| Course | C209 Strategic Management |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 2 |
| Paper type | Strategic plan with balanced scorecard |
| Length | About 1,000 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | MS Management and Leadership |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for C209 Task 2
Compete on Expertise, Not on Price: A Three-Year Strategic Plan With Five Forces, SWOT and a Balanced Scorecard for a Composite Outdoor Gear Retailer
Student Name
School of Business, Western Governors University
C209: Strategic Management, Task 2
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Compete on Expertise, Not on Price: A Three-Year Strategic Plan With Five Forces, SWOT and a Balanced Scorecard for a Composite Outdoor Gear Retailer
Purpose of the Plan
This plan gives the staff of Summit & Trail, a composite outdoor retailer with 34 stores and an online store, a roadmap for the next three years. It builds on the company's revised mission, which ties the company to beginners and experts alike and to three promises: sound advice, gear its staff have used and skills taught at no charge. The plan analyzes the company's environment and position, chooses a strategy, sets objectives and actions, and measures progress with a balanced scorecard.
External Analysis: Five Forces
According to Porter (2008), an industry's profitability is set by five forces: how easily newcomers can enter, how much bargaining strength suppliers and customers hold, how readily substitutes can replace the product and how fiercely existing firms compete. Applied to specialty outdoor retail, the forces explain why the company's recent drift toward casual apparel is dangerous.
Rivalry is intense in apparel, where Summit & Trail competes with national sporting goods chains, department stores and brands' own websites, all with larger purchasing scale. Buyer power is high because casual apparel is easy to compare online by price. The threat of substitutes is high, since fleece and jackets are available almost anywhere. Supplier power is moderate: major outdoor brands sell directly to consumers, and several have reduced wholesale accounts. New entrants face low barriers online but high barriers in expert service, which requires trained staff and local knowledge. The analysis points to one conclusion: competing on price in casual apparel is structurally unattractive, while the forces are weakest where expertise, services and community create switching costs that are hard to copy.
Internal Analysis: SWOT
Strengths: a 45-year reputation for expertise; stores in outdoor communities close to trailheads and ski areas; a loyalty program with 780,000 members; and ownership of most store real estate, which lowers occupancy costs.
Weaknesses: specialist staff turnover of 41% a year; clinics cut by two-thirds since 2019; an online store with weak product advice; and inventory heavy in casual apparel with rising markdowns.
Opportunities: rising participation in outdoor recreation among beginners, who need advice and rentals; demand for gear repair and resale as customers seek value and sustainability; and partnerships with public land agencies and outdoor clubs.
Threats: brands selling directly to consumers; price competition from national chains and online marketplaces; and warmer winters that shorten ski seasons in lower-elevation markets.
Strategic Choice
Summit & Trail will pursue differentiation based on expertise and services. It will compete where customers value advice, skills and trust, and where large competitors cannot easily follow, rather than competing on price in casual apparel. Strategy requires choosing what not to do: the company will reduce casual apparel floor space by 30% over three years, keeping only lines connected to outdoor use, and reinvest in staff, clinics, rentals, repair and resale. The strategy links directly to the SWOT: it uses the reputation and store locations as strengths, fixes staff turnover and weak clinics as weaknesses, captures beginners and repair demand as opportunities, and reduces exposure to price competition as a threat.
Strategic Objectives and Actions
Objective 1, grow revenue from services and technical categories. Actions: open rental programs for ski, climbing and paddling gear in 20 stores; launch repair and resale in all stores by year two; and shift freed apparel space to technical categories.
Objective 2, deliver the best advice in the market, in stores and online. Actions: restore free clinics to 2019 levels in year one and double them by year three; add expert video advice and live chat with staff to the online store.
Objective 3, keep and develop expert staff. Actions: raise specialist pay by 12%, create a certified expert career ladder, and fund staff gear and guiding courses.
Objective 4, strengthen customer relationships. Actions: link clinic participation, rentals and repairs to the loyalty program and follow up with members after clinics.
Balanced Scorecard
The balanced scorecard translates strategy into measures across four perspectives, financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth, so that managers track the drivers of future performance and not only past financial results (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). Over two decades, research on the scorecard has followed its evolution from a measurement tool into a broader system for managing strategy (Hoque, 2014). Summit & Trail's scorecard is below.
| Perspective | Objective | Measure | Target (year 3) | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial | Grow services and technical revenue | Share of revenue from services and technical gear | From 38% to 52% | Chief merchandising officer |
| Financial | Reduce markdowns | Markdown rate on apparel | From 24% to 15% | Chief merchandising officer |
| Customer | Be the trusted source of advice | Net promoter score | From 41 to 60 | Chief customer officer |
| Customer | Bring in beginners | Clinic participants per year | 100,000 | Director of community programs |
| Internal process | Deliver services well | Rental and repair turnaround time | Repairs under 5 days | Vice president of store operations |
| Internal process | Advise online | Online conversion after expert chat | Double baseline | Director of e-commerce |
| Learning and growth | Keep expert staff | Specialist turnover | From 41% to 20% | Chief people officer |
| Learning and growth | Build expertise | Certified experts per store | At least 6 | Chief people officer |
The measures are linked by cause and effect: better pay and training should lower turnover and raise expertise, which improves advice and service, which raises customer loyalty and participation, which drives growth in higher-margin services and technical categories.
Communication and Review
The plan will be introduced at a leadership meeting and in every store, with the scorecard displayed on a single page. Store managers will receive store-level versions of the scorecard, and the executive team will review results every quarter, and the board will review them each year, when targets and actions will be adjusted. Each objective has one executive owner accountable for results.
Conclusion
The five forces show that competing on price in casual apparel is a losing position, and the SWOT shows that Summit & Trail's reputation, locations and customer base give it a basis for differentiation through expertise. The plan commits the company to that choice, with objectives, actions and a balanced scorecard that give every leader a measure, a target and a clear role in carrying it out.
References
Hoque, Z. (2014). 20 years of studies on the balanced scorecard: Trends, accomplishments, gaps and opportunities for future research. The British Accounting Review, 46(1), 33-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2013.10.003
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1992). The balanced scorecard: Measures that drive performance. Harvard Business Review, 70(1), 71-79.
Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78-93.
What the C209 Task 2 instructions ask
The second C209 task asks you to develop a strategic plan. You will usually analyze the external environment with a framework such as five forces, analyze the organization with SWOT, choose a strategy, set objectives and actions, build a balanced scorecard and describe communication and review. The organization should match Task 1. Evaluators look for frameworks applied with evidence, a strategy that follows from the analysis, objectives with specific actions, a scorecard whose measures connect across perspectives and a plan for keeping the strategy alive. A plan that lists goals without showing how they follow from analysis rarely clears the strategy aspects. Keep the organization consistent with Task 1.
How this C209 Task 2 example is built
The plan opens with its purpose and audience: store staff who need a roadmap. The five forces section rates each force and explains the evidence. The SWOT section lists items specific to the retailer. The strategic choice section names differentiation and explains why it fits the analysis better than cost leadership. Objectives follow, each with actions, owners and timing. The balanced scorecard is presented as a table with measures and targets in four perspectives, followed by an explanation of how the measures connect, from training to expertise to customer loyalty to revenue. The communication section describes how the plan reaches every store and how progress is reviewed. Targets are set for each measure.
Where the C209 Task 2 rubric puts the marks
C209 Task 2 aspects are rated competent, approaching competence or not evident. An external analysis aspect asks for a framework applied to the industry. An internal analysis aspect rewards a specific SWOT. A strategy aspect looks for a choice supported by the analysis. An objectives aspect wants actions with owners and timing. A scorecard aspect asks for measures and targets across four perspectives. A communication aspect looks for how the plan will be shared and reviewed. Evaluators notice cause-and-effect links in the scorecard and consistency with Task 1. Strategy frameworks should be cited. Clear tables for the five forces, SWOT and scorecard make the plan easy to score.
C209 Task 2 help: what sends it back
C209 plans lose marks when frameworks are filled in without evidence. Support each force and SWOT item with facts. Sometimes the chosen strategy seems to come from nowhere, so show which numbers point to it. Objectives can lack actions; list what will be done, by whom and when. Scorecards are sometimes lists of measures, when evaluators want links showing how one perspective drives the next. Communication plans are often an afterthought, so describe how staff will learn and use the plan. Last, keep the plan consistent with the revised mission from Task 1, since the two tasks should read as one strategy. Show the cause-and-effect chain in a simple diagram or sentence, so staff can see why each measure matters.
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C209 Task 2 questions, answered
What goes in a C209 balanced scorecard?
Measures and targets in four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth. The sample links them by cause and effect, from training to customer loyalty to revenue.
Is the C209 plan real?
No. Summit & Trail's plan is a teaching composite, not a real case. The strategic frameworks applied, five forces, SWOT and the balanced scorecard, are real and cited. Use your own organization.
How long is the C209 plan horizon?
Check your instructions. The sample covers three years, long enough for strategic change and short enough to plan actions with owners and dates. Match your instructions. Actions need owners and dates.
Why differentiation in the C209 sample?
Because the analysis shows large competitors win on price while the retailer's strengths are expertise, location and loyalty. Competing on those strengths avoids a price war it cannot win.
Where can I find a free C209 Task 2 sample paper?
The three-year plan and balanced scorecard appear above with notes on each framework. Share the organization from your Task 1, and your first custom C209 plan costs nothing.