In this assignment you are going to prepare a strategy report for a business.
FIRST, you must decide whether to do the Assignment alone (which counts as a group of just
one student) or as a member of a group of up to three students. The Assignment is a lot of work
and we do not recommend doing it alone, particularly if you do not yet have much experience of
assignment writing at Deakin or if English is not your first language.
SECOND, once you have formed your Group, of one person if you are doing the Assignment
alone or of 2 or 3 people, you must register your Group and all its members in the Groups tab
under ‘More’ on the Unit’s DeakinSync webpage.
Remember, you MUST enrol in a Group even if you are doing the Assignment alone: if
you don’t register you won’t be able to submit your assignment and the system won’t let us
give you a mark!
Your group (of one, two or three) have been asked to prepare a strategy report for a business.
After completing the two steps above, the next step is to select a real, existing business as the
subject of your assignment. The business can be a publicly listed company in Australia or
overseas which is of interest to you or to other members of your group, or it may be a large
private or family business located either in Australia or overseas. It could also be a government
agency or a non-government organisation, so long as it has an internal organisation and has
some form of annual reporting. If you are in any doubt about the suitability of any organisation,
please ask the Lecturer. Do not use or refer to assignments completed by students for this unit in
previous trimesters. (A record of past assignments is kept.) Note also that the requirements of
the assignment change from trimester to trimester.
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The focus of this assignment is on the business level of analysis (rather than on corporate or
operational levels). Therefore, if you select a diversified company then make sure you focus on
only one of the company’s business units. The report must be specific and applied to the
business. In other words, you must apply the relevant concepts and tools of business strategy to
the particular conditions and circumstances of the business you are studying. General statements
and references to theories and models that are not applied to your specific business will not add
value to your assignment. Similarly, data about the business that is not analysed and presented
from a strategic perspective – using the relevant concepts and tools of strategy – is of little
value. To help you in this exercise, consider the position of the CEO of the business. Assume
that he or she will be reading your report and will be looking for a strategic analysis and a set of
recommendation that is practical and specific to her or his business. The CEO does not want to
read a broad analysis that could apply to any number of organisations and does not ‘speak’ to his
or her business.
Group or individual submission
This assignment may be completed either as a group submission (two or three people) or as an
individual assignment (one person only). Either way, you must sign up in one of the group
assignment spaces online. The Assignment is time-consuming, and we strongly suggest that you
do it with some colleagues rather than alone.
Marking will be done without regard to whether the assignment was a group or individual
submission. In other words, an individual assignment should be of a similar standard and quality
to that of a group assignment. For group assignments all members in the group will share the
mark equally. Therefore:
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Report format and requirements
The presentation of your report is a critical aspect of this assignment. It is essential that your
report is formatted appropriately, and carefully edited and re-edited to achieve a professional
standard. (But remember, it is a serious business report, not marketing razzle-dazzle.) Allow
time to draft and re-draft your assignment prior to the due date in order to improve the quality of
writing and presentation. It is a good idea to plan on having the report finished two or three days
before the due date to allow time for further refinement and editing.
You must follow carefully the report structure and requirements set out below, unless you have
(and explain) very good reason for doing otherwise.
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A brief description of the reasons for undertaking the study, i.e. the value of undertaking
a strategy review of the business.
An introduction to the business and its macro environment and industry, and
Any serious limitations or restrictions on the report.
5.2. External analysis (Approximately 750 words)
5.3. Strategic capability (Approximately 400 words)
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5.4 Strategy and culture (Approximately 400 words)
Briefly evaluate the relationship between the culture and strategy of the business. Drawing a
cultural web of the business may assist with this.
5.5 Competitive strategy (Approximately 500 words)
Identify and describe the most viable competitive strategy for the business. To undertake this
task, refer to Figure 6.2 on p. 193 and the relevant discussion. Explain how your chosen
competitive strategy enables the business to:
5.6 Business strategy statement (Approximately 300 words)
Describe the mission, vision, objectives, scope, and advantages of the business as it currently
operates (see section 1.2.3 in the text). Summarise these descriptions into a clear and compelling
strategy statement in 35 words or less. Your strategy statement should be based on your analysis
and competitive strategy.
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NB. Words in excess of 3500 will not be marked.
Assignment submission rules
You will also find some excellent advice on planning and writing assignments in the paper on
“Your Rights and Responsibilities as a student of this Unit” on the Unit Information and
Introduction page of the Unit’s DeakinSync site. I urge all students to look at this document.
I also very strongly urge you all to make use of the ‘Assignment Planner’ that is included in that
document.
Dr Murray Frazer
February 2016
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