Reference no: EM133009778 , Length: word count:4200

Strategic Management

Assignment 01 Case Study

Assignment Task for - Strategic Management

Task overview

Course Learning Objectives

1. Develop a range of business and corporate strategies based on organisational capabilities and different environments, aimed at strengthening an organisation's competitive position;

2. Evaluate the structural, financial, people, and technical resources required to support strategy and demonstrate applied knowledge;

3. Critically reflect on the implementation process including strategy redesign and evaluation.

TASK DESCRIPTION

This assignment focuses on strategy development and is applied to the Sharp Shape Fitness Club (SSFC) case study available in the Assignment 2 section on Study Desk.

*Please note: you are required to work with the information in the case study as applicable to 2017, during the pre-COVID-19 period.

Complete the following tasks:

Task 1: Developing strategic options

1.1 Based on your findings from your analyses of SharpShape Fitness (SSFC) in the first assignment, draw and complete a SWOT analysis figure by inserting bullet points to populate each quadrant with findings from your case study analyses.

1.2 By using information from the SWOT analysis, and considering the structural, financial, people and technical resources and capabilities of SSFC, develop four (4) broad, actionable future strategies for SharpShape Fitness Club.

From your SWOT analysis, what are the obvious broad strategies that SSFC could consider? Consider the following:

Strengths - Opportunities: Using internal strengths to take advantage of opportunities

Strengths - Threats: Using strengths to minimize threats
Weaknesses - Opportunities: Improve weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities Weaknesses - Threats: Eliminate weaknesses to avoid threats.

Task 2: Developing Corporate-level strategy and Business-level strategy

2.1 From the broad strategies developed in Task 1.2, select one (1) strategy that can be developed into a Corporate-level Strategy. Draw a Corporate Strategies figure similar to Figure
3.3 in your Study Book, Module 3. (The Figure is attached below). Populate the appropriate box (the type of strategy) with an outline of the corporate-level strategy that you propose for SSFC. The information that you include in this box should provide more detail about the markets and products/services that you propose for this strategy. Do not populate more than one quadrant, only focus on one strategy - the most viable strategy.

Word count: one page

Referencing: In-text referencing is not required.

• Start by making sure that you understand what a corporate strategy is.

• Then select one of the broad strategies that you identified in Task 1, and develop this into a Corporate level strategy.
• Present it in the required format - see task description above.
• Make sure that you describe the strategy in the relevant box, by noting the product/service (new or existing), and market (new or existing).

Can you see that the selected strategy - a diversification strategy - is described in terms of the new product (raw milk cheeses) and the new market (Asian market)?

We're not describing how we want to achieve this strategy but clearly state what the intent of this strategy is. Keep it simple and demonstrate that you understand what a diversification strategy is.

Can you see that the strategy describes the long term direction for the organisation - what they plan on doing in the future?

2.2 Explain why you chose this strategy above the other three corporate strategies and indicate how this strategy may contribute to sustained competitive advantage for SSFC in the future.

Referencing: In-text referencing is not required.

• Why is this strategy more important than the others that you noted in Task 1? Do not go into explaining the details of the other strategies that you identified but focus on explaining what this strategy will help to achieve in terms of competitive advantage.

• To answer this question, you may want to think back to your analyses in Assignment 1 (Part 01) where you compared SSFC with competitors on achieving KSFs of the industry.

• It is important that you explain how SSFC can achieve this strategy by exploiting their capabilities (think about what capabilities are required to achieve this strategy) - there should be a clear link between SSFC capabilities and proposed strategy.

2.3 From the broad strategies developed in Task 1.2, select one (1) strategy that can be developed into a Business-level Strategy. Draw a Corporate Strategies figure similar to Figure 3.2 in your Study Book, Module 3 (The Figure is attached below). Populate the appropriate box (the type of strategy) with an outline of the business-level strategy that you propose for SSFC. The information that you include in this box should provide more detail about the target market and basis of competitive advantage that you propose for this strategy. Do not populate more than one of the five options, only focus on one strategy - the most viable strategy.

2.4 Explain why you chose this strategy above the other four business strategies and indicate how this strategy may contribute to sustained competitive advantage for SSFC in the future.

2.5 Briefly explain the relationship between the two strategies that you chose (Tasks 2.1 and 2.3) and explain how these strategies support each other.

Task 3: Strategy Implementation

Cater and Pucko's (2010) study (Rajasekar, 2014: Reading 1 Module 4) The articles are attached separately to this email) found that while 80% of firms have the right strategies, only 14% were able to implement them well. Strategic management literature identifies many reasons why firms struggle with strategy implementation and execution.

Considering the strategies that you identified and SharpShape Fitness Club's unique circumstances, critically discuss what could potentially be major stumbling blocks for SSFC in implementing these strategies successfully. What can SSFC do to avoid/overcome these potential obstacles?

Study the course materials addressing the issues that could cause potential problems in strategy implementation and execution. Select from these issues those that are relevant for SharpShape Fitness Club.

Critically discuss stumble blocks that SSFC may encounter when they implement the strategies that you proposed in Task 2.1 and 2.3. Also provide some ideas about how SSFC can avoid or overcome these obstacles.

Task 4: Strategy Evaluation

In Module 4, various strategy evaluation models are discussed, focusing on both traditional and contemporary approaches to evaluation.

Critically discuss evaluation models/contemporary approaches that will be most suitable for evaluating the success of the strategies that you proposed for SharpShape Fitness Club.
Explain why you chose a specific model or combination of models, and how this model or combination of models can be applied to SSFC.

Task 5: Corporate culture and leadership in strategy execution

"When a company faces strategy-culture conflict, even the best managerial and leadership efforts cannot make the strategy work".

Critically evaluate this statement, and critically discuss the type of culture and leadership SharpShape Fitness Club would need to successfully implement the strategies that you proposed.

Attachment:- Strategic Management Assingnmnt.rar