MGT659 Concepts and Applications of Strategic Management Group Assignment 2026

• Economic development
• Socio-cultural, demographics trends, lifestyles changes
• Technological developments
• Political, legal, governments aspects
• Other external factors that may be relevant to your business

Translate the above in terms of what it means for your business, identifying opportunities and threats that may affect the following:

• Market demand and opportunities
• Types and products and services offered
• Intensity of competition
• Suppliers and distributors
• Costs of doing business
• Other aspects of the business

• Industry and Competitor Analysis

Analyse the industry’s situation and prospects by looking into the following:

• Market size and/or growth rate and stage in the growth cycle
• Number of players and their relative sizes; market share analysis
• Market aspects (products or service, price, promotion, and channels of distribution)
• Buyer/Customer profile
• Factors affecting costs of doing business
• Operations/Productions aspects
• Technology developments
• Industry financial analysis (growth, profitability, liquidity, leverage, efficiency)
• Problems in the industry

Identify Critical Success Factors (CFS) in the industry. Analyse the industry using Porter’s Five Forces framework of competitive analysis and based on the preceding analysis, state your conclusion for each force.  

• Competitor analysis

1. Identify your major competitors and provide relevant information for each, e.g., revenue size, financial health, market share, strategies, etc.

Focus only a few (about two or three) and explain why you choose to focus on these competitors.

2. Evaluate your competitors and your company vis-a-vis the CSFs identified earlier. Do a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) and explain ratings.

• Summary and Conclusion

Using the results of your general environment and industry analyses, identify and summarize the major opportunities and threats. Use the EFE matrix tool to assess how well your company is responding to the opportunities and threats in the environment.

• Make sure the factors included in your EFE Matrix have been discussed in the external and industry analyses should be reflected in your EFE for consistency.
• Explain your weights and ratings.
• Draw your conclusion about the industry overall prospects and industry attractiveness.
• Identify key strategic issues that need to be deal with.
• Make a conclusion about your current company’s competitive position or business strength in the industry, e.g., very strong, strong, middle-ground, weak.

Internal Company Analysis

Review the company’s performance in terms of key performance indicators:

• Revenue/sales in the past three years
• How the company’s growth compares with industry growth or vis-a-vis the other players
• Profitability, other relevant performance indicators
• Use David’s functional audit checklists to assess the different functional areas of the organization

From the above identify the company’s major strengths weakness  Use the IFE matrix to evaluate the overall internal strengths and weaknesses of the company

IV. Stage 2 The Matching Stage

Use the different strategy formulation tools (SWOT, SPACE, IE, BCG and GRAND) and other relevant analytical tools to come up with strategies options and directions for the company.  You needs to perform strategy formulation tools:

a. Swot Matrix

b. Choose another one more tool from SPACE/BCG/IE/GRAND. 

Make sure that your analysis and positioning in the various matrices/cells are consistent with the results of your external/industry and company analyses.

 V. Stage 3 Decision Stage

Prepare QSPM and finally explain the results of your analyses.

VI. Conclusion , Recommendations And Action Plans

Provide a clear statement of your strategic and financial objectives (estimate cost) for the company or business, for the next three years. It should state

• measurable objectives, e.g., market position, sales or revenue growth, net income or profit level, profitability, etc.

The strategic and financial objectives should consider the following:

• It must support the company’s vision/mission
• It must consider the expected external/internal industry prospects as shown in the external and industry analysis
• It must consider the company’s historical performance and current/expected competencies and capabilities
• It must be consistent with the results of your analytical. For example, an aggressive expansion strategy should now be more aggressive revenue growth while a ‘hold and maintain’ position should be more moderate growth for the company.
• Detail out your action plan for the company by focusing on the two alternative (2) strategies that you have sorted out using QSPM and other tools.
• The time frame can be anywhere from three to five years
• Add success stories of ALL strategies that have been implemented.

Additional Guidelines

• Do not constrained by the company’s current strategic plans or what you think will be acceptable to the company’s management.
• What is important is that your recommended strategies follow the logic of you of your external and internal analyses and you strategy formulations tools and your own strategic insights.
• Make assumptions whenever necessary but state these assumptions clearly.
• While this assessment will be evaluated largely based on logic, substance, and content, it should be professionally done and written in formal style using the correct grammar, spelling, choice of words, and proper format.
• All tables and figures in the paper should be numbered for easy reference and should have appropriate with units of measures used and data sources indicated.
• Cite your references and data sources using APA(American Psychological Association)format.

ALL GROUPS WILL BE EQUIPPED WITH A EXCEL TEMPLATE (www.strategyclub.com- FREE TEMPLATE/FREE TEMPLATE VERSION 18) TO ASSIST YOU IN THE PREPARATION OF THE REPORT.

Format For Presentation

• Power point slides (less wording/use infographic) should be creative, interesting and covering every important aspects of the report. E.g.

Backgound of the company

Mission & Vision (Before & After evaluation)

External industrial analysis (Porter 5 Forces, CPM & EFE Matrix)

Internal company analysis (IFE Matrix)

Objectives, strategy recommendations (SWOT MATRIX and another  1 (one) tool (SPACE/ BCG/ IE /GRAND) & QSPM)

Strategy chosen & the detail of action plans executions

Conclusions and Recommendation

• Duration for presentation 25 minutes per group (20 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A session).
• Maximum slides: 15
• Every group member must contribute to the presentation. Grades given are also in consideration of an individual performance and effort to participate during the presentation and group work.