Reference no: EM132397229 , Length: word count:2500

21510 - Introduction to Strategy Assignment - University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Task: This is an individual report on the Strategic Issues faced by a particular business or organisation and your Strategic Recommendations on how to address them. This report asks you to undertake an assessment of the major strategic issues the business or organisation faces over the next 3-5 years. It also asks you to articulate the strategic analysis tools/frameworks that you envisage being most useful for your analysis and your evaluation to ensure relevant strategic information is espoused on the Strategic Business Unit or organisation. Importantly, the main task involves; identification of the main strategic issues and well-conceived recommendations succinctly and professionally structured.

Further information: You may want to identify a company that is in the industry (or a related industry) to your assessment 1a as this may help you with understanding the broader macro-environment the business operates in. However, the company analysed in assessment 1a CANNOT be the same as the one undertaken in this assessment.

You have a choice of which business or organisation you wish to do your report on, however, it is recommended that you are likely to provide a better report if you choose a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) or an organisation that interests you (possibly as a future employer). A not-for-profit organisation or a government business enterprise or even a government agency can be chosen as an organisation if they are organisations that develop and implement a strategy.

If you are choosing a business, you need to choose an SBU that implements a business level strategy (for example, Jetstar Domestic - NOT Qantas group) and is NOT an SBU that implement on a national basis a global strategy (eg Apple Australia, Samsung Australia or Google Australia). It is possible, however, to focus on a major subsidiary of a diversified company. For example, Coles Supermarkets is a wholly owned subsidiary of the diversified Wesfarmers Group and Coles Supermarkets would be suitable business to assess the major strategic issues that you see that business having to address in the next 3-5 years. The Wesfarmers Group would NOT be a suitable business as a focus for your report due to the wide variety of business it owns and the wide range of industries it competes in.

This is because it is difficult to properly assess in the limited time you have available the wide range of issues across a diverse and global organisation operating across many countries. You need to choose an SBU that mainly operates in one country and where the strategy for operating in that country is mainly national, not global. This means that companies, such as Google and Apple are NOT suitable due to the global strategies and operations in almost every country of the world. However, some other multi-nationals, such as HSBC, may be suitable as their Australian subsidiary has a separate strategy and implementation for the Australian market.

The report allows you to demonstrate your skills at assessing which strategy analysis models and tools are most suitable for identifying and assessing the issues that the Strategic Business Unit is likely to face in the short and long term - 3 to 5 years.

Importantly, the report tests the following PLOs:

- Access and analyse relevant management knowledge and concepts to understand management practice in a global workplace.

- Apply relevant management knowledge and concepts to decision-making in professional practice.

Length: 2500 words excluding Executive Summary, reference and any supporting Appendices.