| Course | MGT 494 Strategic Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 7 |
| Paper type | Strategy implementation plan |
| Length | About 1,062 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 494 Module 7
From Strategy on Paper to Advice in the Field: An Implementation Plan for an Independent Seed Company
Student Name
Business Administration Program, Aspen University
MGT 494: Strategic Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
From Strategy on Paper to Advice in the Field: An Implementation Plan for an Independent Seed Company
The capstone's earlier modules settled what the composite Elkader seed firm Turkey River will do: win midsize farms in its home region through knowledge of their fields, launch a precision agronomy service, a university gene editing partnership and a trait licensing consortium, with a possible acquisition at a disciplined price. The board has approved the strategy. The chief executive knows that the company's previous plans were approved and then quietly ignored. This paper sets out how the strategy will be carried out.
Why Implementation Fails
Hrebiniak (2006) surveyed more than four hundred managers about obstacles to carrying out strategy. The most frequently cited were an inability to manage change effectively and overcome resistance, a poor or vague strategy, the lack of a model to guide implementation, poor information sharing among the people responsible, unclear responsibility and accountability and working against the organization's power structure. Turkey River's history shows several of these. Departments plan separately, information about customers lives in dealers' heads and the sales organization, which has long been the company's strongest group, measures success by volume.
Where Execution Breaks Down
Sull et al. (2015) studied execution in hundreds of companies and challenged several common beliefs. Alignment between levels was often adequate; the bigger failure was coordination across units, because managers trusted and relied on colleagues in their own units far more than those in other functions. Communication did not guarantee understanding, since many managers could not name their companies' top priorities. And execution suffered when organizations rewarded hitting targets over adapting to change. For Turkey River, the strategy depends on sales, agronomy, breeding and data working together on each customer, which is exactly the kind of cross-unit coordination that most often fails.
A Closed-Loop System
Kaplan and Norton (2008) described a management system that links strategy and operations in six stages: develop the strategy, translate it into objectives and measures, align the organization, plan operations, monitor and learn and test and adapt the strategy. They argued that companies fail not because their strategies are poor but because the link between strategy and operations is missing. The plan below follows that loop.
Objectives, Measures and Initiatives
| Objective | Measure | Target by 2029 | Initiative | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep midsize farm customers | Customer retention | 90% | Customer success teams; dealer retention pay | Vice president of sales |
| Deliver field-level advice | Customers with field-by-field plans | 75% | Yield database moved to new platform | Chief information officer |
| Earn a premium for advice | Gross margin per acre sold | Up 8% | End deep discounts to large farms | Chief financial officer |
| Grow the agronomy service | Paying subscribers | 1,000 | Two-county launch, then regional | Agronomy director |
| Renew the dealer network | Dealers under age 50 | 40% | Dealer recruiting and succession program | Dealer development manager |
| Build adaptive capability | University partnership milestones met | 100% | Joint research plan | Director of breeding |
Sequencing the Work
Not everything can start at once. The first six months focus on foundations: moving the yield database onto a new platform, hiring the first four agronomists, announcing the dealer pay change for the following season and joining the consortium. Months six to eighteen bring the territory teams into operation, launch the agronomy service in two counties and begin university research. Months eighteen to thirty-six expand the service, complete dealer recruiting in the first two territories and, if the price condition is met, integrate the Minnesota breeder. Sequencing matters because the advice depends on the data platform, and dealer pay changes need a full season's notice.
Managing Resistance
Hrebiniak's leading obstacle, managing change, will appear first in the sales organization, whose managers built careers on volume and discounts to large farms. The chief executive will meet each sales manager individually to explain the strategy and the new bonus, and two respected sales managers have agreed to lead the first territory teams. Dealers will hear about the pay change at the winter meeting, with examples showing how retention pay would have affected their own earnings last year.
Structure
The company will form customer success teams for each of five territories, each joining a sales manager, an agronomist and a data analyst who share responsibility for the territory's customers. A new dealer development manager will report to the chief executive, signaling the network's importance. The agronomy service will be a separate unit sharing the teams' agronomists.
Resources
The plan moves about $3.1 million a year from deep discounts to large farms and from national brand advertising into eight added agronomists, the data platform and dealer recruiting. Without this reallocation, the strategy would remain words.
Incentives
Dealer commissions will shift from pure volume to 70% volume and 30% customer retention. Sales managers' bonuses will include territory retention and gross margin per acre, not only sales.
Reviews
Monthly operating reviews, led by the chief operating officer, will cover scorecard measures by territory. Quarterly strategy reviews, led by the chief executive with the board's strategy committee, will ask whether the strategy is working and whether assumptions about farmers, rivals and suppliers still hold, the test-and-adapt stage of Kaplan and Norton's loop.
Early Warning Signs
The plan names signs that implementation is slipping: territory teams that meet less than monthly, fewer field plans written than scheduled, discounts to large farms reappearing in sales reports and dealer turnover rising after the pay change. The chief operating officer will report these alongside the scorecard, since they show trouble before results do.
Budget Over Three Years
The reallocated $3.1 million a year funds eight agronomists at about $1.0 million, the data platform at about $0.9 million in its first two years and $0.4 million after, dealer recruiting and training at about $0.6 million and territory team analysts at about $0.6 million. The agronomy service's own $4 million over three years is budgeted separately and expected to approach break-even in its third year.
Communication
Every employee and dealer will get the strategy and scorecard on a single page, and territory teams will discuss what the strategy means for their own work in the first month, so that understanding, not only awareness, follows.
Conclusion
Hrebiniak's obstacles and Sull, Homkes and Sull's findings explain why Turkey River's past plans faded. Kaplan and Norton's closed loop, a scorecard tying objectives to owners, territory teams that cross functions, reallocated money, aligned incentives and regular reviews give this strategy a path from paper to the field.
References
Hrebiniak, L. G. (2006). Obstacles to effective strategy implementation. Organizational Dynamics, 35(1), 12-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2005.12.001
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2008). Mastering the management system. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 62-77.
Sull, D., Homkes, R., & Sull, C. (2015). Why strategy execution unravels, and what to do about it. Harvard Business Review, 93(3), 57-66.
What the MGT 494 Module 7 instructions ask for
Implementation is the subject of Module 7 in Aspen's MGT 494. Students turn a chosen strategy into structure, resources, measures and routines, and explain how leaders will keep it on course. The classroom's prompt sets the required elements; this example implements the strategy built for the company in earlier modules. Summarize the strategy to be implemented in a few sentences. Explain, with research, why implementation often fails. Translate the strategy into objectives, measures, targets and initiatives. Describe changes to structure, budgets, incentives and processes. Address coordination across units, where research finds execution most often breaks down. Set out how progress will be reviewed and how the strategy will be adjusted.
How the MGT 494 Module 7 example is put together
Execution is now the question for Turkey River. Hrebiniak's Organizational Dynamics article reports obstacles managers face, led by managing change and by poor information sharing and unclear responsibility. Kaplan and Norton's Harvard Business Review article describes a six-stage management system from developing strategy to testing and adapting it. Sull, Homkes and Sull's Harvard Business Review article found that managers rely on colleagues in their own units far more than on those in other units, so execution breaks down across boundaries. A scorecard table sets objectives such as raising customer retention to 90%, with measures, targets and initiatives. The plan creates a customer success team joining sales and agronomy, moves $3.1 million from discounts and advertising to agronomists and data, ties dealer pay to retention and sets monthly operating and quarterly strategy reviews.
Where the marks sit in the MGT 494 Module 7 rubric
Implementation papers are graded on a clear translation of strategy into measurable objectives, attention to the obstacles research identifies and specific changes in structure, resources, incentives and review. This example uses Hrebiniak's and Sull, Homkes and Sull's findings to diagnose where execution is likely to fail. Kaplan and Norton's management system provides the loop from strategy to review, including testing whether the strategy itself still holds. The scorecard table links objectives, measures, targets and initiatives. Changes to dealer pay and budgets show that the plan moves money and incentives, not only words, and the sequence puts foundations first.
MGT 494 Module 7 help: mistakes that cost marks
Implementation plans often restate the strategy and add a timeline without changing how the organization works. Show what will change in structure, budgets, incentives and meetings. Another weakness is ignoring coordination across units, where research finds execution most often fails. Translate strategy into a small number of objectives with measures and targets. Move resources visibly, since a strategy without budget is a wish. Align incentives with the strategy. Schedule reviews that ask whether the strategy itself is paying off, beyond checking tasks off, and list the early signs of slippage. Finally, assign owners and dates, and sequence the work so foundations come first.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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MGT 494 Module 7 questions, answered
What does MGT 494 Module 7 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 494 covers strategy implementation in this module, so turning a strategy into structure, measures, resources and reviews is typical. Look at your classroom prompt.
Why do strategies fail in implementation?
Hrebiniak found that managers cite obstacles such as difficulty managing change, poor coordination and information sharing and unclear responsibility.
Where does strategy execution usually break down?
Sull, Homkes and Sull found that coordination across units is a common failure point, because managers rely far more on colleagues in their own units.
Where can I find a free MGT 494 Module 7 sample paper?
The example above sets out an implementation plan for an independent seed company, with a scorecard and changes to structure, budgets, incentives and reviews.
What is a closed-loop management system?
Kaplan and Norton's linked stages, from developing and translating strategy to aligning the organization, planning operations, monitoring and testing and adapting.