9001SMGT Strategic Management 2021 Term 6

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9001SMGT Strategic Management 2021 Term 6 Date: Wednesday, 3 November 2021, 12:27 PM Assessment Instructions

 Audio version

Assessment guidelines
1. Analysis of the strategy formulation process
2. Implementation of a strategic management process

Please familiarise yourself with the assessment requirements.

1. all compulsory assessments must be attempted, otherwise, a zero mark is awarded for the subject
2. all assessments (except forum posts and quizzes) will be submitted and marked with feedback in Turnitin.

Note: If your submission does not generate a Turnitin Similarity Report it cannot be marked and you risk a mark of zero for that assessment.

Please take note of the following assessment requirements for AIB subjects. If any of the compulsory assessment item attempts are not submitted, 0% will be awarded for the Subject. Full details are available from AIB's Academic Policies and Framework website.

In Leadership: Students must attempt the Interim and Capstone assessment items in order to pass the Subject.
In Project: Students must attempt Project Statement, Literature Review and Methodology, and Final Project Report assessment items in order to pass the Subject.
In all other subjects: Students must attempt the First and Capstone assessment items in order to pass the Subject.
All assessments must be submitted by 11:55 pm Adelaide, South Australia time on the due date.
For submissions that exceed the specified limit, typically a word count plus 10% tolerance, the applicable penalty will be 10% of the total available marks.
For late submission where no extension has been granted, penalties apply. In line with AIB's Assessment Procedure, please note that assessment submissions will only be accepted up to five days after the assessment due date (with penalties). Should you be provided with an extension, the submission must be made prior to, or on the final date of the extension. You will not be able to submit after your extension date.
For breach of academic integrity, please refer to AIB's Academic Integrity Policy.
To support the academic integrity of AIB's assessment, a random selection of submitted assessments in each term may require students to present a verbal summary of the assessment and respond to several questions. Selected students must verbally demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the submitted assessment to validate that the work is their own.

For more information on Turnitin submissions and how to submit assessments see Study Support: Assessments.

Weight: 45%
Format: 2000-word written report

Note: All written assessments should be submitted as Word files (.docx) (Word is available from your AIB Office 365 account).

03:55

Write a 2000-word report analysing the strategy formulation process of an organisation and industry of your choice. After providing appropriate background context, critically evaluate the vision, mission and values statements as well as the existing strategic objectives of the organisation.

Referencing is Australian Harvard (AGPS) and outlined in the AIB Style Guide. Note: Insert this summary description when submitting a draft to Smarthinking.

1. Demonstrate advanced understanding of contemporary strategic management theory, concepts and principles.
2. Demonstrate advanced knowledge of how strategy formulation and strategy implementation processes work in contemporary

organisations.

The biggest names in the service and manufacturing sectors have gained competitive advantage built on the effectiveness of their strategy. Over the years, these companies have realised that achieving excellence in formulating the right strategy would set them apart from their competitors and become their primary means of achieving competitive advantage in the long-term. Of course, if we consider the right strategy to constitute a significant means of gaining or maintaining competitiveness, then the inverse is also true. The lack of a clear strategy, or failing to link strategy to the internal capabilities and external situation, could lead to the collapse of a company.

Accordingly, executives are invited to step back from their day-to-day routines and re-think how to design strategy in order to achieve competitive advantage.

With this background context in mind, for the first assessment, you are required to take the role of an executive, and critically analyse and evaluate the key components of the strategy formulation process for your current or previous workplace, or any other organisation from the service, not-for-profit, public, manufacturing, or any other industry or sector that you are familiar with. Your report needs to address the following requirements:

1. Provide relevant information about the selected organisation.

2. Critically evaluate the vision, mission and values statements of the organisation. (If the selected organisation does not presently have vision, mission or values statements, you are required to develop those statements for the organisation and discuss their appropriateness against relevant principles).

3. Critically examine the existing strategy. In so doing, critically examine the strategic objectives and see if they are set in alignment with their vision and mission. Discuss any areas for improvement. (Again, if the selected organisation does not have any strategic objectives now, you need to develop at least three new strategic objectives for the organisation and discuss how these will help the organisation to accomplish its mission and vision).

While addressing each of the above requirements, it is important that you provide sufficient justification and explanation throughout your analysis, and establish clear links with the relevant concepts/principles discussed in your learning materials/textbook.

The word count for this assessment is 2000 words (+10%). In terms of structure, presentation and style, use:

AIB standard report format (Report template)
AIB preferred Microsoft Word settings
author-date style referencing (which includes in-text citations plus a reference list).

These requirements are detailed in the AIB Style Guide.
You are required to use a minimum of five (5) references for this assessment. All references must be from credible sources such as books, industry-related journals, magazines, company documents and recent academic articles.
Your grade will be adversely affected if your report contains no/poor citations and/or reference list, and if the word length is beyond the allowed tolerance level (see Assessment Policy available on AIB website).
Useful resources when working on your report include:

AIB Style Guide

AIB Online Library.

Your report will be marked according to the criteria outlined below:

Criterion 1: Description of organisation and industry - (a) Provided a brief overview of the organisation, e.g. its origin/start, size, market share, ownership, growth stage, etc. (b) Included information about the key competitors and industry (as a whole) to help the reader in developing an understanding of the context in which the organisation operates. - 10%
Criterion 2: Understanding of the relevant theories and concepts - (a) Identified and demonstrated an understanding of all the key principles relevant to each of the specific task requirements. (b) Demonstrated the use of appropriate jargon. (c) Identified and discussed appropriate literature. - 30%

Criterion 3: Relevance of the examples/ links between theory and practice - (a) Applied relevant principles/concepts /models to the specific context taken as an example. (b) Established clear links between Theory and Practice. - 35%
Criterion 4: Recommendations/ justification - (a) Provided a clear set of recommendations. (b) Results extracted from analysis have been used to arrive at the proposed recommendations. (c) Used quality arguments, facts and evidence to support the recommended choice(s). - 15%

Criterion 5: Citation and referencing - (a) Min. no. of references (5). (b) Quality of references: credible sources (e.g. books, journals, reviews, reports, etc.). (c) Citations and referencing format: author-date referencing convention as per AIB's Style Guide. - 5%
Criterion 6: Structure and presentation - (a) Adheres to the requirements of Report Format as recommended in AIB’s Style Guide. (b) Different sections of the report are linked well with each other. (c) Follows a logical structure, ensures consistency and maintains the flow of the reading. Communication, writing style and language - 5%

First assessment rubric

Analysis of the strategy formulation process submission

Weight: 55%
Format: 3000-word written report

Note: All written assessments should be submitted as Word files (.docx) (Word is available from your AIB Office 365 account).

06:21

It is now time to think about how to take an organisation’s strategy to the next level and make it a means to deliver superior value. Overall, your Capstone Assessment is a strategic planning exercise for an organisation that you select. Your selected organisation can be the same one you worked on for the first assessment, or it can be any other organisation from the service, not-for-profit, public, manufacturing, or any other sector or industry that you are familiar with. You are required to conduct a detailed assessment of various components of the strategic management process, and suggest which business strategy you believe will be the most appropriate for your chosen organisation, and explain why.

Referencing is Australian Harvard (AGPS) and outlined in the AIB Style Guide. Note: Insert this summary description when submitting a draft to Smarthinking.

1. Demonstrate advanced understanding of contemporary strategic management theory, concepts and principles.

2. Demonstrate advanced knowledge of how strategy formulation and strategy implementation processes work in contemporary

   organisations.

3. Conduct an in-depth analysis of the internal and external environment using appropriate strategic management concepts and tools.

4. Evaluate different strategic alternatives and suggest an appropriate and ethical pathway for a business to build and sustain competitive

   advantage.

5. Demonstrate ability to synthesise a range of business and management concepts when undertaking strategic analysis.

Specifically, you need to:
1. Clearly describe the chosen organisation and industry/sector.

2. Analyse the organisation’s internal environment. This analysis can be done through identifying the organisation’s key resources and capabilities (at least four) and assess the competitive power of each of them using VRIN Test.

3. Analyse the organisation’s competitive environment. You can analyse the competitive environment using Porter’s Five Forces Framework. Assess the nature/strength of the competitive pressures and suggest whether the collective strength of the five forces (in your chosen industry/sector) is conducive to good value for the selected organisation.

The following article by Dobbs (2014), provides a comprehensive, structured and practical set of templates that can be used by managers to analyse the competitive environment in their industry.

Dobbs, ME 2014, 'Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: A set of industry analysis templates', Competitiveness Review, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 32–45.

You are required to use this editable Set of industry analysis templates adapted from Dobbs (2014, pp.40-44) to conduct your analysis. You do not need to submit the completed templates. However, you must refer them and discuss your results and implications to strengthen your analysis in this part of your report.

4. Based on your analysis, recommend which of the five generic strategies will be most appropriate for your chosen organisation. The recommendation(s) must be clearly justified.

5. Provide an overall conclusion and recommendations.

The word count for this assessment is 3000 words (+10%).
In terms of structure, presentation, and style you are normally required to use:

AIB standard report format (Report template)
AIB preferred Microsoft Word settings
author-date style referencing (which includes in-text citations plus a reference list).

These requirements are detailed in the AIB Style Guide.
You are required to use six to twelve (6-12) references for this assessment. All references must be from credible sources such as books, industry-related journals, magazines, company documents, and recent academic articles.
Your grade will be adversely affected if your report contains no/poor citations and/or reference list and if the word length is beyond the allowed tolerance level (see Assessment Policy available on AIB website).
Useful resources when working on your report include:

AIB Style Guide

AIB Online Library

Your report will be marked according to the criteria outlined below:

Criterion 1: Description of organisation and industry - (a) Provided a brief overview of the organisation, e.g. its origin/start, size, market share, ownership, growth stage, etc. (b) Included information about the key competitors and industry (as a whole) to help the reader in developing a good understanding of the context in which the organisation operates. - 10%
Criterion 2: Understanding of the relevant theories and concepts - (a) Identified and demonstrated an understanding of all the key principles relevant to each of the specific task requirements. (b) Demonstrated the use of appropriate jargon. (c) Identified and discussed appropriate literature. - 30%

Criterion 3: Analysis and evaluation - (a) Applied relevant principles/concepts/models to the specific context taken as an example. (b) Established clear links between Theory and Practice. - 35%
Criterion 4: Recommendations/ justification - (a) Provided a clear set of recommendations. (b) Results extracted from the analysis have been used to arrive at the proposed recommendations. (c) Used quality arguments, facts and evidence to support the recommended choice(s). - 15%

Criterion 5: Citation and referencing - (a) No. of references: 6–12. (b) Quality of references: credible sources (e.g. books, journals, reviews, reports, etc.) (c) Citations and referencing format: author-date referencing convention as per AIB’s Style Guide. - 5%
Criterion 6: Structure and presentation - (a) Adheres to the requirements of Report Format as recommended in AIB’s Style Guide. (b) Different sections of the report are linked well with each other. (c) Follows a logical structure, ensures consistency and maintains the flow of the reading. Communication, writing style and language. - 5%

Capstone assessment rubric

Implementation of a strategic management process submission