STRATEGY/firm is HSBC
The management of business involves long term thinking of the overall direction of the organisation. This requires an understanding of the business environment, both external and internal and the recognition of challenges associated with being proactive and reactive. This is at corporate and business level. Thus supply chain, production process and marketing and distribution have to be viewed in a wide context – national, international and even global. Change in industries, organisations and markets needs to be understood and the implications for an organisation in the long-term acknowledged as management challenges.
School of Management
MN1506 Strategy

Individual Coursework Assignment
The coursework assignment for this module is a 2,500 word individual assignment worth 30% of the overall module mark. Your assignment plan will be discussed in a seminar.

Coursework Brief Assignment

Using each of the PESTEL framework, Porter’s Five Forces and Porter’s Value Chain, analyse the business environment of either Alibaba or HSBC or VW or BP and assess its impact on the firm’s strategy.

Key Marking criteria will include:

Use of academic theory, both full text and journal articles 30%
Use of case study 20% – 1 point per a case study/read or reference
Application of theory to example with critical thinking 30%
Academic presentation 20%
School of Management
MN1506 Strategy

Individual Coursework Assignment
The coursework assignment for this module is a 2,500 word individual assignment worth 30% of the overall module mark. Your assignment plan will be discussed in a seminar.

Coursework Brief Assignment

Using each of the PESTEL framework, Porter’s Five Forces and Porter’s Value Chain, analyse the business environment of HSBC assess its impact on the firm’s strategy.

Key Marking criteria will include:

Use of academic theory, both full text and journal articles 30%
Use of case study 20% – 1 point per a case study/read or reference
Application of theory to example with critical thinking 30%
Academic presentation 20%

ASSESSMENT GUIDANCE
You are writing as one academic expert to another, so please assume an intelligent and knowledgeable reader and present all material academically in correct format. Do not waste time on explaining simple academic theory or narrating basic factual information. There are no marks for description or narrative – see the marking criteria in the module handbook. The key words are “analyse” and “assess”,
You are required to read a lot, both theoretical and factual, to understand the relevant academic theory in detail and as currently debated by academics, and to research appropriate factual data, both historical and factual of your chosen firm. Ensure some of the theoretical references and factual information are recent/current. Then you need to think critically about the meaning and significance of what you have read, both separately and linked. Until this process is largely completed, you cannot determine what you wish to incorporate into your final assignment and to widen the range of theoretical references significantly and add in reliable sources of factual data.
The final writing of the 2,500 word essay can only be of good quality if you have gone through this process You will have needed to have researched the academic theory surrounding the business environment, including PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces and Porter’s Value Chain and Network. Besides a substantial range of full academic texts, and possibly an early Google search, you should research academic electronic data bases such as EBSCO, moving swiftly into refereed academic journal articles. An extensive quality reference list needs to be based largely on such journal articles. the final essay should also contain quality factual sources. It is very important that, at this stage of your academic studies, you develop this approach.
Whilst you may have initially researched briefly around each of the firms from which you have chosen one, you need to focus then, exclusively, on the one you have determined and research this in some depth factually. Whilst you do not need masses of detail, you will need to show a secure understanding of the connection between the three aspects of the business environment identified in the question and your selected strategies of the firm, both now and in the past.
Once you have read the necessary academic theory and researched the factual data of your firm, you should begin to place these two parts together. The essence of the assignment is to integrate the two, applying brief points of factual evidence in support of the academic argument you are advancing. Apply theory directly and exclusively to the precise wording of the entire question, whether integrating the two halves of the academic question set or treating them separately. Follow the marking criteria at all times and focus significantly more on academic theory than factual evidence.
Structure your academic essay into approximately twelve paragraphs. Your introduction and conclusion paragraphs should not exceed 150-200 words each, and these should be written in sequence largely when everything else is complete. The intervening 10 or so paragraphs should each be of approximately 200 words in length, each with a separate theoretical theme. The opening sentence of each substantive paragraph must clearly state its theme, with all subsequent sentences within that paragraph developing the applied academic detail, integrated throughout to exhibit academic understanding, and suitably referenced as your academic argument unfolds. You need to “assess” and “analyse”, so there is no room for lists, bullet points, description or narrative, theoretical or factual.
The introduction and conclusion provide the envelope within which you position your detailed and convincing academic analysis and /or assessment. They are your shop window and should be written with great care and with a word limit of 150. , you should provide the opening sentence of each paragraph you are thinking of using. This MUST be theoretical and reflect the entire focus of the sentences that will follow it in that paragraph in the final essay. It states its theme and needs to be referenced with one or more refereed academic journal articles. Be as up to date as you can. Reference with name and date, following APA6th, with a full reference list at the end. .

Final guidance
Please follow the handbook brief, plan seminar and BB info, and my lecture guidances, and ensure you complete the 2500 word academic essay by 3pm on Monday 21st March and submit via Turnitin. Remeber SOM penalties apply for overlength and lateness.
Write the intro and conclusion paras at the end of your preparation. By then you know what you are introducing and where your conclusion is heading, not before. The intro needs to have a clear theoretical context, with identified authors and theories, Specify the areas within PESTEL, Five Forces (three each?) and Value Chain (5/6) and the strategy(ies) of your chosen firm. The conclusion summarises the entire essay but introduces nothing new. Neither has to be referenced theoretically and neither should be referenced factually.
Each of the up to 200 word substantive paras in between should open with a short sentence giving a clear theoretical theme for that para. A subsequent set of sentences should expand on this theme and this theme alone. Following the marking scheme ensure that many references are refereed academic journal article based, accessed via EBSCO, but full academic texts may also be used if you wish. Brief points of evidence should be incorporated, based on reliable sources of factual data. Be very careful with use of any websites as many are unreliable. Never use websites for academic theory. Ensure you integrate theory with evidence in each paragraph as you proceed. Only then will you show academic understanding in what you write. It is this that we need from you.
Be very careful throughout to ensure that you stick closely to the question as worded. Thus there will be no marks for narrative or description, either of theory or fact. You need to ANALYSE the aspects of the external and internal environment you have selected as the basis for your essay. Each para should be directly involved in this, but remember the second half of the question goes on to require you to ASSESS the impact of the business environment factors you are analysing on your chosen strategies. Focus exclusively on the one firm and its strategy(ies). Give both parts of the question approximately the same weighting within each of the paras as you proceed.
The essay should flow well, in good written English, containing just the sequence of paras – no headings or numbers. Academic arguments need to be convincing and all points made justified by references. Quality of these is as important as quantity. Follow APA6th correctly throughout the essay and in the reference list that follows. You may briefly use a couple of appendicies if you wish , but you do not have to do so. Clear thinking leading to sound academic judgements for this question can be covered within the word limit. Reference list and any appendix lie outside the word restriction. A very substantial reference list is essential with a largely academic focus, with a strong journal article component for good marks. Remember that there is a 20% mark allocation for presentation of the essay.These are not difficult to get if you have done good academic reading and research, but they are also not difficult to not get if you haven’t. A reference list of some length is ESSENTIAL.

we don’t use the full Pestel frame work or the full five forces but it explains in the assessment criteria what to do

they don’t use the full frameworks listed, they use 3 aspecsts from each (guideance is given in the document I sent)

I should I have 20 journal articles as given by the assessment criteria – 1 point per an article used efficiently
and the core text book is called exploring strategy by Gerry Johnson, Richard Whittington kevan scholese etc