Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 6

MPM703 Business Strategy and Analysis

Trimester 2, 2014
Assignment: Business Strategy Report

In this assignment you are acting either as a group of strategy consultants (group assignment), or as
one strategy consultant (individual assignment). You have been asked to prepare a strategy report
for a business.

The first step is to select a business as the subject of your assignment. The business can be a
publicly listed company in Australia or overseas which is of interest to you or other members of
your group, or it may be a large private or family business located either in Australia or overseas.
Do not use or refer to assignments completed by students for this unit in previous trimesters. (A
record of past assignments is kept in a database). Note also that the requirements of the assignment
change from trimester to trimester.

The focus of this assignment is on the business level of analysis. Therefore if you select a
diversified company then make sure you focus only on one of the companys business units. The
report must be specific and applied to the business. In other words you must apply the relevant
concepts and tools of business strategy to the particular conditions and circumstances of the
business you are studying. General statements and references to theories and models that are not
applied to the business will not add value to your assignment. Similarly, data about the business that
is not analysed and presented from a strategic perspective using the relevant concepts and tools of
strategy is of little value. To help you in this exercise, consider the position of the CEO of the
business who will be reading your report and looking for a strategic analysis and recommendation
that is practical and specific to her or his business. The CEO does not want to read a broad analysis
that could apply to any number of organisations and does not speak to their business.
Group or individual submission
This assignment may be completed either as a group submission (up to 5 people) or as an individual
assignment (one person only). Either way, you must sign up in one of the group assignment spaces
online.

Marking will be done without regard to whether the assignment was a group or individual
submission. In other words an individual assignment should be of a similar standard and quality to
that of a group assignment. For group assignments all members in the group will share the mark
equally. Therefore:
1. Allocate the various tasks among your group members and agree on interim due dates for
the stages of work. Make sure your interim due dates allow for drafts to be circulated and
edited so that the final submission is of the highest standard.
2. Each group member must make a relatively fair and reasonable contribution to the report, in
whatever form or shape that might take, in order to share equally in the mark. In the rare
event that there are any issues you should contact me two weeks prior to the report due date
so that a resolution can be reached.

Report format and requirements


The presentation of your report is a critical aspect of this assignment. It is essential that your report
is formatted appropriately, and carefully edited and re-edited to achieve a professional standard.
Allow time to draft and re-draft your assignment prior to the due date in order to improve the
quality of writing and presentation. You must follow carefully the report structure and requirements
set out below.

1. Title Page

In the title page, you should include:

Title of the report, e.g. Company X: A Business Strategy Report.


Cloud Deakin Group number (whether you are a group or individual).
The names and student IDs of your group members.
Off campus or on campus status.

2
2. Table of contents

Include all of the section headings and subheadings used in your report, together with page
numbers.

3. Executive summary (Less than 300 words)

This is a one page only summary of the report, written as a series of short paragraphs, outlining
your key findings and recommended strategic option.

4. Introduction (Approximately 400 words)

This section provides some background and context to your report. Your introduction should
include:

A brief description of the reasons for undertaking the study, i.e. the value of undertaking a
strategy review of the business.
An introduction to the business and its macro environment and industry.

5. Strategic Analysis
5.1 Methods (Approximately 200 words)
Provide a brief description of the data collection and analysis used in this section, including an
outline of the sources used to gather the data upon which the report is based. Data may be collected
from sources within the business (business documents, questionnaires, interviews) and from
industry reports, media sources, the World Wide Web and database searches. It is important to
describe the types and quantity of your data sources so that the reader can evaluate the breadth,
quality and validity of the data on which your analysis is based. At least 8 data sources should be
collected and analysed.

3
5.2. External analysis (Approximately 750 words)
1. Conduct a PESTEL analysis of your businesss macro environment, evaluating whether each
of the PESTEL factors are positive, neutral, or negative for the industry. Provide an overall
evaluation of the impact of these factors on growth and consumer demand in the industry.
2. Identify and explain the two most significant influences in your analysis that are likely to be
the main drivers of change in the future.
3. Using the five forces framework described in your text, evaluate and briefly describe two
key forces at work in the industry environment of your business.
4. Draw a strategy canvas for your business and the two main rivals (see Figure 2.10 in the
text). Describe briefly the three most critical success factors for your business (see pp. 58-59
in the text).

5.3. Strategic capability (Approximately 400 words)


1. Apply the VRIO criteria to describe and evaluate the strategic capabilities of your
business.
2. Present a SWOT analysis in table form.

5.4 Strategy and culture (Approximately 400 words)


Draw a cultural web of the business (see Chapter 5 of your text and Figure 5.6). Briefly evaluate the
relationship between the culture and strategy of the business.

5.5 Competitive strategy (Approximately 500 words)


Identify and describe the most viable competitive strategy for the business. To undertake this task
refer to Figure 6.2 on p. 193 and the relevant commentary. Explain how your chosen competitive
strategy enables the business to:
1. Respond effectively to the industry and macro environments described in your external
analysis.
2. Match the capabilities and strengths of the business to the opportunities in the environment,
described in your earlier analyses, to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

4
5.6 Business strategy statement (Approximately 300 words)
Describe the mission, vision, objectives, scope, and advantage of the business (see section 1.2.3
in the text). Summarise these descriptions into a clear and compelling strategy statement in 35
words or less. Your strategy statement should be based on your analysis and competitive
strategy.

6. Conclusion (Approximately 250 words)

This section is written in paragraph form to provide a summary of one key finding from each of the
report sections from 5.2 to 5.6.

7. References
List all of the references referred to in the report. Please note that appendices are not allowed.

Requirements

Word limit: 3500 (excluding the references only)

Line spacing: 1.5

Font size: 12

Contribution to your final mark: 40%

Due date: 5.00pm, Friday 5 September 2014

NB. Words in excess of 3500 will not be marked.

Assignment submission rules

5
1. All assignments are to be submitted in the assignment dropbox set up in MPM703 in
CloudDeakin.

2. Extensions to the due date will not be considered unless a written request is submitted to and
negotiated with the Unit Chair at least ten days prior to the due date.

3. Assignments submitted late without an extension being granted will not be marked.

4. Please read the notes on plagiarism in the Unit Guide.

Вам также может понравиться