Assignment 1

The purpose of this assignment is to provide an opportunity to utilise your skills and knowledge of strategic planning to undertake the tasks associated with the key question of where are we now in relation to the external environment and industry structure currently facing your chosen organization.

Description/Focus:
You will conduct a ‘five forces analyses’ for an industry of your choice. Based on your analysis, you need to indicate how profitable do you think the industry currently is and what are the factors driving that profitability. Also discuss how will these factor change in the future and what will be the effect of these changes on industry profitability.

Task:
Utilise the University library, the Internet and any information made available by the organisation (e.g. annual report, promotional materials) to provide an analysis of the organisation’s current operations to develop your analysis of current operations.

Assessment criteria:
1. An ability to utilise sources such as the Internet and University library facilities to search, locate and summarise data relevant to the assignment
2. An ability to utilise appropriate academic theories about analysing key variables within the external environment which have a direct impact on the organisation and macro-environmental variables that might impact current and future performance
3. An ability to develop a review of the industry forces and industry structure confronting the organisation including identification of what key factors are most likely to impact profitability
4. An ability to present a well written, well structured report
5. An ability to critically analyse information, formulate conclusions and exhibit original thought



by the way it should be Australian big industry like logistics, credit cards industry, not small organisation or or one company we will talk about the whole industry with statistics and reference thanks.

-------------------------

PRBM030: Organisational Strategy and Leadership



Assignment 1 Additional Information


Your assignment is a significant piece of work in this unit. It is an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the relevant issues raised in the assignment question. This assignment involves research within the context of existing knowledge. Your investigation may be based on both primary and secondary data that should be analysed and used to support a logically structured argument. It is important to recognise that mere reporting of facts will be inadequate and I will look for evidence of critical review and analysis. You must ensure that there is a clear link between assignment issues and appropriate theory. The acceptable theoretical model may be based on the text or other acknowledged sources.

You must make an effort to use multiple sources of information in preparing your assignment. These sources may include- articles from refereed journals (the most important source), electronic database, newspapers, and in some cases (where feasible and desirable) interviews with key stakeholders.

Assignment 1 relates to external environmental factors. It requires you to assess the structure of an industry of your choice. The unit of analysis is an ‘industry’ rather than an organisation. It is important to have a clear understanding of ‘industry’ as a distinct cluster of organisations. It is pertinent to note that boundaries and membership of many industries has changed quite significantly in recent times. Your discussion of industry analysis should be based on real rather than aspirational competitors and their actions. You may choose an industry that is either domestic or international in its scope and operations. It will be helpful if boundaries of your industry are clearly specified. For the second part of assignment you can choose to focus on a specific or limited aspects of the macro environment (with some justification why this is desirable) as against considering all elements of the macro environment and their impact on the industry and its profitability.





Date Due: Friday, 30 August 2013

Assessment Value: 40% of final mark

Assessment Format: Typed double spaced with at least 2.5cm margins following specified style requirements; Times New Roman font 12.

Page limit: Maximum 10 (excluding appendices)

Reference Style: Harvard

Assignment text may be organised in either essay or report format. In either case it is essential that you include a list of references. Assignments will be assessed based on demonstrated conceptual understanding, evidence of wide reading and research, appropriate editing and consistent use of referencing.



Plagiarism and Other Forms of Cheating: Plagiarism is a serious act of academic misconduct. Please familiarise yourself with the University’s Policies on Examination and Assessment, including plagiarism and other forms of cheating. Students must not submit work that has previously been submitted for this course or any other course.

Late Assignment Submission: I am sympathetic to unforseen personal and professional problems that might arise from time to time. However students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will only be given for medical or other serious reasons. Requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer of the course, preferably before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. Late assignments (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% reduction for each day the assignment is late.