Final Assignment for Strategic Planning and Implementation Course

1. You are required to complete the Final Assignment outlined below and submit your completed final paper through the RKC Online Campus by the end of Unit 6. Your grade will be based 100% on this final paper, to which you will also receive written feedback.

2.  Please ask any questions about the Final Assignment in the Forum.

The Final Assignment is a 4500 words paper. It is strongly advised to start working on it early in the course. Actions:

1. Identify an organisation whose strategies you will examine. We strongly suggest you review your own organisation as it is easier to collect data about it. If that is not possible, for example if you are not working at the moment, then examine an organisation you are personally familiar with. Do not choose a famous name organisation like Google, IBM, Nestle, etc. unless you work for them. Depending on the concept selected in point 3, you may want to reduce the scope to a strategic business unit in a particular geography, as emphasised already in the interim assignment. Choose a Private Hospital Organisation.

2. Using the SWOT you prepared for the Interim Assignment  - you should update it based on the feedback we gave you to your Interim Assignment - write a short evaluation of the current  position of the organisation, its environment and the degree of uncertainty and change going on, its strategies in use and the strategic issues it faces. 

3. From the evaluation, you need to propose future strategies for the organisation. There may be many alternative options open to the organisation, what are they? Then choose one direction you recommend the organisation goes in? Choose ONE concept from the following list that you argue is the number one priority concept the organisation should focus on:

• Core competencies
• Generic strategies – either cost leadership or differentiation, or focused cost leadership or differentiation, or outpacing.
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Alliances
• Outsourcing
• CSR and shared value
• Blue ocean strategy
• BSC
• Capability development and agility
• Culture change 

Make an argument to justify your choice.

4. You must demonstrate you have a deep understanding of the concept you apply. You must do this by critically examining the concept. Research a minimum of 10 peer-reviewed articles about the concept from the research literature.  Examine what different researchers say about how the concept is used in practice, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and how the concept can be adapted or strengthened to make it effective.