Assessment on Long-term sustainability of international business

This assessment asks you to consider the long-term sustainability of a business in the ever-changing, and often hostile, global business environment.  You should weigh up a range of complex issues, such as the business environment, culture, leadership, corporate governance and others when developing a strategy for an international business.

You will be given a choice of five organisations and given some basic information to introduce you to each business’ fundamentals.  You will be asked to choose your case study organisation in the first seminar of the Strategy part of this module, and you are encouraged to work in groups in your seminars to apply the strategic management concepts and frameworks discussed in lectures to your chosen case study organisation.  This sharing of information and discussion will help you in the appropriate application of the concepts and frameworks.

Discussion in groups will support you, but you will then write an individual management report analysing the situation of the business and making strategic recommendations for the future direction of the business.  You should use a variety of theoretical materials as well as company/market/sector data to complete the report.

The suggested structure of your report is as follows:

Title Page (title should be specific to the report)

Contents Page

Introduction to the Report (50 words)

Here you should explain to the reader what will be covered in the report.

Brief Background to Case Study Organisation (50 words)

This should be a short section on the fundamentals of the business.  Do not go into too much detail here, as it is likely that information on the business’s successes (and failures) can be better used in the following analysis sections.

External Analysis using one external analysis tool (15%) (375 words)

Here you will give a brief explanation, using support from academic texts, as to which external analysis tool you have chosen and its suitability.  You will apply that analysis tool to your organisation, and use company, market or sector information to support your points (so each claim needs to be supported by a citation).

Internal Analysis using one internal analysis tool (15%) (375 words)

Here you will give a brief explanation, using support from academic texts, as to which internal analysis tool you have chosen and its suitability.  You will apply that analysis tool to your organisation and use company information to support your points (so each claim needs to be supported by a citation).

From the Analysis, write a Summary of the organisation’s key Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats using a SWOT (15%) (375 words)

Plan a Strategic Approach using a TOWS (15%) (375 words)

Make two Strategic Recommendations Based on your Analysis.  For each, apply the SAF tool to decide which would be most appropriate for implementation (30%) (750 words)

Here we will want to see the use of strategic management vocabulary, and the use of academic texts, to explain the type of strategic recommendation you are making, and to debate its pros and cons.