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. Please see the video
guides to all business information sources on the site.
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 press reports and
other independently reported data), company websites (although bear in mind this is
generated by the company and as such should be viewed as such), Chairman’s
Report (similarly), and financial results
 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.