6BE005 Recommended report layout
Recommended Report Layout
It is recommended that the piece should be sub headed using the following titles (these will help you achieve the set learning objectives):
Section 1: The Strategic Environment
- Introduction (100 words)
State who the company are and what they do (their value adding process/processes). This section should also contain a brief overview of key financial figures (i.e. Annual turnover and annual profit) and why this data is important in decision making.
- Internal Analysis (700 words)
- A very brief section should be provided, which covers the significance of analysing the internal environment (50) words)
- Apply an internal analysis model of your own choosing to your chosen organisational context. Choose ONE from a SWOT analysis, a TOWS analysis, the McKinsey model, The Holonic enterprise model and the Fractal web. Discuss just the key points here, as the word limit is concise. (450 words)
- Evaluate the model you have chosen – Compare and contrast it against other internal analysis models. What does it do well and not so well when analysing your businesses’ internal environment. (200 words)
- External analysis (700 words)
- A very brief section should be provided, which covers the significance of analysing the external environment (50) words)
- Apply an external analysis model of your own choosing to your chosen organisational context. Choose ONE from a PESTLE analysis and a Porter’s Five forces analysis. Discuss just the key points here, as the word limit is concise. (450 words)
- Evaluate the model you have chosen – Compare and contrast it against other external analysis models. What does it do well and not so well when analysing your businesses’ external environment. (200 words)
Section 2: Strategic Decision Making
1) The importance of Strategic decision making (50 words)
What is strategic decision making and why is it important?
2) Strategic decision making theory (400 words)
Discuss Bowman’s strategic clock, Porter’s generic strategies and the Ansoff matrix. Critique the strategic position that your business takes within each model.
3) Impact on Strategic decision making (500 words)
Evaluate the main considerations that effect strategic decision making. In order to do this effectively you will need to refer to the internal and external analysis that you carried out in part 1.
Consider:
- To what extent does the internal environment of your chosen business impact upon its strategy? (250 words)
- To what extent does the external environment of your chosen business impact upon its strategy? Is the impact of the external environment greater or smaller than that of the internal environment? (250 words)
4) Evaluating the success of a current business strategy (550 words)
Evaluate the success of a strategy that your chosen business has implemented using the SAF (Suitability, Acceptability and Feasibility) criteria. Has the strategy been a success or a failure? Using what you have learnt throughout the module could you suggest a more effective strategy for the business to utilise (relate to the previous theory you have covered). When suggesting a more effective strategy, discuss a company that has benefitted from utilising a similar strategy and consider the impact it has had upon their financial position (utilise financial data).
Note: You may want to focus on improving the strategy within a certain functional area of the business i.e. the marketing strategy rather than on corporate strategy. This is fine and encouraged if you work within a specific functional area.
Reference List
Harvard format – https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/skills-for-learning/referencing/
