UMACTW-15-M Written Assignment – Corporate Governance and Strategy Report- UWE Bristol

Report Format for assessment task (Please also see Appendix 1: Marking Scheme) 

 Executive Summary 
•    A synopsis of the key points (what is the scope of your report and main findings) of your report. 

Brief Introduction 
•    What are the business activities of the company?
•    Identify the main governance characteristics and mechanisms used by the company?
 
 Sustainability and creating shared value 
•    What CSR or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information does the company disclose? 
•    What seems to be the driving force for the company’s CSR activities?
•    How does the Board discharge it’s accountability through the company’s sustainability activities?
•    What are the strategic and managerial decision-making processes that are influenced by the company’s sustainability activities (link with creating shared value)?
•    What specific examples can you see from the company’s activities that prioritise social issues as either generic, value chain or social dimensions of competitive context?
 
Competitive Strategy
•    Identify the value proposition of the company based on the three elements of “which customers served”, “which needs made” and “what relative price”.
•    Conduct a Porter’s (1985) value chain analysis and identify activities that show the value chain being ‘tailored’ to the company’s strategy.
•    Identify the most significant trade-off choice the company has made. Show why the choice is considered as a trade-off and discuss your reasonings.
 
Future prospects 
•    Is the company’s sustainability and strategy performance adequate in the face of expected business environment / industry development (with supporting explanation)? 
•    What is the scope / type of change(s) that you expect that the company would need to undertake? 

Remember the required standard of this business report is one that that you should be able to present unedited to either your direct Manager or a potential employer, therefore, a professional standard of presentation and writing is expected. This includes but is not limited to:
•    Table of contents
•    Executive summary – provides senior managers with an accurate picture of key issues and findings; appropriate length (more than the introduction). 
•    Report contains no, or only minor, errors that do not interfere with a professional level of communication such as spelling, punctuation and grammar and sentence structure.
•    Professionalism (format, voice, purpose), cohesiveness, flow, summaries. Avoids the use of casual language and correctly uses subject terminology.
•    Avoids the use of the assessment questions as report headings.
•    Appropriate use of tables and diagrams that are correctly labelled. 
•    Complies with UWE Bristol Harvard Referencing in-text and end of text.

Module learning outcomes assessed by this task:

1. Explain the development within organisations of appropriate policies and strategies within a changing environment to meet stakeholders’ interests.
2. Develop alternative perspectives of strategy relating to different industry contexts and the globalisation of competition.
3. Understand and apply theoretical concepts and techniques to complex strategic problems.
4. Analyse and interpret data and information, evaluate their relevance and validity, and generate a synthesis to aid the interpretation of situations.
5. Think critically about alternative strategic options and propose feasible and sustainable lines of managerial action.
6. Understand and critically examine key aspects of organisational and financial governance requirements.