STM 304 June, 2020 Assignment PDF

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Strategic Management...

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African Open University (Registered with HEA, Zambia HEA/059)

Course Name: Strategic Management IV Course Code: STM 304 Assignment Instructions:  Answer ALL questions  Font Type / Size: Calibri 12  Line spacing: 1.5  Use the Harvard Referencing System  Due Date: 24-July-2020 Marks will be divided equally for all the question

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Unit I: Analyses Question 1 a. How can a SWOT analysis be useful for both internal and external organizational environmental analysis? b. According to Mintzberg, strategists are like blind men who are feeling parts of an elephant and strategy formation is like the elephant thumping across the dessert; the subject area is comprised of different views that make up that elephant. Describe the 10 schools of strategy, and explain their premise. c. Why is it important for companies to evaluate managerial decisions using a SWOT Analysis? d. Jessica has just conducted a SWOT analysis of her firm. What should her next steps be? Unit II: Finances Question 2 a. How has the importance of ‘balance’ evolved over the last century, and how has it influenced strategic management thinking? b. What are the differences between strategic and operational scorecards, and why is this distinction between the two important? c. How successful is franchising as a means of corporate growth? d. How can Simons’ model of strategic control levers be useful, say for understanding the cause of the global financial crisis? e. Define market segments and individual marketing. Briefly explain the four major segmentation variables. What are the key elements that ensure that market segmentation is useful?

Unit III: Strategic Planning Question 3 a. Explain the levels of involvement in strategic management and the role of staff at each level. How does the strategy hierarchy facilitate this? b. Explain the controversial debate in strategic management regarding how strategy can be formed or formulated, i.e. – how emergent strategy is different from deliberate strategy. c. Are Porter’s five forces still appropriate for managing today’s business environment?

Unit IV: Introduction to Governance and Strategic Thinking

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Question 4 Case study-Megatron Plc Megatron plc is a multinational company with extensive manufacturing and distribution facilities in the UK, France and the USA. Its head office is in London and it sells its products worldwide under a range of popular brand names. Those same brand names are used to sponsor major sporting events and art exhibitions. Megatron, using its ‘Lifesaver’ medical products brand name, recently funded the ‘Lifesaver’ laboratories that specialize in finding cures for tropical diseases. Under its ‘New Learner’ brand name it funds several schools in sub-Saharan Africa where the children use the ‘New Learner’ educational books and resources. The CEO of Megatron, Sir ‘Billy’ Bustler, is a well-known media figure and appears frequently on TV debates or radio phone-ins as ‘the voice of British businesses. He is seen as a cheerful, avuncular figure who has a ready wit and a charming manner. However, in the USA investigative journalists have revealed that: ● Megatron has 32 subsidiaries based in tax havens. ● Analysis of its recent accounts revealed that Megatron reported a group profit of £2.4bn but paid only £1.2m in tax. It paid no tax at all in any of the countries where several of its manufacturing units were sited. ● Authorities in China recently closed down four suppliers to Megatron for using under-age or illegal labour. ● One of the Megatron subsidiaries has been the subject of violent protests in India from farmers. They were accused of diverting local watercourses to a newly constructed bottle-washing plant. Local management denied the accusation and claimed that the reason the crops all died was bad farming practice, not loss of water. ● In Canada the CEO of another Megatron subsidiary that assembles and sells computer equipment has pleaded guilty in court to five charges of bribing public officials in order to obtain computer supply contracts. She claimed that this was accepted practice in Megatron and that ‘everybody did it’. Discuss i. Which, if any, of these actions by Megatron might be considered acceptable business practice? ii. Which, if any, of these actions by Megatron might be considered acceptable business practice if they were never revealed to the outside world, i.e. if Megatron was never caught? iii. What do these events reveal about the corporate culture within Megatron? iv. When is it acceptable for any company to maximize profits without considering external factors that might affect people not directly connected with the company? v. How can Megatron defend itself against the accusations of the US journalists, should it defend itself and what actions should it take to correct any unethical practice? vi. Outline the fundamental differences between outside-in and inside-out thinking

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about strategic management, and their influence on strategy. What are the basic premises of corporate level strategy, and how is this different from corporate strategy?

Unit V: Understanding, Prioritizing and Addressing Risk Question 5 a. Is there always a perfect alignment between an organization’s purpose and culture? b. Discuss the dangers of mismatch between corporate image and corporate identity. What strategies are possible for closing this difference gap? c. How can the emergence of the importance of corporate social responsibility be seen as a threat to the purpose of an organization? d. The BCG (Growth-Share) Matrix is old but has stood the test of time. How significant and practicably usable is it today, in the light of vast developments in management tools that help assess market conditions?

Unit VI: Introduction to Implementation Science Question 6 a. How can objectives be used as a filter system through which the organizational purpose is transferred into comprehensive outcomes against which to measure performance? b. How and why have strategic management scholars showed so much interest in the development of the ‘dynamic capabilities’? c. Of what use is the Miles and Snow Typology: prospectors, analyzers, defenders and reactors? d. Discuss the importance of purpose to an organization, and how that purpose may be regarded as synonymous to the purpose that underpins human existence.

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