Business Managent

Order Description
Scenario:

You are going to be a Senior Analyst in the related of the beer industry. You have been asked to do an independent strategic review report for the CEO of Cobra beer. The CEO will ask you to cover the following in the analytical report:

Sections:
1. Provide an in-depth analysis of the competitive forces and strategic elements of the external environment shaping the Cobra beers industry. (beer/brewing industry)
Advisory notes:
• Approximately 600 words excluding use of supplementary appendices
• You should use any relevant strategic models to complete your analysis including macro-frameworks, Porter’s 5 forces and Industry (ILC) theory. Please avoid listing and descriptive content. It must contain structured critical evaluation.

Here you are analysing the external environment of COBRA BEER market/industry– thus the focus is not COBRA BEER – the focus is the micro (5 Forces) and macro (PESTEL) environment. That means both PESTEL and 5 forces should not be about COBRA BEER but for the industry that COBRA BEER Preferably I would like to see either an external environment analysis for Europe, mentioning also some essential global trends.

Also, here you will need first to analyse PESTEL – just mention only those relevant trends to the industry . You don’t have to go into describing every dimension. If you want to then use tables and/or appendices and mention in the text only the most important trends.

5Forces: Use the “Structural Determinants” slide from the external environment lecture slides – 1st semester. Please mention whether every force is high, moderate or low and in the end conclude whether the industry is attractive and profitable or not.
As to industry life cycle (ILC): You can either clearly incorporate it within the “existing competition” force of 5 forces, by saying whether the industry is in a development or maturity stage along with the market growth rate (which a structural determinant of the particular force) OR you can make a short section only for the industry life cycle theory.

In any case, you will need to reference every single concept and model used above both in text and in the final list of references.

2. Undertake an internal strategic analysis of Cobra beer company using appropriate organisational & strategic models to complete your critical assessment.

Advisory notes:
• Approximately 1,100 words excluding use of supplementary appendices.
• Your strategic analysis should concentrate on the internal aspects of Cobra as an organisation. This can include financial & resource appraisal (RBV) and/or value chain linkages and other relevant learning
• Aspire to being critical. Do not outline any theories in an explicit fashion. Simply apply them to the context of the case.
In this question we expect you to use resources and capabilities theory (R+Cs or else Resource Based view of the Company) and/or Value Chain . Yes, please, mention both theories and reference them of course. However, if you feel comfortable using only one then it is still fine – just state it clearly. So, I would like you to: present the key strategic resources. Within the financial resources you must mention some key financial indexes either of COBRA BEER’ Strategic Business Unit (SBU) that you can find from Google, published statements, Mintel or Bloomberg databases. As for mentioning comparative measures from a key competitor, yes you can do it. More than that, you will need to state clearly what are the core capabilities/competencies of COBRA BEER and why they are core? E.g. financial control and economies of scale-are they core? Also do they lead to competitive advantage? If yes, is it cost leadership or differentiation or a bit of both (hybrid strategy)? In this way you are actually describing COBRA BEER’ existing business level strategy that you need in the last question.

As for Value Chain. You don’t need to analyse highly descriptive every single activity. If you want to or have done so, please use appendices and tables to avoid the word count. Here, you need to show those linkages (combinations of primary to support activities) that either increase the customer value or reduce the operating cost. In this way, again you can conclude into what competitive advantage(s) are created for COBRA BEER and how. The outcomes of Resources+Capabilities and Value Chain should agree.
3. The CEO is concerned about various PR crises that have impacted Cobra Beer since 2008. Therefore, you are required to identify the external stakeholder issues that X faces and critically assess their impact on the corporate reputation and brand equity of X.
Advisory notes:
• Approximately 350 words excluding use of supplementary appendices
• This requires the critical application of organisational ethics theory, CSR concepts, stakeholder applications & reputation management concepts/metrics.

In this question you are required to identify one, two or three issues that affected the image of the company, either internal or external. You will need to briefly analyse what happened applying theories on organisational ethics theory,, corporate governance CSR concepts, stakeholder applications & reputation management concepts/metrics. Not all of them are required, but the more you apply and reference inside the PR crisis/issue the better it is. We want you to demonstrate application of relevant theories.
4. Based on sections 1-3, you are required to summarise the strategic options (strategies) that are appropriate to Cobra beer and make definitive recommendations for Cobra to sustain its future position in the its industry.
Advisory notes:
• Approximately 1000 words. No supplementary appendices should be used in this section. It is not appropriate.

This is the most important question. Here you need to:
a) Identify the business level strategy of COBRA BEER (this could be also been found/linked from question 2. That is either cost leadership or differentiation or hybrid (both). Of course you will need to reference all concepts such as “Porter, 1985”. In Q2 you conclude justifying the competitive advantages –> thus, if they are mostly on uniqueness (differentiation) then the competitive strategy is most probably differentiation leadership and so on :-).
b) Identify the corporate level strategies. These could be growth: e.g. market penetration, market development, product development, vertical/horizontal integration, related/unrelated diversification. Here you can use the Ansoff’s matrix/directional policy table (it is essentially the same). Of course there are turnaround corporate strategies (e.g. downsizing, liquidation, divesture etc) and stability strategies ( no-change strategy, pause, etc)
So in a) and b) you can identify/record plenty of strategies but please use the terminology and reference properly every concept.
c) Suggest strategies: Either you can suggest sustaining the existing ones, or developing the existing ones, or developing new.
d) Choose two (advisable)-three (max) strategies to evaluate them according to certain criteria. These can be:
– suitability – acceptability – feasibility, that is SAF (highly recommended, simple and straightforward)
-STAIR model
-SUITS model
-RACES model
– or any other properly referenced model.

You don’t need to use more than one of the above.
Questions and Evaluation Explained

? In Q.1. have you looked at industry level using macro & relevant 5 forces analysis?

? Q.2. Have you analysed relevant internal issues using appropriate strategic and organisational concepts & models? These should include the application of financial, value chain & organisational concepts.
? Q.3. Have you critically examined X’s stakeholder engagement using appropriate ethical, CSR & reputation management concepts?

Quality of strategic options analysis and final recommendations:

? Have you used preceding issues from Q.1- Q.3. to justify a set of possible options (ideally 4-6 options)
? Have you thoroughly applied the SAF or STAIR (or any related) evaluation model?

? How specific and well justified are your final recommendations for X?