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.
Guidance Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and the exact word count of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in AU Harvard system(s). 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.
You must not include your name in your submission because Arden University operates anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.
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.
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.
