BAE_POS_4 Principles of Strategy Assignment Brief | LSBU

The brief for this assessment is as follows:

You are required to select a multinational company operating in an industry of your choice (e.g., Banking and Finance, Technology, Automobile, Food Retail, Telecommunications, Agriculture, etc) You are encouraged to choose a specific market (e.g., UK, US, Denmark, etc) where the selected company is operating to do this report.
You should conduct research of the external environment and the internal environment within which the selected company operates and propose strategies for the selected company. The tasks are as the following 

1) Asses the external environment the selected company in the market The following will need to be carried out to address the following tasks
1.1. Asses the external macro environment (using PESTEL framework)

1.2. Asses the external industry environment (using Porter’s 5 Forces framework). You should conduct a 5 Forces analysis (evaluating each force as high, moderate or low together with analytical comments) 

Note: The discussion should not focus on the description of the frameworks alone but the implications they do have for your selected company.

2) Assess the internal environment of the chosen company by analysing its strategic capabilities (resources and competencies) using appropriate strategy tools to identify and discuss the company’s core competencies (i.e. resources and capabilities analysis with the use of VRIO framework). You should justify which of these resources/capabilities are the sources strategic/distinctive sustainable competitive advantage to the company.

3) Undertake a SWOT analysis using a diagram to determine the company’s current position and capabilities vis a vis their competitors evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your selected company.

4) Propose strategic recommendations for your chosen company to strengthen its current position in the market? Identify and critically discuss at least two potential business strategies that can be pursued by your chosen company to address the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities identified in the analysis done to ensure the company’s retaining market share and further growth.

General information:

• You should make use of all available sources and current thinking on strategic management should be central to your analysis and illustrated with reference to current articles from relevant journals and from broadsheet newspapers (e.g., Financial Times). Use should be made of the library’s electronic databases such as Science direct, Emerald, etc.

• You should apply theoretical concepts and models learnt from the module.

Assessment Checklist

The Assessment checklist is designed to monitor your weekly progression during seminar classes in order to help you complete the summative assessment task successfully. 

Context and Objectives

This should include a brief description of the followings:
• Background on the selected company and the marketwhere they operate.
• The market/country to do the analysis
• The purpose of the report

Findings

This should include a detailed explanation of the followings:

1.1. Asses the external macro environment of the chosen industry (using the PESTEL framework) Note: The discussion should not focus on the description of the framework alone but the implications this does have for your chosen organisation. Student should provide:
- A figure/table to summarize the key points in each element of the PESTEL
- An explanation of the figure/table
1.2. Asses the external industry environment (using Porter’s 5 Force framework). You should carry out a 5 Forces analysis (evaluating each force as high, moderate or low). Note: The discussion should not focus on the description of the framework alone but the implications this does have for your chosen organisation. Student should provide:

- A figure/table to summarize the key points in each element of the 5-force model
- An explanation of the figure/table. Note: student should evaluate each force as high, moderate, or low.
2) Asses the internal environment of the selected company’s strategic capabilities (resources and competences) using appropriate strategy tools (e.g., Resources and capabilities analysis with the use of VRIO framework) to identify and discuss company’s core competences). You should justify which of these resources/capabilities are strategic/distinctive that can bring competitive advantage to the company. Student should provide:
- A table listing out all the resources and capabilities of the
(I) External environment analysis selected company (10 resources and capabilities)
- Use the VRIO framework to evaluate each resource/capability
- Explain the resources/capabilities that bring the sustainable
competitive advantage to the selected company (2 sustainable resources/capabilities)

3)Undertake a SWOT analysis to critically evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your selected company. Student should provide:
- A table/figure of SWOT analysis for the selected company 

Note: No explanation of the SWOT is needed. The word count for the SWOT table is exclusive from the total word count.

4)What strategic recommendations can you propose for your chosen company to strengthen its current position in the Market? Identify and critically discuss at least Two potential business strategies that can be pursued by your chosen organisation to combat the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats identified to ensure market share and growth. You are asked to use the SAF model in this section.
Note: Student should provide the strategic recommendations based on the SWOT analysis in part 3

Conclusions

• A recall of the report objectives and a concise summary of the main findings
• No new information should be presented here.

Week 10 Reference and Structure
• Adheres to a recognised report format and remains within the specified word count
• Spelling and grammar are accurate
• Citations and references adhere to the Harvard convention
• Integration of theory and practice consistently throughout the report
• Work is logically structured and coherent throughout

Module Learning Outcomes:

After successful completion of the module students will be able to: 

• Apply basic elements of business strategy.
• Use strategic tools to analyse the business environment in order to identify strategic issues the chosen company faces.
• Make informed decisions about future strategic directions for the business.
• Create an implementation plan of a strategic objective including simple elements of marketing and finance.