Importance of Strategic Management for Competitive Advantage - Assignment

LO1 Analyse the impact and the influence which the macro environment has on an organisation and its business strategies;

LO2 Assess an organisation’s internal environment and capabilities;

LO3 Evaluate and apply the outcomes of an analysis by utilising Porter’s Five Forces model to a given market sector;

LO4 Apply models, theories and concepts to assist with the understanding and interpretation of strategic directions available to an organisation.

The aim of this assignment is to enable students to research and critically review the importance of strategic management within an organisation to achieve and sustain competitive advantage within the contextual market place.

Organisations face an ever changing and challenging environment. As a consultant working for Accenture, you have been instructed to research the environment within which an organisation is operating in and propose a strategic direction for the organisation. You may only choose from the following organisation. Utilising the contextual analytical tools, that the sessions have covered (such as SWOT, RBV, Porter’s 5-Forces, PESTLE, Ansoff Matrix), undertake a strategic analysis for ONE (1) of the following organisations and provide recommendations as to how the organisation remains competitive and develop the parts that remain attractive.

Your report must include a rationale of your chosen model/s and framework/s prior to using it for your analysis.

Your recommendations should be well founded and should clearly relate to your analysis.

• Tesla, Inc.;
• Qatar Airways;
• Carrefour supermarket;
• GMC trucks;
• Apple.

• Critically analyse by applying appropriate frameworks to assess the impact and influence the macro environment has on an organisation in order to determine strategic management decisions.
• Critically evaluate by analysing the internal environment and capabilities an organisation by using the appropriate models and frameworks to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation’s internal capabilities, structure and skills set.

Evaluate and apply the outcomes of an analysis by utilising Porter’s Five Forces model to a given market sector (LO3)

• Devise appropriate strategies by applying Porter’s Five Forces model to evaluate the competitive forces in a given market sector for an organisation’s strategies to improve its competitive advantage in its market position based on the outcomes.

Apply models, theories and concepts to assist with the understanding and interpretation of strategic directions available to an organisation (LO4)

• Produce a strategic management plan by applying a range of theories, concepts and models, interpret and that has tangible and tactical strategic priorities and objectives in a given organisation.

Critique and interpret information and data applying environmental and competitive analysis to produce a set of valid strategic directions, objectives and tactical actions

The submission is in the form of an individual written report. This should be written in a concise, formal business style. You are required to make use of headings, paragraphs and subsections as appropriate, and all work must be supported with research and referenced using the Harvard referencing system. You must also provide a bibliography using the Harvard referencing system.

1. Hand-in the assignment in on time
2. Font size should be 12pt
3. 1.5-line spacing
4. Demonstrate evidence of background reading through reference to relevant theories & texts in your assignment.
5. Provide a full bibliography and use the Harvard Referencing System.
6. Present your work using a good standard of English throughout