Guideline for Strategic Management Group Assignment

1. Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose

 You will need to do this section last. There are two things that students will
need to do. Firstly you will need to present critical facts about the case that
affected the focal discussion of the analysis. Secondly you will need to state
all the ‘assumptions’ that they have made throughout their analysis (from Part
2 to 5). Assumptions will be important as students will not be able to get all
information from the case itself. Therefore, you will need to look for
additional facts concerning the company on the Internet in the form of reports,
analysis, news etc. You will only be allowed to use Internet resources that falls
within the timeframe when the case is written. For example if the scenario
from the case is up to year 2010, only articles that fit in the timeframe of the
scenario (year 2010 and earlier) can be used. This particular section (Part 1)
should not be too long. It is sufficient to cover in 1 to 1 and half page.
2. Situation Analysis
This section will be based on Chapter 2 (External environment), Chapter 3
(Internal environment) and Chapter 5 (Competitive rivalry)
 General environmental analysis
o The focus of this section will be the 7 general environments as listed in
Table 2.1 on page 34. You will need to do as comprehensive
evaluation of the environment as possible. However, there might be a
situation in which some of the environment might not have any impact
on the company. As a guide, if you only evaluated 6 out of the 7
possible general environment, this is allowable (in certain situations)
but the discussion on the external environment should not be fewer
than 6.
 Industry analysis
o The focus of this section will be the Porter’s Five Forces (Figure 2.2
page 47) – for each of the forces you will need to decide whether it is
“high, moderate or low” after their analysis.
 Competitor analysis
o The discussion will be focused on the company’s competitors based on
“Market commonality, Resource similarity”. Based on this you will
need to decide who are the company’s “direct and mutually
acknowledge competitors’ and who are “not direct and mutually
acknowledge competitors’
 Internal analysis
o Identify any resources or capabilities that the company have. These
need to be evaluated from the VRIO perspective (please refer to Table
3.5 on page 81). Based on each of the evaluated resource/capability
what is their competitive consequences (temporary CA, sustainable CA
etc) and their performance implications (above average return, average
return etc).
o You also need to do some of the financial ratio listed in Table A-1 to
A-5. You do not have to use all the ratios. It is sufficient to select a few
of the ratios and to demonstrate their understanding on the financial
health of the company in terms of profitability, paying off the
company’s long term/short term debt etc)
3. SWOT Analysis
 This will be the summary from Part 2 above in the context of SWOT. As a
guide, you need to provide between 3-5 points with explanation for each part.
4. Strategy Formulation
This section will be based on Chapter 4 to 9. The discussion will need to flow
from the analysis made from Part 2 and 3 above. You will need to select and
justify the following
 Strategic alternatives
o You will need to suggest between 3-5 alternative strategies. You can
suggest business level strategy (cost leadership, differentiation, focus
or integrated), corporate level strategy (diversification, mergers and
acquisition, restructuring, cooperative) and global strategy.
 Alternative evaluation
o For each of the selected strategies suggested above (under the strategic
alternatives), you will need to give their reasons for the based on the
rationale of the external, internal environment, competitors and SWOT
analysis.
 Alternative choice
o For this section you will need to choose ONE or TWO of the
suggested strategy proposed in the strategic alternative section. You
will need to justify why you decide on this strategy compared to others
suggested above. This ONE ultimate strategy chosen will be the basis
for evaluation in the strategic alternative implementation (Part 5)
below.
5. Strategic Alternative Implementation
This section will be based on the last 3 chapters (Chapter 10-12) on CG and
ethics, structure and controls and leadership. You will need to demonstrate your
ability to apply or justify any possible strategic changes that might need to be
done when you implement the selected alternative choice listed in part 4 above.