Homework
This piece of coursework involves the creation of a 10 to 15 minute video clip discussing the challenges and strategic options available to one of the following topic companies. You will form into groups of two or three (maximum of three students) to complete this assignment. It is also okay to undertake the video as an individual.
Select one of the following companies and their suggested product line, range or SBUs as the focus of your video assignment.
o LuLu Hypermarket for Grocery
o Carrefour Hypermarket for Household
o Sharaf DG for electronics
o Emax for electronics
o Du for Mobile Phones
o Etisalat for e-life
o Jumbo personal care and appliances
o Swiss Arabian perfumes
o Rami Al Ali fashion for women's clothing
o Maatouk retail market for coffee
o Union co-op supermarket
o Al Barakah Dates industry
o Al Maya apparel partnership
o Ferrari world entertainment Industry
o IMG world of Adventure Industry
o Novo Cinemas entertainment Industry
o Al Ain Mineral Water Industry
Follow the steps outlined below to make sure your video contains the correct information for examining the challenges and strategic options confronting your company and its product line, range or strategic business unit (SBU).
i. Place group member names and matriculation numbers on a title slide at the beginning of the video clip.
ii. Provide brief background information about the organisation and a description of its product line/range/SBU.
iii. Determine the competitive stance for the product line/range/SBU you are investigating. Please provide a rationale for your choice of competitive stance(s) based upon evidence the group has gathered from industry sources, quotes, video clips from the company or YouTube etc.
iv. Employ PEST Analysis to determine the UK and world-wide trends affecting your company and the particular product line/range/SBU the group is investigating. You won't be able to mention everything, so identify and prioritise the ones you think are going to be the most important/challenging in the short to medium term (i.e. within the next 1 to 5 years). This analysis will help the group to determine the market conditions confronting the company. Make sure you take into account the affects the trends will have on the company's competitive stance for the particular product line/range/SBU being investigated, i.e. price, cost etc. There is no need to tell the viewer the purpose of PEST Analysis, take it for read he or she know this already.
v. Prepare a couple of strategic group maps. The first map should employ product quality and pricing policy to identify not only your company's main competitors, but if there is a match between the company's competitive stance and its strategic group map position. State why this is match, or otherwise, is important for the company and the particular product line/range/SBU being investigated. The second map should employ other axis to determine other differences or similarities between your company and its rivals. For both maps please inform the viewer the source of the data used for each axis if possible, rather than employing your own subjective opinion.
vi. Determine the competitive conditions confronting your company by performing a Porter's Five forces for the particular product line/range/SBU being investigated. Please make sure you that in the main you are examining the UAE context, however, often the forces involved are determined internationally, so let the viewer know if this is the case.
For the video just present highlights of your key group's findings, don't present everything you discover!
i. From the above analysis you should now assess whether the company should grow, retrench or consolidate the product line/range/SBU investigated. Explain the reasoning behind your choice. This should be linked back to what you've discovered happening in the marketplace.
ii. Market penetration, market development, product development and diversification offer possible tactics for achieving a company's aim for growth. Which one, or combination of tactics, should the company employ to achieve growth for its particular product line/range/SBU? Further information about market penetration, market development, product development and diversification can be found in Chapter 8 of Macintosh, R. and MacLean, D. (2015) Strategic Management: Strategists at work, London: Palgrave Macmillan (Required textbook). In combination, these terms are known as Ansoff's Growth Matrix.
iii. Explain whether the current competitive stance of your company's product line/range/SBU should be changed, maintained or abandoned all together? Please note that it takes many years to establish a company's reputation and build the necessary resources to compete in a particular way, so a competitive stance should not be abandoned lightly.
iv. To complement your video, the group should construct a 200 to 300-word summary of the competitive strategy lessons it learnt from analysing one of the company's product lines/ranges/SBU's.
v. The group should also include at the top of this summary the names of the company and the names of your group members and their IDs.
vi. You will also paste the shared link obtained from Microsoft Stream just below the summary.
vii. You should place a list of any references used in the video at the end of the document as well.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.