Instructions for Business Report for Individual Case Study (A2)
BUSS 3113 Entrepreneurship & Strategy in Asia
The Company I choose: “OnePlus”
Please follow the requirements of this assignment strictly, and do not miss every step. There are also requirements for formatting, documentation, and font, etc.
This individual assignment asks you to follow the instructions in the Course Outline and Learn-On-Line for site Assignment 2 to:
(a) gather information on a technology entrepreneurial organization and
(b) document your findings in a
ief business report.
(You have the option to choose an organization of your liking as well, but make sure that you are able to find plenty of secondary resources, i.e. data and references, to support your arguments. You must not rely on internal confidential reports/documents that you are not able to refer to. – Remember, the company must belong to one of the five countries that is of our interest and discussed extensively during the course.)
Some suggested Companies (but you may also select one of your choice belonging to any of the 5 Asian countries that we study):
· Zomato
· OYO
· DiDi
· Shopback (Singapore)
· DeNa games
· OnePlus
· NIO
· Viva Republica
· Paytm
· SOCAR (South Korea)
· BYJUS
· Whill (Japan)
· Hikky (Japan)
· Heroz (Japan)
Discuss your choice of company with your course coordinator.
These instructions ove
ide any more general guidance that may be contained in the Course Outline.
*** As part of the review of the organization, you will conduct a detailed analysis of the company to identify any strategic gaps/ issues/challenges/opportunities. In doing so, you must develop a robust understanding of the business context in general and industry context in particular (especially the competitive landscape). Further analysis must also seek to assess the alignment between company’s stated strategic goals, value proposition and strategic actions.
The report should be designed to clearly and concisely convince the CEO or the board that a sound logical evidence-based approach has been undertaken to a
ive any improvements in strategic directions and actions.
NOTE: A usual mistake is not to provide references (in-text and in the Reference List); please avoid that.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As a guide, about a page and half which is an overview of the results of analysis - may include
ief description of business, cu
ent performance, existing and planned directions, and strategic gaps/ issues/challenges/opportunities from analysis. Must logically align strategic analysis, cu
ent strategy alignment to addressing the competitive landscape and value proposition.
** It is a good practice to search online on how to write a good Executive Summary and a Business Report and to learn from it, prior to your write-up.
Some Tips for Analysis (* These are guidelines only and you are free to follow it and/or complement it with other frameworks. The important point to focus on is logical connection between arguments, making a compelling na
ative by providing support (by examples and references) and being specific in articulation.)
Step 1a: Begin with a
ief overview of the organization, including its history in
ief.
Step 1b: Provide strategic overview refe
ing to your organization’s value proposition and main strategic objectives
Step 2: Complete a contextual analysis of the major forces in the general macro environment expected to affect or has affected your company in the 3 years (+/-) or is cu
ently impacting (You may summarize important and relevant points impacting your business in a table, with any important supporting details in an Appendix). [You may choose to apply PESTEL dimensions for analysis].
· Since your company is a technological company, do think to relate to the National Innovation System of the country. You would later relate this to the industry analysis you conduct using Porter’s Five Forces.
· It is very important to define the business context of your company. Think whether the company is domestic focused or is international. In addition, also think whether you are considering internationalization of the company in future. In fact, you could be specific in your suggestion for internationalization and think of which country/countries to internationalize in future, if you do consider internationalization. This will then help you to adapt your contextual analysis to those specific international contexts, which you can discuss in
ief If so, then adopt your contextual analysis to the international context.
Step 3: Conduct the market analysis while thinking of the various customer segments. Which customer segments are key to the company that you analyze? Who are the primary competitors in that customer segment? What differentiates your company from the competition? [Knowing competitive landscape means that you know your competitors well, so this must be sufficiently detailed.] You may also use Strategy Canvas, Strategy Group and Positioning Map to complement your analysis. The ‘strategy group’ will help you discern the immediate Business context of the organization.
· In doing so, you should be able to explain how distinctive is the company’s value proposition to competition. Yet again, think of the business context of the company’s operations and then derive comparison to the competition.
Step 4: Strengthen your understanding of the external business context by further doing a meaningful analysis of your organization using Porter’s Five-Forces industry analysis tool. Use this to provide a detailed understanding of the competitive landscape and the business context.
Step 5: Reflect on the cu
ent strategy of the company. The important thing is to understand the strategy and then assess its suitability in the cu
ent context. You can here do the SWOT analysis. Make sure to identify key strengths and weaknesses of the company. At the same time think of major opportunities and threats/challenges for the business. [Think of no more than 2-4 the most important issues]. How these issues are impacting the organization’s competitive advantage or market position it holds (or seeks to hold)?
The issues could be a threat, an opportunity or a strategic misalignment you identified.
[Suggestion: You may also do Value analysis Snake diagram to see where you stand vis-à-vis competitors in terms of core and peripheral values and if any issue there in relates to the VRIO].
Step 6: Prioritizing and Concluding: Here you come to the crux of the whole report, aligned to the findings of the analyses and previous sections, i.e., prioritizing the strategic issues that you identified. As you do undertake this final review, make sure that you provide strong logic to justify your prioritizing.
Reference List
Any assumptions/ End Note
Appendix
NOTE:
1. Please document any assumptions, uncertainties, tradeoffs, and information gaps that might influence your conclusions.
2. Your report may also include various charts, tables, or exhibits to support your analysis and conclusions. Keep in mind that some of your charts, tables, or exhibits may replace na
ative text and, thus, make your report more concise and therefore better.
3. You may also choose to write in bullet format to make your report concise, yet not compromising on
eadth of issues.
About Your Report
· The assessment must be written in a Business Report style.
· The report is of 2000 words (+/-10%).
· The word count for this report will be exclusive of any Tables and/or Figures that are there in the main text or body of the report. [However, the maximum total words permissible for in-text Tables and/or figures is 1000 words].
· Any referencing style, but consistent all through the report. Reference list is not counted towards 2000 words.
· Font size 12 Times New Roman with 1.5 spacing all through (including Appendix) and please keep 2.54 cms margin all through.
· Executive Summary (no more than 1.5 pages), Reference list and Appendix is not included in the word count.
· Appendix can be no more than 4 pages.
· Please submit your file in MS Word format.
References (new page): List any references (complying with the UniSA approved Harvard reference format https:
lo.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3839 ) you used to complete this Report.
Appendices (not counted in the word count), you can attach them after the References section.
All requests for an extension must be lodged via the Learnonline website. Extensions will only be granted in exceptional, unforeseen circumstances. Please submit your A2 in the relevant portal on this course’s LearnOnLine site (in the Assignments section) before the deadline stipulated in the Course Outline for this study period.
NOTE: To do this assignment, you do not necessarily need to do any primary collection of data. Also, if you are using any information that is considered ‘confidential’ by the organization, then it is your responsibility to take necessary permission prior to submission.
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BUSS 3113 Entrepreneurship & Strategy in Asia
Assignment 2 (Individual Report) – 50% weight
Student:
Assessment Categories:
Performance on this component
Poo
(F)
Acceptable
(P)
Good
(C)
Very Good
(D)
Outstanding
(HD)
1. Co
ect, clear, and explicit application of business analyses instruments/tools
(20 Marks)
2. Compelling analysis (with persuasive evidence) that is linked to identification of issues/challenges/opportunities
(30 Marks)
3. Logical development of points (with evidence, supporting arguments, and details) (20 Marks)
4. Persuasive justification for selection and prioritization of strategic issues/challenges/opportunities (20 Marks)
5. Professional presentation (incl. Exec Summary, Appendix, Grammar, spelling, punctuation, consistent referencing style, and overall appeal of the Report)
(10 Marks)
Specific comments
Assignment grade/mark: