Strategic Analysis (A)
Coursework assignment
(a) For an industry of your choice, select and apply appropriate tools and techniques of strategic analysis to examine current trends and issues in the business environment.
(b) Based on your analysis, construct optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for the industry in ten years from now. State, with supporting reasons, which scenarios you consider most likely to occur in practice.
(20%)
Notes:
(1) Your work will be marked (both parts (A) and (B)) according to the following criteria:
· Quality of analysis ‑ 50% of marks
· Extent of research ‑ 20% of marks
· Ability to evaluate findings ‑ 20% of marks
· Presentation ‑ 10% of marks
(2) Your analysis should apply relevant methods to examine the remote and close environments. As a guide it would normally be expected that at least “Pestle Analysis” 5 forces would be useful.
Dependent on the industry, insights are also likely to be gained from the consideration of:-
· Impact Analysis (derived from PESTLE)
· Strategic Group Analysis (to determine e.g. Mobility Barriers, Strategic Space)
· Porter’s “Diamond” (determinants of national competitive advantage)
· Competitors Analysis (to look for competitors vulnerabilities and therefore potential opportunities and threats for industry participants). You should use relevant concepts accurately and thoroughly.
(3) Research has two aspects:
· Extent of knowledge and awareness of chosen industry issues and trends.
· Ability to engage with relevant literature relating to strategic analysis.
(4) “Evaluation” relates to the extent to which you are able to gain insights from the use of the appropriate tools and techniques and to build up an understanding of the industry dynamics.
(5) “Presentation” refers to your ability to express ideas with clarity and lucidity. Your work should be presented in a report format, to be read by any potential entrant or investor into the industry. Marks will be awarded from a combination of
· Organisation and layout
· Logical progression of the argument
· Appropriate use of tables, graphs etc.
Your work is also a piece of academic writing submitted towards a degree. You should be careful therefore to fully and accurately acknowledge and reference sources and to provide a bibliography with your report.
(6) Your report should be not more than 2500 word in length (not including appendices, which must be properly cross-references to the report if included)
(7) Although it is expected that most reports relate to commercial entities, the term industry can be interpreted widely to include e.g.
· Heavy or light manufacturing
· Retail sector
· Service industry (e.g. insurance, financial service)
· The “not for profit” sector (e.g. charities, voluntary organisation)
You should try to choose a sector which is of personal interest to you, and conduct an analysis from which you will gain increased personal knowledge and understanding.
Strategic Analysis: End of the Module Assignment
a) Use appropriate tools of analysis to determine the strategic capability of an organisation of your choice.
(80%)
b) Based on your analysis, identify and prioritise key internal strengths and weaknesses of the organisation
(20%)
Notes:
1) Both Parts of your work will be marked according to the following criteria:
· Quality of analysis – 50% of marks
· Extent of research – 20% of marks
· Evaluation of findings – 20% of Marks
· Presentation – 10% of marks
2) Your analysis should apply proven techniques such as:
· Resource Audit (the value, extent and use of assets)
· Value chain Analysis (how value adding activities are linked together to create sustainable competitive advantage)
· Core Competencies (extent to which they are identified, protected, renewed and exploited)
You may also wish to consider whether:
· Organisational purpose meets the expectations of stakeholder groups.
· The current organisational culture is appropriate to current strategy.
· Financial Analysis is possible and relevant.
3) The organisation you choose should be from the same industry which you selected for the course work assignment.
4) Research relates both to your understanding the organisation’s strategy and operations: and also to your ability to engage with relevant literature.
5) Evaluation relates to the extent you are able to gain insights from the use of appropriate concepts to build up an overall understanding of the organisation’s key strengths and weaknesses
6) “Presentation” refers to your ability to express ideas with clarity and lucidity. Your work should be presented in a report format, to be read by senior management of your selected organisation. Marks will be awarded for a combination of
· Organisation and layout
· Logical progression of argument
· -Appropriate use of tables, graphs etc.
You work is also a piece of academic writing submitted towards a degree. You should be careful therefore to fully an accurately acknowledge and reference sources and to provide a bibliography with your report.
6) Your Report should be not more than 2500 word in length (not including appendices, which must be properly cross-referenced to the report if included)
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