Strategic Management Assignment -

Learning Outcomes -

• Understand the nature of strategic management and its competitive and institutional context;
• Appreciate the strength and limitation of strategic analysis and how it fits into the overall strategy process;
• Design a viable strategy for an organisation, which takes account of the reality of strategic decision making and make appropriate recommendation;
• Identify and critically utilise relevant tools for strategic analysis;

Assignment - Choose an organisation with which you are familiar, write a strategic plan (for simplicity, you might choose to focus on an undiversified business or a business unit within a larger corporation). Where data are missing, make reasonable assumptions or propose ways of filling the gaps. You will provide the data and argument in support of a strategy for the selected organisation. Check Johnson et al. (2013), pp. 523-525 for more detail on the points described below.

You strategic plan should include the following key discussion points:

1. Mission, goals and objectives

2. Macro environment analysis

3. Industry Analysis

4. Capability analysis

5. Proposed strategy

6. Strategy evaluation

7. Presentation

8. Complementary use of sources of information

FOR DETAILS ON THE CONTENT OF EACH SECTION, PLEASE REFER TO THE STRATEGIC PLAN OUTLINE BELOW:

STRATEGIC PLAN OUTLINE -

Your strategic plan is a report. Your aim is to "provide the data and argument in support of a strategy for the whole organisation*" (Johnson et al., 2013, p.523-525). Please choose a non-diversified business (one industry only) or business unit of a corporation. Your audience is the management team/board of the organisation.

Structure:

1. Cover

2. Index

3. Page 1: Title and short paragraph introducing the organisation and the purpose of the work. If you have already identified a strategic challenge, briefly explain it (this explanation at this stage is optional).

4. Mission, goals and objectives statements

• You will provide either new statements or existing statements (citing references in this case).
• In doing that, you will use the criteria discussed in class (Johnson et al., 2014) to either a) build new statements; or b) critically analyse the existing statements. Think of how the statements guide or support the strategy of the selected organisation.

5. Environmental analysis

• Macro trend analysis (choose 1 of the following analyses: PESTEL key drivers of change (based on level of impact and uncertainty); or scenarios (with short explanation of two selected key drivers of change).
• Industry issues (choose 1 of the following analyses: 5 Forces, strategy canvas/blue oceans).
• Each of these analyses should result in the identification of opportunities and threats for the organisation.

6. Capability analysis

• Identify strategic capabilities (choose 1 of the following frameworks: capabilities in the context of the value chain; or capabilities that link to critical success factors in the industry).
• Apply the VRIO criteria to any distinctive capabilities.
• Discuss the competitive implications of the above analysis, by providing a summary of strengths and weaknesses.

7. Proposed strategy

• Start by referring to the SWOT that resulted from the previous analyses. In order to combine the strengths and weaknesses (SW) with the opportunities and threats (OT), use a TOWS matrix. For each quadrant of the matrix, list the strategic options that the organisation would have.
• These options will be either business-level strategies or corporate-level strategies (or a combination of both - it depends on your context).
• Select 1 or 2 of these strategic options, and explain why these are preferred options for the organisation.
• If you are suggesting changes in business strategy (look at Porter's generic strategies or Faulkner & Bowman's strategy clock), give examples of strategy elements and organisational requirements (see slides week 8), using the value chain framework to support your arguments.
• If you are suggesting new corporate strategy directions, you can use the following to build your argument: Porter's 'better-off' test, economies of scope, transaction costs, and the costs of corporate complexity. You may also use the Ansoff matrix to show potential strategy directions, and comment on potential strategic methods (organic development, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances) if a diversification strategy is proposed.
• Link back the proposed strategy(ies) to the initial purpose statements. Are these aligned with the mission/vision/objectives? Or do the statements need a revision? Why?

8. Strategy evaluation

• You will conclude by providing a SAF (suitability, acceptability, feasibility) evaluation of the proposed strategy.
• Discuss Suitability by answering: How do the proposed strategies exploit the opportunities in the environment and avoid the threats? How do the proposed strategies capitalise on the organisation's strengths and avoid or remedy the weaknesses?
• Discuss Acceptability by answering: How do the proposed strategies meet the expectations of stakeholders?
• Discuss Feasibility by answering: Do the resources and competences currently exist to implement the strategy effectively? If not, can they be obtained?

9. Appendixes

• Include any appendixes you want for parts 1 and 2. Remember to identify appendixes with headings and to mention these in the actual report.

Remember this is a practical assessment - you should use academic references to support your analyses and arguments, not to explain theories and models.

Key texts: Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Angwin, D., Regner, P., and Scholes, K. (2013) Exploring strategy (10th edn). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.