Environmental analysis

Assessment title:

Group Report

Module Name:

Business Organisations and Management

Module Code:

FC314

Tutor’s Name:

Dr. Robert (Ratthanava Tivaratchai)

Assessment will be set in:

Week 2

Assessment is due in:

Week 15

Assessment weighting:

40%

For this assessment you will work in a small group of 3-4 students (groups will be allocated by your teacher), and you have to write a report that analyses the performance of a specific business organisation for a group of potential investors who are seeking to invest in a major company. You should select a company from the list below:

· Volkswagen

· Procter and Gamble

· HSBC

· H&M

· Walmart

· LVMH Moët Hennessy

· Chevron

· Amazon

First choose the company you are going to research. Your report should include some background information about the company, its performance and market position in relation to relevant internal and external factors in the countries in which it operates.

To successfully complete this task, you should work together as a team: planning, organising, researching, analysing, writing and referencing, to produce an effective written report.

Each team member will be responsible for writing a specific section, or sections, of the report. You must decide, as a team, which sections individual team members will work on.

Report Structure:

Section 1: Introduction –provide some background information about the company, the nature of its business; also include a brief summary of the purpose and content of the report.

Section 2: Operational Overview – this section should provide a summary of the company’s operations: the industrial sector it operates in and the products and/or services it offers; size and scale of the organisation, the methods used to grow the business; the company’s aims and objectives. You should also include your team’s evaluation of how successfully you think the company is achieving or working towards its aims and objectives.

Section 3: Environmental Analysis – this section should contain either a SWOT or a PESTLE analysis for the chosen company. It should also consider how the company has responded to the internal and external factors identified and make recommendations for other possible responses.

Section 4: Marketing – using one or two of the company’s main products or services as examples, this section should identify and describe the marketing mix used for each, and comment on how successful the strategies are and how they might be improved.

Section 5: Financial performance - this section should provide a brief analysis of the company’s financial performance. You will need to locate the company accounts for the last two financial years and comment on financial performance using data contained in the profit and loss accounts and balance sheets.

Section 6: Conclusion – provide a brief overview of the strengths and aspects for improvement of your company and make recommendations to the group of investors about whether or not you would advise them to invest, with your reasons.

Section 7: Reference list (not included in the word count).

Theory and/or task resources required for the assessment:

· Industrial classifications

· Business size, scale, aims and purpose

· Environmental analysis

· Marketing

· Preparation of financial documents

You must conduct secondary research for this assessed task, finding relevant sources. You should refer to a minimum of 8 relevant sources for your report. These sources should be a combination of electronic and printed sources. In addition to the company’s final accounts, you are expected to use academic sources from the University Library. You may supplement these with non-academic sources, e.g. news reports.

Assessment reference style:

You must use in-text citations and include a Harvard style reference list at the end of your report.

Expected word count:

2500 - 3000 words, following the structure outlined above.

The word count does not include the title and contents pages, reference list or any appendices.

The following learning outcomes are assessed in this task:

· Apply knowledge and understanding of external and internal business contexts in the analysis of the affairs of specific business organisations in order to produce an appropriate report.

· Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the external factors that influence businesses and the skills to assess how they might affect business activity.

The group report should be submitted through Turnitin via the VLE. Your report must be titled using the following pattern: ‘STUDENT NUMBER - GROUP NAME - TUTOR’S NAME’ Eg.’102648 - M27- Jane Smith’. Please do not write your names on group report documents. Format your report like this:

· Use Arial or Calibri font, size 12

· Use double-spaces between lines/1.5 and standard document margins

· Include an appropriate header

· Number all pages in the report

· Include a title page with the following information: Module Code (e.g. FC314); Module Name (Business Organisations and Management); Class/Group (e.g. Group A); Assessment Type (e.g. Group Report); Module Tutor Name; Student ID Numbers of all students in your group; Date of Submission; Word count

· On the contents page students should annotate the section(s) they have worked on with their name and student ID number.

Assessed work submitted after the deadline may lose marks or may not be accepted.

The assessment will be marked using four marking criteria. Three of these criteria are team marks and one is for individual contribution. The criteria are as follows:

· Individual contribution to task achievement: how well, individually, you addressed the report task and the extent of your overall contribution to the achievement of the task (35 marks – individual marks).

· Content and analysis: depth of knowledge and evidence of understanding about the company, business environment, marketing strategies and financial documents, and the extent to which you used detail and analysis in the report. How well you applied SWOT or PESTLE analysis, and evaluations of marketing strategies and financial performance (25 marks – team marks).

· Use of sources and support: how well researched your report is and how well you used sources, examples and data to support your analysis of the organisation, including how relevant your sources are (25 marks – team marks).

· Presentation, structure and referencing: How well you have organised, linked and developed your ideas, how well you have presented and formatted your report, how accurately you have used the Harvard referencing system for in-text citations and reference list (15 marks – team marks).

You will receive a mark for each of these categories, and your overall mark will be the total of the four. This assignment is marked out of 100.

Your tutor will mark the assessment via the Turnitin Plugin on the VLE.

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