Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the HNC/D programme you are required to submit an
assignment for each module. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the
programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting
assignments.
After completing the Business Strategy module you should be able to:
LO1 Understand the process of strategic planning
LO2 Formulate a new strategy
LO3 Understand approaches to strategy evaluation
LO4 Understand how to implement a chosen strategy

Assignment Task
Students are required to read the article How Adidas Found Its Second Wind (pdf version available
on the module page)
The article can also be found at http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00352
Published Strategy+Business website August 24, 2015 by Nicholas Ind, Oriol Iglesias, and Majken Schultz Accessed 30/9/15

You are required to apply the theories / concepts studied in the QCF Business Strategy module to the
Adidas organisation throughout your answers.
Alternatively, students may select an organisation that they are familiar with on which to base their
assignment answers e.g. current employer, if they wish to.
Please contact the module tutor by email at the earliest opportunity to gain approval if you wish to
select your own choice of organization.

Assignment Tasks
Based on your understanding of business strategy from the completion of this module, from reading
the article, and any of your own research that you have done into the Adidas or chosen organisation
you are required to respond to the following tasks:
Task 1 (suggested word count of 800 words)
Assess and analyse how Mission, Vision, Objectives, Goals and Core Competencies, and other
factors such as strategic planning systems, have to be considered when formulating strategic plans.
You should provide examples of each of these strategic terms from Adidas in your analysis.
(Assessment Criteria 1.1, 1.2)
b) Evaluate the effectiveness of two different strategic planning techniques for Adidas or chosen
organisation when developing its strategic plans.
(Assessment Criterion 1.3)
Task 2 (suggested word count of 800 words)
a) Conduct an environmental and organisational audit for Adidas or chosen organisation. You should
analyse the strategic position of the business and also assess the significance of executing
stakeholder analysis when formulating a new strategy.
(Assessment Criteria 2.1, 2.2, 2.3)
Task 3 (suggested word count of 800 words)
a) Analyse the appropriateness of alternative strategies (e.g. Market entry, limited growth,
retrenchment etc) for Adidas and using the results of your analysis suggest an appropriate future
strategy for the Adidas or chosen organisation taking care to justify the choice of strategy
(Assessment Criteria 2.4, 3.1, 3.2)
Task 4(suggested word count of 600 words)
Imagine that you are now part of the senior management team of Adidas or chosen organisation and
that you have to implement the recommended business strategy from Task 3.
a) Assess and analyse the roles and responsibilities of personnel who are charged with strategy
implementation and also estimate resource requirements e.g. HR, time, finance, materials that would
be required to implement the future strategy.
(Assessment Criteria 4.1, 4.2)
b) Identify TWO appropriate SMART targets that could be used in the implementation process and
evaluate why such SMART targets are important to the achievement of the strategy?
(Assessment Criterion 4.3)
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
If you would like feedback to assist with your learning, please produce an outline or a plan by
making some brief notes/bullet points (or a mind-map/diagram if you prefer) under each task heading
as to what you intend to include & discuss and you will receive feedback within seven days.

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Student Guidelines
1. You should write this assignment in an informal report format and should respond to each task
directly and in turn. You should produce a coherently written document i.e. bullet points alone or
other note format will not be acceptable as the final submission, and you should write your answers
taking care to explain, justify and evaluate your ideas and knowledge of how the theories and
concepts studied in the QCF Business Strategy module apply to the chosen organisation. You should
also underpin your analysis with relevant references to theory whilst at the same time ensuring that
you write your assignment in your own words as far as is possible.
You should refer to the assessment criteria for a pass grade to ensure that each criteria has been
covered in your responses to the assignment tasks.
2. You must ensure that the submitted assignment is all your own work and that all sources used are
correctly attributed. Penalties apply to assignments which show evidence of academic unfair practice.
(See the Student Handbook which is in the Induction Area). Please also refer to the Guide to Unfair
Practice in Assessment on the module page on ilearn.
3. You MUST underpin your analysis and evaluation of the key issues with appropriate and wide
ranging academic research and ensure this is referenced using the Harvard system. The My Study
Skills area contains the following useful resources; Study Skills Guide (containing a Harvard
Referencing section) and a Harvard Referencing Interactive Tutorial. You must use the Harvard
Referencing method in your assignment.
4. You should use diagrams and tables of figures where appropriate ensuring to reference their
source using the Harvard Referencing method.
5. You are required to write your assignment within 3000 words in order for your research and
summarising skills to be developed, and for effective time management. You are required to ensure
that the assignment addresses all of the assessment tasks. In the interests of good academic
practice, an assignment submitted with excessive word counts (i.e. more than 10% in excess
of the limit) will be returned to you. You will be given a maximum of 48 hours to edit the work to
reduce the word count to the permitted maximum. In the event that the submission is still
regarded as excessively long then, in line with advice received from Pearson, we will be
unable to accept it for marking and you will receive a Refer grade for Non-Submission.
The word count excludes the title page, reference list and appendices. Where assessment
questions have been reprinted from the assessment brief these will also be excluded from the word
count. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count. Printed words include those
contained within charts and tables.
6. Your assignment should be submitted as a single document. For more information please see the
Guide to Submitting an Assignment document available on the module page on iLearn.

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Recommended Additional Resources

Textbooks
Online CORE E-Book recommended for this course
Davies, J. 2010 BTEC Level 4/5 HNC in Business. Pearson Higher Education (UK), 2010.
Vitalsource Bookshelf file.
(Access to this E-Book is provided via the Vitalsource Bookshelf software contact the Student Support Team for access code)
Online library resource available via ilearn
MyiLibrary
Johnson, Gerry; Whittington, Richard; Scholes, Kevan. 2011., Exploring Strategy. [online]. Financial
Times/ Prentice Hall. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=327537> 30 September 2014
Johnson, Gerry;Whittington, Richard;Scholes, Kevan;Angwin, Duncan;Regnr, Patrick. 2013.,
Exploring Strategy Text & Cases. [online]. Pearson. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?
ID=552234> 1 October 2014
Lynch, Richard. 2013., Strategic Management : Middlesex University. [online]. Financial Times/
Prentice Hall. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=463040> 30 September 2014
EBSCO - E book collection database
Search for strategy corporate strategy business strategy etc.

MacLennan, A 2011, Strategy Execution : Translating Strategy Into Action In Complex Organizations,
London: Routledge, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2014.

EBSCO - Business Source Complete

accessed via ilearn for journals / company profiles / magazine articles etc
Magazines, journals and newspapers
Any strategic management magazines and journals
Websites
www.strategyplus.org/ : The Association for Strategic Planning strategicmanagement.net/ Strategic
Management Society
www.performance-measurement.net/ : Performance Management www.bpir.com/ : Benchmarking
www.balancedscorecard.org/ : Balanced Scorecard Institute
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www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com/stakeholder_management.html :Top 10 on stakeholder

management
www.bloomberg.com : Bloomberg, provider of worldwide financial information
www.emerald-library.com/ : EMR provides access to journals
www.ft.com : The Financial Times
How Adidas Found Its Second Wind (pdf version available on the module page)
The article can also be found at http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00352
Published Strategy+Business website August 24, 2015 by Nicholas Ind, Oriol Iglesias, and Majken Schultz Accessed 30/9/15

Page 5 of 8

Assessment Criteria for Pass

To achieve a pass you must meet all of the assessment criteria as stated
below. Failure to cover all of the assessment criteria will result in a Refer
grade and you will be required to re-submit your assignment.

Learning
Outcomes/
Assessment
Criteria

Further guidance on completion of your assignment can be found in the

guidance notes which are posted on the group learning space by your
module tutor
LO1 Understand the process of strategic planning
1.1 assess how business missions, visions, objectives, goals and core
competencies inform strategic planning
1.2 analyse the factors that have to be considered when formulating
strategic plans
1.3 evaluate the effectiveness of techniques used when developing
strategic business plans
LO2 Be able to formulate a new strategy

Task 1

2.1 analyse the strategic positioning of a given organisation by carrying

out an organisational audit
2.2 carry out an environmental audit for a given organisation

Task 2

2.3 assess the significance of stakeholder analysis when formulating new

strategy
2.4 present a new strategy for a given organisation

Task 1
Task 1

Task 2
Task 2
Task 3

LO3 Understand approaches to strategy evaluation and selection

3.1 analyse the appropriateness of alternative strategies relating to market
entry, substantive growth, limited growth or retrenchment for a given
organisation
3.2 justify the selection of a strategy

Task 3
Task 3

LO4 Understand how to implement a chosen strategy

4.1 assess the roles and responsibilities of personnel who are charged
with strategy implementation
4.2 analyse the estimated resource requirements for implementing a new
strategy for a given organisation
4.3 evaluate the contribution of SMART targets to the achievement of
strategy implementation in a given organisation.

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Task 4
Task 4
Task 4

Criteria Met
For tutor use
(you may wish to
use this in your
preparation for
your assignment
submission)

Assessment Criteria for Merit

To achieve a Merit all of the Pass criteria need to be met, then the tutor
will assess whether you have met the Merit Criteria. Each of the Merit
criteria must have been met at least once within the assignment.
The following statements are examples of how a merit may be achieved, if
you do meet the Merit Criteria by showing you have reached this level in
other ways then credit will be awarded for this. You will need to meet M1,
M2, M3 at least once.
M1 - identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions

M1

Strategic planning processes have been understood with some

application to a real business / scenario. (Task1)

Possible strategies have been explored in relation to a specific

organisation and appropriate recommendations made. (Task 3)
M2 - select/design and apply appropriate methods/techniques

M2

Audits have been completed with application to an organisation

using relevant techniques (Task 2)
Stakeholder analysis completed for the business (T2)
Appropriate strategic techniques have been used in order to
determine an appropriate future strategy for the business. (T3)
Appropriate roles / resources & targets / timescales have been
identified with some application to the organisation. (T4)
M3 - present and communicate appropriate findings

Appropriate structure i.e. informal report and NOT essay style,

and approach has been used

Logical and coherent analysis included

Technical / strategic language is accurately used throughout all

answers

Range of methods of presentation has been used including use of

diagrams where appropriate.

Good attempt has been made to use Harvard referencing

throughout the report and a correctly constructed reference list
produced at end of report.

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M3

Assessment Criteria for Distinction

To achieve a Distinction you have met all of the Pass and the Merit
criteria. Each of the Distinction criteria must be met at least once within
the assignment.
The following statements are examples of how a Distinction may be
achieved, if you do meet the Distinction Criteria by showing you have
reached this level in other ways then credit will be awarded for this. You
will need to meet D1,D2,D3 at least once.
D1- use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid
conclusions

Contexts and strategic planning processes / issues have been

fully understood and evaluated in terms of the organisation (T1)

The validity of results of audits/ analysis has been evaluated (T2)

Selected future strategy for the organisation is fully explored /

explained with detailed justification. (T3)

D2 - take responsibility for managing and organising activities

Independent research, much of which is outside of what has

been provided in the study materials / assignment brief, has been
utilised to prepare a thorough, detailed and very well structured
and excellently presented report. Research activities have been
carried out which result in detailed and coherent analysis of the
organisastions likely strategic processes. (all Qns)

Clear links are established between the organisation, students

answers and academic literature, providing a sound academic
basis. (all Qns)

D3 - demonstrate convergent/lateral/ creative thinking

Audits have been comprehensively completed using a selection

of techniques (PEST/ SWOT / McKinseys/ Porters 5 forces etc)
showing creativity and with a high degree of detailed application
to a specific organisation (Q2)

Assignment is completed fully and on time

Roles / resources / and targets / timescales are discussed with

very detailed analysis, using real business examples to illustrate
the implementation of strategy in an organisation. (T4)

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D1

D2

D3