LEB-PGDBA (TopUp) - Managing Business Strategy Assignment -

Assignment Question - The analysis of present and future business environment is not producing a list of factors, many of which has little or no importance in developing a strategy but having a clear understanding of its cause and effect relationship between the factors. (Tovstiga and Alyward, 2008).

The statement above emphasises the importance of having a good understanding of the environmental factors affecting the organisation and their inter-relationship to formulate a sound competitive strategy.

Your Tasks - Bearing this in mind, you are take a role of a management consultant and choose a company in an industry with which you are familiar and conduct an analysis of the strategic direction of that organisation. Your paper should clearly define the issue(s) facing the organisation and analyse the situation using the concepts and tools of the course and develop specific plans of action for the organisation.

The proposed structure of your assignment is as follows:

1. Introduction - Provide brief background of organisation and industry.

2. Conduct a situational analysis to assess the vision, mission and current strategy of the organisation and how it influences its overall success.

3. Analyse the organisation's external, internal and competitive environment using the relevant tools learned in the course such as PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis/Resources Based View (RBV), and Porter's 5 Forces.

4. Criticise the past strategic choices and propose generic strategies and growth strategies for the future direction of the organisation by taking into account any expected changes in the environment and/or its competition.

5. Conclusion

6. References using Harvard-style reference system with in-text and end text referencing list. Have a minimum of 10 references.

The format for this assignment is in the form of a management report. Students are required to be critical in their thinking and display the linkages between the various analysis conducted in order to derive at the strategy.

Word Count: 3500- 4000 words maximum.

ASSESSMENT 1 -

Please answer all questions. You must write between 300-500 words for each question.

1. How can project managers promote a sense of enthusiasm within the project team?

2. How do mentoring and cross-training mitigate risk?

3. Discuss the concept of emotional intelligence as it relates to the duties of project managers. Why are the five elements of emotional intelligence so critical to successful project management?

4. What are the benefits and drawbacks of the profile model for project screening? Be specific about the problems that may arise in identifying the efficient frontier.

5. "Project rather than repetitive task are now the basis for most value added in business..." Tom Peters. Critically discuss this statement and explain why we need to learn project management.

ASSESSMENT 2 -

Please answer all questions. You must write between 300-500 words for each question.

1. Consider the common problems with project cost estimation and recall a project with which you have been involved. Which of these common problems did you encounter most often? Why?

2. Consider the following statements: "The problem with risk analysis is that it is possible to imagine virtually anything going wrong on a project. Where do you draw the line? In other words, how far do you take risk analysis before it becomes overkill?" How would you respond to this observation?

3. Use examples in your personal life to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the use of bottom-up and top-down budgeting for project cost control.

4. In your opinion, what are the chief benefits and drawbacks of using beta distribution calculations (based on PERT techniques) to derive activity duration estimates?

5. Think of an example of parametric estimating in your personal experience, such as the use of a cost multiplier based on a similar, past cost. Did parametric estimating work or not. Discuss the reason why.

Note - Total 4300 + words needed.