COMPETITIVE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT $1-30\%$

OBJECTIVE:

The assignment is intended to foster the following objectives:

i$.$ Describe a wide range of business practices and industry contexts, including the strategies of major corporations

ii$.$ Analyse the environment and identify strategic issues and options

iii. Integrate financial, managerial, accounting, marketing, and human resources decisions into a coherent business strategy

iv$.$ Explain how to evaluate strategic plan outcomes and how to adjust strategies in response to environmental contingencies

Policy Formulation and Implementation The Airline Industry

You must complete a three$-$part hand$-$in analysis of the airline industry in your respective countries or Malaysia and one firm in that industry $($you may choose any local airline$).$ You must research the industry and the company you select using publicly available resources.

All your analyses should be prepared from the point of view of a consultant hired to advise the CEO of the company you choose to examine. Each part of the analysis should use $1\mathrm{.}5$ spacing and $12-$point font, plus your references and appendices containing the information that underlies the written portion of your report. That is$,$ the main body of your report should summarise and integrate the material contained in the appendices. I should be able to read the main body as a stand$-$alone document without referencing the appendices $($but rest assured, I will read them!$).$ The appendices also should each stand on their own. When I read each appendix, I should understand why it is there and what it tells me without referri

ng to the body of your report. By the end of the project, you should clearly understand where the airline industry is and

where it is going, along with an equally strong understanding of the strategy, strengths

and weaknesses, and challenges facing the airline you have examined. I will now

proceed to outline the content for each part of this individual assignment:

Part $1$: Industry analysis

Part $1$ of the assignment looks at the airline industry's structure and assesses the

industry's profit potential, both now and in the future. The specific questions you need to

address in this part of the assignment include:

$$ What does the industry structure look like?

$$ What are the strategic groups in the industry?

$$ Given this, what is the overall attractiveness of the industry and each strategic

group you identified?

$$ What are the driving forces acting to change the industry? $($I$.$e$.,$ macroenvironmental analysis$)$

$$ How are those changes likely to affect the industry and the different strategic

groups in the industry?

$$ If the driving forces play out as you anticipate, how will that affect the

attractiveness of the industry and its constituent strategic groups?

Appendices for the paper

You will not have adequate space in the body of your paper to conduct a detailed

analysis of each question. Therefore, you will want to include a detailed study in your

appendices. The appendices for the assignment should be thorough and complete. They

should stand alone; I should not need to read them in conjunction with the body of your

paper. In them, you need not only to conduct a detailed analysis but also to conclude

your analysis. Those conclusions should be carried forward into the body of your paper.

Appendices for part $1$:

$1.$ Industry analysis $$ i$.$e$.,$ Porter$$s five force analysis

$2.$ Strategic group map

$3.$ Macro$-$environmental analysis:

a$.$ Economic activity

b$.$ Law and ethics c$.$ Diversity $($demographic$,$ cultural, and social$)$

d$.$ Technology

e$.$ Environmental sustainability

f$.$ Global issues and trends

Part $2$: Firm $($internal$)$ analysis

Part $2$ of the assignment looks inside at the airline you have chosen to analyze. It

considers both the strategy of the firm, as well as the resource base the firm draws

upon. The specific questions you must consider in this part of the assignment are as

follows:

$$ What is the strategy your airline is following? Be sure to include the following

components of the strategy:

o Overall strategy $($Hambrick & Fredrickson typology$)$

o Business$-$level strategy

o Corporate$-$level strategy

$$ How well does the strategy work? Do the financials indicate a successful

strategy? What is your evidence?

$$ Do you believe the strategy will be successful considering the industry

conditions you identified in part $1?$ Why or why not?

$$ What is the firm$$s resource base? What are its core and distinctive

competencies?

$$ Consider your industry analysis from part $1.$ What challenges do these create for

the firm? What opportunities do they create that the firm might be able to

exploit? What internal strengths and weaknesses does the company have to

meet those challenges and opportunities?

$$ Does the firm$$s resource base appropriate for the strategy it is trying to achieve?

Why or why not?

$$ Overall, what are the major leadership and management issues faced by the

firm? Why did you choose them, as opposed to some other set? Appendices for part $2$:

$1.$ Strategy analysis: Complete a detailed summary of the firm$$s strategy using the

Hambrick & Fredrickson typology. Identify each of the five dimensions of strategy

$($arenas$,$ vehicles, differentiators, staging, and economic logic$)$ and summarise

what they tell you about the firm$$s strategy. Analyse the elements that comprise

each part of your firm$$s strategy: business$-$level, corporate, cooperative, and

international.

$2.$ Financial analysis: Apply appropriate financial analysis to help you understand

the performance profile of the firm you chose to analyse.

$3.$ Internal analysis: Evaluate leadership and management issues faced by the firm.

$4.$ Resource and competence analysis: Carefully identify the firm's potential

resources and competencies. Categorise them according to the VRIS scale and

identify whether they are core, distinctive, both, or neither.