Evaluating Strategic Approaches to Innovation on Performance Frontier

In this Individual Assignment, you will extend the general ecosystem and stakeholder analysis that you conducted in your Shared Activity in this unit by also conducting a thorough and critical competitive environment (five forces) analysis of the organisation you have chosen for your project paper.

To prepare for this Individual Assignment:

• Review the Readings and, in particular, examine the articles by Eccles and Serafeim (2013) and Kim and Mauborgne (2004) and the case studies for the unit.

• Search the Library for scholarly sources and the online business press for articles on the company you selected for your Final Project that are related to its strategic innovation and sustainability strategies (including ESG issues).

To complete your Individual Assignment:

• Conduct a brief, well-argued analysis of the past 5 to 10 years of strategic innovation actions by your selected company (particularly relative to core competitors), which explains the evolution of the company through the lenses of both traditional and blue ocean innovative strategy frameworks.

Based on your analysis, provide a convincing argument on how well prepared you think your company is to create new strategic innovation actions or to respond to competitor's innovations. Be sure to clearly argue how you've reached your conclusions and why you think they are appropriate. (Note: approximately 250 words)

• Conduct a thorough and well-argued ‘performance frontier' analysis which evaluates how well the company you have selected for your Final Project has done in the past five years in terms of ESG sustainability innovations and organisational improvements. Consider an in-depth examination of the company through the core questions that Eccles and Serafeim (2013: 53) outline:

Have they identified which ESG issues are most critical in their business?

Have they quantified the financial impact that such improvements would have (had)?

Have they undertaken major innovation in products, processes and business models to achieve the improvements?Which ones, and which stakeholders benefited?

Have they communicated with stakeholders about those innovations? Who were the winners and/or losers that the innovations impacted?

Did the company break down barriers to change or change its incentive systems? Did it exhibit ‘strategic intent' on these issues, as Hamel and Prahalad (2005) treat the topic?

• Be sure to identify the implications for future competitiveness, based on your analysis above.

• Be sure to support your postings with evidence from the Readings and current literature from the Library and other sources. Consult the Harvard Referencing Style Guide for proper citation and referencing information.