SM Project Brief

Strategic Management Project Brief
Prepared by Dr M.K. Nandakumar
You are required to carry out a thorough strategic analysis on an organisation of your choice
and derive conclusions and recommendations based on your analyses. You need to do
research on the organisation by using the learning resources provided by IIM Kozhikode and
collect the relevant information/data. After collecting the relevant information/data and by
carrying out your own research you need to produce a report of about 5000 words excluding
tables, charts, figures, references and appendices. The details regarding the structure of the
report, the analyses to be carried out and the discussion to be presented in the report are
provided below.
Structure of the Report
1. Introduction
 A brief overview about the operations of the company; and
 A brief description about the structure of the report.
2. Analysis of the External Environment
 Analyse the macro environment using PESTEL framework and discuss the
findings. Identify the main opportunities and threats facing the company; and
 Analyse the industry environment using Porter’s Five Forces model and assess
the attractiveness of the industry
3. Scenario Planning
 Identify a key focal issue facing the organisation;
 Identify the driving forces which are likely to affect, influence and shape the
key focal issue in fundamental ways;
 Rank the driving forces identified and determine the top two critical
uncertainties;
 Create a 2 X 2 matrix using these two critical uncertainties, identify four
different scenarios and name those scenarios; and
 Create brief narratives for each scenario which are simple to understand, yet
compelling enough to stimulate new thinking.
4. Analysis of Resources and Capabilities
 Identify the key resources and capabilities of the company;
 Examine the value chain of the organisation;
 Using VRIN framework assess each Resource/Capability and determine
whether they satisfy each criterion in the VRIN framework; and
 Identify the core competencies of the company which satisfy each and every
criterion in the VRIN framework.
5. Business-level Strategy of the Organisation
 Assess how the key resources/capabilities/core competencies of the
organisation enable them to formulate and implement an effective business-
level strategy; and
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 Analyse the business-level strategy of the organisation using the Porter’s
generic strategy framework/Strategy Clock and provide suitable
recommendations.
6. Business Model of the Organisation
 Using business model canvas, analyse the business model of the organisation
and identify the opportunities for further value creation.
7. Corporate-level Strategy of the Organisation
 Using Ansoff’s Product/Market growth matrix identify growth opportunities
available to the organisation;
 If the firm has diversified its activities, discuss the value creation as a result of
diversification;
 If the firm is not currently diversified, and if you feel that it will benefit from
diversification, discuss the implications of diversification; and
 If relevant, discuss the opportunities for vertical integration/horizontal
expansion, which is also a form of diversification.
8. Other Opportunities for Growth
 Examine whether other growth opportunities are available for the organisation
through mergers and acquisitions, internationalisation and strategic
alliances/joint ventures.
9. Conclusion
 Summarise the discussion presented in the report and highlight your key
recommendations for the organisation.
Key Resources available through the IIMK Library
The following resources will be very useful for conducting your research while working on
this project.
 Business Source Ultimate

 Capitaline Plus
 CMIE Prowess Databases
 Elsevier Science Journals
 Emerald E-Books Series
 Emerald Full-Text Library
 Financial Times (FT.Com)
 GMID – Euromonitor Passport
 ICRA Economy and 45 Industrial Sector Reports
 IMF eLIBRARY
 India Business Insight Database (IBID)
 ISI Emerging Markets – INDIA
 JSTOR
 Lexis Nexis
 Marketline Advantage
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 McKinsey Quarterly
 MICA Indian Marketing Intelligence (MIMI)
 OECD iLibrary
 PressReader (Newspaper Online)
 Oxford Journals – Business and Management Collection
 Sage E-Journals
 Springer Online
 Taylor and Francis
 The Economist
 Wall Street Journal
 Wiley Online Journals
 World Bank eLibrary
Referencing
Harvard system of referencing should be used in the report.
Plagiarism
All reports will be checked using plagiarism detection software and hence you need to ensure
that the report is not plagiarised in any way. Plagiarism will include copying and pasting
materials from various websites, taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as
your own and not following standard referencing procedures in the report.
Criteria for Marking
1. Demonstration of a good understanding of the theoretical concepts and frameworks;

2. Quality of the research carried out;
3. Quality of the analyses carried out;
4. Recommendations and conclusions; and
5. Structure and presentation of the report.
Submission Deadline
TBC
One person from each team should submit a copy of the project through the link provided in
the Moodle platform. There will be a penalty for submissions made after the deadline. 10% of
the total marks awarded for the assignment will be deducted for each day after the specified
deadline. No submissions will be accepted after ……….

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Strategic Management Project Brief

Prepared by Dr M.K. Nandakumar

Structure of the Report

Key Resources available through the IIMK Library

 Business Source Ultimate

Harvard system of referencing should be used in the report.

Criteria for Marking

1. Demonstration of a good understanding of the theoretical concepts and frameworks;

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