Reference no: EM133738560

Capstone: Strategy

Assessment - Consultancy Research Project

Your task
Conduct a competitive advantage analysis of a company assigned.

Assessment Description
This assessment focuses on identifying a real-world organisation's competitive advantage by capturing the strategic direction-related concepts discussed in Weeks 1 and 2. Furthermore, this assessment offers students the opportunity to put into practice their previous MBA theoretical and practical learning.

Assessment Instructions

MBA600 Company Selection for this assessment can be found on the MyKBS portal in the ‘View Company Choices' button by the end of Week 2 in the subject's assessments tab.

Assuming the role of an organisational consultant, you will apply your strategic thinking skills in this assessment by researching the organisation and analysing the factors that identify and sustain its competitive advantage. Areas of your video presentation should include:
Introduction
Introduce yourself and the topic presented.

Organisation Overview
Introduce briefly the researched organisation.

Environmental Analysis
Present the external and internal environmental analysis applying PESTEL and SWOT frameworks.

Business-level Strategy
Identify the researched organisation's current competitive strategy (Business-level strategy) and justify your choice of strategy.

Identification and Evaluation of the Competitive Advantage
Applying the VRIO framework, identify and evaluate the company's strategic resources and capabilities and isolating mechanisms to determine if they can provide a sustained competitive advantage. Integrate insights from external, internal, and competitive strategy analyses (Part C and D).

Recommendations
Summarise the most critical insights from the environmental, business-level strategy, and VRIO analyses. Highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and current competitive strategy that form the basis of your recommendations.
Propose three actionable recommendations for improving competitive strategy and sustaining the company's competitive advantage. Your recommendations must flow from your summary and the outcomes of the presentation analyses (Parts C, D, and E).

In preparing for this assessment, you must note the following aspects:
The findings should be presented in a video that offers a summary in a style and tone suitable for presentation to the organisation's executive team. Your presentation should be professional and solution-driven.
Referencing: This presentation requires citations throughout your preferred slide deck and a reference list as the last slide of your presentation. Individual slides require in-text citations where appropriate. The referencing style is no longer prescribed by KBS. However, ensure that your in-text citations and reference list entries are consistent with the selected referencing style.
Video presentation instructions:
Ensure your face is visible in the video recording. Those lacking a clear view of your face will not receive evaluation.
KBS expects MBA students to provide a professional presentation when developing the video. Be sure to consider the background, appearance, lighting, background noise, etc. Use PowerPoint presentations or other professional visual tools such as Prezi, Canvas, etc.
Refrain from reading the slides.
Watch the assessment briefing webinar conducted by the Subject Coordinator.