What are the strategic issues facing the organisation? 2. What goals should the organisation be setting? 3. What actions would you recommend the organisation takes?

Dear MA students. I have had the pleasure over the past week or so of reading overone ortwo drafts of your assessment for this Unit and as general comment -Please note this may not apply to all – see the below points: 1: There is a lack of reading and critical assessment with regards to the area of strategy, strategic management and the theory, models (tools) that have been applied in the work seen. 2: Below is a list of the reading you was expected to do for this unit. Many of which will form the basis of a good reference list and or citations – in some of the work read so far – there is a total absence of this work – even if only in a bibliography! Also please note on pagetwo of your SMP reader it was stated: Europe best selling strategy textbook. Exploring corporate Strategy (Johnson et al 2008). As a starting point I found little evidence it had even been consulted in some of the work read 3: Student have used their own choice of companies as case studies – which is acceptable, However, some of the work has not even bothered to search the literature to see if there is any specific and relevant strategic literature relevant to that industry. For example if examining a organization in the finance industry, the retail industry or the service sector or manufacturing – I would expect to see some overview and critic of the work / research done in that area to date and some comparison to the mainstream strategic management literature. 4: Note a key line from the assessment (copied below): ‘and to apply relevant theory to that data. In applying relevant theory to the data you should develop a critical line of reasoning insupport of your argument’ Please note using (only) SWOT, PEST and 5 Forces – without some form of critical reasoning as to why they are suitable and why these at the expense of other theory / models will not produce high quality work for this assessment at this level of studies. Assignment Details This assignment is based on the company ao.com. Students may choose an alternative organisation but they must have sufficient knowledge of that organisation to enable them to successfully address the assignment tasks. To complete this task successfully you will need to gather data about the organisation and its environment, and to apply relevant theory to that data. In applying relevant theory to the data you should develop a critical line of reasoning insupport of your argument. The task hasfour elements reflected in the questions below and together should form a coherent piece of work. 1. What are the strategic issues facing the organisation? 2. What goals should the organisation be setting? 3. What actions would you recommend the organisation takes? What would be a strategy statement that summarised those actions? 4. What would be the key elements of a performance management system to develop the strategy? Additional Information Your answer should be in the region of 5000 words in length. There is no prescribed format for the assignment but a report format is probably the most suitable. The submission should cite appropriate academic sources and data sources. Sources of data tosupport your arguments should be cited but it is not necessary to attach copies of raw data as appendices. Appendices should be used tosupport arguments made in the document and will not attract marks in their own right.