Arab Open University

Faculty of Business Studies

Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantages

BUS310 – Fall Semester 2023-2024

Tutor Marked Assessment

I. TMA Topic overview: Strategic Analysis for an Organization

SWOT analysis is an important framework that consists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

and threats for identifying and analyzing the internal and external factors that can have an impact
on the viability of an organization, project, product, place or even people. Your TMA consists of
conducting a thorough SWOT analysis of an organization of your choice (must be approved by
your tutor in advance) and then prepare and submit a SWOT Analysis Report. You should
conduct your SWOT Analysis Report from the eye of the board of directors of your chosen
organization, and assume delivering it to your various audiences. In doing so, you need to
critically analyze SWOT Framework and argue whether the model still has relevance for the
relevant business environment you have chosen or not. Your level of analysis must be persuasive
and rigor in order to be acceptable.

SWOT Analysis may require you to ask several questions and analyze critical issues about the
nature of the business. Such questions may include the following prompts which you may need
to discuss:

 What are the main products or services do your company offer?

 What is the management structure there?

 What is the main strategy for the organization?

 How many target markets your company have?

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  What changes, shifts, or trends are evident in these different segments? How are these
changes or trends likely to affect the industry? How might these changes or trends
create opportunities and/or threats for existing companies?

 What are the various challenges in relevance to the chosen organization?

 What are the various strengths in relevance to the chosen organization?

 What are the various weaknesses in relevance to the chosen organization?

 What are the various opportunities in relevance to the chosen organization?

 What are the various threats in relevance to the chosen organization?

 What are the key features of the competitive environment? What is unique or
interesting about the competitive environment in which your chosen company
operates?

 What is required from the management team?

 What are the key resources available for the organization to effectively compete
within its boundary?

 From your own perspective and thorough analysis, what is your recommendation for
your chosen company in order to effectively leverage its strengths, address its
weaknesses, take advantage of developing opportunities, and defend itself against
potential threats?

This TMA is divided into two complementary parts namely, report and respective in-class
presentation.

II. TMA components (for Essay Report and PowerPoint presentation)

A. The Written Report: The body of the report should be approximately between 1500 to 2000
words including the executive summary and SWOT Framework. The references are not
considered within the word count. The report must include an explanation of the purpose of
the organization (mission and vision), brief introduction of its operation, its main strategy,
organizational structure, the critical analysis of SWOT Analysis, key resources at the
organization, and your suggestions for the organization to keep its strategic position alive.
Furthermore, the report should include a clear section that indicates a proof of access strategy
to the chosen organization; this may include photos of the students’ meetings with respected
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 managers at the chosen organization, their business cards (Minimum of 1), minutes of
meetings, video clips, access letter, emails communications, etc. The supported documents of
access to the organization should not be considered within the word count; they will be rather
considered extra documents and should be included in the appendices list. However, students
are required to justify their access strategy to the organization within the report itself.
Therefore, the structure of the report should contain the following headings:

Introduction

Executive summary: Major Objectives, Description of Product(s) or Service(s), Main

Strategy.

Description of the business

Description of the market: Target Market: Who? Why?

Analysis of SWOT Framework

Management structure: Management, organizational chart

Key resources: Available key resources for the organization, why you
consider them important and valuable?

Suggest solutions: Own perspective, personal criticism, and relevant

justification

Proof of access strategy: Photos of the students’ meetings with respected managers,
their business cards (Minimum of 1), minutes of meetings,
video clips, access letter, emails communications, etc

Conclusion

B. Relevant Presentation: Strong written and oral skills greatly facilitate success in the
business world. Those individuals that can effectively communicate their ideas will have an
advantage over those that cannot. Each team will present their assessment of their chosen
organization to the class based on the relevant submitted report.

III. TMA Requirements

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This TMA consists of 20% of your total course grade. It is a teamwork project. Each team will
consist of 4-5 students. Names of students for each team and their selected organization should
be provided to the tutor maximum by week 2 of the course calendar.

The project is divided into two parts:

1. TMA essay paper (50 marks out of 100)

2. PowerPoint presentation (50 marks out of 100)
 The initial task of your team is to select and propose a business organization to the
instructor for approval.
 Students should arrange with their tutors in order to verify that no other team had selected
the same business organization for the project.

1. TMA Essay Paper (50 marks out of 100) (Times new Roman 12 Font, 1.5
spacing)

 Each team will work on the TMA paper as they would normally do with other courses,
but this time in group. This is a good opportunity for students to learn a set of skills that
are very important in the professional business world, such as time management,
planning, communicating with others, leadership, etc.
 Each team is required to select a team leader. The TMA paper should be uploaded to the
LMS by the team leader only. This is a very important requirement in order to avoid
Turnitin similarities. Therefore, any group members that submit the same report will
result in marks deduction for the whole team.
 The names of all the team members should be written on the pt3 form, including the
name of the team leader. All team members will receive the same mark on the TMA
essay paper. Students are required to use the pt3 form provided on the LMS for this
specific TMA. Therefore, any missing information on the pt3 form or missing the form
itself will result in marks deduction for the whole team.
 Students are expected to make sure that the written TMA meets the following criteria:
o Plagiarism: It’s imperative that team members write the TMA using their own
words. Plagiarism will be penalized depending on its severity and according to
AOU plagiarism policy.
o Format: team members are expected to write their answer in an essay format:
introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion. Failing to do so could result in
the deduction of up to 2 marks from the total TMA paper mark.

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 o Word count: TMAs are expected to be within the specified word count. A 10%
deviation from word count limit is acceptable. Not adhering to specified word
count could result in the deduction of up to 2 marks of the total TMA paper mark.
o Referencing: team members are expected to use the Harvard referencing style
for in-text referencing and list of references at the end. Failing to do so could
result in the deduction of up to 2 marks of the total TMA paper mark.
o E-Library: team members are expected to use E-library sources to support their
answers. A minimum of 3 sources is required. Failing to do so could result in the
deduction of up to 2 marks of the total TMA paper mark.
o Overdue: team leader of each group is expected to submit the report on or before
the due date and time specified for TMA submission for the module, any overdue
for the date and time specified will result in sever mark deduction or the work
been totally rejected and not graded.
o Submission: team leader is the only member who needs to submit the report, if
any other member on the same group additional to the team leader submits the
report; a deduction of up to 2 marks from the whole TMA will be enforced for
disorganization between the group members.
o Forming groups: any student who does not join a group and submit his name
within two weeks of the beginning of term, could result in excluding him/her from
the whole assessment (Report and Presentation), which will therefore result in
awarding the student Zero.

2. PowerPoint Presentation (50 marks out of 100)

 Each team will prepare a PowerPoint presentation that reflects on the most important
points discussed in the paper submitted earlier, and should demonstrate a high-level
understanding by being capable to handle respective questions from both the instructor
and the audience.
 In addition to the most important points discussed in the paper, team members should
include in their presentation a proof of access strategy to the chosen organization, this
may include photos of their meetings with respected managers at the chosen organization,
their business cards (Minimum of 1), minutes of meetings, video clips, access letter,
emails communications, etc. Failing to do so could result in the deduction of 5 marks
from the total presentation mark.
 Each team will be allowed a total of 15 minutes. 10 minutes for the presentation plus 5
minutes for Q&A and discussion.

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  All team members should contribute equally. Each member should speak for
approximately 2 minutes. The last team member to speak should lead a class discussion.
 Team members will be marked based on the “Team presentation evaluation form”. Team
members are advised to use this form as a baseline for preparing the presentation.
 Team members will receive different marks (Based on their participation and handling
the relevant questions from their tutors with respect to their defense of their report) on the
PowerPoint presentation, given they have shown up and participated in the presentation.
Team members who don’t show up or participate in the presentation will receive a Zero
on the presentation part.
 Balanced participation in the presentation is one of the requirements mentioned in the
presentation marking rubric.

BUS310 Team Presentation Evaluation Form

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 (Students who do not show up or do not participate in the presentation will receive a Zero on this part)

Project Name:

Team Leader (Student 1):

Student 2:
Student 3:
Student 4:
Student 5:

1. Meet Time Limit (0 - 3 pts.)

Start Time: End Time: Total time:

2. Introduction (0 - 3 pts.)
Good overview, outline, creating interest with audience, established credibility

3. Use of graphs, charts or tables (0 - 3 pts.)

Clear, supportive, used smoothly, interesting, appropriate charts

4. Content (0 - 15 pts.)
Good coverage of main points of the topic or assigned part

5. Conclusion (0 - 3 pts.)
Repeated key points, summarized presentation, brief, strong

6. Speaking skills & delivery style (0-10)

Well-paced and organized, team members had clear articulation, natural and easy use of
notes, projected energy, good posture, professional, brief and understandable slides

7. Participation (0 - 5 pts.)
Every team member spoke and participated at a very balanced level

8. Proof of access strategy (0 - 5 pts.)

Photos of meetings with respected managers at the chosen organization, their
business cards (Minimum of 1), minutes of meetings, video clips, access letter,
emails communications, etc

9. Questions & Answers (0 - 3 pts.)

Properly handled, able to respond appropriately, concise and direct, complete

Total Points (0-50)

Feedback:

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