Assessment Task

This referral assignment assesses your ability to critically analyse the external environment of a firm and assess the impact of trends upon the firm's strategy. This task also assesses your ability to critically evaluate the usefulness and relevance of a firm's internal resources and capabilities in the light of industry developments.

You are expected to produce a report of 3,500 - 4,000 words that uses appropriate tools, frameworks and concepts in order to identify the key development in the operating environment of an organisation.

Your analysis should make use of quality and up to date data and information/evidences/ from a wide range of reliable sources. It is unnecessary to recommend specific alternative strategic directions.

Task

You may choose a company from the Automobile Industry. You should choose one of the automobile companies (e.g. Toyota, BMW, etc.) to study rather than the whole industry.

You are required to carry out a strategic analysis of a chosen company in the designated industry sector in order to identifyits current strategic issues faced by the company and the industry.

You are also required to identify the future trends and their potential impact on the chosen company and also the industry.

In your report, you need to:

• Analyses the business environment and industry in which the firm operates.

• Consider the main competitors and their competitive positions, market details (value; share etc.), current trends in the market, future trends in the market and strategic objectives of the business.

• Conduct an analysis of internal of the firm by providing details of its current strategic position, the resources and capabilities, and their impact upon the success or otherwise of the firm.

• Identify the current strategy and bring evidence from your external and internal analysis and discuss whether or not the current strategy should be modified or totally changed and why.

• Assess the future relevance of the strategy in the light of industry development including an assessment of the future usefulness and relevance of resources and capabilities.

You need toapply selected, appropriate tools and frameworks to help you conduct and structure your analysis.

Note:

It is insufficient to just report on basic facts (such as market share only), although basic facts are important. Analysis requires you to demonstrate an understanding of how key trends and developments are likely to affect the industry segment and the company's current strategy. The application of a tool or framework should not merely focus on the current state of the industry. Your arguments must be supported by evidence and facts using appropriate references.