The purpose of the Leadership and Innovation competency is to connect creativity, innovation, and leadership and explore bringing value and creative problem solving into the workplace. As you have seen, this competency is highly research-based and requires you to dig deeper into the topics of the competency, as well as conduct industry research through current academic sources.

The Final Assessment consists of:

1. a paper,

2. Action Plan, and

3. Creative Visual.

From this paper, you will develop an Action Plan that addresses how you specifically recommend to address the organizational issues you have identified in the company that you chose to research.

Lastly, you will summarize your Action Plan into a Creative Visual that highlights key information from your Action Plan.

Items Required for Submission

1. Paper: 12-15 pages in length (without title page, visual display, references and appendices), double-spaced, Times New Roman, APA 6th Edition Headings and Citations, Title Page and References

2. Action Plan: 1-2 pages double-spaced, Times New Roman

3. Creative Visual: 1 page utilizing innovative technology

Step ONE: Construct the Analysis Section of the Paper

Using the Outline you created in the Milestone Activity titled

Outline: Paper for Final Assessment, write the Analysis section of your paper.

In this section of your paper, you are to examine how creativity and innovation have affected the company you have chosen.

You are to design strategies to increase cash, profit, and growth in this company through understanding innovation and creative dynamics within the global marketplace.

You will analyze and apply decision matrices for creative opportunities, and/or to mitigate risk, and/or for legal considerations in the global marketplace as they pertain to your company.

The Analysis should also include your assessment of your companys collaboration style, and apply this across stakeholders, including customers and suppliers, to increase creativity, innovation, and profitability, if applicable.

The Analysis section of your paper should be from 12 to 15 pages in length.

The paper should be double-spaced, Times New Roman, APA 6th Edition Headings and Citations, Title Page and References.

The Analysis will be divided into three sections of approximately equal length (three to four pages each). You do not need to use the exact three headings below, but they are recommended.

Risk

Your research from the Milestone Activity titled Risk Analysis can be included and expanded on here, but not copied and pasted. Further develop what you wrote for this previous assignment in regards to Risk and also explore the topic of Corruption for both the industry and company you have chosen.

Note that the Risk that is identified needs to be supported and clearly explained by data analysis (not opinion).

Risks will generally include something that can be solved using the material from this competency (e.g., creativity, innovation, and/or collaboration between stakeholders).

Also, the Foreign Consumer Protection Act (FCPA) should be discussed in this section of your Analysis as it relates to your chosen industry/company. Note that risk factors such as having old machinery or something general like bad management do not qualify as Risks for this paper.

Competition

Starting with the information you gathered in the Milestone Activity titled Competitor Analysis on Chosen Company, further research and analyze the competition for your company in the same industry. You can choose to keep the same three competitors or find others, but do not change the company that you chose unless approved by your faculty member.

Just a reminder that the competition you choose should be comprised of companies who compete for roughly the same customers as your company, and are not necessarily the largest competitors in the industry.

Also, as a reminder, you should choose competitors who are publicly held as financial information is readily available.

In this part of your Analysis section, determine what the competition may do better than the company that you chose.

Opportunities can be found through an honest analysis of the competition. Also, identify ways that the competition is more creative, and/or innovative, and/or collaborative.

This portion of the Analysis lends itself to a table, chart or graph that is followed by the analysis. As an example (noting that variables on the left can vary):

Chosen Company Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3

Recent innovation or creativity

Profitability of recent innovation or creativity

Profitability of company

Include how Michael Porters Value Chain Strategy and his Model of Competitive Advantage apply to your company and your companys competition.

Collaboration

Collaboration in the Workplace and in the Competition section of the Analysis (the previous section in this document), you may have found that your companys competitors are strongly collaborative in creative and interesting ways.

Note any information you have found regarding collaboration in this three to four page section of your paper.

Also, you also learned about the value of teams in regards to innovation in this competency. As collaboration is an integral part of teamwork, you should explore your company and its competitors assemble teams and utilize teamwork to foster innovation in this section of your paper.

In addition, highlight any opportunities that you have determined from the Risk and Competition sections of the paper that tie in with the collaboration style of your company (as an example, a comparison/contrast can be used here if appropriate for the information you have gathered). Be mindful that this is not the Action Plan so there should not be specific steps outlined.

Also, be sure to save any recommendations for the Conclusions/Recommendations section of the paper. It is appropriate to show in-depth data analysis and/or to analyze some of the stronger synergies that have resulted in increased profitability in this section of your paper.

Step TWO: Finalize the Conclusions/Recommendations of the Paper

Using the Conclusions/Recommendations

write the finalized version of your Conclusions/Recommendations for your paper.

you should not tell a company what they must do.

Rather you should make specific conclusions regarding the operation of the company you have chosen and the recommendations for creative and innovative improvements.

Step THREE: Create the Introduction of the Paper

The last step of your paper is to create an Introduction that includes research on the industry you have researched, as well as the company you have chosen for this Final Assessment.

The Introduction will clearly point to the Action Plan and will show the analyses that the you have performed.

The Introduction is written after the Analysis and Conclusions/Recommendations sections of the paper as until those sections are written, you do not know what you are introducing. The Introduction should not be more than to one page so be succinct.

Step FOUR: Create the Action Plan

Using the the draft you created in the Milestone Activity titled Draft of Action Plan for Final Assessment, you will develop an Action Plan with the exact steps that will be taken to develop collaborative thinking across stakeholders, customers, and suppliers to increase creativity and innovation. The Action Plan will include information from the competency and from your lessons learned in this competency regarding creativity and innovation. Within this Action Plan, you can place yourself within the company you have chosen and assume that you are part of the Action Plan. The Action Plan is from one to two pages long. It is measurable and includes SMART goals. Save your Action Plan as either a Word or PDF document and submit as a separate attachment from your paper.

Step FIVE: Create the Creative Visual

As the final step of the Final Assessment, you will now create the Creative Visual that summarizes your Action Plan. It should be between one-half to one page in length. You are required to use innovative technology for your visual, and a list of recommended technology follows. (Note: You are not limited to these, but DO NOT use PowerPoint or Prezi).