Strategic Planning ,Longitudinal Strategic Development Study 3500 words

Read the file attached

Your Task 

Selecting one company from the list at the end of this section, undertake 

the following: 

1. RECENT PAST: Strategies deployed and resulting outcomes- recent 

strategic development history.  Research, describe and give a succinct 

account of the strategic development history of the company you choose 

set within the context or the industry to which it belongs over the 

past 5 to 25 years, choosing the duration of time for the study most 

appropriate for understanding the recent strategic development of the 

company. Avoid making just chronological lists of events from websites and 

in particular identify the strategy(ies) that the company has been pursuing 

and any changes in strategy that the company has made during the period 

under consideration and their outcomes and consequences for the strategic 

situation which is the subject of the following section(1000 to 1500 words) 

2. CURRENT: Current Strategic Situation. Undertake an evaluation and 

appraisal of the company’s current strategic situation at the time of writing 

which relates to the previous section, using any research sources 

appropriate to support your analysis. Pay particular attention to the 

company’s strategic macro, industry and competitive environment, changes 

and trends in that environment and the company’s endowment of internal 

and external resources, capabilities and organisational structure 

emanating from decisions made in the recent past. Give a synopsis of 

the company’s strategic situation in a way which is meaningful for the 

strategic choices it is able to make for the future which are the subject of 

section 3 below (1000 to 1500 words)

3. FUTURE: Strategic Direction for the future. Based on your research 

and analysis undertaken for sections 1 and 2 above, explore a limited range 

of distinctively different choices of your own creation available to the 

company for the future. Evaluate and assess the choices available leading to 

recommendations for the company of your choice’s strategic route forward. 

Make clear the assumptions you have made and present your 

recommendations in a way that accommodate uncertainties and changes 

that might occur to the recommendations in the event of the occurrence of 

specified contingencies or changes in assumptions (1000 to 1500 words) 

The Companies you may choose from and for which case studies are 

available and will be issued to provide a starting point (NOT the finish 

point) for the study as enumerated under 1 to 3 above are: 

Sony Corporation (consumer electronics and media) 

Groupe Danone/Royal NUMICO NV (baby foods and nutritional 

supplements) 

IKEA (Home products retailer) 

Caterpillar (construction equipment and contractors plant) 

You may also choose another company of your own choice from UK stock 

exchange listed companies (good sources Financial Times or CityAM (free 

newspaper available every morning at many London underground station 

exits), BUT IF YOU DO be sure you are a) able to research this company in 

sufficient depth b) choose a company which is amenable to strategic 

analysis of the nature delivered over the duration of the course. DO NOT 

choose a company which is a pure investment vehicle, such as 3i, or other 

private equity group whose interests may span a range of minority or 

majority holdings in a number of related or unrelated businesses mainly for 

the equity fund performance purposes, or a company which is more in the 

nature of a vehicle for trading in or capturing returns from financial 

instruments or securities such as hedge investment or unit trust funds