Topic B: In the Response row, each team member must identify at least one company that has faced and addressed similar situations (successfully and unsuccessfully).

* In the Response row, identify whether the company has been successful or unsuccessful.

* In the Response row, summarize your key findings for the company as they relate to the scenario.

* In the Response row, identify at least one alternative solution for Foundation Schools from each company researched.

Response to Topic B:

Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in Pennsylvania is similar to Foundation Schools where a low teacher student ratio is