Prepare an ANALYTICAL REPORT: Pick a product, a firm, or an industry, then APPLY MICROECONOMICS THEORIES and CONCEPTS (in the list) to explain and analyze the CHALLENGE for CORPORATE STRATEGY relating to that product, business or industry that you pick, and then provide RECOMMENDATIONS for it
The report PROPOSAL must be submitted as a Word document by Saturday 8th November 2014 for feedback. Once I approve, I will also give you feedback from my teacher, THEN you start writing on the report.
Word Count: 2,700
1. Choose a topic for your assignment:
a) Pick a product, a firm, or an industry
b) Pick a challenge for corporate strategy relating to that product, business or industry
c) Use appropriate/useful concepts of the list (on the next page) to address this challenge
2. Report proposal: Prior to the final drafting and submission of the assignment, a proposal MUST be submitted for consideration and feedback. A proposal must consist of:
I. The name of the product, firm or industry
II. The challenge for corporate strategy, which should be phrased as a single question (e.g. How should banks set executive bonuses in the wake of the financial crisis?)
III. Write a commentary (of between 150 and 250 words) on how you intend to leverage the ideas, concepts and analysis in the LIST (below) to analyse the chosen challenge.
3. In order to proceed to the preparation of your assignment, you must first receive approval for your proposal. This initial stage in the process allows us to have some inputs into your selection of a question, and plan for addressing it. Once I have approved your proposal, you can proceed to develop it into the full assignment.
The marking criteria – the report must show:
1) THOROUGH RESEARCH: it may be helpful to imagine that someone (maybe you) will use your analysis as the basis for investment or business decision.
2) You must APPLY ECONOMIC CONCEPTS: it is NOT sufficient to simply vaguely mention concepts/theories without attempting to apply them to your chosen case. If a concept is not relevant don’t try to put it in – the assignment is not about squeezing as many concepts in as possible, it is about demonstrating your ability to think like an economist.
3) An IMPARTIAL DOCUMENT based upon verifiable data and well justified arguments. Do not hesitate to use numbers, figures, tables or diagrams. If you use a firm’s website to find out information (which is a good idea, but not as the sole source) please do not cut and paste company sound bites into your assignment. Statements such as “Widgets PLC is a world class company; It is the world’s top supplier of widgets with an unsurpassed record of innovation” add NO value to your assignment. Please leave such hyperbole to the firm’s marketing department!
