A fundamental trade-off in the design of any business system is between efficiency and flexibility: one can't have ultimate efficiency and infinite flexibility at the same time. The simplification and standardization required to improve the efficiency of an operation inevitably restrict the things the system can do. In addition, the short-term changes and decisions needed to make an operation more flexible inevitably disrupt the smooth and predictable process flow needed for optimal efficiency. In the readings, you have seen that different system design philosophies and tools tend to generate different balances between efficiency and flexibility, which, in theory, allows you to design a system with the optimal balance between the two. As you have learned, the optimal balance between efficiency and flexibility depends on the competitive environment an organization expects to face in the future. You have also learned in this course that the future is notoriously hard to predict, inevitably leading to many organizations having to run systems in competitive environments that they were not designed for. For this assignment, you will write a paper exploring the relationship between the system design tools discussed in this module and the business environments to which these tools are uniquely suited. Respond to the following: From business and academic literature, identify two current organizations operating in your area of interest—one organization facing a low-risk competitive environment and one facing a high-risk competitive environment. For each of these organizations, explain why you have evaluated its competitive environment as either low risk or high risk, using strategic planning and analysis concepts (such as Porter's Five Forces Model) that you have learned in other courses in your doctoral curriculum. For each of these organizations, recommend a pairing of a system design tool and a system operation tool that you believe will work especially well in the competitive environment faced by the organization. Be sure to explain why the tools you have chosen are uniquely suited to the competitive environment faced by that organization.

A fundamental trade-off in the design of any business system is between efficiency and flexibility: one can't have ultimate efficiency and infinite flexibility at the same time. The simplification and standardization required to improve the efficiency of an operation inevitably restrict the things the system can do. In addition, the short-term changes and decisions needed to make an operation more flexible inevitably disrupt the smooth and predictable process flow needed for optimal efficiency.

In the readings, you have seen that different system design philosophies and tools tend to generate different balances between efficiency and flexibility, which, in theory, allows you to design a system with the optimal balance between the two. As you have learned, the optimal balance between efficiency and flexibility depends on the competitive environment an organization expects to face in the future. You have also learned in this course that the future is notoriously hard to predict, inevitably leading to many organizations having to run systems in competitive environments that they were not designed for.

For this assignment, you will write a paper exploring the relationship between the system design tools discussed in this module and the business environments to which these tools are uniquely suited.

Respond to the following:

• From business and academic literature, identify two current organizations operating in your area of interest—one organization facing a low-risk competitive environment and one facing a high-risk competitive environment.
• For each of these organizations, explain why you have evaluated its competitive environment as either low risk or high risk, using strategic planning and analysis concepts (such as Porter's Five Forces Model) that you have learned in other courses in your doctoral curriculum.
• For each of these organizations, recommend a pairing of a system design tool and a system operation tool that you believe will work especially well in the competitive environment faced by the organization. Be sure to explain why the tools you have chosen are uniquely suited to the competitive environment faced by that organization.