As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook
for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on
preparing and submitting assignments.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the module, you should be able to:
1) Critically analyse and apply a number of theoretical models and their
potential for developing strategy and supporting strategic decisions.
2) Analyse theoretical developments in strategy.
3) Support the development of organisational strategies and plans.
4) Critically assess the impact of strategy making in an increasingly
volatile and turbulent environment.
5) Appreciate the significance of and the difficulties in
formulating and implementing strategy.
Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the
module name, the submission deadline and a word count; the appendices if relevant;
and a reference list in Arden University (AU) Harvard format. You should address all
the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the
assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.
Case study Organisation: Aldi entitled:
The Aldi effect: How one discount supermarket transformed the way Britain shops.
“When Aldi arrived in Britain, Tesco and Sainsbury’s were sure they had nothing to
worry about. Three decades later, they know better.” (Rice, 2019)
This assignment requires you to study the attached Case Study, research further
and undertake critical analyses of the current business environment along with its
strategic capabilities. Based on the outcome of your analyses, you are then required
to propose and justify future strategic choice(s) for Aldi. Below are the links to both
the text and podcast versions of the case study:
Reference:
Rice, X., 2019. The Aldi effect: How one discount supermarket transformed the way
Britain shops.
Your brief includes a critical examination of the company’s current strategic plans
and practices. In addition, you are required to suggest a comprehensive and
justifiable strategic plan for adoption and implementation in the future. Your strategic
plan must be informed by relevant referenced academic theories, Aldi Corporate
information and any other appropriate sources. You are, therefore, required to
undertake the following tasks and produce a Report for Aldi’s Chief Executive
Officer addressing relevant strategic management issues:
Critically analyse the balance of deliberate and emergent approaches to strategy
formulation that has been adopted by Aldi in the past. Discuss the extent to
which that balance has been appropriate and explain why? Recommend and
justify how you believe that balance should be transformed for the future. What
support is required to promote the development of the recommended balance of
organisational strategies and plans?
Critically assess the major macroenvironmental and industry issues that Aldi has
faced in the past. Evaluate Aldi’s responses to the major macroenvironmental
and industry issues. How effective have those responses been?
Identify and explain the impact of major macro- and competitive environmental
issues currently facing Aldi that need to be reflected in the company’s future
strategy?
Using Porter’s Value Chain framework, critically analyse Aldi’s strategic
capability. What linkages in the Value Chain does Aldi manage particularly well?
With the aid of the VRIO framework, assess the sustainability of Aldi’s strategic
capability.
Critically analyse Aldi’s previous strategies using Porter’s Generic Strategy
framework, and the Ansoff Matrix. To what extent are these strategies
appropriate for the future?
Analyse the approach to internationalisation that Aldi has adopted and assess
the extent to which that approach has been appropriate, and explain why?
