SOEO8701 Business and Management Challenges

The coursework will be a written report, you are invited to read the case study The Virgin Group from the textbook pp 293 – 297 (you can also find an electronic copy on Moodle), and answer the following questions. In order to answer the questions, you need to extract as much information as possible from the case study to support your discussion. You are also encouraged to go beyond the case study, use external sources about The Virgin Group to enhance your answer. 1. Set out an analysis of the key forces in the general environment (both national and international) which have an influence on the business. Among the key forces are Political, Economic, Legal, Socio-cultural, Environmental/Ecological, and Technological. 2. Conduct a Five Forces analysis of one of the Virgin companies, Among the forces are new entrants, substitutes, buyers, suppliers and competitors. 3. Conduct a SWOT analysis. Among the issues to be addressed are the business response to the threats and opportunities; was the business reactive or proactive? how the businessactivities are organised? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Judgement on the business ability to respond. 4. Are the decisions mentioned in the Case programmed or non-programmed? And why? Refer to the material on Virgin Rail, and identify an example of the ‘dependency’ of decisions. 5. On balance, does the Virgin story support the planned or the emergent view of strategy? And Why? 6. Which generic strategies has Virgin Group followed? And Why?7. What new issues appear to be facing the company that were not mentioned in the case?