Competitive Strategy Assessment: Business Strategy Report

A key concern of strategic management is making prudent and effective use of an organisation's resources and capabilities to achieve the organisation's goals in light of prevailing external conditions. Thus, for this assessment you are required to choose one of two prescribed case study organisations and conduct an analysis of that organisation's internal and external environments, then make recommendations as to how the organisation might maintain or improve its competitive advantage.

Specific instructions

This assessment is designed as an experiential learning exercise by having you apply theoretical concepts to real-world situations in a critical manner. You should adopt the mindset of a business strategist for the organisation you have elected to base your report on. Your business strategy report must be presented using academic report format. It should conform to the format set out below, and should also include a professionally laid-out table of contents prior to the executive summary.

Format -

Executive summary

An executive summary of a report is just that, a summary (and is not included in your total word count for this assessment). It contains a statement of report purpose and an overview of the actual and specific findings. For this assessment, it should be no longer than one page. The summary can only be written after you have completed your report. Write in 'past' tense (e.g. The purpose of this report was to ... ). If an executive summary is well written the reader should be able to understand the main points, findings, and conclusions of the actual report without having to read the full report.

Section One - Introduction

This is a brief statement of the purpose of the report, what its objectives are, and an overview of how the report is structured.

Section Two - Analysis of the internal environment

In this section you are required to critically analyse the organisation's internal environment. You should critically evaluate the organisation's resources, competences, and strategic capabilities (a.k.a. distinctive competencies), and how these contribute to that organisation's competitive advantage. In compiling this section you must:

a) Critically discuss the organisation's key resources, competencies, and how those resources and competences combine to form strategic capabilities. You should also briefly discuss what you believe is the organisation's key competitive advantage, and comment on its durability.

b) Incorporate and discuss at least two (2) 'applied literature' references into your analysis to demonstrate wider reading on the organisation you are analysing.

Section Three - Analysis of the external environments

Here you are required to analyse the organisation's external environments. There are two components to this section: an analysis of the macro-environment, and an analysis of the industry environment.

3.1 Analysis of the macro-environment

In compiling your analysis of the organisation's macro-environment you must:

a) Discuss two (2) contemporary macro-environmental trends pertinent to the organisation you are analysing

b) Incorporate at least two (2) 'applied literature' references into your macro-environmental analysis to demonstrate wider reading on such issues.

3.2 Analysis of the industry environment

In compiling your discussion on the organisation's industry environment you must:

a) Analyse the organisation's industry environment using Michael Porter's Five Forces of industry competitiveness model (refer to Topic 3) to frame your analysis

b) Address all five elements of Porter's Five Forces model

c) Incorporate and discuss at least two (2) 'applied literature' references into your industry environment analysis to demonstrate wider reading on such issues.

Again, it is suggested that you present a separate analysis of each of the five forces. You should also present a brief summary regarding the broader implications of your five forces analysis.

Section Four - Recommended strategic direction

The purpose of this section is for you to make recommendations regarding the strategic direction of the organisation. That is, are the organisation's current strategies prudent? And, should the organisation change its strategies? You must make recommendations for both business-level strategy and corporate-level strategy in this section:

a) Make recommendations regarding business-level strategy by discussing the organisation's generic strategy (i.e. cost leadership, differentiation, focus, or combination of the strategies - See Topic 5). You should discuss why the organisation should retain or change its current generic strategy in order to maintain or improve its competitive advantage.

b) Make recommendations regarding corporate-level strategy by discussing whether the organisation could create additional value through any of the corporate-level strategies covered in Topics 6 and/or 7.

In this section you must draw upon the analyses you have compiled in Sections Two and Three. That is, there should be a logical link between your discussions in Sections Two and Three and the recommendations you make in Section Four. Failure to make this logical link will result in only minimal marks being awarded for this section.

Adopting a critical demeanour here is essential. You should critically discuss why different strategic approaches may or may not work. For example, if you recommend that the organisation changes to a 'focused differentiation' strategy, then you should discuss the benefits and pitfalls of a focused differentiation strategy, and also discuss how a focused differentiation strategy will enable the organisation to maintain or increase its competitive advantage.

It is important that you make use of applied (i.e. newspaper, trade journal articles etc.) and/or academic literature to support your recommendations in this section. Failure to adequately support your argument with pertinent literature will result in only minimal marks being awarded for this section. Note that you must discuss the literature you refer to. Merely citing sources in the text without verbal discussion will reduce your mark.

Section Five - Conclusion

Within this section restate the purpose of the report, then provide an overview of main points covered in your analysis. Ensure that you do not include any new information, only that which has been discussed within the main body of the report.

Reference list

All works cited must be included in your reference list. Citations must conform to the referencing style adopted by the School of Business and Tourism, a link to which will be available on the unit's MySCU site.

Needed in 1500 words

6 references.

Attachment:- Business Strategy Report Assignment.rar