You are required to select any global or national company and conduct a strategic audit to address the following questions:
a.
Identify strategic issues or problems appear in organization’s current situation. The issues or problems highlighted must be supplemented with credible sources from printed media (financial report/business magazines/newspaper), social media or website.
b.
Analyze the company’s internal and external environment and identify strategic long-term direction, its resources, and competitive capabilities to craft an appropriate strategy. You can analyze the strategic audit by analyzing the company’s internal and external forces as suggested below:
Internal Forces:
i.
Company’s background and profile
ii.
Company’s type and the industry
iii.
Company’s Vision, Mission, Objectives, and its current strategic posture. You are required to critically review the vision, mission, and objectives of the organization and discuss if these statements fit with the company’s strategies.
iv.
The list of BOD & Top Management Team
v.
The company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy
vi.
The resources, capabilities and core competencies. Critically analyze if the resources, capabilities, and core competencies have been fully utilized. You can use the VRIO framework to support your discussion.
External Forces:
i.
General environment analysis (STEEP, PESTEL, PEST). Discuss how these environmental factors influence the organization on the macro level.
ii.
Industrial environment analysis (Porter 5 Forces). Discuss the level of impact each of these factors on the development and sustainability of the organization.
c.
Propose the best strategy/strategic options/recommendations to the management of the organization to strengthen the company’s competitive position and future strategic direction.
i.
You may consider using relevant strategic tools (SWOT, TOWS, BCG, SFAS) to assist you to assess the best strategy/strategic options/recommendation that can be used by the company.
NOTES: The assignment should be not less than 25 pages; using APA system. References are COMPULSORY to support your analyses and discussion.
CORPORATE PRESENTATION – ASSIGNMENT
Following through the strategic audit that you have conducted, you are required to present your findings/suggestions/recommendations to the Board of Directors of the organization. You are given 15 minutes to present. The following content are priorities of your presentation.
i.
Company Issues
ii.
SWOT/TOWS analysis
iii.
Recommendations of alternative strategies & strategic solutions
You are encouraged to incorporate creativity in your presentation. The presentation does not restrict to on-the-spot presentation. You can use a pre-recorded video as medium of presentation (corporate video presentation), you can opt for a video-conference-like presentation or even presenting the report as one of the members of the BOD.
3.0
MINI CASE FOR MANAGERIAL SKILLS (2 CASES) – INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
2 selected cases from Harvard Business Publishing will be given to the students. Students are required to thoroughly read through the case and do some additional information search. The instructor will then issue a few questions for each case and the students are required to write up a short response to these questions. Note that the questions are meant to test the comprehension of the material in the case.
Mini Case 1: The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry
(Questions)
1 – Describe the industry that the original BlackBerry competed in.
2 – Why was the original BlackBerry product so successful? What was the basis for BlackBerry’s competitive advantage?
3 – When competitors introduced new products, how did BlackBerry react? Why did BlackBerry react this way?
4 – Why was BlackBerry unable to sustain its industry position?
Mini Case 2: Netflix: International Expansion
(Questions)
1 – Analyze the overall profitability of the industry in which Netflix is operating using Porter’s Five Forces Model.
2 – Conduct a strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis for Netflix, and provide strategic suggestions based on that analysis.
3 – Define Netflix’s competitive advantage. Why is Netflix so successful?