Assignment

The purpose of this task is to provide you with an opportunity to critically and creatively examine the notion of ‘strategy'. In order to do this, you will:

Part A): Analyse your chosen company using 1 (one) mainstream strategy tool introduced in the lectures

Part B): Critically reflect upon the findings of that analysis in part a) using concepts introduced in class

Things to consider

• draw on the material to which you have been introduced in the lectures;

• connect this with the textbook and your own additional reading from independent research; and,

• apply this to analyse a company from the industry/field you have been investigating with your seminar group.

• You may want to chose more than one strategic concept or more than one company, but think carefully about how you can accomplish that within the word limit - problem of breadth versus depth

• the application in part 1 should reflect your research; you'll need to support your findings by referencing various sources (research reports, policy papers, news articles, annual reports - depending on what concept you are applying the sources of data/information will change accordingly);

• part 2 really asks you to critically engage with those findings; are they reasonable; do they make good strategy?; How do they compare to what the company's are doing in real life?; if strategy is different to your findings, why might that be? (think about who holds power);

What am I looking for when marking your assignment?

1. Coherence of argument
2. Structure & Style
3. Introduction of theories/concepts & line of argument
4. Logical flow to part a)
5. Logical flow to part b)
6. Conclusion containing synthesised argument and answers the questions
7. Evidence of critical thinking
8. Referencing.