| Course | GB600 Leadership Strategies for a Changing World |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Environmental scan memo |
| Length | About 750 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB600 Unit 2
Six Forces and the Decisions They Change: A Unit 2 Environmental Scan Memo for a Court Reporting Firm
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB600: Leadership Strategies for a Changing World
Unit 2 Environmental Scan Memo
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The firm, its people and every figure are composite and illustrative; the frameworks and sources cited are real.
Memo
TO: Founder and managing partner FROM: Director of operations SUBJECT: External forces and the decisions they change over the next eighteen months
Bottom Line
Two decisions cannot wait for uncertain forces to resolve: the training budget for new stenographers and the renewal of our downtown office lease. Two decisions should wait: whether to hire digital reporters and whether to sell machine-drafted transcripts. The first pair depends on forces already under way; the second depends on forces that could go either way within a year.
How the Forces Were Sorted
Wack (1985) distinguished predetermined elements, forces already in motion whose consequences can be anticipated, from genuinely uncertain ones. Schoemaker (1995) built scenario planning on the same distinction. Each force below is labeled one or the other, linked to one decision and given the month that decision falls due. Snowden and Boone (2007) add that leaders should act differently when cause and effect can be known in advance and when they cannot, which is why the memo separates decisions to make now from decisions to defer.
The Forces
Stenographer retirements. Of our ninety stenographers, about a third are over 60, and our own records suggest roughly twelve will retire within two years. Training a new stenographer takes two to four years, and national enrollment in court reporting programs has been falling for years. Predetermined. Decision: the training and apprenticeship budget, due in the January budget cycle.
Video depositions. Since 2020, many depositions have moved to video platforms, and clients now expect remote attendance as standard. Our downtown office's four deposition suites were booked about 30 percent of available days last year. Predetermined. Decision: whether to renew the downtown lease at its current size, due in March.
A digital certification proposal. One state's licensing board has an open proposal to allow digital reporters, who record proceedings with audio equipment and produce transcripts, to certify deposition transcripts, which now requires a licensed stenographer. The board is expected to vote within about nine months, and the outcome is genuinely uncertain. Uncertain. Decision: whether to hire digital reporters in that state, due after the vote.
Speech recognition drafts. Speech recognition can now produce rough transcript drafts that a trained editor can correct faster than typing from audio. Accuracy for legal proceedings with crosstalk and technical terms is improving but uneven. Uncertain. Decision: whether to offer machine-drafted transcripts reviewed by a stenographer, deferred until a pilot shows accuracy and client acceptance.
Client consolidation of vendors. Large law firms and insurers are reducing the number of court reporting vendors they use, often choosing national firms that can cover any state. Predetermined. Decision: whether to join a national network of independent firms that refer work to each other, due by June.
Security questionnaires. Clients increasingly send detailed data security questionnaires before engaging a vendor, asking how transcripts and exhibits are stored and who can access them. Predetermined. Decision: the information technology budget for encrypted storage and access controls, due in January.
A force listed without the decision it changes is a news summary, not a scan.
Two Trends Left Out
Two trends were considered and left out. Artificial intelligence in legal research affects our clients but not any decision of ours in the next eighteen months. Changes in court budgets affect courtroom reporting, but we do little courtroom work in two of our three states, and the third state's courts already contract through a separate agency. Leaving them out keeps the memo on decisions we must make. Both will return to the scan as soon as either touches a decision with a date, and I will review the list each quarter so nothing drifts in unnoticed.
What I Recommend Now
Approve the apprenticeship budget for six trainees in January, since retirements will arrive regardless of how the uncertain forces resolve. Renegotiate the downtown lease for two deposition suites instead of four. Begin the security investment. Defer the digital reporter and machine-drafting decisions until the board votes and a small pilot runs in the state that already permits digital certification, and assign me to prepare both options so we can move quickly once the uncertainty clears.
References
Schoemaker, P. J. H. (1995). Scenario planning: A tool for strategic thinking. Sloan Management Review, 36(2), 25-40.
Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E. (2007). A leader's framework for decision making. Harvard Business Review, 85(11), 68-76.
Wack, P. (1985). Scenarios: Uncharted waters ahead. Harvard Business Review, 63(5), 72-89.
The Purdue Global GB600 Unit 2 instructions
The second GB600 assignment asks for a memo scanning the external environment of one organization. Address it to a real decision-maker and open with a bottom line that says which decisions can be made now and which should wait. Include five to seven forces, each with its evidence, whether it is predetermined or genuinely uncertain, the decision it changes and when that decision is due. Avoid listing forces that change no decision in your time frame, and say which ones you left out and why. Close with recommendations that follow from the sorting. If your prompt names a framework such as PESTEL, use its categories to organize the forces, but keep the decision link central. GB600 Unit 2 memos are usually about three pages, cited in APA 7.
How this GB600 Unit 2 example is built
Written by the firm's operations director for its founder, the memo starts with a four-sentence bottom line. A method section explains predetermined and uncertain forces using Wack and Schoemaker, and Snowden and Boone's distinction between knowable and unknowable causes. Six forces follow, each ending with its label and its decision: retirements and an apprenticeship budget, video depositions and a smaller lease, a board proposal and a deferred hiring choice, speech recognition and a pilot, vendor consolidation and a referral network, and security questionnaires and an IT budget. The highlighted line separates a scan from a news summary. A section explains two omitted trends, and four recommendations close the memo.
Reading the GB600 Unit 2 grading rubric
In this GB600 memo, instructors give most points for the link between each force and a decision. A bottom line that sorts decisions into now and later shows the writer understands why the scan exists. Evidence for each force, and an honest label of predetermined or uncertain, demonstrate analytical judgment. Naming the decision and its due date for every force turns description into management. Selectivity earns credit: five to seven forces with clear links outscore a long list, and explaining omissions shows the selection was deliberate. Recommendations that follow from the sorting, memo format addressed to a real reader and APA 7 citations complete the rubric.
GB600 Unit 2 help from the desk
A frequent problem in GB600 scans is a long list of trends organized by category, none linked to a decision, which reads as research notes rather than a memo. Another is treating every force as uncertain, so nothing can be decided, or every force as predetermined, so the memo pretends to more certainty than it has. Writers often skip the bottom line or bury it on page two. Some include forces that affect the industry but no decision the organization faces soon. Recommendations sometimes ignore the scan entirely. Start with the bottom line, limit yourself to forces that change a dated decision, label each as predetermined or uncertain, explain what you left out and recommend from the sorting. Request a free custom scan memo for your organization on this page.
Get a GB600 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
An environmental scan earns its keep through the decisions it connects to, so the most useful inputs are the organization, the choices on its desk this year, and the memo instructions with the rubric. The finished memo, free as a first sample, lands within 24-48h with every force tied to one of those choices. 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 GB600 papers and MBA samples
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- GB600 Unit 5: Decision Briefing
- GB600 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- GB600 Unit 7: Stakeholder Response Plan
- GB600 Unit 8: Ethical Dilemma Analysis
- GB600 Unit 9: Adaptive Challenge Plan
- GB600 Unit 10: Leadership Philosophy Statement
- GB590 Unit 2: Ethical Framework Application
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- GB560 Unit 2: Process Requirements Memo
GB600 Unit 2 questions, answered
How many forces should an environmental scan include?
Fewer than most drafts contain. Five to seven forces, each linked to a decision, usually outscore a dozen listed by category. If the prompt asks for a PESTEL or similar structure, the categories can organize the table, but a thin category is better left short than padded with trends that change nothing for your organization. Selection is part of what gets graded.
Can I scan an organization I do not work for?
Yes, provided enough public information exists to tie forces to its decisions: annual reports, local news, trade association data, job postings. Your own employer is often easier because you know which decisions are pending. Either way the memo needs a few choices on the organization's desk, since a scan without pending decisions has nothing to connect its forces to.
What separates a predetermined force from an uncertain one?
A predetermined force is already under way and will play out almost regardless of events, such as the ages of a current workforce. An uncertain one could go either way, like a regulator's pending vote. Separating them tells the reader which decisions can be made now and which should wait for a named signal, and that distinction is much of what the memo is for.
Where can I find a free GB600 Unit 2 sample paper?
A full GB600 Unit 2 environmental scan memo is on this page, linking six forces facing a composite court reporting firm to dated decisions, with each force labeled predetermined or uncertain.
Why does the memo defer two decisions instead of making them?
Because both depend on forces that could go either way within a year, a licensing board's vote and the accuracy of speech recognition. Deciding before they resolve would commit the firm to a guess.