Strategic Management

What to include in different sections of the report?

Executive summary:

Please do not call this section ‘abstract’. Abstracts and executive summaries are very similar, although a convention is that abstracts are written mainly for academic papers and executive summaries are written for business reports.

The executive summary must be inserted before the table of contents. If the executive summary looks professional. it will help to impress your reader / marker.

Here you need to include all the major points from every part of your report, including the main findings and conclusions. Again, this is not an introduction, it is an executive summary, i.e. it is a condensed summary of the whole report. People usually read executive summaries in order to decide whether or not they want to read the whole report. Therefore, don’t keep the reader wondering about the report’s conclusions or recommendations. You are not writing a detective story.

Maximum word count: 200 words

Introduction:

Write an introduction for sign posting purposes. Explain the purpose and the structure of the report, and briefly introduce the organisation that you will be analysing. Since you have a limited word count, the introduction should be very small – about one paragraph. The introduction is different from the executive summary and the conclusion because it does not include the summary of the findings and conclusions. Leave those for the conclusion and the executive summary!

Suggested word count: 150 words

1. External environment analysis:

To analyse the external environment of the case study organisation you are asked to use both frameworks: a 5 Forces analysis for the micro external environment, and a PESTEL analysis for the macro external environment. Choose the most important factors from these frameworks that you will later use to justify the business level strategy. There is no need to analyse every aspect of these frameworks.

Make sure that your analysis focus on the industry, and not on a specific organisation. Specify the geographical area of the industry that you are focusing your analysis on. You may consider the external environment in a global context or within a context of one country. The decision is yours.

Suggested word count: 200 words

2. Internal environment analysis:

To analyse the internal environment we expect you to use the resources and capabilities theory (R+Cs or else the Resource Based View of the Company) or the Value Chain theory.

If you use RBV we would like you to present the key strategic resources and core capabilities. Please see examples of resources and capabilities in the lecture slides. To analyse the organisation’s financial resources you must mention some key financial indicators for that organisation. You will need to state clearly what are the core capabilities/competencies of the organisation and why they are core. An example could be: does the organisation’s level of financial control and or use of economies of scale derive competitive advantage? Is this a core capability within the organisation?

As for the Value Chain analysis you do not need to describe in detail every single activity. Here, you will need to show those linkages (combinations of primary and support activities) that either increase the customer value or reduce the operating cost. You can conclude this section by explaining what competitive advantages are created for the organisation and how.

Suggested word count: 200 words

3. The strategic analysis

This section can be divided into two sections: the analysis of business (competitive) level strategies and the evaluation of current and / or future strategies that include ethical implications.

3.1 Analysis of the Business Level Strategy

Identify, evaluate and justify the competitive level strategy of Hyundai. Consider theories, such as cost leadership, differentiation, hybrid or Blue Ocean. To justify the business level strategy you need to make a clear link between the strategy, external and internal environment analyses.

Suggested word count: 550 - 600 words

3.2 Evaluation of strategy

The evaluation of strategies should include suggestions and recommendations for future strategies. You can suggest either sustaining the existing ones, or developing the existing ones, or developing new strategies.

To evaluate strategies use theoretical frameworks such as:

· SAF (preferably - as said above)

· STAIR model

· SUITS model

· RACES model

· or any other properly referenced model.

You don’t need to use more than one of the above frameworks.

This section must include ethical implications of strategy.

Identify one, two or three key issues that impacted Hyundai’s ethical image. How does the public perceive the organisation? How do the ethical issues affect the organisation’s current and future strategy?

This section is more flexible about which theories you would like to use. You can use theories studied in other modules as well if they are appropriate. After all this module integrates the knowledge and skills that you have learnt in your previous years of study (see the module aims in the module handbook).

Suggested word count: 550 - 600 words

Conclusion:

Emphasise and summarise the most important ideas presented in the report. Do not just summarise all of your findings.

Suggested word count: 200 words

References:

Please use the academic terminology and reference properly every academic framework, concept and theory in text.

The reference list at the end is not a bibliography. It is a list of all and only those sources that you have referenced inside the report. Do not include literature sources that are not referenced in text. Use the Westminster Harvard referencing style. Do not use footnotes.

Appendices:

This section is not essential. Please do not put any important information in the appendices, as it is not marked. Use it for additional purposes only bearing in mind that most people briefly scan appendices and do not read them in detail. The appendices are not included in the word count but should be maximum 3 pages long. Use only charts and tables, no text is allowed. So please consider it carefully whether you actually need to include any appendices at all or not.

How to apply theories in the analysis?

You are not required to analyse or describe any theory in separate paragraphs. You may briefly explain a theory in one or two lines, but most importantly apply the theories into the analysis, i.e. use theories as lens or frameworks for the analysis of your research findings. Use appropriate references. You are not expected to reference the main textbook only. If you want to use a theory that is mentioned in the textbook try to find the original sources and reference it (for example Porter, 1985).

How many references to use?

We will be assessing the quality of your references, not the quantity. For example if you use 20 or 30 references from unreliable sources this will be considered as poor research skills. Whereas if you use 15 - 20 good quality references then you may receive a higher mark.

Since the strategic report is based on a live case study the number of references can be as high as 50 – 70, since some Internet articles are short, easy to find and to use. We would expect to see fewer but good quality academic sources in the board report.

What do we mean by good quality sources?

The most reliable and varied sources that we suggest to use in this report are academic books, academic journal articles, business reports and information written and published on official organisations’ sites, and information available in databases, such as Mintel and FAME. Certain sources are clearly unreliable. These include Wikipedia, Businessballs, various blogs etc. However some sources are in the middle ground. These include certain blogs and websites written by experts, news articles, YouTube and other videos produced by academics and business experts. Please use sources with caution and assess their reliability before referencing them. If in doubt speak with your seminar leader or post a question on the discussion board Piazza.

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