Building a Better Mousetrap: The Relationship between Strategy and Structure This experimental exercise is intended to give students a scenario that applies directly to week 7 and the knowledge gained with the previous weeks in a problem-solving setting. The purpose of this exercise is to show how organizational structure works in alignment with strategy to improve business performance. The students will act as a consultant to a firm that recently changed its structure as a counter measure to declining performance. Research indicates that firms tend to change structure when declining performance forces them to do so. Effective managers anticipate the need for structural change and quickly modify structure to better accommodate the firm's strategy when evidence calls for that action. Students will be asked to:

Identify a firm that has recently changed structure due to declining performance.

Research the strategy the company is pursuing and the changes the company made to is structure.

Prepare a background report to identify how the firm is impacted by answering the following questions:

What type of structure did the firm utilize before its performance declined?

Describe the situation the firm was experiencing that caused it to change structure.

What structural adjustments did the firm make?

What additional steps did the firm change to create value?

A proper match between strategy and structure can lead to a competitive advantage. How did the changes at your firm create a competitive advantage?

Analyze and describe how your firm has changed during this time in te