MBA NBS8126 Strategic Management Assignment 2021-22

This assignment is designed to help you to practise and apply the various strategic
tools and frameworks that you have studied during this module. The analysis of an
organization’s strategy operates on three levels. First, you will conduct a PESTEL
analysis to identify the impact of macroenvironmental factors on your chosen
organization. Second, your analysis moves down to the industry level where you will
apply the Five Forces Framework to identify the attractiveness of the industry where
your organization operates. Third, you will apply some of the theories and concepts
that you have studied to analyse your organization’s strategy. You will then conduct
scenario planning to investigate the impact of plausible events on your organisation
and how these could be mitigated or avoided.

Task: You are required:

To produce a detailed analysis of a multinational or an organization active in global

trade (governmental, commercial, professional services, or an NGO). Please do not
select an organization which has been discussed in detail during lectures and
seminars (i.e. where materials about the organization have been provided).

Steps:

1. Define your (chosen) industry (be sure to identify your specific industry
segment within this broadly defined industry). Select an organization whose
strategy you intend to analyse (see guidance note 1; Appendix A contains
sources of data available in the Library and from other sources).

2. Conduct (i) a PESTEL analysis to identify the key drivers for change over the
next 5-10 years, and (ii) a Five-Forces analysis of your chosen industry (see
guidance note 2(a) and 2(b)).

3. Assess your chosen firm’s current strategy and its ability to both create and
capture value. You may draw on any frameworks you believe appropriate to
the data you have identified (e.g. VRIN/VRIO, Value Chain Analysis, Strategy
Canvass (Blue Ocean Strategy), Business Model Canvass, International
Integration and Responsiveness Matrix, etc.). Do not try to use all these
frameworks! (see guidance note 3 and Appendix A for sources of data)).

4. Use an impact - uncertainty matrix to identify two critical uncertainties and use
these in turn to identify four future alternative scenarios (in a 2x2 diagram)
(see guidance note 4, 4(a and b).

5. Answer the question: What strategic issues do these scenarios raise for your
(chosen) company or organization? (see guidance note 5).

Word limit: 3,000 words (+/- 10%) (excluding references and appendices). This limit
is to be strictly observed.
Submission of Assignments
Assignments must be uploaded to Turnitin (on Canvas) by 10.00am on the
submission date.

Submission date: Monday, 3 January 2022 at the latest.

Feedback date: Monday, 31 January 2022.

Component of module: 100%

Guidance Notes

This assessment tests the following capabilities:

1. Your capacity to produce an analytically structured narrative of an organization.

Your analysis can focus on an organization and industry in a single country (e.g. UK,
China, Nigeria, India, etc).

2 (a) PESTEL analysis is about identifying the main macroenvironmental factors that
are likely to impact on your chosen industry, and the strategies of firms operating in
this industry (including the firm that you have chosen). You need to identify those key
factors from the PESTEL analysis that are most likely to impact and shape industry
conditions. It is a means of identifying the threats and opportunities that an
organization faces now and in the future. A simple PESTEL analysis focuses on the
main political threats (e.g. global instability) the main economic threats (e.g. Brexit),
etc. Alongside this, you can identify the main opportunities that arises from the
political (e.g. more UK government support for industry), economic (e.g. new
markets in growth regions), social elements, etc of the analysis for your industry. It is
likely to be the case that for each of the PESTEL elements, there will be 1 or 2
elements that will have a major impact now and in the future. Try and develop an
understanding of how these main macro-environmental factors are impacting on the
industry and will do so over the next 5-10 years. Identify the main threats and the
main opportunities for each of the PESTEL elements. Managers need to understand
what is happening at the macro-level and how it will impact on their industry now and
in the future.

2 (b) Five Forces Analysis. We are now moving down to the industry level. This is
to give you an understanding of the changes that have been occurring in the
industry. The Five Forces Framework is to help you to identify the attractiveness of
the industry. How powerful are each of the forces? How should the company position
itself to defend itself against the strong forces and exploit the weak competitive
forces? For example, how can a company protect itself again low barriers to entry?
The next step is to consider how the industry is likely to change over the next 5 years
or so. You will need to ask yourself questions like: Will any changes in regulations
affect entry barriers? Are new competitors likely to enter the industry? Is technology
changing. Are there any changes in consumer trends and tastes? What impact might
the economic environment have on buyer or supplier power? This provides you with
information on any potential changes in industry structure. Porter only refers to 5
forces. However, academics have identified other forces, specifically complementors
(e.g. App suppliers) and network effects in platform industries.

3. We are now moving down to the level of the company. This is where you are
required to conduct ‘an analytically structured narrative’ of an organization This
requires researching the organization over the last decade, using publicly available
sources. This will involve trying to reconstruct the strategy adopted by the
organization over the last decade. This relies on the information and data available
to you from: Business Data Platforms such as Statista and Mintel Marketing
Intelligence; government data and statistics publications; international governmental
organizations, industry sources, company accounts, and the internet archive
sections of the business press.

Having produced a narrative, you must analyse the strategy of the organization using
theories / concepts / viewpoints covered in the MBA Strategic Management module.
This can range from using a single theory through to using a small range of concepts
from the module (do not use too many). The concepts used will frame the type of
narrative produced.

Your analysis should include a critical evaluation of the strategy (strategies) adopted
by the organization under study. Use the academic literature to develop and support
your analysis of the strategy. To what extent have they been successful? What might
you have done differently? What can we learn from their implementation?

To produce a high-quality strategic analysis of an organization’s strategy and to

ensure maximum marks, it is important that you argue your choices, backing these
up with clear data from authoritative sources. We would like to see evidence of
research on the subject going beyond "what you simply know." A high-quality
analysis should include an excellent application of the academic literature to analyse
and critique the strategy.

4. Scenario planning will help you use the insights gained about the current context
and strategies of the organization to plan for alternative contingencies. Note,
scenario planning is not forecasting: its role is not to predict what will happen in the
future but to put in place strategies and resources to deal with multiple possibilities.
Routinely, scenario planning is used to prepare at least for ‘the worst-case scenario’
– but more ambitious visionaries also plan for most promising opportunities. In this
exercise, you are expected to use two 2x2 matrices:

(a) the two axes of the first matrix are low to high uncertainty and, respectively, low
to high impact on the organization. Here you will place into the four quadrants the
various factors that you anticipate may happen in the future and may also become
important for the organization;

(b) two of the most critical uncertainties (i.e. highest uncertainty – highest impact
factors) that you identified at (a) are then used as the axes of the second matrix to
identify four scenarios of most interest to your organization (one scenario in each
quadrant of your matrix).
5. In this section you are expected to briefly discuss each of the four scenarios
identified at 4(b) above, describing those issues of strategic importance that each
scenario is likely to create for the organization (if it becomes reality) – e.g. how they
would affect the organization, and how the strategies may have to be adjusted in
response).

Pre-and Post-assessment Support

A pre-assessment assignment workshop of 1½ hours has been included in the
timetable to help students to prepare their assignments. In addition, 1½ hours has
been devoted to data collection and a further 2 hours will focus on the use of
strategic tools.

You can expect to receive written feedback on your assignment via the Turnitin
portal within 20 working days of submission. This period enables staff to mark,
provide written comments on, and moderate marking for quality control purposes.
General feedback on the assignment will be provided on Canvas after students have
received individual feedback.

Marking Criteria:
The assignment will be marked according to criteria that are developed from the
standard assessment criteria for postgraduate studies to reflect the application of
theory to practice that you are assessed on in this module. Marks will also be based
on coverage of all areas specified in the brief. As a guide, you should spend
approximately equal amounts of the essay on each of the four topic areas:

Assignment Element Weight (%)

1. External analysis – PESTEL and Five Forces 30
2. Assessment of current strategy 30
3. Future Scenarios (incl. impact/uncertainty matrices) 20
4. Future strategic issues 20
Marking Criteria

Analyses (x.30)

strategy (x.30)
Assessment of

Issues (x.20)
PESTEL and
Five Forces

Scenarios

Strategic
Future
Marks

(x.20)

Total
Descriptor
/weight:

PASS WITH Original contribution to knowledge that would potentially be worthy of publication. Few if any areas for 90-100%
DISTINCTION improvement. Extremely thorough and authoritative execution of the brief. Containing evidence of
(70% +) significant independent research, reflective, providing original perspectives or insights, well-structured
showing significant originality in ideas or argument, aptly focused and very well written. Use of appropriate
Very good illustrative examples and data. Materials utilised and applied to the empirical setting in a sophisticated
analysis, all manner, with advanced critical assessment of the evidence arising from the application of theory to practice.
material that Thorough execution of the brief, well-structured and well-written with a logical flow of argument. Signs of 80-89%
would be originality and/or independent critical analytical ability. Well-focused and displays mastery of the subject
expected, matter and of appropriate theories and concepts but providing few or no original perspectives or insights.
originality or Materials well utilised and applied to the empirical setting, with critical assessment of the evidence arising
extras from the application of theory to practice.
Very good execution of the brief; well-focused, knowledgeable, evidence of reading beyond the basic texts 70-79%
and displays a very good knowledge of the subject matter. Good critical grasp of relevant theories and
concepts. Materials well utilised and applied to the empirical setting, with mainly critical assessment of the
evidence arising from the application of theory to practice.

PASS WITH Well-structured and well-focused answer. Comprehensive, although not complete. Showing understanding 65-69%
MERIT (60%- based on an ability to marshal information and to support arguments with appropriate examples. Goes
69%) beyond the lecture material and core reading in either depth or breadth in some areas. Sound grasp of
Good analysis, relevant theories and concepts. Approach generally analytical but with some parts remaining descriptive or
material as some reasoning unexplained. Materials are mostly utilised and applied to the empirical setting, with some
expected form of critical assessment of the evidence arising from the application of theory to practice.
As above but either occasionally lacking accuracy or with few examples or with some lack of evidence or 60-64%
application of theory to practice.
PASS (50%- Concise but accurate. Based largely on core lecture material and limited evidence of reading beyond the 55-59%
59%) basic texts. References to advanced texts do not show that they have been adequately read and understood.
Adequate Information presented clearly but tending to be descriptive in approach. May contain excessive use of
analysis, minor quotations. May fail to address all areas of the brief appropriately. Some attempts to apply theory to
omissions, practice, but without demonstrating critical assessment of either. May have evidence but may not be
minor errors critically applied.
As above but with occasional lapses of accuracy or logic. Remains at surface descriptive level. Tends to be 50-54%
largely descriptive of data, or the empirical setting is described but not applied to theory. May have evidence
but is not critically applied.
FAIL (40%- Answer incomplete, with lapses in accuracy, understanding, reasoning or logic. Limited knowledge and 45-49%
49%) understanding of the subject matter displayed; partial and/or containing significant errors and/or
Major errors irrelevancies, poorly structured. May contain excessive use of quotations. May rely heavily on lecture
and/or materials. Examples are either not used or their relevance is not adequately explained. Almost entirely
omissions in descriptive in approach, involving description of theory and practice without clear understanding of theory or
understanding application to practice explained.
of materials As above but with serious omissions or major errors. Presentation poor. Some material relevant to the 40-44%
question. Evidence that the task has been understood in part at least. Examples inadequate.

FAIL (30%- Inadequate execution of the brief. Highly partial understanding of subject area and containing serious 30-39%
39%) errors. Sections partly or substantially irrelevant. Poorly structured. Displays little knowledge of the subject
Complete matter. Some key words or phrases repeated but without displaying understanding. May contain excessive
omission use of quotations. Remains at descriptive level without explanation of relevance to practice. Utilises vague
and/or error in general knowledge or unsupported assertions; may fail to support argument with appropriate evidence or
understanding evidence is not clearly made relevant to the question.
materials; lack
of relevance
FAIL <30% Seriously inadequate execution of the brief. Failure to focus upon the question. Seriously short or even 20-29%
devoid of theoretical under-pinning of understanding of subject area. Rudimentary knowledge of the subject
area. Serious and fundamental errors in understanding. Claims to knowledge not supported or explained.
Large sections irrelevant. May contain excessive use of quotations. Errors serious and fundamental. Little or
no relevant evidence of practice related to assignment task, or application of theory to practice.
Little hint of any relevant knowledge. May be an answer to the “wrong” question. 10-19%
No knowledge relevant to the question 1-9%
Nothing written. 0%
Assessment guidance
1. Format and limits. Your work must comply with the assessment word limit +/-
10% (excluding reference bibliography and appendices). Work that does not
comply will not be marked. You MUST include a word count on the front of your
essay. The assignment should be word processed, double spaced and with a font
of no less than 11 point. All pages should be numbered. Use headings and sub-
headings appropriately to make clear the structure of your essay.

2. Plagiarism The assignment should be your own work. Plagiarism is a serious

offence that can lead to you failing the module and even to your suspension from
studies. Make sure you understand the rules on plagiarism and collusion. Your
markers are experienced at detecting plagiarism and use a range of tools to
detect it (although you submit to TurnitIn it is not the only approach we use to
identify plagiarism).

3. Referencing. You should demonstrate your reading in the subject area in your
work through reference to work from appropriate sources such as journals,
books, reports etc. THESE MUST BE CLEARLY REFERENCED IN YOUR
ESSAY USING THE HARVARD SYSTEM (for guidance see
http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/referencing and http://www.ncl.ac.uk/right-cite/Student/ ).
Do not simply reproduce diagrams or extensive general information from the
textbooks or articles. You must submit your own work not the work of someone
else. You should assume that we know the workings of basic theoretical or
analytical models and will not allocate marks for lengthy descriptions of the
models but will allocate marks for the way you apply them to the question and
use them to support a line of argument that helps you to answer the question.
Where you use direct quotations or show diagrams, try to keep them short and
ensure that they make a direct and clear contribution to your argument. All quotes
MUST be clearly cited with a page number.

4. Sources of research information. You will find information from a variety of

sources, including academic and popular journals, press reports and web-based
information. Remember to consider the validity of the information and the writer's
viewpoint in the sources that you use in your final text.

You should use scholarly books and academic articles (rather than the internet
and newspapers etc) as reference sources of theory and argument to support
your analysis of your data.

As a general principle, you should treat the internet and non-academic

publications primarily as sources merely of ‘data’ on which you will base your
analysis. When you use such data, it is important to demonstrate awareness and
judgment as to its possible partiality, bias or inaccuracy.

This is especially important when using data from the internet. As an information
resource, it can be very powerful and can quickly guide you to useful sites, if you
carry out a disciplined search. The greatest value of internet information is its
richness – anyone can deposit information about whatever they want on the
world-wide-web. For students, however, this richness is also its greatest potential
weakness. Web-based information is of highly varying quality and can at times
 be very misleading or even inaccurate. The information that you find might be
aimed at any kind of constituency, sometimes for the general user, sometimes
more specialized in nature. Therefore, it is often difficult to discriminate about
which information is most suitable for your purpose. Always use web-information
carefully. As with any source of information, take care not to assume that what
you are reading is reliable and check out its origin. Finally, make sure that you
cite the full web address with any information to which you refer in written work.

Remember to credit all sources of information that you use, in your text and in
the bibliography using the required Harvard citation system.

5. Graphics. Use diagrams and brief tables if appropriate to illustrate points and to
support your arguments. Ensure that these are relevant, based on your reading,
and that their significance to your argument is clear.

6. Style and content. Your work should discuss and appraise the findings from
your study and research and, in doing so, should provide analysis that is relevant
to the question posed. Your style should be analytical, interpretative and
informative. The content should be focused, relevant to the question and clearly
structured.

7. Combining evidence and theory. The aim of the assignment is to answer the
question in a well-structured, consistently referenced and clearly analysed
manner. We will give marks for a well-supported argument and discussion of the
question that draws on relevant evidence, applies evidence and theory
intelligently and shows insight and judgment in drawing conclusions. Avoid
merely descriptively reproducing factual information – ask yourself: Why am I
including this information? How does it relate to the assessment question? What
argument or insight that I am making does it help to support?

8. Structure and development. Try to ensure that the structure of your work
follows a clear pattern and that the themes develop in a way that is appropriate to
your line of argument. Ensure that what you write makes a direct contribution to
the question and try to avoid including general or irrelevant information in your
answers. Please include appropriate headings, sub-headings and other 'sign-
posts' so that we can see the direction of your thinking and analysis.

9. Appendices. You may attach appendices to your work which will not be
included in the word-count. Appendices may include, for example, certain tables
or analyses, the conclusions or outputs of which you have included in the main
text. They should not be the sole location for any information that is essential to
your argument. While appendices can provide supporting evidence for your
argument, it must be possible to understand and assess the validity of your
argument without reference to the appendix (for example, where statistics are
drawn from data in an appendix make sure that the key statistics on which your
argument depends are summarised or reproduced in the main text of your work).
Just as appendices do not influence the word count, so they will not affect the
mark you are awarded for the work.
 Appendix A
Sources of Data
Sources of data from Newcastle University Library
Databases on industries and companies

• Business Source Complete – overview of company information, industry profiles, company

profiles, market research reports

• Financial Times

• Lexis (Lexis@Library) UK national and regional newspapers

• Mergent Intellect – US and international business data

• Mergent Archives – corporate and industry documents from over 100 countries and
industries (1998-2014)

• Mintel Marketing Intelligence – UK market research

• Nexis – International and business news, company information, etc in various languages

• Orbis Crossborder Investment

• Passport – business information on countries, consumers and industries

• Statista – industry data

• UK Data Service – Office of National statistics

• International Statistics –

• Eurostat (EU growth, unemployment, inflation, etc);

• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE);

• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – range of

datasets;

• United Nations (UNData) – economic performance, innovation, etc

• Quandl – economic, finance, markets, health, etc datasets (free access, but you will
need to sign up and create an account)

Financial databases

• Fame – UK companies

• Amadeus database – European companies

• Oriana – companies in Asia-Pacific region including China

Datastream

The Business School provides postgraduate and research students with access to Datastream. It is
available on all 26 computers in the cluster on the 4th floor in Downing Plaza. Please ensure that you
are situated at one of these computers in order to gain access.

Datastream is the world's largest historical financial database, containing up to 50 years of data.
Data is available on worldwide equities (companies), stock market indices, unit trusts, investment
trusts, bonds & convertibles, bond indices & CDS, warrants, interest rates, futures, options and
commodities.

Sources of data from governmental, industry and other sources (available

online)
Measures of freedom and democracy

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2019

Entrepreneurship and business statistics

https://www.oecd.org/sdd/fin-stats/

National accounts and householder debt, loans, etc

https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-debt.htm

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/HH_LS@GDD/CAN/GBR/USA/DEU/ITA/FRA/JPN

Office of National Statistics (ONS) UK data

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/debt/
datalist

World Economic Forum

https://www.weforum.org/

https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2019

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/archive/united-kingdom /

International Monetary Fund (economic data)

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/datasets

Bank of International Settlement (economic & financial data)

https://www.bis.org/

World Bank (income, demographics, etc)

https://data.worldbank.org/

https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/dataset/world-development-indicators
US Government Open data

https://www.data.gov/

EU Open data

http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/

UK Open data

https://data.gov.uk/

Open Knowledge Foundation

https://opengovernmentdata.org/data/

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook /

World Health Organization

https://www.who.int/en/

Registry of open data on AWS

https://registry.opendata.aws/

Facebook

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api

Google datasets

https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore

https://www.google.com/finance

Gap Minder (variety of datasets)

https://www.gapminder.org/data/

UK Data Service (Social, economic, population)

https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/

ICAEW (Company reports)

https://www.icaew.com/library/company-research/company-reports-and-profiles/annual-reports

Yahoo (Finance, market data, etc)

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/

Annual Reports

http://www.annualreports.com/

Morningstar (Financial and market data)

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/

Motor Industry

https://www.smmt.co.uk/

National Health Service (UK)

https://www.nhs.uk/about-us/nhs-website-datasets/

TMcG
13 August 2021