Strategic Management

Assignment Requirements

 

Assessed Task 3: International Mergers Acquisitions and joint ventures
It seems that cross-border mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures have been very popular as expansion strategies in recent years, but have often had a poor record of success and in some circumstances, a disastrous effect on shareholder value. And yet there are some notable success stories too.
Choose a recent example of a cross-border merger, acquisition or joint venture, identify the reasons for the success or failure of the strategy and discuss them in the context of the theoretical content of the module..
You should discuss and agree your choice of company with the module tutor before starting this task.
Indicative length: 700 words / ~equivalent of two A4 four pages

second one :
Assessed task no 4, Governance, Stakeholder Mapping & CSR

For a company or organisation with which you are familiar or which you can easily research, identify the main stakeholders and briefly described their interest in the organisation and their ability to influence strategic decisions.
Plot the positioning of the stakeholders on a stakeholder map you can use the following as a template, or you can produce one which is a bit prettier &ncreate a link to the portfolio page
Stakeholder template example
Briefly comment on how you might use stakeholder mapping in future and how useful you consider it to be.
Using a current example, discuss the extent to which ethical issues /CSR drive strategy in the organisation.
Indicative length: 700 words

Assessment brief number (and title where applicable):

 

Module leader:    

Academic Year: 2013/4

PGB3 / Other

(Please delete as appropriate. If “other” please specify)

Module assessment detail (approved at validation as amended by module modification)

Module code & title			Strategic management
	Module Learning outcomes:				Tick (Ö) if tested here
LO1	LO1 Critically evaluate the underlying concepts and theories of strategic management and the relationship between strategy, stakeholder aspirations and governance.				Ö
LO2	LO2 Demonstrate understanding and awareness of current and emerging Economic, Political, Legal and Cultural factors and critically evaluate those which will have an impact on strategic management in an international context.				Ö
LO3	LO3 Formulate business strategies in a systematic way , and develop criteria in order to evaluate and select those most likely to prove successful for a particular organisation.				Ö
LO4	LO4 Develop plans for the implementation of business strategies, presenting strategic proposals to stakeholders in a persuasive and authoritative manner.				Ö
Assessment types				Weightings (%)
Portfolio				100%	Ö

Assessment type, weighting and LOs tested by this assessment indicated in the shaded area above by a Ö

Important requirements (Delete where appropriate, if other please provide detail)

Mode of Working:                                                  individual

Presentation Format:                                                         electronic portfolio

Method of Submission:                                     Electronic Submission

Mark required to pass this coursework: 50%

(Complete following detail)

Hand in date & time	Block three: 30/06/2014 at 12.00 midnight, TNE iterations : PGB1 13/01/2014 PGB2 31/03/2014 PGB3 30/06/2014
Date & method by which you will receive feedback	Block Three feedback will be provided via PebblePAD by 21st July 2014 TNE iterations tbc by local tutor
Resit/retrieval date	TBA
Assessment limits (in accordance with UWBS assessment tariff)	No more than:   3000 words, excluding appendices   +Presentation of no more than 15 minutes

Do clearly state your student number when submitting work but do not indicate your name.       Always keep a copy of your work.                                                                                                Always keep a file of working papers (containing, for instance, working notes, copied journal article and early drafts of your work, etc.) that show the development of your work and the sources you have used. You may need to show this to tutor at some point so notes should be clear and written in English. This is an important requirement. There may be circumstances where it is difficult to arrive at a mark for your work. If this is so you may be asked to submit your file within 3 working days and possibly meet with your tutor to answer questions on your submission.

Explanation of submission requirements and further guidance

 

• Assessments are subject to a word limit to ensure consistency of approach across all modules. Your work should not exceed the limit indicated (excluding references and appendices). Do not feel that you have to “achieve” this word count in your work. What is important is that the work satisfies the stated learning outcomes which are articulated through the assessment criteria (see following page).
• Care is taken to ensure that work has been marked correctly. Checks are conducted by both a second lecturer and an independent expert from outside the University on batches of work.
• Your work will not be returned to you but you will receive detailed feedback explaining how your mark has been arrived at and how your work could have been improved upon.
• Always use the Harvard style referencing system. The University’s Learning Information Services have produced a series of guides covering a range of topics to support your studies and develop your academic skills including a guide to Harvard referencing
• Expensive or elaborate bindings and covers for submissions are not required in most instances. (Refer to guidelines however in the case of dissertations).
• The Business School has a policy of anonymous marking of individual assessments which applies to most modules. You should not identify yourself directly in the work you submit and you may need to use phrases such as “the author of this assignment ….”in the detail of your submission.

Avoid academic misconduct

Warning: Collusion, plagiarism and cheating are very serious offences that can result in a student being expelled from the University. The Business School has a policy of actively identifying students who engage in academic misconduct of this nature and routinely applying detection techniques including the use of sophisticated software packages.

• Avoid Collusion. The Business School encourages group working, however to avoid collusion always work on your own when completing individual assessments. Do not let fellow students have access to your work at any stage and do not be tempted to access the work of others. Refer to your module tutor if you do not understand or you need further guidance.
• Avoid Plagiarism. You must use available and relevant literature to demonstrate your knowledge of a subject, however to avoid plagiarism you must take great care to acknowledge it properly.Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. This includes incorporating either unattributed direct quotation(s) or substantial paraphrasing from the work of another/others. For this reason it is important that you cite all the sources whose work you have drawn on and reference them fully in accordance with the Harvard referencing standard. (This includes citing any work that you may have submitted yourself previously). Extensive direct quotations in assessed work is ill advised because it represents a poor writing style, and it could lead to omission errors and a plagiarism offence could be committed accidentally.
• Avoid the temptation to “commission” work or to cheat in other ways. There are temptations on the internet for you to take “short cuts”. Do not be tempted to either commission work to be completed on your behalf or search for completed past academic work.

When you submit your work you will be required to sign an important declaration that the submission is your own work, any material you have used has been acknowledged and referenced, you have not allowed another student to have access to your work, the work has not been submitted previously, etc.

 

Assessment Brief/ Task

The detailed requirements for this task are as follows:

The portfolio is comprised of the following sections: Assessed Task No1 The New Enterprise Project Assessed Task No 2 Business planning & selecting strategies Assessed task no 3 competition and business unit strategy Assessed task no 4 stakeholder mapping                                                                           Reflection on the module Annotated Bibliography   Assessed task no 1 THE NEW ENTERPRISE PROJECT Introduction to tasks one – the New Enterprise Project All managers become involved in business planning at some stage in their careers and the first assessed task require you to demonstrate the skills required to produce a business plan. Often business planning is undertaken by a management team and so this first task is a group activity. The first task involves producing a business plan for a new company of your choice, either a standalone new business or a new subsidiary of an existing company. The business plan should be designed either to secure approval and funding from the board of an existing parent company or funding from an investor/lender in the case of a new, stand-alone business. You should agree the subject of the new enterprise project with your tutor. The task brief Strategic plans are, by definition, about the future. Trying to match an organisation’s capabilities (its resources and its competences) to a changing external environment is central to the idea of strategic management. It is clear, therefore, that if strategic management is not to be completely reactive it requires a degree of foresight – at least a view of the future. This first part of this task therefore encourages you to undertake “Horizon scanning” so that you can assess the likely future directions of a particular market or industry, – the one which you choose for your new enterprise plan. Working as a group, having first decided on your new enterprise project you are asked to consider what sort of changes will occur in the market in which you have chosen to operate, and how this will influence your strategic plans for the company. To do this you should do conventional PEST analysis and then, because PEST analysis considers the current situation, you should use the horizon scanning techniques and facilities available through the shapingtomorrow website in order to get some views as to how the market is likely to develop. Having identified in the first part of this task what sort of changes will occur in the market in which you have chosen to operate and how this will influence your strategic plans for the company, you now have to select the strategies which you intend to follow and create a financial model to determine the financial outcomes of those strategies. Finally, you should produce a PowerPoint presentation (20 minutes max including questions) to present and justify your business plan. Your group will present your new enterprise project as part of a symposium held the last week of the module. Your tutor will give you verbal feedback on your completed business plan at this stage. This is a group assessed task: consequently the portfolio item submitted by each individual group member will be the same and should include: 1. A list of group members 2. A brief review of future developments in your chosen area using an appropriate planning horizon horizon, and in markets or industry is where changes are frequent or unpredictable you may feel it sensible to identify more than one scenario (500 words maximum). 3. an executive summary (400 words maximum) of your business plan, and 4. A link to the financial spreadsheet, or a summary of it 5.The PowerPoint presentation used to present the plan You will no doubt find a good deal of information on your chosen industry, but please try to identify only the most significant issues and limit your submission to the equivalent of two A 4 pages. Assessed task no 2, competition and business unit strategy Using as an example companies with which you are familiar or can research: Identify two businesses which are using different competitive strategies, for example: one business which has adopted a strategy of differentiation, and one which has adopted a cost leadership strategy. Explain why the strategies which they have chosen are appropriate and describe the capabilities and competencies which would be required for each of the two business units. Sir David Lees, the ex-chairman of GKN plc has been quoted as saying that maintaining the right mix of strategic business units [and prioritising them] was one of his most important jobs when running GKN. Using business units from a multi-business unit company, position at least two business units on a GE business screen and explain their postions . What would this indicates about your future investment proposals for the two businesses? Indicative length: 700 words / ~equivalent of two A4 four pages Assessed Task 3: International Mergers Acquisitions and joint ventures It seems that cross-border mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures have been very popular as expansion strategies in recent years, but have often had a poor record of success and in some circumstances, a disastrous effect on shareholder value. And yet there are some notable success stories too. Choose a recent example of a cross-border merger, acquisition or joint venture, identify the reasons for the success or failure of the strategy and discuss them in the context of the theoretical content of the module.. You should discuss and agree your choice of company with the module tutor before starting this task. Indicative length: 700 words / ~equivalent of two A4 four pages Assessed task no 4, Governance, Stakeholder Mapping & CSR   For a company or organisation with which you are familiar or which you can easily research, identify the main stakeholders and briefly described their interest in the organisation and their ability to influence strategic decisions. Plot the positioning of the stakeholders on a stakeholder map you can use the following as a template, or you can produce one which is a bit prettier &ncreate a link to the portfolio page Stakeholder template example Briefly comment on how you might use stakeholder mapping in future and how useful you consider it to be. Using a current example, discuss the extent to which ethical issues /CSR drive strategy in the organisation. Indicative length: 700 words

 

The following information is important when:

• Preparing for your assessment
• Checking your work before you submit it
• Interpreting feedback on your work after marking.

Assessment Criteria

 

A good portfolio will demonstrate, in each task, the application of appropriate theory, demonstrate that the portfolio topic has been well researched and that the evaluation/analysis is logically consistent with the conclusions drawn by the student.

 

The portfolio will include a business plan which is convincingly presented, viable and based on market predictions and scenario projections The precise criteria against which your work will be marked is as follows:

 

Task 1: The justification of the recommended business plan and the thoroughness of the underpinning research. Evidence of synthesis of strategies from a secondary research base and the effective use of financial modelling to demonstrate the feasibility of the strategies recommended.

Task 2: The critical evaluation of theories of competitive strategy and their application to real-world examples.

Task 3: The application of theories pertaining to mergers acquisitions & joint ventures so as to identify & evaluate aspects of good and bad practice in a brief real-world case study.

Task 4:   The application of theories pertaining to corporate governance and corporate social responsibility so as to identify and evaluate governance & CSR practice in a real-world organisation.

 

 

Performance descriptors

Performance descriptors indicate how marks will be arrived at against each of the above criteria. The descriptors indicate the likely characteristics of work that is marked within the percentage bands indicated.

Criteria	70-100% Work of an outstanding, standard	60-69% Work of a good standard.	Pass 50-59% Work of a pass standard.	40-49% FAIL	0-39% FAIL
Task 1: New enterprise project business plan content and presentation	An innovative, well structured business plan, which synthesises convincing strategies from a competent research base.Well-written, & well presented using excellent PowerPoint and with clear financial analysis underpinning implementation plans	A balanced, well structured business plan.   The plan may not be innovative but will be sound overall. The plan will be well-written, well presented, and demonstrating a clear link between the strategies and and the financial content of the plan.	The plan is cohesive, but may be hindered by insufficient synthesis linking the commercial concept of the planned activity with its research underpinnings. The plan will include a sound financial content, although this may be relatively unsophisticated.	Whilst some of the characteristics of a pass have been demonstrated, and the commercial concept is sound, the work does not address the requirements of the task brief. Possibly lacking in appropriate research underpinning, structure or writing style. Critical parts of the financial plan missing, unstructured presentation	Significant failings in the plan balance, structure or writing style. Significant flaws in the commercial concept and lack of links to any research base.   Critical failings or absence of financial underpinning. Lacking in coherence, the plan is unstructured and/or badly presented.

 

 

Tasks 2 & 3 Content, Theory & Application	The task answer demonstrates originality, innovation and depth in the content and theory which is comparable to published work The work clearly demonstrates application of theory through the use of well chosen novel and insightful examples.	In the main the task answer is insightful and has an appropriate selection of content and theory in key areas identified in the brief. The work demonstrates application of theory through the use of appropriate live examples	Key theories and ideas are included in the task answer in an appropriate manner although not consistently across all tasks. The work demonstrates basic application through the use of appropriate live examples, although these may be traditional textbook cases rather than ones which are novel or insightful	Appropriate selection of content/theory but some key aspects missed/misconstrued. Lack of theory in most areas. The work does not sufficiently demonstrate basic application through the use of live examples	Does not address the assignment brief. Uses Inaccurate or inappropriate content/theory. The work does not create a link between theory and practice. Application of the theory by reference to live examples may be missing.
Task 4 stakeholder mapping, governance & CSR	Impressive organisational overview and its context and reflection of perspectives and expectations of key stakeholders. . Includes a stakeholder map in which the positioning is well justified.. A comprehensive description of the process of governance and discussion of CSR with strong links to the case example.	A good overview of the organisation, and its context including the perspectives and expectations of key stakeholders. The inclusion of the stakeholder map with some justification of stakeholder positioning. Good discussion of governance & CSR concepts, linked to the case example	A reasonable overview of the organisation, its context including some reflection of perspectives and expectations of key players along with a appropriate stakeholder map (although the positioning of may not be justified) Competent discussion of governance & CSR concepts.	Some overview of the organisation, its context and stakeholders and reflection of perspectives of key players. These aspects could be improved upon and made clearer. Some discussion of governance & CSR issues, but key concepts missing	Confused overview of the organisation & its context and key stakeholders. Possibly missing stakeholder expectations. Possibly incoherent description in places or no real attempt to address assignment brief. Parts of the question remain unanswered
The complete portfolio – Tasks 1, 2, 3, 4 Presentation and Harvard Referencing	Presentation standard of the portfolio is excellent. Extensive referencing which is clear, relevant and consistently accurate using the Harvard system The bibliography is comprehensively annotated. Answers are formatted for easy reading with a clear structure delineated by subheadings and paragraph structures	Presentation overall of good standard with few errors in grammar and syntax. Referencing is relevant and accurate using the Harvard system. Good evidence of reading round the subject. The bibliography contains appropriate annotations. Answers formatted for easy reading with clear paragraph structures.	Presentation has limitations including some errors in grammar and syntax Minor inconsistencies and inaccuracies in referencing using the Harvard system. Evidence of reading round the subject other than just set texts and websites. The bibliography contains few annotations Answers may not be formatted, but still readable	Presentation is poor in structure and includes errors in grammar and syntax. Referencing present having many inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Little evidence of reading other than set texts & websites The bibliography contains no annotations. No attempt to format for readability.	Structure and presentation is not of an acceptable standard including faulty grammar and syntax. Referencing mainly from set text. inaccurate references or bibliography absent.   Presentation is slapdash

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