Reference no: EM133717005

Homework: Management Project

Full Report is an extension of First half of report - the Analysis Part. There is NOT A SET STYLE to prepare a perfect Report. In fact, each group must have their unique reports at the end. The contents will largely depend on (i) the creativity of the group, and (ii) the company that the group chose to analyze. To give you a hint, I am providing a set of guidelines (not exhaustive and inclusive of each minute detail) that might help you -

I. Based on the feedback provided to you on Analysis Part, make all changes as advised by me in written feedback. All changes MUST BE HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW - only those parts that are highlighted will be evaluated for points for this section.

II. After fixing everything on the Analysis Part portion, you need to then - in the same document - start with Strategy Formulation section where you tell what you will do here and how you will formulate your strategy. Which two matrices are you going to use and why? Suggested length: 1/2 to 1 page.

III. Give a detailed account of the first matrix that you use for strategy formulation - this is put under a subsection called Strategic Alternatives within Strategy Formulation section. Justify at each point why and how you formulated the strategic alternatives that you did.
IV. Give a detailed account of the second matrix that you use for strategy formulation - this is another part of the same subsection called Strategic Alternatives within Strategy Formulation section. Justify at each point why and how you formulated the strategic alternatives that you did.

V. Alternative Evaluation: Use the alternatives (about 12-17 in total) that you generated from the two matrices in Strategic Alternatives subsection and then narrow down the alternatives to about 3-4 justifying in detail why you chose some alternatives and why did you leave out the others. The whole process needs to be clearly written here - only mentioning chosen alternatives will NOT earn you points. You may want to use the check chart/table I explained in class.

VI. Alternative Choice: Use Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix to finally choose one (or at most two alternatives) from the narrowed down 3-4 alternatives from the Alternative Evaluation subsection. You must justify your Alternative Scores for different strategies. Too many dashes across the row is a problem and no dashes in any row is an indication of lack of rigor. In class, I had explained how to adjust the total score if more than half the number of rows have at least one dash.

VII. The next part of the report is Strategic Implementation. Do a research on the current strategy of the organization based on company's website or other source of info. Next, construct Porter's Four Generic Strategies chart. On this chart, indicate with full justification where the two strategies (1 - current strategy, 2 - the one that you are suggesting based on your synthesis) lie. This part carries 30 points. Next, you need to suggest Action Items and Action Plans for making the company move from current strategy to suggested strategy.

VIII. The last part of this report is a Conclusion section in which you revisit your aim that you specified in the beginning and give an account of how much you have accomplished from what you promised at the beginning. You also tell what are the key things that you have learned by doing this homework and which learnings from this report are going to be useful for you in future. The tone of this section is that of the student of my class MGMT 449.

Analysis Part: Company Strategy Project

What to put in Analysis Part: There is NOT ONE perfect way to prepare this Analysis Part - which is also going to be the first half of the Full Report. In fact, each group must have their unique write-up at the end. The contents will largely depend on (i) the creativity of the group, and (ii) the company that the group chose to analyze. To give you a hint, as has been done in the class too, I am providing a list of some guidelines (not exhaustive and inclusive of each minute detail) that might help you -

I. Table of Contents with section and subsection names and page numbers. For this, use the "Table of Contents" feature in Microsoft Word (or similar program) which auto updates the page number and section headers without you having to literally go back and forth on each editing.

II. Statement of purpose. A crisp description of why you are doing this project and what all do you wish to accomplish through this work. A promise about what the reader should hope to find in the report. Which company did you choose to fulfill the promise stated above. Why was that company chosen by your group and how will this choice help you accomplish what you set out to! The tone of this section is to be framed as that of the student of my class. Approximate page length will be about 1⁄2 to 1 page.

III. You may want to put a brief history about the company here. The history MUST provide all big/strategic decisions/moves made by the company in the past and how all those decisions have led the company into its current situation. Remember, you are writing this section to demonstrate to the readers (board, top managers, shareholders, me) that you are aware and you understand where the company is coming from and its past. Approximate page length will be about 2 pages.

IV. Write a connecting para here that will tell why you want to "analyze the situation of the company" now at this juncture in the report; and which situation (general, or industry, or internal, or competitive) are you going to analyze first and why.

V. Next you need to write an analysis - in an order of your choosing - of (i) General External Environment, (ii) Competitor Environment, (iii) Internal Environment, (iv) Industry Environment. For more details on what is expected on each of these analyses, go over to the next page.

VI. Your ordering of the analysis of each of the above environments must be justified by a connecting para at the end of each analysis and before the beginning of the next one. These connecting paras must tell what has been done in the previous analysis that necessitates the need to analyze the next type of environment at that point in the draft. Since there are 4 different analyses, there will be three such connecting paras in between the first analysis and the fourth one.