| Course | MGT 570 Advanced Strategic Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 8 |
| Paper type | MBA comprehensive strategic plan |
| Length | About 1,054 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 570 Module 8
Where to Play and How to Win on the Roadside: A Comprehensive Strategic Plan for a Regional Outdoor Company
Student Name
Master of Business Administration, Aspen University
MGT 570: Advanced Strategic Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Where to Play and How to Win on the Roadside: A Comprehensive Strategic Plan for a Regional Outdoor Company
Seven modules of analysis now come together for Natural State Outdoor, a composite family firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. This paper brings them together into a plan for 2027 through 2032 that the board can adopt. It is deliberately short, because a plan that is too long to use will not shape decisions.
What a Plan Can and Cannot Do
Mintzberg (1994) argued that strategic planning failed in many companies because it confused analysis with synthesis. Strategies, he wrote, emerge from insight, learning and synthesis, often by leaders close to the business, and cannot be produced by formal procedures. Planning is valuable for programming strategies already formed, communicating them and checking their progress, and planners can help by supplying analysis and challenging assumptions. Martin (2014) made a related point: leaders favor planning because it feels controllable, but a plan full of initiatives and budgets is not a strategy. Strategy is a small set of integrated choices about where to play and how to win, made under uncertainty, and it requires accepting that the choices may be wrong.
The Choices
| Choice | Decision | Evidence from earlier modules |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Help local businesses and communities be seen | Module 1 workshops and decision test |
| Where to play | Local businesses in Arkansas, Oklahoma and southern Missouri, especially those new to outdoor | Module 4 survey and pilot |
| How to win | Grandfathered locations, affordable digital slots, local relationships, easy ordering | Module 3 cornerstones; Module 4 canvas |
| What to add | Indoor screen network in local businesses | Module 5 parenting test |
| What to stop | Low-margin national packages; radio and printing acquisitions | Modules 4 and 5 |
| Enablers | Digital platform, audience data, aligned pay and budgets | Modules 6 and 7 |
| Uncertainties | Digital adoption speed; highway regulation | Module 2 scenarios |
Financial Projections
In the middle scenario, revenue grows from $58 million to about $74 million by 2032, with digital faces and indoor screens providing most of the growth, and operating margin rises from 21% to about 26% as revenue per face increases. Capital spending of about $14 million over six years funds digital conversion, the platform and the screen network, financed from cash flow and equipment loans. In the slow-adoption scenario, revenue grows only to about $63 million, and conversion slows to protect cash.
Organization and People
The plan requires a digital products manager and data analyst, already hired; a retention program for the six senior salespeople who carry most local relationships; and training for crews in screen maintenance. Each is funded in the first two years of the plan's budget, because Module 3 showed that the company's advantages rest on these people as much as on its permits.
Risks and Signposts
The main risks are slower digital adoption by small businesses, stricter highway rules, loss of key salespeople and national rivals copying the local offer. Signposts include small-advertiser share of revenue, legislative activity, top-seller turnover and rivals' pricing for day slots.
Implementation Sequence
The plan unfolds in three phases. In 2027 and 2028, the company converts its 60 best permitted faces, launches the ordering platform across all markets and realigns sales pay. In 2029 and 2030, it builds the indoor network in Little Rock and expands to Tulsa if occupancy targets are met, and adds audience sensors. In 2031 and 2032, it decides, based on signposts, whether to make the big bet on a full self-service platform for all three states or to slow conversion.
What the Company Will Stop
Martin emphasizes that real choices exclude things. The plan ends bidding for national packages below a margin floor, declines the radio and printing acquisitions and retires the old practice of selling static faces on twelve-month terms to customers who would be better served by digital slots.
Funding the Plan
The plan's capital needs, about $14 million over six years, are within the company's capacity if cash flow grows as projected; equipment lenders have indicated willingness to finance digital screens against their revenue. The board will release funds in phases, tied to scorecard results, so spending follows evidence.
Planning as a Practice
Wolf and Floyd (2017) argued that strategic planning should be studied, and practiced, as an activity whose effects depend on its context, who participates and how it is conducted. Planning that involves people across levels can build understanding and commitment, while planning confined to a few executives often fails to influence behavior. Natural State's plan was built with workshops that included sales staff and crews, and its reviews will continue that participation.
How This Plan Differs From the Old One
The previous five-year plan was a revenue target with a list of projects. This plan starts from purpose, states where the company will and will not compete, explains why it expects to win and sets signposts that could change its course. It is shorter, and it asks more of its leaders.
Who Was Involved
The plan was built over eight months with the leadership team, sales and crew leaders and two board members. Workshops on purpose, a scenario session and a pilot with small advertisers gave staff a voice in the choices, which Wolf and Floyd's research suggests improves the chance that the plan shapes behavior after it is adopted.
Governing the Plan
The leadership team will review signposts and the scorecard quarterly. Each fall, a two-day strategy retreat, including sales and crew leaders, will revisit the choices, not only the targets, asking whether the company is still playing in the right place and winning in the right way. The board will approve any change to the core choices.
What Would Change the Plan
If small-business revenue stalls below 25% after two years, the company will revisit where to play, perhaps returning to mid-size advertisers with digital offers. If highway rules tighten in two states, it will shift capital to city faces and indoor screens. If a national rival matches the local offer at lower prices, it will lean harder on service and relationships.
Conclusion
The plan states the company's choices plainly and rests each on earlier analysis. Mintzberg's and Martin's warnings explain why it is short, built on choices and open to revision, and Wolf and Floyd's research explains why it was made, and will be renewed, with the people who must carry it out.
References
Martin, R. L. (2014). The big lie of strategic planning. Harvard Business Review, 92(1/2), 78-84.
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The fall and rise of strategic planning. Harvard Business Review, 72(1), 107-114.
Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754-1788. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313478185
MGT 570 Module 8 instructions, in plain terms
The last module of Aspen's MGT 570 asks for a comprehensive strategic plan that integrates the course: purpose, environmental and internal analysis, strategic choices, technology and alignment. Students commonly write the plan as a document leaders could adopt, with projections, risks and a way to keep it current. Follow the classroom's Module 8 directions; this example completes the plan for the billboard company. State what the plan is for and its limits. Present the core strategic choices clearly, including what the organization will stop doing. Summarize the analysis behind each choice. Include financial projections with assumptions and at least one alternative case. Identify risks and signposts, saying what each signpost would trigger. Describe how the plan will be governed and revised, and by whom.
Inside the MGT 570 Module 8 example
Natural State Outdoor's plan covers 2027 to 2032. Mintzberg's Harvard Business Review article on the fall and rise of strategic planning argues that planning cannot generate strategy but can program and communicate it. Martin's Harvard Business Review article on the big lie of strategic planning urges leaders to make explicit choices about where to play and how to win rather than produce comfortable plans. Wolf and Floyd's Journal of Management article sets out a research agenda treating planning as a practice shaped by context and participation. A one-page table states the choices: play in local advertising across three states, win with permitted locations, digital slots and local relationships, add indoor screens and decline radio and printing. Projections show revenue rising from $58 million to about $74 million by 2032. A calendar sets quarterly signpost reviews and an annual strategy retreat.
Reading the MGT 570 Module 8 grading rubric
A culminating plan is persuasive when the choices are stated plainly, each rests on earlier analysis and the plan builds in ways to learn and change. This example uses Martin's framing so the plan reads as choices rather than a budget. Mintzberg's critique explains why the plan includes scenarios and signposts instead of a single forecast, and why it is brief. Wolf and Floyd's research shapes how planning will be practiced, with wide participation in both building and revising it. The one-page table, the phased sequence and the governance calendar make the plan usable rather than decorative.
MGT 570 Module 8 help from the desk
Comprehensive plans often become long documents that restate every analysis and never state the choices. Lead with the choices: where to play, how to win, what to stop. Summarize analysis briefly as evidence for each choice. Include projections with assumptions and alternative cases. Identify signposts that would trigger a change. Describe who governs the plan and when it is reviewed. Finally, keep the plan short enough that managers will actually use it, ideally with the core choices on one page. Show the order in which the choices will be carried out.
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 570 Module 8 questions, answered
What does MGT 570 Module 8 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 570 ends with a comprehensive strategic plan integrating the course's analyses and choices. Check your classroom prompt.
Can planning create strategy?
Mintzberg argued it cannot: strategy comes from synthesis and insight, while planning helps program, communicate and control strategies once formed.
What does Martin mean by the big lie of strategic planning?
That planning feels like strategy but often avoids the real work of making uncomfortable choices about where to play and how to win.
Where can I find a free MGT 570 Module 8 sample paper?
The complete plan above integrates purpose, scenarios, resources, choices, digital strategy and alignment for a regional billboard company.
How should a strategic plan be kept current?
By reviewing signposts regularly, holding periodic strategy sessions and treating the plan as a set of choices to revisit rather than a fixed document.