LENGTH: Written report of maximum 2,000 words including title, headers, footnotes, tables, and/or graphs, but excluding your reference list. Anything beyond the 2,000 word limit other than your reference list will not be marked, including appendices, etc, so there is no point including anything beyond the 2,000 word limit.

Assignmnent:

This is a written group assignment. As a group you are free to choose one of the four companies specified below as a basis for a professionally written report that evaluates the company’s strategic direction in relation to the main strategic challenges and opportunities it currently faces. Before deciding on your choice of companies, it is recommended that you do some basic research on all four. Not only will this help you determine which company you are most comfortable analysing in terms of information availability and the potential for generating strategic insights, it will also help you with your analysis of the competitive environment of the company of your choice.

For this assignment you will need to form syndicate groups of five students each, and assign one person in your group to e-mail the lecturer in charge the full names and student numbers of each of the members in your group by 16 April 2018, 5pm.

If you have not found a group yet by this date, or if you have not been able to form a full group of five students, you need to alert the lecturer in charge by e-mail before 16 April 2018, 5pm.

Statement of Expectations.

The major focus of this group assignment is to apply your course materials (unit readings; key concepts and discussions from the lectures) to a live case study in order to generate strategic insight. By “live case” we mean a real company facing a number of real current strategic challenges and opportunities on which a lot of information is publicly available, but for which a classical Harvard Business School-style case study has not been written (yet).

Instead of providing you with a ready-made written case study for analysis, it is expected that your group will collect and analyse information relevant to the chosen case, using reliable sources. Your group will then need to agree on the baseline of information it wants to use as a basis for determining and evaluating the company’s strategy in relation to its main strategic opportunities and challenges.

It is expected that your report will cover all questions listed below in relation to your chosen case company in a way that demonstrates your group’s best efforts at applying the course materials to those questions as a basis for generating strategic insight.

The report needs to be professionally written, following a clear structure with an executive summary, introduction, and conclusion. You need to use the Harvard Referencing Format for sources that you use in the text; do not include references in your reference list that you do not refer to in the text. If you need to make assumptions due to missing data, make sure to make this explicit in your report. Finally, it is extremely important that your conclusions are clearly focused, and logically supported by the analyses you choose to present and discuss.

HINT: The worst way you could tackle this assignment would be for each of the questions to simply be allocated to individual group members who go off and do their own preparation, and then lightly gluing the various answers together at the last minute. Instead, you will need to work together as a team on each of the main components of your report.

The four live case options are:

1. Netflix (with focus on the Australian market)
2. StreamCo (owner of Stan) (with a focus on the Australian market)
3. Foxtel (with a focus on the Australian market)
4. Amazon Prime (with a focus on the Australian market)

Make sure you answer the following questions. Please note that these questions do not necessarily need to form the basis for the structure of your report. They only refer to the content of the report, not its structure. The case questions may be answered in any order and should not be specifically labelled. Instead your paper will be a cohesive and coherent work that persuades the reader of the logic and solidness of your arguments, conclusions, and recommendations.

1. What is the company’s business model and strategy, and what are the key capabilities that are required to succeed with this business model and strategy? Make sure to support your conclusions with clear, data driven arguments.
2. How would you typify the company and its strategy according to the typology of Miles and Snow, and what are the implications for its ability to successfully compete in the Australian market?
3. What do you see as the company’s main strategic challenges and opportunities and why? Please make sure to take a broad perspective here that includes both the internal and external environment of the company, paying specific attention to areas of misalignment in relation to its business model and strategy.
4. How well do you think the company is positioned compared to its main competitors to meet its main strategic challenges and opportunities and why?
5. What do you think the company should do to improve its strategic position?

Specific marking criteria for this assignment will be provided in class/iLearn.

Group member responsibilities. All group members will be expected to contribute equally to the group assignment. Precise division of labour will be up to the group.

Group dynamics. Should any difficulties develop within the group regarding this assignment, you first need to try and resolve these yourself within your group, deploying the skills you have learned throughout your MBA. If you fail to reach a resolution, you need to alert the lecturer in charge immediately, and well before the assignment deadline. Completing the assignment with a sub-group, leaving the remaining members out, and then complaining about their lack of effort after assignment submission, is not acceptable. Equally, free riding is not acceptable either, and will be dealt with through the individual component of your assignment mark.

Group submissions. To assist in the marking, you will be required to submit three pieces of documentation. They are listed here.

1. A soft copy of your written report via iLearn email to the lecturer in charge. The recorded date and time your e-mail is received by the lecturer will count as your submission date and time. There is a 5% penalty per day (24 hours) for late submissions, starting immediately after the deadline passes. Please note that no changes can be made to the report once it has been submitted to the lecturer.
2. A list indicating specifically what each group member contributed. Just saying “research” or “writing” is too vague. (A sample list will be provided so you can see the level of detail required.) Your list must be physically signed off by every member of the group and is to be submitted via email to the lecturer up to 24 hours AFTER the submission deadline of the report. There is a 5% penalty per day (24 hours) for late submissions, starting immediately after the deadline for this component, which will apply to all group members regardless of who may be at fault for late submission and/or not signing off. If you cannot agree on the contributions of each member, you need to notify the lecturer in charge immediately before the deadline to discuss a solution.
3. The group’s agreed-to percentage split of the marks. Should all members receive equal marks? If not, how much more or less should each person receive, and why? Please note that this information is provided only as input to the lecturer, who makes the final determination. Again this information must be physically signed off by every member of

the group and must be submitted via email up to 24 hours AFTER the submission deadline of the report.

Due: Session 8 or 9, depending on which case you are assigned ​

The lecturer will form eight groups of approximately equal size, depending on the number of course enrolments. Each group will be assigned one of eight live cases for analysis and results presentation. In real life you will often be put in situations in which you will be asked to work with a group of people you have never worked with before. It is an important part of your MBA to learn how to effectively navigate the team dynamics that can result from people with different cultural backgrounds. areas of expertise, personalities and motivations working together on complex problems. For this reason you will not have influence over which case study, and which fellow group members will be assigned to you. This is a capstone course that requires you to be able to integrate and apply all knowledge and capabilities you have gained and developed throughout your MBA experience, including those related to team dynamics, writing and presentations skills, critical thinking, etc.

Statement of Expectations. The major focus of this group assignment is to generate and present strategic insights for class discussion by applying your course materials (unit readings, lectures and discussions) to the assigned case. It is expected that your presentation will cover all questions relating to the assigned case, which will be listed in class and iLearn from Week 4 of the course.  

Your presentation needs to be professional, with clear, high-impact slides, following a clear structure, and using a persuasive, engaging presentation style. Throughout your presentation you will need to use footnotes to reference the sources used in any particular slide; you do not need to discuss these sources in your presentation, but you may be questioned on them afterwards during the discussion. If you need to make assumptions due to missing data, make sure to make this explicit in your presentation. Finally, it is extremely important that your conclusions are clearly focused, and logically supported by the analyses you choose to present and discuss.

HINT: The worst way you could tackle this assignment would be for each of the questions to simply be allocated to individual group members who go off and do their own preparation, and then lightly gluing the various answers together at the last minute. Instead, you will need to work together as a team on each of the main components of your report.

The four cases for session 8 are:

1. David Jones
2. Myer
3. Amazon
4. Westfield

The four cases for session 9 are:

1. Uber
2. Facebook
3. Google
4. Apple

The questions relating to each case will be published in class and on iLearn. All questions must be substantively answered in your presentation, but these questions do not need to form the structure of your presentation (see previous assignment Group Work I).

Each group will have 20 minutes to cover their assigned case, and should ensure their presentation fills this full period, without going over time.. Padding with Q&A is not allowed as a means of filling time, and groups will be politely but firmly cut off at 20 minutes. It is therefore important that you conduct a number of practice runs to get the timing and delivery right

It is completely up to you how you want to approach your presentation in terms of approach, style, medium, etc. Creativity is strongly encouraged as long as it has impact, and does not detract from the professionalism of the presentation. It is important to make your presentation engaging and interactive in order to be able to continue to hold the active attention of your audience.

Specific marking criteria will be provided in class/iLearn.

Group member responsibilities. All group members will be expected to contribute equally to this group assignment. Precise division of labour will be up to the group. It is NOT required that all group members present, but it is expected that all group members will contribute to the effort in developing and preparing for the delivery of the presentation.

Group dynamics. Should any difficulties develop within the group regarding this assignment, the group should talk with the lecturer as soon as the issue arises. It is important to advise the lecturer sooner rather than later

Group submissions. To assist in the marking, you will be required to submit three pieces of documentation. They are listed here.

1. A soft copy of the exact slide set (including any multimedia) used by the group, with written notes under the slides. That material is due by email to the lecturer before the start of the session in which your group is to present. There is a 5% penalty per day (24 hours) for late submissions, starting at the start time of the session in which you have been assigned to present. Please note that no changes can be made to the slide set once it has been submitted to the lecturer. Please also be aware that the written notes under the slides form part of the assessment, so make sure they are clear and complete. And finally, be aware that the lecturer has a real bias against strategy presenters who simply stand up and read out prepared written material, regardless whether you are reading from the notes section of the slides, a piece of paper, your mobile phone, or other means. This can make the presentation feel static and unprofessional, leading to disengagement of your audience, which is the opposite of what you need to be aiming for.
2. A list indicating specifically what each group member contributed. Just saying “research” or “writing” is too vague. (A sample list will be provided so you can see the level of detail required.) Your list must be physically signed off by every member of the group and is to be submitted via email to the lecturer up to 24 hours AFTER the submission deadline of the report. There is a 5% penalty per day (24 hours) for late submissions, starting immediately after the deadline for this component, which will apply to all group members regardless of who may be at fault for late submission and/or not signing off. If you cannot agree on the contributions of each member, you need to notify the lecturer in charge immediately before the deadline to discuss a solution.
3. The group’s agreed-to percentage split of the marks. Should all members receive equal marks? If not, how much more or less should each person receive, and why? Please note that this information is provided only as input to the lecturer, who makes the final determination. Again this information must be physically signed off by every member of the group and must be submitted via email up to 24 hours AFTER the submission deadline of the report.

Due: Continuous, in preparation for each of the sessions, except session 1.

We will create an online Discussion Board on which you are expected to discuss with your fellow classmates the readings and case studies that are assigned for a particular session in preparation for that session. You can also use the Discussion Board to discuss more general questions, issues, or remarks in relation to the course content.

You will be marked both on the quantity and quality of your contributions to the discussions across the duration of the course. In order to be able to contribute to discussions relating to an upcoming session it is important that you complete your readings and case preparation immediately following the previous session to allow sufficient time for engagement with your contributions.

Your contributions can include asking your colleagues for suggestions on particular questions or issues in relation to the course or course assignments. Requests for help, advice, or suggestions from fellow students will be positively marked as part of a sign of active class participation; engaging others to check your thinking or assist you in solving questions or issues that you may be struggling with is a sign of strength, not weakness. In other words, the point of the Discussion Board is not to try to make the most clever remarks, lecture at others, or show off your knowledge of the materials. Rather, it is to engage others in discussions that will enrich everybody’s thinking.

Your contributions can also include critical viewpoints on particular readings or case studies that are supported by substantive arguments, instead of questions of taste or style. For example, you may want to discuss what crucial information may be missing in particular case studies, including discussions on why (and, perhaps in response, why not) you think the missing information is crucial to the case. You may also want to test your case recommendations with your colleagues to see whether your thinking is generally aligned with your fellow students. Finally, you may explore the limits or weaknesses of particular theories and frameworks together, which would be an extremely important sign of critical thinking.

Duration: 3 hours plus 20 minutes reading time. 

At the conclusion of the unit there will be an open book examination of 3 hours plus 20 minutes reading time. It will represent 40% of the final aggregated course mark. There will be an exam review and practice session during Session 10 of the Strategic Management unit to help you prepare for this case based exam.