THE BRIEF
(i) Choose a business. This should be listed on the London (FTSE)
or New York stock exchanges.
Where the target company has multiple listings, please state the
details of this at the top of your a) Proposal and b) Main report
and include with these details the ISIN number for your
company’s listing.
(ii) The chosen business should be facing competitive
disadvantages and/or serious strategic issues. If you choose a
company which is not facing serious strategic issues (i.e. one
which dominates its sector without other strategic problems, or
is otherwise doing well), you will not be able to generate
insightful strategic recommendations.
The company needs to have a clear like-for-like competitor set
offering as far as possible like for like comparable products: If
this clear competitor set is absent, then a competitive analysis
in this context is impossible.
If your target company is in a global marketplace then you must
do your analysis with reference to this global marketplace. The
reason for this is because it is highly likely that the global
economies of scope and scale will affect the competitive
position of your target company in any national market.
Research current strategies using online or hard copy sources. It is
recommended that some of the information on your company should be
available via the electronic library. The lecture in week 2 will be put on
by the library team, showing you in detail how to search for specific
information. This lecture will be on the Canvas site.
The following is the link to a good guide to the resources available in
the library:
http://prezi.com/vt8i-g86dd- a/?
utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0s
hare
Your report should include information on the sector, the competitors, the
consumer and the company.
1. Strategic Analysis:
 Industry analysis: sector (size, structure and growth) and
competition, to include current competitor market shares and
development over time of these market shares. Also consumers,
with any relevant breakdown of how consumption, tastes or buying
habits have changed over time. Identify trends.
You need to provide an analysis of the implications of, and reasons
for, the company’s competitive position. Your analysis should be
based on the structure of the market, how the competitive power is
divided up, and the implications of this.
You should not use financial ratios (like ROCE) unless you are
examining historical change of this financial indicator over time, or
in relation to other competitors or the sector: this is because
ratios are meaningless unless used as a method of
comparison, either with other companies, or over time.
 Profile of the company.
 Stated Organisational Purpose (or if not publicly stated, then give
your understanding of its purpose). Give your commentary if you
feel that there is a difference between the stated organisational
purpose and the actual activity and behaviour of the company.
 External & Internal analysis.
2. Strategy Development:
2.1 Existing strategies should be identified, as published (using company
websites, Chairman’s Report, Financial results, statements to the press,
press commentary in the Business pages of newspapers…)
 You should evaluate these strategies using the strategy ’toolbox’
(the available theories, concepts, models as taught in the
Strategy module)
 You should identify Business streams, also known as strategic
business units (SBU’s). Be aware that you must have access to
separately reported strategy and financial performance at
business stream level to do this.
2:2 Propose strategies for the next 5 years at corporate, strategic
business unit & functional levels:
 Use the strategy ‘toolbox’ widely
 Identify strategic options at the business stream level, preferably
using the Strategic Direction Matrix
 Use one or more of the portfolio methodologies (notably BCG
&/or ADL) to evaluate & rank SBU (business stream) level
strategies; having done that, develop Corporate Strategies (the
‘bigger’ picture’) & then revise SBU strategies given ‘real world’
and corporate constraints
 Propose some important operational level strategies critical to
successful implementation
Comment critically on how your proposed strategies differ from those
being implemented by the company. Each proposed strategy needs to
be evaluated and ranked, to give us an idea of your analysis of how
relevant and useful each one is.
Recommendations must not be generic: they should be related to the
business and competitive position of the company, and arise directly
from the strategic analysis of the company that you have carried
out.
2.2 Strategy implementation
 Develop outline plans for implementing your strategies. Use the
lecture notes given within the Business Strategy Report site on
Canvas.
 Include the main actions that are needed.
The purpose of the Implementation section is to show how you will make
your strategic suggestions work. The implementation section is the “acid
test” for your proposed strategies, since the more feasible the proposed
strategies, the more possible it will be to develop a realistic
implementation programme.
This was the weakest section of last year’s reports. We want you to give
this significant emphasis!
The assessment consists of:
(i) Research Proposal (Plan) 500 words 10%
(ii) Research Report 3,500 words
90%
 Submission: See Sussex Direct
 See ‘Notes on Report Writing’ in Canvas for what is & is not
included.
 Word count: should be as above, although up to 10% above or
below will be accepted.