Strategic Management Assignment

Task

Critically evaluate the key issues that strategic analysis plays in a business or organisation that you are familiar with.

In Part A, you are required to write a 1250 word report. This includes a 100 word executive summary, but excludes references and appendix.

Your Report should cover the following:

1. Briefly describe the background information of the organisation (or SBU) chosen. This information should be brief and relevant to the discussion of your assignment and thus may include ownership, history, size, business scope, major products/services, and major markets of the organisation (or SBU).

2. Conduct an external environment analysis including a macro-environment analysis and Porter's 5 forces analysis:

(a) Conduct a macro-environment analysis for the entire industry within which the organisation (or SBU) operates. You should use the PESTEL model and focus on understanding the purpose of this analysis, the identification of key factors and their implications in terms of key opportunities and threats, and discussion of their overall impact on industry growth in the future.

Draw your conclusions based on your macro-environment analysis.

(b) Undertake a competitive analysis using Porter's 5 forces model. You should pay attention to the purpose of this analysis, the inter- connectedness of different aspects of the competitive forces, and their overall impact on the industry and the organisation selected in terms of main driving forces in the competitive environment.

Draw your conclusions based on your five-force analysis.

Rationale

The rationale for this task is to develop skills in problem solving, analysis, evaluation and reflection in the use of strategic analysis in contemporary organisation. This contributes to the following learning outcomes for this subject:

• be able to identify and explain the key components of strategic management such as strategy analysis, strategy formulation and strategy implementation, and their interrelationships;
• be able to review and evaluate the evolution of ideas and practices leading to the development of strategic management and its relationship to other management practices and principles.