HU345 Critical Thinking

This Assignment has two parts. You will construct an argument in the premises–conclusion format to practice the organization and composition of a strong argument. Then, you will evaluate some areas of critical thinking that you may want to build actively during this term.

Review a sample template for the Unit 2 Assignment.

Part I:

In the premise–conclusion format you learned in Unit 1, you will construct the argument that persuaded you to pursue your degree. The conclusion will be something similar to “Conclusion: I will attend Purdue Global to earn my degree in X.” Offer three premises that share distinct reasons, evidence, information, or narratives that played a part in your decision. In the argument format, give one sentence for each premise and one sentence for the conclusion.

After you compose the argument, in at least 200 words, share an explanation to add context for the argument. Discuss how you devised the information to form the premises, explain why these reasons were the most important to you, and offer insights about how these elements were a factor in your decision-making process. How did these premises in particular lead to this conclusion?

Part II:

The Reading for this unit included the article on the “16 Characteristics of a Critical Thinker.” Assess yourself in this Assignment. In at least 250 words, select two characteristics from the article that you believe will be strengths and two that you believe will require mindfulness to build. Why do you believe each characteristic is relevant to you, and how can you tell if it is a strength or a weakness in your life and career? Be sure to include content from the article and use APA style for both in-text citations and full end references.

MT460

Synthesizing the various business strategy theories, principles and concepts you have learned thus far, evaluate the strategy of an award winning organization by choosing an “Award Application Summary” from the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program website. You will evaluate the “Award Application Summary” as a business case.

Course Outcomes

MT460-1: Assess business strategy using a variety of seminal theories, principles, and concepts.

GEL-1.2: Demonstrate college-level communication through the composition of original

materials in Standard English.

Choose an award winning company from the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program website to study. You will evaluate the “Award Application Summary” as a business case. Use the following criteria to evaluate your chosen award winning organization to determine how its business strategy positions the company to achieve competitive advantage over its competitors:

• Provide background information about your chosen company to include the company name, industry sector in which the company operates, products, and target market.
• Critically evaluate the strategic decisions that led to the organization winning the Baldrige Performance Excellence award.
• What is your chosen company’s business model and why is it important?
• Explain the organization’s type of competitive advantage.
• Explain how your chosen company develops a sustainable competitive advantage?
• Critically evaluate the vision, mission, and values of your chosen company.
• Critically evaluate the award winning company’s strategic objectives.
• Explain how your chosen company’s strategy is proactive and/or reactive.
• Explain strategic management hierarchy and how it is used by your chosen company to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
• What makes you chosen company’s strategy a winner?
• Explain the future strategic direction of the organization by analyzing key decisions in the business case.
• Use creative desktop publishing skills to create the title page and layout of your business report.
• Use a minimum of three peer-reviewed academic research resources (library resources, textbooks, books) to help substantiate your position.
• Apply proper APA style format. Be sure to use headings and subheadings to create a flow of ideas and topics within your writing.
• Write in third person to develop your business report.

Use as many concepts from Chapters 1 and 2 of your textbook to complete this Assignment as possible.

Here is the Unit 2 Assignment grading rubric.

PEER REVIEW DISCUSSION>

Can be short its just a discussion post

This week, you will construct a response to one of your fellow learners based on their assessment of a company for the Unit 1 Discussion Assignment essay. Your professor will pair you with a learner that posted a Discussion Assignment essay in Unit 1 by posting an announcement with a list of names. You will work with your fellow learner throughout this Discussion. You may only work with the learner your professor pairs you with for this Discussion activity using the following criteria:

• Evaluate the business strategy essay your fellow learner posted on the Unit 1 Discussion Board. Create a written response (250 word minimum) debating the facts related to business strategy.
• Identify the pro’s of your fellow learner’s assessment of the strategy concepts.
• Using a minimum of one peer-reviewed research resource, build on the knowledge in your fellow learner’s essay.
• Identify the con’s of your fellow learner’s assessment of the strategy concepts.
• Using a minimum of one peer-reviewed research resource, explain the strategy concepts your fellow learner might have missed covering in their essay.
• Collaborate. Make a minimum of one response to your fellow learner that critiqued your strategy essay.

The company I have chosen to analyse is Thermo fisher Scientific Inc. I chose to analyse this company because I worked for them briefly for about two years, but never really took the time to learn anything about them, I didn’t even know the mission statement while working for them. Thermo Fisher is a global corporation that has 339 locations spread across 44 countries. Thermo Fisher specializes in the production of medical bags and tubing that is sold to medicine manufactures that create and test medications as well as selling to hospitals for immediate product use. Their target market would be business is the medical field.

Vision Statement:

“Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity.” (About Us). I feel that Thermo Fisher had a pretty strong vision statement that captures what they want to gain and accomplish from the business. “Well-conceived visions are distinctive and specific to a particular organization” (Thompson). The talk about how they strive to make products that will help their customer make life changing products. I don’t feel like there is anything bad with the statement, my only critique is maybe they could expand on what they offer a little bit more.

Investor Relations:

Thermo Fisher produced in 2018 a microscope called a “Prisma Sem”. “With a new product launch from Thermo Fisher, Waltham, Mass., scientists working in industrial and academic R&D, quality control, and failure analysis laboratories now have access to a simple but powerful new scanning electron microscope (SEM) that also offers a full range of imaging and analytical options for more complex investigations” (Wagner). I think with this new technology produced by Thermo it is both strategic and financial as they are making profits from the new device and potentially getting more business for the new technology.

Procedures:

Thermo Fisher goes into great detail about their policies and what is expected out of the company and their employees in terms of their behavior and expectations. From my experience working with them, they offer great benefits and they give yearly bonuses to those who meet the performance requirements. Their core values are innovation, integrity, and high quality. I think they meet these values and they are attainable as long as they have the right staff.

Competitors:

Some of Thermo Fisher’s competitors are Merck and Lonza, both of which I remember making products for and buying parts from. This makes sense to me as Thermo Fisher helps themselves out if we are making products for our competitors by using their products and selling the finished products back to them. ” the competitive advantage derives from the ability with which business management combines basic and secondary resources and capabilities in the form of well-synchronized activity systems” (Negulescu). I think Thermo can keep a competitive advantage by continuing to create new technology to help in medical advances.

References:

Thompson, A. Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://corporate.thermofisher.com/en/about-us.html.

Wagner, L. (2018). New Thermo Scientific Prisma Sem Combines Performance and Versatility. Electronic Device Failure Analysis, 20(4), 54–55. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.libauth.purdueglobal.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=132619309&site=eds-live

Negulescu, O. H. (2019). The Importance of Competitive Advantage Assessment in Selecting the Organization’s Strategy. Review of General Management, 29(1), 70–82. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.libauth.purdueglobal.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=137449768&site=eds-live

-Mollie