Some business owners are so busy with day-to-day tasks, they don't have time to think about long-term strategy or company vision!

Does that situation describe any members of the Society of Technical Communication???

The University of Tampa has a program that helps companies improve their strategy. The Strategic Analysis program was founded through a donation from Mr. Vince Naimoli, Managing Director of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The program resides in the Sykes College of Business and is designed to be a "partnership in learning" between UT students and local businesses. As part of a required course, teams of business majors are assigned to a local business. During the course of the semester, each student team writes a comprehensive strategic plan for the client company. The strategic plans average about 60 pages in length, and are based on interviews, secondary data, analyses, research, and consultation with professors. In general terms, the plans contain three sections: an external analysis (competitors, industry, & economy), an internal analysis (company resources, competencies, & skills), and recommendations (suggestions for improved performance).

Between 80 and 100 companies participate in the program annually. The range of companies has been very broad. There have been some multi-million dollar publicly traded companies, many small businesses, and whole divisions of some Fortune 500 companies. The program also includes a handful of non-profit organizations every semester.

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