GB580 Unit 8 Implementation Plan Example

Course	GB580 Strategic Management
Unit	Unit 8
Paper type	Implementation plan
Length	About 950 words, 6 pages double-spaced
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Purdue University Global
Program	MBA
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for GB580 Unit 8

What Stops Paying for What Starts: A Unit 8 Implementation Plan for Tollefson's Lightweight Strategy

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

GB580: Strategic Management

Unit 8 Implementation Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Tollefson Body Works, its staff and every figure are composite and illustrative; the frameworks and sources cited are real.

What this part is doingOpening with what stops tells the reader the plan treats resources as limited from the first line.

Purpose

Units 5 to 7 chose a focused differentiation strategy built on the lightest insulated body in its class, backward integration into panel lamination and a licensing alliance with a Dutch builder. This plan sets out how Tollefson will fund, staff, organize and schedule that strategy over twenty-four months. Hrebiniak (2006) found that strategies fail in execution more often than in formulation, frequently because the resources, structure and incentives needed to carry them out are never changed. The plan is organized around those three things.

Exhibit 1: Sources and Uses

The strategy needs about $6.7 million over two years.

Uses. The panel lamination line, including the leased building's fit-out, accounts for $4.6 million. Licensing adaptation and the engineering exchange with the Dutch partner account for about $450,000, covering travel, the Dutch engineer's stay in De Pere and the redesign of panel joints for North American chassis. Hiring a materials engineer, a design engineer and a panel operations manager accounts for about $900,000 in salary and recruiting over two years. Training panel line staff accounts for about $250,000. Twenty pilot bodies, built on purchased composite panels and sold at a loss to two trial customers, account for about $350,000. Certification and testing for Canadian sales, the second step from Unit 7, account for about $150,000.

Sources. Three decisions release about $2.4 million. Ending dealer stock bodies frees about $1.5 million of working capital tied up in standard bodies built in advance for dealers. Deferring the second paint booth saves about $600,000 of planned spending. Dropping the dry freight catalog refresh saves about $300,000 in design and tooling. An equipment loan secured by the lamination line provides about $3.2 million, and operating cash provides the remaining $1.1 million. The total stays within the $9 million capital budget discussed in Unit 6, and the released funds reduce how much of it must come from cash. Porter (1996) describes trade-offs as the core of strategy because they make a position hard to imitate; in this plan they also pay a large part of the bill.

The plan pays for the panel line mostly by no longer building bodies for dealers to sell on speculation.

What this part is doingLinking each source to a decision made in Unit 5 shows that the strategy's trade-offs fund its own implementation.

Exhibit 2: Organization Changes

Only two parts of the organization change. A panel operations manager is added, reporting to the chief operating officer, with responsibility for the lamination line, its staff and its quality system. A lightweight engineering cell of four people is formed within engineering: the new materials engineer, the new design engineer and two existing engineers moved from custom body work. The cell reports to the engineering manager and owns the weight target. Everything else on the chart stays the same, because redrawing the whole company would distract from the two changes that matter.

Exhibit 3: Milestones in Three Phases

Phase 1, license and pilot, months 1 to 8. The license is signed in month 1. Two engineers work at the Dutch plant from month 2 to month 7. Twenty pilot bodies are built on purchased composite panels in months 6 to 8 and placed with two grocery fleets for a summer of trials. The phase ends with a gate: the pilot body must weigh no more than 3,000 pounds and pass Tollefson's standard thermal test. If it does not, the panel line order is delayed until the design is fixed.

Phase 2, line installation, months 9 to 16. The building lease begins in month 9. Equipment is delivered and installed in months 10 to 14. The first production panels come off the line in month 15, and the line is qualified against the pilot panels in month 16.

Phase 3, conversion of the standard range, months 17 to 24. The 16-foot body converts first, then the 14-foot and 20 to 26-foot bodies. By month 24, about 70 percent of refrigerated output uses in-house lightweight panels. Canadian certification is completed in this phase, and the first dealer agreement in Ontario is signed.

Exhibit 4: Policies That Change Behavior

Three policy changes support the strategy. Every refrigerated quote will show the body's weight and its difference from Tollefson's former standard body, so salespeople sell the attribute. Sales commissions will include a bonus for lightweight bodies as a share of each salesperson's orders. And any engineering change that adds more than 25 pounds to a standard body will require the lightweight cell's approval.

What this part is doingWriting policy changes as specific rules shows how the strategy reaches daily decisions.

People Moved, Not Replaced

Moving two engineers into the lightweight cell will slow custom quoting. Tollefson now quotes custom bodies in about three days; the plan accepts that this will lengthen to about four. Kotter (1995) argues that change efforts stall when the people affected do not see why the change is needed, so the plan includes three steps for the groups most affected. Sales staff will meet the trial fleets and hear their payload results directly. Custom engineering staff will be told why the move is happening and that custom work will continue at a slightly slower pace. Panel line hires will be recruited partly from the plant's foam department, so existing staff see a path into the new work.

Risks to the Plan

The two main risks are a pilot that misses the weight target and a line installation that runs late. The phase gate addresses the first by keeping capital uncommitted until the design is proven. A penalty clause in the equipment contract and a month of float before line qualification address the second.

References

Hrebiniak, L. G. (2006). Obstacles to effective strategy implementation. Organizational Dynamics, 35(1), 12-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2005.12.001

Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59-67.

Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, 74(6), 61-78.

GB580 Unit 8 instructions, in plain terms

The eighth GB580 assignment asks you to show how your chosen strategy will be carried out. Begin with resources: what the strategy needs, where the money comes from and what the firm will stop funding to pay for it. Show any changes to the organization chart, limited to the roles the strategy actually affects. Lay out a schedule of milestones with dates, owners and decision points, ideally in phases with a gate before major capital is committed. Identify policies, incentives or rules that must change for people's daily decisions to support the strategy. Address the people affected: who loses something, who moves and how the plan handles resistance. Note the main risks to implementation. About eight pages with exhibits and APA 7 references fits most sections.

Inside the GB580 Unit 8 example

A purpose section uses Hrebiniak's finding that execution fails more often than formulation. Exhibit 1 lists $6.7 million of uses, from the $4.6 million panel line to twenty pilot bodies at $350,000, against sources that include $1.5 million of released working capital and a $3.2 million equipment loan; the highlighted line says dealer stock bodies pay for the line. Porter on trade-offs links the sources to Unit 5. Exhibit 2 adds a panel operations manager and a four-person engineering cell. Exhibit 3 gives three phases with a weight and thermal gate. Exhibit 4 sets quoting, commission and 25-pound rules. A people section applies Kotter, accepting four-day quotes, and a risks section closes the plan.

Reading the GB580 Unit 8 grading rubric

GB580 rubrics for implementation plans reward feasibility. A sources-and-uses table that balances, with funding tied to specific decisions, earns heavy weight because it shows the plan is affordable. Organization changes limited to the roles the strategy affects, each with a reason, show focus. A dated milestone schedule with owners and gates demonstrates the plan can be managed and tested before capital is committed. Policy and incentive changes written as specific rules show the strategy reaches daily decisions, which many plans miss. Attention to the people affected, using a change model applied to named groups, earns credit over a generic summary of the model. Named risks with responses, clear exhibits and APA 7 citations complete the grade.

GB580 Unit 8 help: mistakes that cost points

Many GB580 implementation plans list activities without saying what they cost or where the money comes from. Others add spending without stopping anything, so the plan quietly assumes unlimited resources. Organization charts are often redrawn entirely when only two boxes change. Milestone charts frequently lack owners or decision points, so nothing can be stopped if a pilot fails. Policy changes are a common gap: a strategy that competes on a new attribute needs quoting, pay or approval rules that reward it. Change management often appears as a summary of Kotter's steps with no link to real groups. Fund the plan from named decisions, change only the boxes that matter, gate the capital, write the rules and say who loses what. Request a free custom implementation plan for your company through the form.

Get a GB580 Unit 8 example written to your instructions

Paste in the strategy your project chose, the Unit 8 instructions and the rubric; earlier installments help if you have them. Built for that company, the custom plan shows what gets funded, who owns each milestone and in what order the work happens. Delivery is 24-48h, and the first sample is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

More GB580 papers and MBA samples

GB580 Unit 8 questions, answered

How detailed should the implementation budget be?

Detailed enough to show the plan is affordable. Major categories with rough amounts, sources of funding and the timing of spending usually satisfy GB580 rubrics. Exact figures are rarely available for a real company from outside, so reasoned estimates labeled as such are acceptable. What weakens a plan is spending with no source, not approximation.

Does the plan need a new organization chart?

Only if the strategy changes who does what, which most strategies do. A chart showing the added or moved roles, with a sentence on why each change follows from the strategy, is usually enough. Redrawing the whole company is unnecessary; showing only the parts that change keeps the reader focused on the decisions your plan is actually making.

Where does change management belong in the plan?

Inside the plan, attached to specific changes. Instead of a separate section summarizing Lewin or Kotter, strong papers identify which groups the strategy affects, what each stands to lose and what the plan does about it. A model can frame that discussion, but graders tend to reward the application more than the model itself.

Where can I find a free GB580 Unit 8 sample paper?

The complete GB580 Unit 8 implementation plan on this page funds a composite truck body builder's lightweight strategy with a sources-and-uses table, two organization changes, a phased milestone chart and three policy rules.

Why does the plan include a phase gate before the panel line order?

So the firm learns whether the pilot body meets its weight and thermal targets before committing $4.6 million. If the pilot fails, the order waits and the money stays uncommitted.