2k words paper

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Hull University Business School

Connected Thinking!

Business Strategies 2019

Dr. Giles A. Hindle

600552

Assignment 1 Report– Week 5 Session A

Dr. Giles A. Hindle E: [email protected] T: +44 1482 463 457

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Assignment 1

• For Assignment 1 you will perform a strategy project and write a report.

• The assignment employs materials studied in weeks 1-5 of the module.

• Your report will be handed in Thursday 7th November.

• The project will be based upon a case study which is realistic.

• Your task: Use the following method to develop strategic recommendations for the client within a report.

Assignment Method

• Step 1: Situation Mapping • Use rich picturing to express the situation and identify key issues • Understand the client's needs and perform a stakeholder analysis

• Step 2: Review the Environment of the business • Opportunities & Threats from the rich picture • PEST and 5 forces analysis to assess wider environment and industry

• Step 3: Internal review of the business • Strengths and Weaknesses from the rich picture • Business Model analysis and resources / competences of the business

• Step 4: Assess competitive performance • Review steps 1 to 3 to assess competitive performance • Strategy Canvas analysis

• Step 5: Produce Project Outputs • Review steps 1 to 4 to develop recommendations for the business • Produce final report for the client

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project

Analysis Phase

Outputs Phase

Iteration

Inception Phase

Outputs

• The normal outputs are a final report and presentation to key stakeholders

• The report will have to act on 2 levels: • Communicate and sell your project to the organisation -

the logic of your analysis and the robustness of the findings

• Represent a formal record of the project for their records and for audit purposes

• The presentation is vital, as the team must “sell” their project to key stakeholders – this ensures findings are taken forward and the report read

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Hints and Tips

• Ensure the outputs phase of your project is jointly designed with the client • They may have different priorities to your team

• Ensure the language and focus of your report and presentation are appropriate – and check this!

• Leave time in the project plan to complete the outputs phase effectively – we tend to love the analysis phase too much!

• Try to understand the context of the project so the outputs phase is realistic

• Remember, good projects can go bad in the outputs phase – client satisfaction is our main goal!

When?

• Reports and presentations are usually for: • sales pitching (proposals), • project updates, or • final reports.

• The most common situation for presentations is a group meeting with key stakeholders • Not normally appropriate to present as though to a

large audience with the psychological ‘distance’ that allows (Public Speaking)

• Not normally appropriate to ‘converse’ • Must be professional, positive and convincing.

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Key Factors for reports and presentations

• Clear Message – you must summarise

• Clear Structure – easy to follow the logic

• Speaking & Language – tune in to the culture

• Reacting and Interacting – team approach helps

• Use of Visuals – only if adding value • Notice the similarity with general communication skills

Basic Structure

⦿Executive Summary – it’s a summary!! ⦿Introduction • Give context, purpose of project & content of report

⦿Content • Organise into logical progression • Remind audience of the logical flow (“signposting”)

⦿Summary • Remind audience of the content of the report • Leave a clear message – SO WHAT?

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3 types of readers…

Reader 1 Senior Managers

Executive Summary

ONLY

Reader 2 Client & Key Stakeholders

Executive Summary

+ Main Body

ONLY

Executive Summary

+ Main Body

+ Appendices

Reader 3 Technical

Staff

So, EACH of these aspects of your report must read as a complete whole

The Executive Summary

Frequently a problem!

⦿Needs to be an overview of the whole report

⦿One page, if you can

⦿Mistakes? • Provides an introduction, rather than a summary • Fails to cover findings/recommendations • Becomes too long • Is missing the point – i.e. SO WHAT?

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Diagrams and Charts

⦿People like well organised, well presented charts but: • must be fully annotated, titled and with axes and data

points clearly labelled • should be self-contained and understandable without

the text • make sure that they add value! • not too many either • be careful, they may set people off…

Chart – easy to understand?

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Tables

⦿People don’t like tables of numbers very much ⦿They may be essential but ...

• leave them out if they aren’t essential

• split them into digestible portions

• titles, notes, labels are as important as with diagrams

• almost understandable without the text

• use appendices for most tables

Pictures – give the right tone?

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Pictures – people like to see themselves

Pictures – make a point?

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Common Mistakes - reports

• Misreading the client expectations – Wrong tone, style, content, language, main message

• No clear message, just lots of information – I call this the “bucket approach” – no one likes it!

• Poor Executive Summary (just an introduction) • Poor introduction (not setting the scene) • Hard to read main body (structure and signposting) • Language inappropriate to client organisation • Too much technical content in main body • Hard to read appendices • Report too long