Strategic Management Assessment Brief
The Case Study
Who We Are: Principles & Values of Amazon in the UK | About Amazon UK
Assessment General Information
Strategic Management Report (100%) Word limit: 3,000 (+/- 10%) (A link to the self recorded
Panopto video should be attached in the appendix)
1
Assessment Task Details
Use Amazon as a Case Study. Research Amazon to better understand the organisation,
including its challenges and strategic management approach to sustaining its competitive
advantages. Keep the sources as your references for your report.
Individually, you will analyse the business environment of a (given) Case Study. Individually,
you will prepare a report to be presented to the board of directors, suggesting the best strategic
directions for the firm to grow internationally, and strategies to help them create a competitive
advantage and achieve their strategic objectives.
Applying the knowledge of relevant strategic management frameworks, you need to:
• Have developed knowledge of relevant strategic management frameworks to
successfully carry out external analysis and apply this knowledge in various contexts.
• Have developed knowledge of relevant strategic management frameworks to address
internal analysis successfully.
• Be able to analyse and evaluate case study information critically and informally.
• Be able to identify critical issues, evaluate alternatives, and make conclusions based
on thorough analysis.
• Be adept at accessing, selecting, and utilising various business information sources.
Be able to formulate business reports and make appropriate strategy
recommendations.
Question: Using strategic management frameworks covered in this module, investigate how
Amazon could maintain its competitive advantage, given the ever-changing technological
environment. Is Amazon’s strategy sustainable?
“You have been appointed as an individual consultant to advise Amazon, and your task is to
scan Amazon’s business environment and gather challenges and opportunities that lie ahead
of them. Your outcome should be a strategic management report of 3,000 words (plus a link
to a self-recorded Panopto video defending your report findings, max 10 slides – the link
should be attached in the report's appendix), and the management board needs to see the
report.
Your strategic management report will need to identify the internal and external opportunities
and threats facing the organisation and utilise appropriate frameworks that inform the
development of strategic options and recommendations for the Amazon organisation in terms
of future strategic directions and methods of expansion Amazon can adopt”
Your final strategic management report should contain:
• Executive Summary (on a separate page, an executive summary should be ONLY one
page).
• Introduction (definition of strategic management and some discussion of why strategic
management is essential, Amazon company & industry background, key challenges
faced by the Amazon company)
• External environmental analysis for identifying opportunities and threats: Macro
(PEST or PESTEL) & Micro (5 Forces Framework for analysing industry structure
and the nature of competition).
2
• Internal environmental analysis for identifying strengths and weaknesses: VRIO or the
value chain analysis.
• Identification of Competitive Strategies (Bowman’s Clock or Porter’s Generic
Strategies).
• Strategic directions (Ansoff Matrix - Markets, Products, Services) & expansion
methods (organic or inorganic).
• Conclusion and Recommendations.
*** In-text citations and list of references using Harvard Referencing.
*** Attach a link to your self-recorded Panopto video defending your report findings (Max 10
PowerPoint Slides).
The report should therefore be comprised of areas for consideration that address the following
questions:
1. Critically explain the theory as you appraise the current strategic positioning of the
given organisation (LO1, LO2, LO3 and LO5).
The following will need to be carried out to address this question: Take a critically
evaluated strategic audit, using appropriate models and frameworks (these models and
frameworks should be defined and explained), of the firm’s existing strategy about its
ability to exploit new global opportunities to create a more competitive advantage. To
prepare a report for the board of directors, you must scan the micro and macro
environments of the company where it operates. This must include a critical assessment of
the external MACRO environment (using the PESTLE framework) and external MICRO
environment (using Porter’s 5 Force framework). Critical internal analysis of the
organisation (applying Jay Barney’s VRIO or Michael Porter’s Value Chain Analysis) to
identify opportunities and threats in both these external and internal environmental layers.
2. What strategic recommendations can you propose for the organisation(s) given in the
case study to strengthen its current position in the Market? (LO4, LO6).
The following will need to be carried out to address this question: Your report must
include an analysis and evaluation of organisation competitive strategies in a critical and
informed way. Evaluating best alternatives and making possible recommendations and
conclusions based on thorough analysis and consideration of their future competitive
strategies, applying either Porter’s Generic Strategies of Competition framework or
Bowman and Faulkner’s Strategy Clock.
3
Learning Outcomes
LO1: Have developed knowledge of relevant strategic management frameworks to
successfully carry out external analysis and apply this knowledge in various contexts.
LO2: Have developed knowledge of relevant strategic management frameworks to address
internal analysis successfully.
LO3: Be able to analyse and evaluate case study information critically and informally.
LO4: Be able to identify critical issues, evaluate alternatives, and make conclusions based on
thorough analysis.
LO5: Be adept at accessing, selecting, and utilising various business information sources. Be
able to formulate business reports and make appropriate strategy recommendations.