Assignment : Strategy Formation and Implementation

Weighting This assignment accounts for 45% of the assessment in this Course.

Length: 6,000 words (Maximum), 1.5 line spaced, 12 point Times New Roman.

Note: 6000 words including 200 words of Executive Summary but the word count does not include references or appendices

You will use the findings from your first assignment of all your group members to propose one strategic initiative for the organization encompassing a three-year time horizon.

Your focus should also be on integrating the findings and feedback from your first assignment and then building upon these to create an actionable strategy implementation plan. The plan has to be achievable and realistic.

You have to clearly demonstrate what the strategic initiative is, why your plan can help the organization achieve and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, and how this plan can be implemented. In this report, you are required to perform the following tasks:

Executive summary

- The context of this report

- The objectives of this report

- The methods/processes undertaken to develop this report

- Key findings of this reports

1. Identify and discuss the current generic type of business strategy the organisation implements by examining its strategy statement and its value chain activities.

1.1 Two approaches : deliberate and embergent

1.1.1 Deliberate : search for Estia's strategy statement (use Three generic strategies)

1.1.2 Embergent constructEstia's value chain activities ;

- strength and weakness of Estia (eg. marketing, HR, finance)

- what differentiate them apart from competitors (eg. location, facility)

- opportunity and threat (eg. homecare substitute, development depend on interest rate, govt. policy)

2. Propose ONE new strategic initiative for the organisation to implement. This initiative can be a major functional initiative, such as marketing, use of technology, product (service) innovation/development, and M&A. Describe its contents in details and justify why it is strategic.

3. Evaluate the suitability of your strategic initiative through referring to the findings of your assignment 1, particularly the environment and strategic capabilities of Estia, and its current business strategy as identified in this assignment.

4. Develop a strategy implementation plan on 3-year time horizon that primarily focuses on the following areas:

1. What needs to be changed to implement the strategy? and Why? (Use McKinsey 7s Framework)

2. How will the changes proposed be managed and implemented? ( can draw a roadmap)

5. Explain how the organization can measure the strategic initiative you proposed. Focus specifically on:

1. A set of key success measures for the strategic initiative, using Balance Scorecard.

2. Draw a strategy map that indicates the key success measures and their hierarchical relationships.

References should be utilised within this Report to validate the information presented, and should be drawn from academic sources and organisational information such as the website and annual reports.