Capstone assessment – Written report submission
Format: 3000 words (Only +10%) written report
In preparation for this assessment, you are required to read the following article:
Dobbs, ME 2014, ‘Guidelines for applying Porters Five Forces Framework: A set of Industry Analysis Templates’, Competitiveness Review, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 32–45.
Your task is to undertake a strategic planning exercise for your own organisation, or for an organisation with which you are familiar.
For this assignment, you are required to conduct a detailed assessment of various components of the strategic management process and suggest which business strategy you believe will be the most appropriate for your chosen organisation and explain why.
Procedure
Clearly describe the chosen organisation and industry.
Identify the company’s key resources and/or capabilities (at least four) and assess the competitive power of each of those resources and/or capabilities using VRIN Test.
Analyse its competitive environment using Porter’s Five Forces Framework, assess the nature /strength of the competitive pressures and suggest whether collective strength of the five forces (in your chosen industry) is conducive to good value for the organisation.
The scholarship article by Dobbs (2014), ‘Guidelines for applying Porter’s Five Forces Framework’, provides a comprehensive, structured and practical set of templates that can be used by managers to analyse the competitive environment in their industry.
You must use the templates provided in the scholarship article to strengthen your analysis in this part. Here is the Dobbs (2014) editable framework from Appendix 01 of the article.
Based on your analysis, recommend which of the five generic strategies will be most appropriate for your chosen organisation and provide justification for your recommended choice.
Critically evaluate the following two components of strategy execution in the specific context of your chosen organisation and discuss their appropriateness for the recommended strategy:
Organisation culture
Leadership
Provide an overall conclusion and recommendations.
Requirements
The word count for this assessment is 3000 words (+10%).
In terms of structure, presentation, and style you are normally required to use:
AIB standard report format (Report template)
AIB preferred Microsoft Word settings
author-date style referencing (which includes in-text citations plus a reference list).
These requirements are detailed in the AIB Style Guide.
Reference lists for AIB assignments normally contain the following number of relevant references from different sources: 6–12All references must be from credible sources such as books, industry-related journals, magazines, company documents, and recent academic articles.
Grading criteria
Your report will be marked according to the criteria outlined below:
Criterion 1: Description of organisation and industry –
(a) Provided a brief overview of the organisation e.g. its origin/start, size, market share, ownership, growth stage etc.
(b) Included information about the key competitors and industry (as a whole) to help the reader in developing a good understanding of the context in which the organisation operates – 10%
Criterion 2: Understanding of the relevant theories and concepts –
(a) Identified and demonstrated an understanding of all the key principles relevant to each of the specific requirements of your Assignment
(b) Demonstrated the use of appropriate jargon
(c) Identified and discussed appropriate literature – 30%
Criterion 3: Analysis and evaluation –
(a) Applied relevant principles/Concepts/Models to the specific context taken as an example
(b) Established clear linkage between Theory and Practice – 35%
Criterion 4: Recommendations/ justification –
(a) Provided a clear set of recommendations.
(b) Results extracted from analysis have been used to arrive at the proposed recommendations
(c) Used quality arguments, facts and evidence to support the recommended choice(s) – 15%
Criterion 5: Citation and referencing –
(a) No. of references: 6–12
(b) Quality of references: credible sources (e.g. books, journals, reviews, reports, etc.) (c) Citations and referencing format: author-date referencing convention as per AIB’s Style Guide – 5%
Criterion 6: Structure and presentation –
(a) Adheres to the requirements of Report Format as recommended in the AIB’s style guide.
(b) Different sections of the report are linked well with each other.
(c) Follows a logical structure, ensures consistency and maintains the flow of the reading. Communication style and language Writing style, grammar, punctuation and spelling, etc. – 5%
