A Strategic Audit essay business paper help

Assignment 1: A Strategic Audit
Due: Monday, 20th April 2015
Word Count: 4000 – 4500 words (excluding refs & appendices)

The purpose of your report

The aim of this assignment is to help you learn to address the issues of strategy in the context of an industry. You are to produce a report demonstrating your ability to offer a strategic analysis of an organization and its industry. An assessment or evaluation of a situation means that you examine the various aspects of it and reach a judgement. It is more than describing or listing. Your report should also demonstrate your knowledge of and ability to apply the various strategic management concepts and models available to assess an organization and an industry.

Instructions – READ THESE BEFORE YOU START YOUR ASSIGNMENT!
You are to select a New Zealand based organization of sufficient size (more than 20 employees) and complexity for your analysis. Your choice may be an independent subsidiary of a multinational but it must function autonomously from its headquarters and be able to formulate its own strategy. A branch or subsidiary of Westpac Bank for example would not be acceptable as it follows the strategy of its head office in Australia. Your chosen company needs to be easily identifiable as a reasonably significant player/competitor in its industry. Be careful of organizations like Fonterra, Air New Zealand, Carter-Holt Harvey and so on. These are multi-divisional corporates and operate several independent Business Units, but whose strategy is ultimately tied to one Head Office or Corporate strategy. Follow the guidelines for your report set out below once you have made your choice.

Guidelines
• Your report starts with the usual cover sheet and an Executive Summary – the Exec Summary is the last thing to be written in a report and summarises all the information contained in it. It also includes any assumptions and limitations encountered during the analysis.
• Table of Contents – this is self-explanatory, however, students do forget sometimes to put in the page numbers for the various headings! Check your work before you submit it!
• Introduction – The introduction outlines and describes the business your selected organization does. It provides context and should cover the first element of your audit, namely, the Industry Analysis. Questions to cover are, but are not limited to, the following – What industry sector is it? How large is this industry? Is it consolidated or fragmented? What are the key drivers in the industry? Where is the organization placed on the industry lifecycle curve? How dynamic is the industry? What position does the organization occupy in the industry’s market? Who are the big players that dominate this industry? What are the key issues arising at this time with respect to your selected organization and its industry? Etc. Do not confine yourself to the above questions – describe your industry as thoroughly as you can with points that are relevant from a strategic perspective. A stranger, reading your report for the first time should have an immediate general grasp of the industry your selected organization operates in and a broad understanding of some of the issues.
• Macro-environmental analysis – We use a tool for this which is called a PESTEL analysis (evolved from a PEST and PESTE analysis). The acronym stands for Political; Economic; Social/Demographic; Technological; Environmental and Legal; all elements that have a direct or indirect influence on the performance of the organization you are analysing. It is possible to tabulate your analysis and place this in the appendices, however, key issues in each of the dimensions need to be highlighted and discussed in the report, particularly if they have a strong direct influence on the business at present or at some near future stage. You are going to need to look at your organization from a holistic perspective and understand how it operates in the context of the wider environment in order to do this analysis.
• Competitive analysis – There is a tool for this analysis as well, Porter’s Five Forces. Refer to your readings and texts on this analysis and what output you are attempting to convey. Some elements of your industry analysis and macro-environmental analysis will be relevant here but it focuses mainly on your competitors and their position in the market relative to your own. Again, a full analysis can be attached in the appendices but I would expect a discussion of key issues that directly influence the organization to be put into the report itself.
• SWOT analysis – Many students, and large organizations for that matter, make the mistake of thinking a SWOT analysis of their organization is all that is necessary to formulate a strategy. This is not only naive, but also a fundamentally flawed approach to strategy formulation. The SWOT analysis is a summary instrument that highlights the opportunities and threats emanating from the previous three pieces of analysis. The analytical component of a SWOT is embedded in the internal analysis of the organization where you are trying to solicit what the strengths and weaknesses of your selected organization are. You need to find and isolate the distinctive competencies of your selected organization and list its major weaknesses. A VRIO/VRINE analysis is also useful for this purpose. Note too that a strength can also be a weakness – for example, if you are married to the Chairman’s son/daughter and you’re ‘good’ with the ‘old man’ that could be a strength, however, if your relationship is taking strain (because you disagree with his/her strategic direction) you might want to reflect on how ‘good’ you are with the ‘old man’! The final SWOT analysis is used as a strategic decision making information source that highlights the most important issues to be addressed by the strategy.
• Conclusion – This is a short summary of your findings highlighting the key opportunities and threats and giving some guidance regarding how the strengths of the organization can be used to capitalise/minimise them. You also need to point out the weaknesses and give a broad outline as to how they can be dealt with. Do not make specific recommendations or any reference to solutions!
Tips for completing the audit:
FIRST AND FOREMOST! – GO AND VISIT THE LIBRARY! IN ADDITION TO THE SUGGESTED TEXTS YOU NEED TO REFERENCE OTHER STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT TEXT BOOKS. YOU CANNOT COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT BY ‘GOOGLING’ IT! STUDENTS WILL BE PENALISED IF REFERENCE MATERIAL IS SOURCED SOLELY OFF THE INTERNET!
1. Study the texts provided as well as any other source material and ensure you are familiar with the tools used for this assignment.
2. If you state that something is the case about your chosen industry or organization you need to back it up with relevant authority – remember to reference it!
3. Develop a programme for completing this assignment – you only get one opportunity as there are no extensions.
4. Do not speculate! If you are unsure whether something is or isn’t the case then go find out and provide confirmation of your information, otherwise exclude it from your analysis.
5. References to industry authority, texts, journals and industry publications are welcome if they are used to back up the assertions you make in your report. You need to start reading outside your regular targeted material and this evidence attracts marks.

The Learning Outcome/s being assessed through this assignment are drawn from the LOs for this course. They are the ability to:

1. Critically analyse concepts and theories relevant to strategic management.
2. Explain and evaluate the processes of strategy formulation, implementation and control.
3. Apply appropriate methods of strategic analysis.

Your report must demonstrate your mastery of the theoretical material, and the ability to integrate information from different sources.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

I am strict about submissions and deadlines. I expect work to be submitted when it is due so that I can get on a do my JOB which is to mark it and provide you with timely and relevant feedback. I respect the time and effort you have put into your work. Please also respect the time and effort I put into assessing your work by handing it in when it is due.

I do not give extensions. Unless there are exceptional medical circumstances (for which you must provide proof) that prevent you from handing work in on time to the required standard I will not entertain requests for extensions. Should exceptional circumstances arise during the course of your assignment preparation, I expect to be approached and / or advised of your circumstances well in advance of the hand in time, not at the 11th hour before submission. Late work will not be marked and will receive a ‘zero’ grade. Plan your work! All of the information to complete this programme has been provided to you through Stream and this handbook. Map out what you need to do and how you will achieve it early on in the piece.

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