Assessment: Strategic analysis

Length: 2500 words

Task

You will present a report covering a strategic analysis of an organisation that you will choose. You are required to select the organisation then undertake the analysis. This work will help you achieve an understanding of the key strategic issues that are likely to influence the performance of the company into the future. These concepts look both externally and internally to the company.

You should also complete the following tasks:

1. Describe briefly the background information of the organisation (or Strategic Business Unit - SBU) you have chosen. This should be brief and relevant to your assignment. It may include ownership, history, size, business scope, major products/services, and major markets of the organisation (or SBU) selected.

2. Conduct external environment analysis including a macro-environment analysis and Porter's 5 forces analysis:

• Conduct a macro-environment analysis for the entire industry within which the firm (or SBU) operates. Use the PESTEL model and focus on:

the understanding of the purpose of this analysis,
the identification of key factors impacting on the organisation,
the implications of the purpose and the factors in terms of key opportunities and threats, and
the discussion of the overall impact of the above on the industry's prospects for growth or shrinkage in the future.
Draw your conclusion based on your macro-environment analysis.

• Undertake a competitive analysis using Porter's 5 forces model. You are required to pay attention to,

the purpose of this analysis,
the inter-connectedness of different aspects of the competitive forces, and
their overall impact on the industry and the organisation selected in terms of main driving forces in the competitive environment.
Draw your conclusions based on your five-force analysis.

3. Conduct internal environment analysis. You should identify key resources and competencies of the firm (or SBU) that are likely to provide sustainable competitive advantage.

4. Summarise your findings based on your external and internal environment analysis.

Identify the key issues that the organisation (or SBU) faces and give your recommendations.

In this report, you are required to write a 2500 word report including 200 words as an executive summary - the count excludes references and appendices.

You may select any organisation (local or international) but choose one with enough publicly available information to enable you to address the assessment criteria. If you choose a large organisation e.g. Wesfarmers, make sure you select one of the company's divisions for your analysis, such as Bunnings or Coles, to make sure your organisation only covers one industry.

While working on this task assume your report will be presented to senior management to inform the strategy team of the key strategic issues facing the organisation.

Rationale

This assessment aims to address the following learning outcomes:

• be able to apply and critically analyse strategic management concepts and models;
• be able to reflect on learning, and integrate prior knowledge and skills, to develop strategic recommendations; and
• be able to evaluate alternative courses of strategic action to justify choices of select/implement/monitor strategies for organisations.