Sustainable Strategic Management

Assignment - Strategy report and stakeholder review

Learning outcome 1: Demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of the macro- and micro- environment of the organisation, the role of sustainability and management decision making therein.

Learning outcome 2: Critically evaluate the nature and role of business strategy and its theories and concepts.

Learning outcome 3: Critically evaluate the complex national and international forces driving sustainable change and a critical awareness of strategic decision- making implications

Learning outcome 4: Demonstrate the ability to use strategic concepts, theories and tools of analysis applied to business problems.

Assessment Task

Details of task

1. Strategic analysis (approx.2,700 words)
Undertake a strategic analysis of chosen firm/company - macro, environmental and micro-levels

2. Stakeholder review of firm (core and periphery)
These are not individual pieces of work; rather sequential and integrated reports that stand together coherently. Wordcount 4000 words maximum.
Your work should identify and address:
• Macro environmental and micro-level factors and tools of analysis
• Critical application of tools
• Synthesis between levels
• A comprehensive list of academic references (with citations in text) all in the correct format.

Choosing your topic:

You are advised to select a firm/companythat either publishes information/data itself, is widely analysed/reported and/or a firm with which you are familiar and have access to the appropriate data. The firm should not be a conglomerate (one with many different subsidiaries). The ideal is a medium-sized integrated firm with discrete products/services.

Researching your topic:
For the strategic analysis you will collect secondary data to include the following:
• Introduce your company and set the boundaries of your analysis
• Define relevant industry for analysis, products and competitors
• Critically analyse key macro-environmental trends and impact on your company and industry
• Undertake an industrial structural analysis (e.g. critical application of Porter's five-forces model is useful here).
• Audit, examine and classify resources and capabilities
• State the nature of the competitive structures (e.g. monopoly, monopolistic competition, etc)
• Propose future trends in the macro and industry environment (not predictions), Scenarios may be used.
Students are expected to demonstrate the correct and rigorous use of appropriate tools of analysis at firm-level. Students are also required to synthesise their work, linking process (methods), data, findings and conclusions.
The strategic analysis must go beyond a description of the firm's strategy and must demonstrate a higher level of synthesis, reflection, and understanding of the context of strategic analysis.

The outcome of the strategic analysis (final point above) is to propose possible future macro and industry scenarios which might significantly affect a firm's future strategy.
For the stakeholder review you will collect secondary data to enable you, at least, to do the following:
Based on the strategic analysis, students are asked to create a stakeholder report to communicate a possible future strategic direction.
The stakeholder report must include the following:
I. Summary of strategic analysis findings
II. Values, vision, and mission of the firm
III. An evaluation of the firm's present performance
IV. Future strategic direction
V. An analysis and identification of the key stakeholders and future implications in relation to relevant UN SDGs
VI. Stakeholder engagement strategy

Students are expected to demonstrate the correct and rigorous use of appropriate tools of analysis at firm-level. Students are also required to synthesise their work, linking process (methods), data, findings and conclusions.

The primary objective of the stakeholder report is to inform key stakeholders (their identity depends on your analysis) about the firm's direction in the next strategic cycle. In doing so, students must provide an executive summary highlighting important future environmental trends (point I). They should then evaluate the connection between these environmental trends and the firm's current values, vision and mission (point II), and what the firm has done to meet these (point 3). They should then propose a future strategic direction (point IV), assess how these might affect key stakeholders in the context of the UN SDGs (point 5), and identify ways in which to communicate future progress (point VI).

Referencing Style - Harvard Referencing