What you need to do
You are to select a company of your own choice and conduct a strategic analysis review using the concepts and tools we have visited during the course. You may, of course, use other frameworks and models if they are appropriate. The company can be a large, established organisation or a small company, even a family owned business. However, for the latter two the company MUST have a website and at least three years track record in operating.
You have carte blanche to choose a company in your own country, it does NOT have to be a large global company unless you want to. The choice of company will be on a first come first served basis (i.e. I will not allow more than one person to do Google or Apple or IBM etc. etc.) as I am looking for something a little broader. Also, we will have many discussions (and readings) on the Googles of this world so I am looking for you to use those as a learning springboard rather than figuring out a strategy for these large organisations which, in all honesty, they have already figured out.
You will have to submit your choice of company and any accompanying details (website, brief company outline etc.) and the strategic objectives that you have in mind. We will discuss what these entail in the first few weeks so you can craft a set of achievable and well-crafted objectives so you can then expand in the final report the strategy you have formulated to achieve these.
The final report should include a comprehensive review of the status quo of the company and the objectives you would have outlined previously This should form the shell for you to explain in detail the actions you will take to achieve these, the timelines (I would suggest 3 to 5 years depending on the size of the company), any challenges, risks and mitigation plans, resources and competitors. The report should serve as a blueprint for the organisation to navigate through the next few years in order to achieve the desired objectives.
A good report will make good and selective use of frameworks and concepts we will have visited in class, provide a realistic and balanced view of what is achievable, list the resources, risks and other elements mentioned above and how, as part of a strategic plan, you would deal with any eventualities, changes and so on.
A word of warning
Please note that that I understand that COVID has had a huge (and perhaps long-lasting) impact on businesses but I strongly encourage you to look ahead and not focus exclusively on COVID as in the future (hopefully the not so distant) the world should come back to some form of operational normality and focusing solely (or at least primarily) on COVID would be a very short-term and myopic strategic view.
So, what am I looking for?
A good an analysis and a strategic way forward is one that is coherent, realistic and that can be implemented in a practical and doable manner. It can be ambitious, of course and you should be able to show me the different stages and milestones you will target to reach these (the McKinsey model we will visit in class will help you design this). As cliche as it sounds always think of SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Timebound). Also, and we will discuss in class in more detail, think that you will always have to ‘sell’ your strategy to someone, be it shareholders, internal stakeholders, potential investors and so on. Therefore I will be looking for your persuasive approach to selling me your strategy and showing me (through corroborated facts) that it should work. The how the who and why are as important as the what.
Make sure you cover the following in your structure:
WHAT (i.e. what you will be doing)
WHERE (where will it be happening, geographically or where will you be playing in terms of industry)
WHY (explain the rationale behind your choices)
WHO (who will you be targeting in terms of who your strategic customers will be, people involved, partners, channels etc.)
HOW (what actions and decisions you will need to take for this to happen, including risks, assumptions etc.)
HOW MUCH (high level financials and expected return – it CAN be a range)
HOW LONG (provide a timeline, graphical timelines are always ideal)
Deliverables
One 2,500 to 3,000 word strategic report (in Word format please) detailing the elements described above. There is a +10% tolerance on word count. Why maximum 3,000? In the real business world you will many a time be given strict guidelines on format, word count, structure etc. you go over these and you may be out of the running so it’s good discipline (I will share with you a few good examples from my experience). You can, of course have an appendix and that will not be included as part of the word count but make sure you do not have an appendix that is twice as long as the body (I’ve seen it happen), we will discuss this in more detail where I will give you some pointers on how to structure these kinds of reports.
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