BUS310 Strategic Management: Creating Competitive TMA Form A Sem. 2026

BUS310 – Fall Semester 2025-2026 Tutor Marked Assessment -TMA Form A

I. TMA Topic overview: Strategic Analysis for an Organization

The essence of strategic management is the study of why some firms outperform others. Managers need to know how to compete and secure a competitive advantage over a lengthy period of time. Strategic management consists of three ongoing processes: analyses, formulation, and implementation that managers should undertake in order to create and sustain competitive advantages. To accomplish these three processes several strategic tools are vital and used for business and competitive analysis. These tools vary in terms of the level of analysis as some are found to be more suitable for analyzing the internal environment while others are more practical for the external environment analysis. How useful these strategic tools and models are in helping decision-makers at organizations to make better decisions is a noteworthy question for investigation.

TMA topic / Analyzing an organization

The purpose of this TMA is to develop your ability to use the conceptual frameworks and tools from the BUS310 course since this TMA is meant to assess your ability in understanding, and application of the course materials and ideas as well as to your reflection and critical thinking. It is also intended to test your ability to argue relevantly and to justify a point of view besides, constructing, defending and evaluating an argument, using relevant evidence and giving reasons for conclusions. Therefore, the focus of this TMA is to select a reputable organization (must be approved by your tutor in advance) and create a complete and persuasive analysis.

1. It is advisable to use publicly available information to begin your analysis: the organization's Web site is often the best starting point. Remember, however, that you are using the Web site as a source of data for the analysis; do not simply copy material off the Web site. Your assignment is an analysis, not a data-dump.
2. You will need to interview at least two members of the organization (either current members or who has recently left it). It can be very useful to make an initial contact with your informant early in the research process, to ensure that the person is indeed willing to talk with you. You will find the informant most useful, however, after you have done the preliminary work with the publicly available materials.

By referring to your chosen company, you should answer the following two questions in an essay/report format:

Q1. Conduct a thorough SWOT analysis for the organization you have chosen and then prepare a SWOT analysis report. Conduct your SWOT analysis report from the perspective of the board of directors and prepare it for diverse audiences. In doing so, you need to analyze the SWOT Framework critically and argue whether the model still has relevance for the relevant business environment you have chosen or not. Your level of analysis must be persuasive and rigorous to be acceptable. (8 marks, 900-1200 words)

SWOT Analysis may require you to ask several questions and analyze critical issues about the nature of the business. Such questions may include the following prompts which you may need to discuss:
What are the main products or services your company offers?

What is the main strategy for the organization?

What changes, shifts, or trends are evident in company target markets? How are these changes or trends likely to affect the industry? How might these changes or trends create opportunities and/or threats for existing companies?

What are the various challenges in relevance to the chosen organization? What are the various strengths in relevance to the chosen organization? What are the various weaknesses in relevance to the chosen organization? What are the various opportunities in relevance to the chosen organization? What are the various threats in relevance to the chosen organization?

What are the key features of the competitive environment? What is unique or interesting about the competitive environment in which your chosen company operates?

Q2. Critically evaluate the key resources available for the chosen organization to effectively and successfully compete within its boundary and attain a competitive advantage in the market? As a strategist, what recommendations you would suggest to help the chosen organization to stay ahead of its rivals. (3 marks, 600-800 words).

Analyzing the internal environment of an organization requires you to ask questions and analyze critical ssues about the nature, value and availability of resources

• What are the key resources available for the organization to effectively compete within its boundary?
• What are the resources (tangible, intangible) capabilities, core competences, intellectual and social capital are required to successfully compete in the chosen company business environment? The resource-based view of the firm that takes the perspective that firms' competitive advantages are due to their endowment of strategic resources that are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and costly to substitute.
  This TMA is divided into two complementary parts namely, report and in-class presentation.

II. TMA components (for Essay Report and PowerPoint presentation)

1. The written Essay/Report: The report/essay part covers question1 and question 2 and should be approximately between 1500 to 2000 words (References and appendices are not considered within the word count).
2. Furthermore, the report should include a clear section that indicates a proof of access strategy to the chosen organization; this may include photos of the students' meetings with respected managers at the chosen organization, their business cards (Minimum of 1), minutes of meetings, video clips, access letter, emails communications, etc. The supported documents of access to the organization should not be considered within the word count; they will be rather considered extra documents and should be included in the appendices list.
3. Relevant Presentation: Strong written and oral skills greatly facilitate success in the business world. Those individuals that can effectively communicate their ideas will have an advantage over those that cannot. Each team will present their assessment of their chosen organization to the class based on the relevant submitted report.

III. TMA Requirements

This TMA consists of 10% of your total course grade. It is a teamwork project. Each team will consist between 4-5 students. Names of students for each team and their selected organization should be provided o the tutor maximum by week 4 of the course calendar.

The project is divided into two parts:

1. TMA essay paper (8 marks out of 10)
2. PowerPoint presentation (2 marks out of 10)

• The initial task of your team is to select and propose a business organization to the instructor for approval. You should arrange with your tutor in order to verify that no other team had selected the same business organization for the project.

1. TMA Essay Paper (8 marks out of 10)

Each team will work on the TMA paper. This is a good opportunity for students to learn a set of skills that are very important in the professional business world, such as time management, planning, communicating with others, leadership, etc.

• Each team is required to select a team leader. The TMA paper should be uploaded to the LMS by the team leader only. This is a very important requirement in order to avoid Turnitin similarities. • The names of all the team members should be written on the pt#3 form, including the name of the team leader. All team members will receive the same mark on the TMA essay paper. Students are required to use the pt43 form provided on the LMS for this specific TMA.
• Students are expected to make sure that the written TMA meets the following criteria: o Plagiarism: It's imperative that team members write the TMA using their own words. Plagiarism will be penalized depending on its severity and according to AOU plagiarism policy. o Format (including Pt83 form): team members are expected to write their answer in an essay format: introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion. You should present a well-structured and organized piece of work. Failing to do so could result in the deduction of up to 2 marks from the total TMA paper mark.
  o Word count: TMAs are expected to be within the specified word count. A 10% deviation from word count limit is acceptable. Not adhering to specified word count could result in the deduction of up to 2 marks of the total TMA paper mark.
• Referencing: team members are expected to use the Harvard referencing style for in-text referencing and list of references at the end. Failing to do so could result in the deduction of up to 5% marks of the total TMA paper mark.
• E-Library: team members are expected to use E-library sources to support their answers. A minimum of 3 sources is required. Failing to do so could result in the deduction of up to 2 marks of the total TMA paper mark.

2. PowerPoint Presentation (2 marks out of 10)

Each team will prepare a PowerPoint presentation that reflects on the most important points discussed in the paper submitted earlier, and should demonstrate a high-level understanding by being capable to handle respective questions from both the instructor and the audience.

In addition to the most important points discussed in the paper, team members should include in their presentation a proof of access strategy to the chosen organization, this may include photos of their meetings with respected managers at the chosen organization, their business cards (Minimum of 1), minutes of meetings, video clips, access letter, emails communications, etc.
Each team will be allowed a total of 15 minutes. 10 minutes for the presentation plus 5 minutes for Q&A and discussion.

All team members should contribute equally. Each member should speak for approximately 2-3 minutes. The last team member to speak should lead a class discussion.

Team members will be marked based on the "Team presentation evaluation form” marking rubric.