Running head: Module 1- Team Project 1

Module 1- Team Project

Innovation Devils

OGL355: Leading Organizational Innovation and Change

Dr. Brent Scholar

March 22, 2020

Arizona State University

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Innovation and strategic planning are essential to the overall growth and success of

companies in today’s global economy. Innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition and

attract a diverse talent pool. The idea for this project is to showcase three organizations and why

we are interested in choosing one of them to analyze. Each organization, in its own way, is

strong and innovative, and knows how to show its competitive edge to grow beyond the other

companies. This paper goes into detail about each of our roles within the project and how we will

complete items by their deadline, while also providing constructive feedback to help each of us

grow.

Our Organizations

Choosing these three different organizations was not too difficult for us as a team. We got

off to a slow start throwing out ideas, but after Mary started us off with Whole Foods, the other

ideas just rolled out. These three companies are different, which overall appealed to the team.

Whole Foods being a healthy store, REI Co-op promoting outside adventures, and Wayfair LLC

being a large item drop service.

WholeFoods

Whole Foods is a natural foods specialty grocer that focuses on all-natural and organic

products. Despite their reputation for being expensive (often referred to as “Whole Paycheck”

because of the high cost of their goods), they remain one of the most competitive companies in

the already highly competitive supermarket industry.

Recently, specialty grocers such as Earth Fare, Lucky’s Market, and Fairway Market

have filed for bankruptcy. Yet Whole Foods continues to see big business. Why is that? What is
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Whole Foods doing that other companies aren’t? In studying Whole Foods, we would aim to find

out what their business strategy is and why it allows them to succeed where others have failed.

REI Co-Op, Inc.

The Recreational Equipment Inc. company, otherwise known as REI Co-op, specializes

in promoting life outside. They sell, and promote sustainable gear that offers each individual

their own unique experience to outdoor opportunities. From bicycles, to hiking, to skiing in the

mountains, or swimming in the ocean, REI excels at bringing customers back to the wild. Not

only do they promote a healthy lifestyle, but the company helps to show you the world and what

it has to offer.

Why is this one of our suggested organizations for this team project? REI peaked our

interest as a company to study because of its innovative approach to combining profitability with

sustainability. Not only do they build their own REI Co-op designs and Co-op Cycles, but they

are a member owned co-operative company that showcases innovation and gives back to their

members. Their strategies to bring communities together and transform areas for outdoor

recreations, in which they call “Rewilding.” This company is environmentally aware which is

why they choose sustainable standards for their products, and innovation is a major aspect in

creating unique desirable products to grow their organization, which is what we believe REI

Co-op achieves. With all of that said, it has piqued the team’s interest in learning more about

how this sustainable practice is achieved by REI, demonstrating their mission and values, and

work to bring in customer satisfaction.

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WayFair, LLC

Wayfair is an online company that offers more than 18 million items for sale to their

customers, including furniture, home decor, and housewares. You simply order the desired item,

and then the company buys the item from a third party and ships it directly to you. This allows

for the company to save money on warehouse storage, and also only retrieve products based on

consumer demand.

We chose Wayfair as one of our organizations because they follow a unique drop

shipping model that will allow us to learn more about their ways of marketing and the process

with which they use to follow through with this model. We think it will be interesting to learn

about a company that has more than 11,000 suppliers, as well as how they approach transactions

differently between these suppliers. Finally, we want to evaluate the main competitors of

Wayfair, and how each one does business differently.

Communication Method(s)

Our team’s main form of communication is Google Hangouts. This platform is an easy

way for us to send and receive messages like a chat, but also hold frequent virtual meetings to

stay on top of each project. We also use Google Drive to hold all of our project documents. This

can be used to post comments and ideas directly into the document at all hours. We use email for

more formal communications, such as emailing Dr. B, while still including everyone.

Name Preferred Email Address for Contact

from your Peers

Clohe McMillen cmroller@asu.edu

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Mary Bettuchy mbettuch@asu.edu

Allison Phillips apalvar5@asu.edu

Joshua Etheridge jretheri@asu.edu

EmilyKate Yanez epyanez@asu.edu

Matthew Mukai Lee mmukaile@asu.edu

Collaboration Method(s)

We will utilize Google’s suite of software: Google Drive, Docs, and Hangouts as our

main collaboration tools. These tools are used by the university already, have any easy-to-use

interface and can be available 24/7 to every group member no matter their schedule or time zone.

Conflict Management

Conflict is bound to happen, it’s the nature of the world we live in. We will try our very

best to be upfront and honest in all of our communication, including any shortcomings we expect

along the way. We all understand that failure to communicate or participate in group discussions

and assignments will be reported as such when submitting said assignment.

Conflicts between group members, tasks, or other items will be communicated to that

module’s team lead, where he/she can act as intermediary, make adjustments, or escalate the

issue with the professor.

A majority of the foreseeable conflict can be solved with timely communication amongst

team members. Utilizing the Google Hangout is the most efficient and effective way of
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communicating with the group. As a fail-safe, the emails of each member are listed in this

document.

Consequences of Non-Participation

Consequences of non-participation will be as follows: if the majority of the group agrees

a team member has not been putting effort into assignments (turning in incomplete work or not

showing up to meetings and not communicating an absence ahead of time), we will evaluate

them on a scale of 1-100. If they have only done 50% of the work they were responsible for, they

will only receive 50% of the grade the rest of the team receives. This will also be noted in the

comment section when turning in an assignment, so the professor is aware of the agreed-upon

grade percentage. This will only happen after the team has communicated with the

non-participatory team member that their performance needs improvement. If, after three

attempts at communication the non-participatory team member still has not communicated with

the team, the team will vote on an appropriate grade reduction and make the professor aware of

the incident.

Team Project Plan Table

Module 2 Team Project Deliverable -Environmental Analysis

Team Lead Name Joshua Etheridge

Assignment deliverable Utilizing the Five Forces Model we will create an

environmental analysis to determine the chosen

organizations target market and market segmentation.

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Assignment Due Date Rough Draft: March 30, 2020 6:00PM EST

Approved Final: March 31, 2020 7:00PM EST

Scheduled Group Calls: Saturday, March 28th, 2020 3:00PM EST

Monday, March 30, 2020 8:30PM EST

Identify each team member’s Allison-​ Who is the company's target market?
Specifically who are they and how does the company
prospective responsibility and target them today?

when their responsibility Clohe-​ Threat of New Entrants, Bargaining Power of

Buyers
needs to be completed
EmilyKate-​ Threat of Substitute Products,
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Mary-​ Industry Rivalry, Ensure APA format, submit
final document
Matthew-​ Ensure proper formatting and adherence to
document structure provided by the professor
Joshua- ​Organize weekly tasks/due dates, delegate
tasks accordingly, aid in the cohesion of all elements

Module 3 Team Project Deliverable -SWOT Analysis

Team Lead Name Mary Bettuchy

Assignment deliverable Identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

and threats associated with our organization and use

this information to ascertain how the company

performs internal and external analysis.

Assignment Due Date Rough Draft: Monday April 6th, 6pm EST
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Scheduled Group Calls
Identify each team member’s
prospective responsibility and
when their responsibility
needs to be completed
Module 4 Team Project Deliverable -Competitive Advantage
Team Lead Name
Assignment deliverable
8
Approved Final: Tuesday April 7th, 7pm EST
Saturday April 4th, 3:00PM EST
Monday April 6th, 8:30PM EST
Mary: ​Assign tasks, oversee, and help form ideas and
submissions to ensure continuity, review for APA
formatting, and submission. Also the introduction.
Clohe: ​research company strengths (due Saturday
April 4th) , fill in strengths portion of the assignment
(due Monday April 6th)
Allison: ​research company weaknesses (due Saturday
April 4th), fill in weaknesses portion of the assignment
(due Monday April 6th).
Joshua: ​research company opportunities (due
Saturday April 4th), fill in opportunities portion of the
assignment (due Monday April 6th).
Emilykate: ​research company threats (due Saturday
April 4th), fill in threats portion of the assignment (due
Monday April 6th).
Matthew: ​conclusion (due Monday, April 6th)
Allison Phillips
This week we will define competitive advantage, and
figure out how our organization brings one
competitive advantage to the table. We will also
include in the discussion RBV, I/O, or Guerilla to
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help with our understanding of our competitive

advantage choice, and choose which one works best

for our company.

Assignment Due Date First Draft: Monday April 13, 2020 8:00pm EST

Second Draft: Tuesday April 14, 2020 6:00pm EST

Final Draft: Wednesday April 16, 2020 4:00pm EST

Scheduled Group Calls Saturday, April 11, 2020 10:00am EST

Monday April 13, 2020; 8:30pm EST

Identify each team member’s Allison:​ Set the roles and responsibilities of each team
member; make sure items get completed by each
prospective responsibility and deadline; and “Introduction” section.

when their responsibility Clohe: ​“Competitive Advantage is…”

Joshua: ​“Competitive Advantage and Point of View”
needs to be completed
Mary: ​Submit final document, and ensure APA format
is used; review/correct.
EmilyKate/Clohe: ​“Rationale”
Matthew:​ “Conclusion”
**Turn in assignments by Rough Draft deadline
(stated above), so we may discuss as a team on our
scheduled Monday Meeting (also stated above).**

Module 5 Team Project Deliverable -Going Global

Team Lead Name EmilyKate Yanez

Assignment deliverable In this module we will be determining the Target

Market and Strategies to Maintain, and Performing an

Team Project
Assignment Due Date
Scheduled Group Calls
Identify each team member’s
prospective responsibility and
when their responsibility
needs to be completed
Module 6 Team Project Deliverable -Executive Presentation
Team Lead Name
10
Environmental Analysis. We will be talking about
advantages and seeing arguments. We will be making
sure that the five focuses are discussed.
Outline: Monday, April 20, 2020 7:00PM EST
Rough Draft: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 6:00PM EST
Rough Edits: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 7-8PM EST
Final Draft: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 6:00PM EST
Final Edits: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 7-8PM EST
Saturday April 18, 2020 3:00PM EST
Monday April 20, 2020 8:30PM EST
EmilyKate:​ Assign tasks and make sure everything is
done on time, Introduction section and Name of
expan..
Joshua:​ Political and Economic Issues & Mode of
Entry
Allison: ​Key Cultural ...
Clohe:​ Actions for Inclusion
Mary:​ APA formatting and submitting it
Matthew: ​Attitudes, Conclusion
Clohe McMillen
Team Project
Assignment deliverable
Assignment Due Date
Scheduled Group Calls
Identify each team member’s
prospective responsibility and
when their responsibility
needs to be completed
11
In this module, the goal is to create a presentation
summing up our case study on our choice of
organization. This presentation is what would be
presented to the executive leaders of the chosen
organization.
Rough Draft- April 28, 2020
Final Draft - April 30, 2020
Sunday April 26, 2020 3:00pm EST
Final Edits** Wednesday April 29, 2020 7:30PM
EST - Edit
Final Review**Wednesday April 29, 2020 8:30PM
EST - Call
Have your portion of the project completed by 2pm
EST on Thursday for final review
Allison:​ Competitive Advantage
Clohe: ​Create the initial presentation with the groups
chosen platform. Peer Review. Title slides.
Introduction. Agenda.
Joshua: ​Environmental Analysis- Overall presentation
layout
Mary:​ SWOT Analysis- Check APA format and
references.- Leadership
EmilyKate: ​Going Global
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Matthew:​ Conclusion/ Organizational structure-

Overview of recommendations

Recommendations- split between core project leaders

Module 6 Team Project Deliverable -Sector Env Analysis Comparison

Team Lead Name Matthew Mukai Lee

Assignment deliverable Pick an organization in the same sector, but not our

chosen organization, complete the worksheet by

comparing what we learned in the presentations to the

worksheet itself.

Assignment Due Date Rough Draft: May 2, 2020 6:00PM EST

Final Draft: May 3, 2020 3:00PM EST

Scheduled Group Calls Friday, May 1, 2020 8:30PM EST

Saturday, May 2, 2020 2:00PM EST

Identify each team member’s Allison:​ Row 1-2

prospective responsibility and Clohe: ​Row 3-4

Joshua: ​Row 5-6
when their responsibility
Mary: ​APA Formatting, Revision
needs to be completed
EmilyKate:​ Row 7-8
Matthew:​ Delegate tasks, ensure worksheet is being
completed correctly and provide support where
needed.
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Conclusion

Finding opportunities in business can be challenging, but through careful strategic

planning and resources dedicated to innovation, companies can uncover greater opportunities.

Teamwork is a key part of strategic planning, and an essential component to a successful

company. Communication is important for effective teamwork, as well as having direct effects

on the value a company creates for itself and others. The companies that we have chosen above

to profile understand the importance of incorporating teamwork and communication into their

strategic planning process. In the end we want to learn from the companies what true value

consists of and the value of working together.