MMGT6001 – Strategy
Group Assessment (20%)
ASSESSMENT TASK
The group assignment will ask you to perform a strategic analysis of an Australian
company, generate strategic options and design a learning launch.
The strategic analysis should provide the following elements:
- A sound analysis of the current situation, the strategic issues to tackle as well
as the key success factors of the industry. To do so, you should use relevant
and applied frameworks discussed in class. Ideally, your analysis should
include an external analysis, an internal analysis/activity analysis and a
discussion of the customers. Pay particular attention to emerging trends that
affect the industry as well as emerging business models.
- Based on your findings, you should suggest two strategic options. Use theory,
evidence as well as your critical thinking to design these potential options. You
should then evaluate these options and select one strategic option that you
would like to investigate further in a learning launch. There are no wrong
answers, however you should back-up your choice of a specific strategic option
with a short comparative analysis of the strategic options (outcomes, input,
time, etc.).
- You should then provide a proposition of a learning launch. Hess and Liedtka
define a learning launch as a “carefully designed experiment or prototype
designed to test the key underlying value-generating assumptions of a potential
new-growth initiative. In contrast to a full new-product roll-out, a learning launch
is a learning experiment conducted quickly and inexpensively” (Liedtka, 2009:
p.1).
- Finally, you should evaluate your strategy by using the four Hess & Liedtka
tests. A document with the relevant information will be uploaded to Canvas in
the ‘Group Assessment’ Module.
Your group is responsible for choosing the Australian company to analyse. I strongly
recommend you select a public company for which there is information available such
as annual reports, earning calls and strategy presentations. You can find this
information in the ‘Investor’ section of the company’s website, as well as on the ASX
database or other databases you might have access to, such as Capital IQ. Your
chosen company should have interesting strategies, and/or be in industries that are
disrupting the way customers do things or in industries facing disruption. Your chosen
company should be approved by the lecturer. Please notify the lecturer of your
selection via email (massimo.garbuio@sydney.edu.au) by 28 February 2023. Along
with this, please also brainstorm and email me five challenges and five opportunities
for your selected company, which may later form the basis of your Group Assessment.
Some examples of companies that you could investigate are Afterpay, Seek, Tyro,
Splitit, Xero, Myer, Santos, Atlassian, Coles, Woolworths, Airtasker, Zip, any Big Four
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bank (ANZ, CBA, NAB, Westpac), Fortesque Metals, or any Australian lithium or
hydrogen company (e.g. Lake Resources).
The Group for this assignment will be allocated by the lecturer and made available on
Canvas.
Your Group should consider itself a team of consultants that have been called by the
Board of Directors to provide a strategic analysis of the situation the company face,
strategic options and a learning launch. Therefore, your presentation needs to be
backed up by solid quantitative and qualitative evidence.
During your analysis, look at both what the organization says of itself and what other
sources say of it. Industry and consulting reports will be valuable to identify key trends,
as well as the business press (e.g. BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, The Financial Times,
FastCompany, Entrepreneur and Australian Financial Review – use Factiva if you
don’t have direct access to these sources). To identify relevant internal issues, the
company’s annual report can be complemented by interviews with experts, reports of
competitors as well as articles from the business press.
Following submission, each team will be assigned another group’s presentation to look
at in detail. You should prepare 2-3 questions to ask during the live session in the final
class (Tuesday 21 March 2023). Formulating these questions is another opportunity
to practice your strategic thinking. In formulating the questions, consider:
- Is the analysis of the external/internal/customer situation and competitive
advantage solid?
- Do the proposed strategic options and learning launch follow from the analysis
presented? Or are there gaps that are going to undermine the credibility of the
proposal? The options and learning launch need to follow from the analysis of
the internal/external/customer situation and competitive advantage.
- Is the learning launch and its articulation going to provide a meaningful way to
improve a company’s current strategic position (eg expanding into new markets
and/or geographies, expanding the portfolio of initiatives across different
horizons, place the company on a path of disruption)?
FORMAT AND LENGTH
Formatting and submission requirements apply in accordance with The University of
Sydney Business School assessment policy
(https://business.sydney.edu.au/students/policy).
15-minute PowerPoint presentation. The recommended length of the presentation is
10-15 slides. Where the time-limit is exceeded by 10%, each student in the Group
will lose 10% of the total marks and 10% for each 10% over-length thereafter. You
should record your voice over the PowerPoint slides.
Students should use the American Psychological Association (APA) 7 Referencing
Style (https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/citation/apa7).
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DUE DATE
The recorded video presentation and a pdf file of the presentation must be submitted
to Canvas by 11:59pm on Sunday 19 March 2023.
Each group will then be required to answer questions about their project (‘Q+A’) in
the final class on Tuesday 21 March 2023. You’ll be allocated a time closer to the
date.
PEER EVALUATION
Further information will be provided via Canvas.
SUBMISSION
One student per group should submit a soft-copy of the assessment on or before the
due date via Canvas, on behalf of the entire group. You may submit another file before
the assignment due date, however, your first submission will be overwritten.
The file name should include the Group Number or Name, Unit of Study, Assignment
Number or Name, Semester, and Year. For example:
Group1BUSS1000AssxxxS12023.
Please ensure to include the Group name and SID of all group members, separated
by a comma, on the first slide. Do not include any student names.
Any assessment submitted after the due time and date will incur a late penalty of 5%
of the total marks per 24 hour period, or part thereof, late (note that this is applied to
the mark gained after the submitted work is marked).
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