Individual Assignment:

Strategy and Sustainability: The Expression of Organisational Values and Vision

Before you begin to work on specific external, internal and integrative strategic thinking and analysis frameworks, it is important to take stock of the company you are studying from the perspective of its mission and vision of social responsibility (Kramer and Porter, 2006) and strategic intent (Hamel and Prahalad, 2005).

For this module, the Individual Assignment of each unit will be part of the Final Project. The topics of all assignments should be answered based on the selection of a single specific company, which will be the focus of each unit's Individual Assignment. As such, make a careful selection of an organisation in a specific country and industry.

To prepare for this Individual Assignment:

• Examine the mission, vision and objectives of several organisations and select the company that best meets the requirements described in the Final Project Guidelines. This may be the company that you work for, or another organisation with which you are familiar and in which you are interested. To find an appropriate organisation, you may want to consider a publically traded firm listed on one of your country's stock exchanges since their annual reports and other communications will be readily available. If you anticipate problems due to confidentiality or intellectual property concerns, select a different company.

• Review the Readings.

• Consider how strategic intent can lead to sustainable competitive advantage.

• Also consider how an organisation's posture towards CSR can affect its long-term opportunities.

To complete this Individual Assignment:

Part 1:

• Briefly describe the company you selected, its products and services, market and niche.

• Conduct a thorough and well-argued analysis of your selected organisation's strategic intent posture that provides evidence that the organisation either has, or does not have, a strong strategic-intent posture.

• Be sure to explain the strategic implications of your analysis and speculate on what this strong strategic intent posture could bring to the organisation in terms of future strategic direction and choices.

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

Part 2:

• Evaluate the CSR and mission/vision and values of the organisation by conducting on-line research of secondary sources (annual reports, magazine and journal articles, etc.) and answering the following questions as an analyst, making sure to document your sources:

• What is the fundamental purpose of the organisation (apart from ‘making money'), why does it exist and what problems does it solve in the world?

• How would customers and other major stakeholders react if this company were to go bankrupt next year? Would it matter? Why or why not?

• Has the company been consistent and true towards it purpose and vision over the years? Is it consistent now?

• Since ‘actions speak louder than words', has the company said it valued its human resources and then cut back or laid off many workers in a time of retrenchment? Is this a historical pattern?

• Has senior leadership demonstrated a willingness to give-back in times of organisational stress?

• How many CEOs, COOs and CFO's has the company had in the past 10 years?

• Is leadership stable and forward looking?

• Are organisation-wide goals stated merely in terms of market growth or financial outcomes for a year or two?

• Does the organisation have a long-term, ambitious strategic intent? Note: Review and integrate the Hamel and Prahalad (2005) concepts into this answer.

• Is it clear where the company would like to be in the long-term?

• What must the organisation do differently to achieve its long-term intentions?

• Once you have conducted your research and have responded with detailed evidence and documentation, take a look at all of your answers and identify the major implications, in terms of strategic analysis.

• Remember, an implication is the conclusion that can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated. In this case, you as the analyst should review all of your answers to the questions and write a ‘what does it mean?' summary. This summary will help you as you move into new areas of analysis-- and eventually this summary along with others will be used to craft your Final Project.

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