ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Assessment Individual Reflective Report Assessment code: 011 Academic Year: 2021/2022 Trimester: 1 Module Title: Business Strategy Module Code: Level: 6 Module Leader: Weighting: 50% Word Limit: 3,000 words – excluding bibliography and any other attachments such as appendices Assessed Learning Outcomes 1 – 5. Refer to the Module Information on VLE for detail. Submission Deadline: Please refer to the deadline on the VLE
WRITING YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
• This is an individually submitted Reflective Report. • Completing the Business Strategy Game (BSG) is a pre-requisite for undertaking the Business Strategy Reflective Report. • The Assessment is an individual reflective strategy report that assesses the student’s active participation and outcomes achieved on the Business Strategy Game.
SUBMITTING YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
In order to achieve full marks, you must submit your work before the deadline. Work that is submitted late – up to five working days after the published submission deadline – will be accepted and marked. However, the element of the module’s assessment to which the work contributes will be capped with a maximum mark of 40%.
Work cannot be submitted if the period of 5 working days after the deadline has passed (unless there is an approved extension). Failure to submit within the relevant period will mean that you have failed the assessment.
Requests for short-term extensions will only be considered in the case of illness or other cause considered valid by the Director of Studies Team. contact DoS@london.aru.ac.uk. A request must normally be received and agreed by the Director of Studies Team in writing at least 24 hours prior to the deadline. See rules 6.64-6.73: http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/academic/public/academic_regs.pdf
Mitigation: The deadline for submission of mitigation in relation to this assignment is no later than five working days after the submission date of this work. contact the Director of Studies Team – DoS@london.aru.ac.uk. See rules 6.112 – 6.141: http://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/academic/public/academic_regs.pdf
ASSIGNMENT
Produce an individual 3,000 word Reflective Business Strategy Report, following your active participation in the BSG:
The Tasks
1. Evaluate the major strategic decisions made during the six-round BSG simulation. Reflect on one round that stood out, why and key lessons learnt.
30 marks
2. Reflect on relevant theoretical frameworks applicable to understanding the internal, external and competitive environments of your business; and discuss how these frameworks helped in shaping decisions made in your BSG. 30 marks
3. Critically evaluate the impact of ONE specific emerging technology on the future of your business and make useful recommendations to future managers.
30 marks
4. Present a high standard and professional reflective report.
10marks
TOTAL 100 MARKS
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
To pass this assignment you must satisfactorily complete all elements of the reflective report as prescribed in the Report Structure – Please refer to the report structure in the assessment & assessment guidelines on VLE.
Effectively, your reflective report must demonstrate:
• Your active participation in the BSG, which is the essence of the reflective report. • Your ability to reflect on decisions and lessons learnt from outcomes. • Your applicable knowledge of theoretical frameworks relevant to strategy formulation. • The awareness of emerging technologies and their impact to business operations. • The ability to use Harvard referencing correctly.
ANSWER OUTLINE
Executive summary
An executive summary should summarise the contents of the report. It should not simply take the form of a general introduction. It is ideally compiled after you have completed your report and presented in past tense.
Table of contents
You must present a table of contents with page numbers.
List of figures
List any figures you are planning to use in this report.
List of tables
List any tables that your report will contain.
Introduction – Mission, vision and values, corporate objectives (Group business statements)
Mission
A mission statement is designed to inform and inspire the company’s stakeholders, primarily employees, the media and general public, about the company’s CURRENT purpose – why the company exists.
Vision
A vision statement is designed to inform and inspire the company’s stakeholders, primarily shareholders, about the company’s FUTURE purpose – what your company intends to achieve in the future.
Values
A values statement is designed to inform all stakeholders about the company’s core beliefs – usually expressing belief on ethical stance, especially as regards corporate social responsibility, sustainable supply chains etc.
Corporate objectives State your company’s corporate objectives. These should relate directly to the strategy/strategies that have been adopted during the game in achieving the ‘Investor Expectation’ KPIs.
Objectives should be stated in the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) format and should be completely unambiguous.
For example: Achieve by Year 13 [timebound] a market share of [specific] not less than 15% [measurable]
1. Evaluate the major strategic decisions made during the six-round BSG simulation. Reflect on one round that stood out, why and key lessons learnt.
a. Reflect and report on the general activities and decisions of the 6- year strategic business decision making.
▪ What key decisions were made as an organization – how did they relate to corporate strategic objectives? Give examples. ▪ Why were the decisions taken – what factors were taken into consideration before the decisions were taken? For example, were decisions informed by market forces, competitor performance, internal considerations or as a result of lessons learnt from previous rounds? Give examples. ▪ What was the outcome of the decisions – were the organisation’s strategic objectives helped or hindered by the decisions taken? Evidence of outcomes must be included here – e.g. screenshots of results.
b. Reflect on one year (round) that stood out – What was it about the year (round) that made it stand out from the others? What happened? Why? Any key lessons taken from that year (round)? You must clearly identify and state the year (round) being reflected on and give examples of events being discussed.
2. Reflect on relevant theoretical frameworks applicable to understanding the internal, external and competitive environments of your business; and discuss how these frameworks helped in shaping decisions made in your BSG.
Here students should reflect on various theoretical tools discussed in class and present as they apply to analysing each of the three strategic environments of business – i.e. internal, external and competitive environments. At least one theoretical framework must be presented for each of the environments. An outstanding work will consider a minimum of two in each case and also reflect on their limitations. It is crucial that students clearly demonstrate how the theoretical frameworks were applied in their decision making during the BSG.
2.1. Macro-environment (External Environment)
Here students should address the macro environment for their organization using appropriate theoretical frameworks. Diagrams may enhance the presentation quality but application is more important at level 6.
2.2. Meso-environment (Competitive Environment)
Here students should address the meso-environment, i.e. the competitive and market environment of their company, using appropriate theoretical frameworks. Diagrams may enhance the presentation quality but application is more important at level 6.
2.3. Micro-environment (Internal Environment)
Here students should address the micro-environment environment of their organization, using appropriate theoretical frameworks. Diagrams may enhance the presentation quality but application is more important at level 6.
3. Critically evaluate the impact of ONE specific emerging technology on the future of your business and make useful recommendations to future managers.
Here students demonstrate understanding of emerging technologies. Students should demonstrate awareness of a range of emerging technologies which may be relevant to the nature of their company’s business – these should include any emerging technologies in the form of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, 3-D Technology, Cloud-based Technologies, etc.
Students should identify ONE emerging technology relevant to their company’s present or future operations; and critically evaluate its impact on the activities of their organization (these must be discussed rather than being simply presented as bullet points or in simple tabular form).
Students should present useful recommendations that future senior managers could consider – either to take advantage of opportunities OR address challenges, following the critical evaluation of the impact of the identified emerging technology on the organization.
Conclusion In this section, students should offer an overall summary of their company’s performance against investor expectations set year by year. This does not need to be lengthy or detailed, but should cover key KPIs such as Finance, CSR, Earnings Per Share, etc.
References Insert Harvard-style bibliography
