1. Strategic Management BUSM 3200
These guidelines are provided to help in your preparations for the group assignment. They do
NOT represent in any way “model answers” or a correct approach. Rather they provide
suggestions as to how to proceed with data collection and analysis leading to the completion of
your report. Make sure you read the guidelines provided by the RMIT course coordinator carefully.
1-1BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

2. Strategy Evaluation
The final part of the report!
What are you asked?
Evaluate the suitability of the firm’s current
business strategy based on the outcomes of your
analysis and integration above (e.g., the
identification of the firm’s current business strategy
and the most significant factors affecting the firm’s
performance, and your understanding of business
strategy)
4-2BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

3. Read Lecture 7: Chapter 11
Strategy evaluation : SAFe
BUT the question asks us only for ONE
SUITABILITY
Read the text pages 363- 371
Then decide what concepts you are going to use
Remember you are evaluating the current
business strategy
DO NOT make any recommendations on future
strategies!
4-3BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

4. Read the paragraph again for section 6
4-4
Evaluate the suitability of the firm’s current business strategy based on
the outcomes of your analysis and integration above (e.g., the
identification of the firm’s current business strategy and the most
significant factors affecting the firm’s performance, and your
understanding of business strategy)
1. Based on outcomes of analysis: means what did
your findings show from your external and internal
analysis
2. Integration above: how would you link or match the
strategies of your company with the external factors
and internal capabilities
3. Consider the most significant factors means the key
success factors for your strategy to work
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

5. Table 11.2
This table has lots of rich implications; you can review and
decide which areas you can link your business strategy to a
selected few of the models listed there. DO NOT write on all!
4-5BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

6. Table 11.2 (cont’d)
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From this table, pick two or three concepts and show how your
business strategy for your company could be assessed by LINKING it
back to the given model or concept
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

7. For example :PESTEL linkage
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This means that you assess your strategy based on the capability of your
organization to drive competitive advantages by taking advantage of
specific opportunities in the external environment
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

8. Key elements of the
business strategy of
Differentiation used by
our firm
PESTEL Factors
Political/ Legal Economic Sociocultural Technology
Marketing : Product
development,
branding, distribution
(you give the relevant
examples in RELATION
to what the company is
CURRENTLY doing)
Operations and
Logistics:
Human Resource
Development:
Technology and IT
Others
Example if my strategy is ‘differentiation’
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So in the selected boxes you write some short
bullet points explain how that component of your
differentiation strategy is exploiting external
opportunities arising from that particular category
of PESTEL factors
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

9. When you complete this table…
You are in fact explaining how effective your
strategy is in meeting the challenges of the
different dimensions of the external environment
And from which you conclude the suitability of
your given business strategy
You can also link to other models as well……
Five Forces
Value Chain
Cultural Web
Others
4-9BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

10. Five Forces Linkage
Go back and refer to my Lecture 5: Business Strategy
See slides 65 - 72 (showing how you link Cost Leadership
strategy and the five forces)
See slides 54 - 61 (showing how you link Differentiation
strategy and the five forces)
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11. Five Forces Linkage
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Key elements of the
business strategy of
Differentiation used by
our firm
Industry Five Forces
Threat of new entrants Rivalry in the industry Substitutes Buyer Power Supplier Power
Marketing : Product
development,
branding, distribution
(you give the relevant
examples in RELATION
to what the company
is CURRENTLY doing)
Operations and
Logistics:
Human Resource
Development:
Technology and IT
Others
So in the selected boxes you write some short
bullet points explain how that component of your
differentiation strategy is mitigating or reducing
the threat of that respective force
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

12. Value Chain or Cultural Web??
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Value Chain: Go and read my lecture 5 on Business Strategy: I showed some
slides on how to link the business strategy to a Value Chain
We can also take the model of the Cultural Web and assess whether the internal
aspects of the organizational culture support and create effective implementation
of strategy
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS

13. Linking Differentiation Strategy and Value Chain
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Differentiation
Strategy impact
on the specific
activities within
the Value Chain
Briefly explain how the chosen business strategy is supported by
the appropriate functions in the VC. This is another way of
explaining suitability factor in terms of the fit of business
operations to the chosen strategy (example differentiation)
BUSM 3200- Strategic

14. The Cultural Web model
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Read chapter 5 of the text. Here you need to show how each area of the cultural
web (internal dynamics) helps the company achieve superior implementation of a
given strategy- whether it is cost leadership or differentiation
The purpose is to
show how the
internal culture is
a major factor in
achieving success
in strategy
implementation
(suitability factor)
BUSM 3200- Strategic Management (JAN 2013) GDS