BM633 Strategic Agility Assignment
Assignment Brief Academic Year 2022-23
| Module code and title: | BM633 Strategic Agility | Module leader: | Michael Taylor |
| Assignment No. and type: | CW1: Individual Management Report, 2,000-word, +/-10%. | Assessment weighting: | 100% |
| Submission time and date: | 13th January 2023 before 2pm. | Target feedback time and date: | 3 weeks after submission deadline. |
| Assignment task |
| This assignment tests your ability to apply business models to analyse a firm’s competitive position, evaluate contemporary macroenvironmental challenges, formulate and critically assess strategic options and make business decisions. For this assignment you are to write a management report for the owners of Oak Tree Inn, a family owned and run hotel, pub and restaurant on the Eastern shore of Loch Lomond in Scotland. The owners have hired you as management consultants to help them grow their business in the face a rapidly changing business environment which has seen a war break out in Ukraine, global fuel prices spike, a cost of living crisis in the UK, a recruitment crisis in the hospitality sector and a change in UK Prime Minister. Your report must achieve the following: Critically analyse the Oak Tree Inns strategic position and identify the firm’s strategic capabilities, along with any strengths and weakness. Provide an overview of the competitiveness of the hospitality sector across the UK including a focus on the local Loch Lomond area. Construct a macroenvironmental analysis of recent events that are impacting the hospitality sector, and in conjunction with the previous overview of competitiveness identify any significant opportunities and threats. Formulate a choice of two potential growth strategies that will enable the firm to best navigate the present and future challenges. Critically evaluate the two potential growth strategies in order to make a strategic recommendation to the owners of the best strategy they should adopt. Further Support This assessment takes the format of a 2,000-word, +/-10%, maximum of 16 pages from introduction to recommendation, professionally produced report that would be suitable for use in the boardroom of a FTSE100 company. |
Internal approval: Suzanne Doria, 2022
- You are to complete the task set. The report must apply models and theoretical concepts and be supported by evidence, with references, from reputable sources throughout.
- The case study materials will be provided for you via the module Blackboard shell and these should be used to aid you in the completion of your task. You should also refer to contemporary data sources as well as market data insight from sources such as Mintel and other such reputable sources.
| This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes: |
| LO1: Analyse the external environment of an organisation and justify critical opportunities and threats appropriate to that organisation; |
| LO2: Analyse the strategic capability of an organisation and justify critical strengths and weaknesses linked to competitive advantage; |
| LO3: Develop suitable strategic choices for an organisation; |
| LO4: Evaluate strategic choices for an organisation, referring to previous analysis in 1 and 2 above; |
| LO5: Recommend and justify an appropriate strategic choice for an organisation. |
| Referencing and presentational requirements |
| Please reference your work using the Harvard style as defined in Cite Them Right Online (http://www.citethemrightonline.com). Pages should be numbered. All work to be submitted as Arial 11 font with single line spacing. All writing should be in the third person passive. Written work must be word-processed. The module title and code number must be clearly marked on the front cover. Work you submit for assessment must be properly referenced – a guide to the Harvard system of referencing can be found on the Bucks website at bucks.ac.uk/referencing. You may seek clarification from the module tutor at any time. There is no excuse for failing to submit your work in accordance with the guidance, work that does not meet the necessary standards in that respect will be marked accordingly. No collaboration is allowed. Front cover, executive summary, contents page, reference pages and appendices are NOT included in either the page count or the word count that have been allocated. Words used in tables, charts, diagrams are also NOT included in the word count. Note we do not expect to see any Wikipedia, Investopedia, Business Balls, Slide Share, and Essays4U, Term Papers or other spurious non-academic non-reputable sources within your work or in the reference list. There is a maximum of 4 pages allocated to appendices should you need them which do not form part of the total page count of 16 pages. |
| Submission details |
| You are required to submit your work electronically. Please use the relevant submission point in the Upload My Assignment on LSST Connect before the time and date specified. Please ensure that your work has been saved in an appropriate file format. Turnitin will only accept the following file types: Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, PDF. Your file must also contain at least 20 words of text, consist of fewer than 400 pages and be less than 40MB in size. You can submit your file as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your file more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version. Once you have submitted your file, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your LSST e-mail address. Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of the file. |
| Academic integrity |
| Academic integrity means taking responsibility for your own work. When you submit an assignment, you are effectively making a declaration that it is your own work and that you have acknowledged the contribution of others and their ideas in its development (for example, by referencing them appropriately). For further information and guidance, please see the University website: https://www.bucks.ac.uk/current- students/registry-helpdesk-and-academic-advice/academic-integrity-and-misconduct You are also expected to take responsibility for maintaining and managing confidentiality issues in your work. You should maintain and respect confidentiality in relation to the protection of personal, technical and/or commercial information of a sensitive nature in their assessed work, whatever the format. Confidentiality issues will vary from subject to subject and you are encouraged to seek advice from your course team if you are unclear about requirements in your context. For further information and guidance, please see the University website: https://www.bucks.ac.uk/academic-confidentiality |