| Course | BUS 733 Transforming the Business (BUS/733) |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Doctoral resource and capability analysis |
| Length | about 1,174 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | DBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 733 Week 3
Linemen, Rights of Way and Member Trust: Resources and Capabilities for an Energy Transition at a Rural Cooperative
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
BUS/733: Transforming the Business
Week 3 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Great Plains Energy Cooperative and all details are composites written for a model paper; staffing and asset figures are illustrative.
Serving 22 member distribution cooperatives across Kansas and Nebraska, Great Plains Energy Cooperative has committed to replacing its two coal plants with wind, solar, storage and flexible gas by 2035. Earlier analysis set the vision and mapped a complex external environment. This paper turns inward. A transformation on this scale requires the cooperative to know which of its assets will carry it forward, which will lose value and which it lacks entirely. The resources that made a coal-era utility reliable are not the same ones that will make a renewable-era utility reliable, and some old strengths will become obstacles.
The Resource-Based View
Barney (1991) argued that an advantage lasts when it rests on assets that create value, that few others hold, that competitors find costly to copy and for which no equivalent exists. For a cooperative that does not compete for customers in the usual sense, advantage means delivering reliable, affordable power to members better than alternatives such as market purchases or member self-generation. The test still applies: resources that rivals or alternatives cannot easily match let Great Plains serve members at lower cost and risk.
Resources and Capabilities
Resources are the assets the cooperative controls; capabilities are its ability to combine them into reliable service. A transmission line is a resource; operating a grid with fluctuating wind output is a capability. The distinction matters because capabilities are built slowly through practice and cannot be bought off a shelf.
Tangible Resources That Gain Value
Great Plains owns about 6,800 miles of transmission lines and the rights of way beneath them. As new generation sites seek connections, these corridors become more valuable, since new rights of way can take a decade to secure. The two coal plants also hold grid interconnection points rated for large output. Reusing them for solar, storage or gas can avoid years in interconnection queues.
Tangible Resources That Lose Value
Coal handling equipment, rail unloading facilities and long-term coal and rail contracts will decline in value as plants retire. Some contracts carry minimum purchase obligations that could cost money even after the plants close. These must be managed and released carefully.
Intangible Resources
The cooperative's most valuable intangible resources are member trust, a strong safety record and its relationships with state regulators and landowners. Rural landowners host wind turbines and transmission lines more readily for a known cooperative than for a distant developer. These relationships are rare and difficult to copy, meeting the conditions Barney described.
Human Resources
About 1,100 employees include line crews, plant operators, engineers, dispatchers and member services staff. Line crews and dispatchers hold skills that transfer directly. About 400 coal plant workers have mechanical, electrical and control room skills that overlap substantially with wind turbine, battery and gas plant maintenance.
Testing Competitive Value
Not every useful resource creates advantage. Office buildings and vehicles are valuable but easy to replace, so they offer parity at best. Rights of way, plant interconnection points and landowner relationships pass all of the tests: they lower costs and risks for members, few other parties in the region hold them, they would take a decade or more to replicate and no practical substitute exists. Skilled line crews pass most tests, though competitors for labor, such as large developers and other utilities, can hire some of them away. This sorting tells leaders where to invest protection and where ordinary management is enough.
Capability Gaps
Comparing current capabilities with the future strategy reveals five gaps: forecasting wind and solar output hours and days ahead; operating and maintaining battery storage; analyzing large volumes of meter and grid sensor data; negotiating complex power purchase and tax equity contracts; and engaging members on demand response and electrification programs.
Core Rigidities
Some current strengths may slow the transformation. Dispatch procedures built around steady coal output, planning habits tied to single forecasts and a culture that equates reliability with large central plants could all resist change. Recognizing these rigidities early lets leaders address them directly rather than discovering them during a crisis.
Dynamic Capabilities
Helfat and Peteraf (2003) described capabilities as having life cycles: they are founded, developed, mature and can be renewed, redeployed or retired. Great Plains' coal operations capability is entering retirement, while renewable integration is in its founding stage. Leaders must manage both at once, keeping coal plants reliable until retirement while building new capabilities in parallel.
Resource Orchestration
Sirmon et al. (2007) described resource management as structuring the portfolio of resources, bundling them into capabilities and putting capabilities to work for customers. Applied to Great Plains, structuring means acquiring wind and storage assets and releasing coal contracts; bundling means pairing retrained plant staff with new battery sites; and deploying means using those bundles to meet peak demand.
Build, Buy or Partner
Forecasting can be acquired through a specialized vendor in the near term while internal analysts learn. Battery maintenance should be built internally using retrained plant workers, since it is ongoing and safety critical. Contracting expertise can be hired from outside. Member engagement should be built with member cooperatives, which already know local customers.
Redeploying the Workforce
A retraining program will offer every coal plant worker a path into wind, battery, gas or transmission roles, with pay protected during training. Plant sites will host new solar and storage facilities, keeping jobs and tax base in host counties and preserving community relationships.
Managing the Transition Period
For nearly a decade Great Plains will run two businesses at once: an aging coal fleet that must stay reliable and a growing renewable fleet that must be built. The risk is that the coal business absorbs management attention because its problems are urgent, while the new capabilities starve. To prevent this, the cooperative will create a separate transformation office with its own budget and a vice president who reports to the chief executive, while plant managers remain accountable for reliable coal operations until each retirement date.
Releasing Resources
The cooperative will negotiate early exits from coal and rail contracts where possible and plan the sale or repurposing of coal handling equipment. Releasing resources deliberately avoids carrying costs that would raise member rates.
Capability Roadmap
In years one and two, Great Plains will contract forecasting, hire contracting specialists and begin retraining. In years three to five, it will build an internal analytics team and operate its first batteries. By year eight, it will run an integrated renewable fleet with internal forecasting and full member demand programs.
Research Questions
Two questions for further study follow from the case: how regulated, member-owned organizations build new capabilities while maintaining reliability and how workforce redeployment affects the speed of capability building.
Conclusion
Great Plains holds valuable resources for its transformation, including rights of way, interconnection points, skilled workers and member trust, along with assets that will lose value and capability gaps in forecasting, storage, analytics, contracting and member engagement. Resource-based and dynamic capability research guides a plan to build, buy, partner, redeploy and release resources in sequence.
References
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108
Helfat, C. E., & Peteraf, M. A. (2003). The dynamic resource-based view: Capability lifecycles. Strategic Management Journal, 24(10), 997-1010. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.332
Sirmon, D. G., Hitt, M. A., & Ireland, R. D. (2007). Managing firm resources in dynamic environments to create value: Looking inside the black box. Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 273-292. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.23466005
What the BUS 733 Week 3 instructions ask
In the third BUS 733 assignment, doctoral students usually evaluate the resources and capabilities an organization has and needs for its transformation. Common requirements include applying the resource-based view, distinguishing resources from capabilities, assessing which resources provide advantage, identifying gaps, discussing dynamic capabilities and recommending how leaders should acquire, develop, bundle or divest resources. Some prompts ask for a capability roadmap or a make, buy or partner analysis. Use peer-reviewed research and apply each concept to the case rather than defining it in isolation. Support claims with APA citations and be explicit about which resources become less valuable as strategy changes, since transformation often turns strengths into burdens.
How this BUS 733 Week 3 example is built
An electric cooperative leaving coal has valuable assets, including transmission rights of way, skilled line crews, interconnection points at retiring plants and the trust of member cooperatives, along with assets that are losing value, such as coal handling equipment and long-term rail contracts. The paper sorts these, tests which create advantage and finds gaps in renewable forecasting, battery operations, data analytics and complex contracting. Using resource orchestration research, it recommends retraining plant workers for wind and battery maintenance, reusing plant interconnections for new generation, partnering for forecasting and building contracting expertise. A phased capability roadmap links each gap to the transformation timeline.
BUS 733 Week 3 grading rubric: where the points go
Strong resource papers apply theory to the specific organization and show judgment about which assets matter for the new strategy. Faculty credit a clear inventory of tangible and intangible resources, careful tests of competitive value, honest identification of gaps, accurate use of dynamic capabilities and orchestration research and practical recommendations on how to build or acquire what is missing. Papers that notice core rigidities, where past strengths slow change, show doctoral insight. Reviewers look for recommendations sequenced over time, references from strategy journals and a link between the capability plan and the vision set in earlier weeks. Precise, well-cited writing and a logical structure round out a strong submission, and a short table that maps each gap to an action and a date makes the argument easy to follow.
BUS 733 Week 3 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often list resources without evaluating them. Test each against the strategy the organization is moving toward, not the one it is leaving. Another common gap is treating capabilities as things that can simply be bought; many must be built through practice. Students also overlook people. Workforce skills and relationships are often the most important resources in a transition. Avoid generic lists of strengths; be specific to the case. Discuss which resources should be released and how. Use a roadmap to show timing. Connect the analysis to performance and to the vision. Finally, address how leaders will manage the tension between running the current business and building the new one.
Related BUS 733 sample papers
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- BUS 733 Week 7: Research on Transformation
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BUS 733 Week 3 questions, answered
What does BUS 733 Week 3 usually cover?
It usually covers resources and capabilities: the resource-based view, distinguishing resources from capabilities, testing competitive value, finding gaps, dynamic capabilities and plans to build, buy, bundle or release resources.
Where can I find a free BUS 733 Week 3 sample paper?
A full resource and capability analysis for a rural electric cooperative appears above, including a capability roadmap. Our team can also draft a custom version built on the organization you chose.
What is the resource-based view?
A strategy perspective holding that lasting advantage comes from resources that are valuable, rare and difficult for rivals to copy or substitute, and that are organized for use.
What is the difference between resources and capabilities?
Resources are assets an organization controls, such as equipment, land, brands or knowledge. Capabilities are the ability to combine and deploy resources to perform activities, built through practice over time.
What are core rigidities?
Capabilities that once supported success but hinder change because people, systems and values are tied to the old way of working.
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