Essay Diploma In Strategic Management And Leadership – Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Scenario

There is no scenario for this assignment.
Task 1 of 3 – Business presentation (AC1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3)
Instructions:

Individually prepare a presentation critically evaluating the strategic plans of an organisation of your choice and propose strategic options. Your presentation is to be made to the board of directors and you should:

1. Introduce your selected organisation, and evaluate its vision, mission and values statements with recommendations for any revisions you deem appropriate.

2. Critically evaluate the organisations key headline data including, but not limited to, trends in financial performance, share price (where applicable) market share, profitability and major competitors.

3. Define the organisation’s industry and explore the critical macro-environment forces that influence it.

4. Critically analyse the organisation’s competitive position in that industry.

5. Present a SWOT table (or equivalent) and critically evaluate the organisations current strategic position.

Delivery:
? 1x PowerPoint Presentation
? 1x Executive Summary (circa 400 words)
Submission:
? 1x PowerPoint Presentation Slides
? 1x Executive Summary (circa 400 words)
Referencing:
• Each PowerPoint must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the presentation.
Task 2 of 3 – Essay (AC3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 5.1. 5.2 & 5.3)
Instructions:
Following your presentation, you should now prepare a new strategic plan:

1. Critically evaluate the relationship between the organisation’s, corporate, business and operational strategies

2. Apply strategic models and tools to recommend strategic options for the organisation

3. Evaluate critical success factors/assumptions that underpin the strategic options you’ve developed

4. Recommend and justify a strategic option and accompanying business objectives

5. Identify change factors by completing a force field analysis for your selected organisation

6. Identify the change agents and propose a suitable structure for the implementation of the plan

7. Create a resourced implementation plan for the strategy, with a justified timeline for implementation

8. Describe the potential risks during the implementation

Delivery and submission:
? 1x Portfolio with your force field analysis, structure, implementation plan, success indicators and potential (circa 2500 words)

Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Task 3 of 3 – Reflective Essay (AC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.3, 4.4, )
Instructions:

Critical evaluate the usefulness of change models such as Lewin, McKinsey 7s and Kotter for the selected organisation and recommend a specific model to support the strategic option identified in Task 3. You should also explain how you could be a change agent and identify the leadership and change agent skills you would need to display in order to make changes successful.

Delivery and submission:
? 1x Essay (circa 600 words)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Evidence to be submitted:
PowerPoint Presentation – (1000 words equivalent).
Executive summary – 400 words.
Portfolio – 2500 words.
Reflective Essay – 600 words.

Scenario

Based in central London the European Club was founded in 1900. The club is a non-profit making charity whose good works for the last 100+ years include offering scholarships for gifted children from poorer countries the opportunities to study in the UK. The Charity is governed by a Board of Trustees who also form part of the Board of Directors. The CEO sits on the Board of Directors whilst the General Manager and Club Secretary report into the CEO. The vision and mission statement is represented as “High quality hospitality at affordable prices.” A statement of values has been an agenda item for almost a year but has not been actioned.

Revenue for the charity is derived from the operation of the central London clubhouse (situated in a fashionable street in Mayfair London W1) containing a very ‘old fashioned’ and largely unused waiter service cocktail bar, The Fox and Hound and 50 seat restaurant, The Dining Rooms, 4 function rooms (no in-built meeting room equipment) and a number of bedrooms (50) which it lets to club members for a highly subsidised amount of just £75 per night. Many of these rooms have not been refurbished in quite a while.

The building itself has a certain faded grandeur but is in need of some much needed planned and reactive renovation and maintenance to furniture, fixtures and fittings. Some of the systems in the Club, including reservations and front office, are still on Excel spreadsheet functions. A manual process is used for creating reservations for the bedrooms, restaurant and bar and function rooms. There is however an online payment system used but there are three separate systems, one for each department. Wifi is available throughout the Club.

Many of the staff have been there for many years and the way things operate have not changed much for a long time. Whilst familiar and comfortable with the current ways of doing things, the staff often moan about the amount of time it takes and the inefficiency of the systems in place. There is a very defined hierarchy and staffing structure in the departments. The organisational chart below details the restaurant, bar and event management departments.

Staff are not encouraged to make decisions without reference to the head of department nor are they encouraged to put forward new ideas for enhancing or improving practice. Any changes to practice are often from the top down and staff opinions are rarely sought.

Morale, as measured by a small yearly staff survey, appears low, and many of the younger staff leave after just a couple of months citing lack of opportunities and poor training as a cause. The survey also shows that staff are not happy with their manager and feel that they do not get praised or rewarded when they do a good job.

The previous CEO had been with the charity for some 30 years and very much left the management of the club to the General Manager, who also retires later this year. The new CEO of the charity believes that there is a lot more that might be achieved, and good works undertaken, if the operation itself makes more money to invest into the charitable works, and she firmly believes that the organisation is underperforming and is inefficient.

Membership of the club has been falling steadily over the past five years and now stands some 50% of its original membership. A recent member survey shows significant complaints about the conditions of the facilities, especially the restaurant and bar which the members use to entertain as well as the drop-in customer service as well as the general lack of organisation.

The CEO has approached you and wants to employ your HR consultancy services to address the strategic HR issues around a modernisation plan for the restaurant and bar facilities of the club. The modernisation and renovation programme will include the following:

1. The refurbishment of The Fox and Hound Bar, the Dining Room and the function rooms

2. Training and development of all staff on the new processes connected to the Bar, Dining room and function rooms.

The refurbishment has been given to an architectural firm that will employ its contactors and manage all the building work. They have promised to work to the project deadlines. Naturally this will mean the members of the club paying more for the services; however, this will bring the charges in line with similar institutions and facilities. The CEOs biggest concern is how to undertake this project with the minimum of disruption to both members and staff. It is not an option to shut the club down completely during the project. Business as usual, as much as possible, must be maintained.

Task 1 of 3 – Presentation (AC1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1 & 2.2)
Scenario:

The CEO has asked you to prepare a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation for the Board of Directors “selling” your consultancy services. You still need to pitch for the contract since the two other board members will be involved in the decision.

Instruction:
Prepare a presentation in which you should:

1. Explain the importance of Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) and how you could add value to the Club. You should discuss how strategic HRM could be linked with other departments.

2. Explain the strategic human resources services you could provide to the Club and their purposes

3. Analyse the factors that the Club should consider before embarking up the renovation and restructure.

4. Determine some preliminary HR requirements for the organisation considering the new contract.

The Board is likely to ask questions – so be ready to answer any questions that may arise.
Submission:
? 1x PowerPoint Presentation Slides
Referencing:
• Each PowerPoint must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the presentation

Task 2 of 3 – HR Plan and Memo (AC2.3, 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3)
Scenario:

You have been successful in securing the contract, and you have a lot to do. The management priority is to have a HR plan in place as soon as possible, but you feel that a HR policy is equally important, if not more. Therefore, you have decided to create the outline of HR plan, but to include it together with a memo about creating an HR policy.

Instruction:
You therefore need to prepare:

1. An outline of a human resource plan.

2. A memo concerning the importance of HR policy, the memo should provide examples of regulatory, legal and ethical concerns that should be covered within the policy (living wage vs minimum wage, maternity cover, Equality Act 2010, termination of employment, etc.) which would be important to the Club.

Delivery and submission:
? 1x HR plan (circa 1000 words)
? 1x memo (circa 500 words)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Task 3 of 3 – Report (AC4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3)
Instructions:

Having done all of the preliminary work for the Club, you should now write a report in which you should:

1. Examine the impact of different management and leadership theories on organisational strategy and structure.

2. Describe the impact of organisational strategies, structures and culture on the management of HR.

3. Determine the effectiveness of the current Club HRM, and critically discuss the link between leadership & management and HRM.

4. Present an analysis of how the existing culture and structure of the Club might impact on the success of the Club project and the motivation of the staff.

5. Explain how you would develop, monitor and evaluate a leadership strategy that supports the development or revision of the Club’s organisational mission, vision, values and objectives.

Delivery and submission:
? 1x Report (circa 2000 words)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.

Evidence to be submitted:
• PowerPoint presentation (1000 words equivalent.)
• HR Plan – 1000 words.
• HR Memo – 500 words
• Report – 2000 words

Scenario

Your local GPDOCS medical practice, has traditionally been open to serve patients from 8h00 – 17h00 Mondays to Fridays and closes on weekends. GPDOCS medical practice is entirely government funded and has no private patients. The practice employs 13 doctors, 4 nurses and 15 administration staff.

GPDOCS provides free medical services to 15,000 registered patients in South London. The Practice Manager, Mr Dee, at GPDOCS is involved in managing all of the business aspects of the practice such as making sure that the right systems are in place to provide a high quality of patient care, human resources, finance, patient safety, premises and equipment and information technology. The Practice Manager also supports the GPs and other medical professionals with delivering patient services and also helps to develop extended services to enhance patient care.

A change in government policy has meant that GPDOCS must now be open from 7h00-20h00 Monday to Friday, and also open on Saturdays 9h00-14h00. Although the government changed policy and the contract, it has not offered any additional funding to deliver the enhanced service. The government has also stated that the change must be implemented within a three-month time frame.

GPDOCS staff received the news with dismay but accept that they will have to reorganise their work patterns to accommodate the change in policy. The Practice Manager, Mr Dee, has been tasked with the development of a change strategy and has asked for your help.

There are 2 unrelated tasks. The first one is a group task and the second task is individual.

Task 1 of 2 – Group Case (AC2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3)

Mr Dee has asked you to develop the change strategy for GPDOCS using an established change model. Mr Dee last studied business ten years ago and is not sure whether he should use Kotter’s 8 Change Model, Lewin’s change management model or Hiatt’s ADKAR model to manage the change.

Instructions:

Develop a change management strategy, considering the GPDOC’s stakeholders that incorporates the following sections:

1. Conduct a stakeholder analysis for GPDOCS and summarise the results in a stakeholder map highlighting interest and influence groupings.

2. Use the results of the stakeholder analysis to identify and evaluate resistance to the change process.

3. Critically evaluate the three change management models, their relative advantages and disadvantages, and justify the selection of a model to apply at GPDOCS.

4. Critically discuss the involvement of the functional areas in developing a change plan

5. Draft a strategic change plan for GPDOCS by applying the selected change management model with timelines and SMART progression metrics.

Delivery and Submission:
? 1x Strategic Change Plan document (circa 3500 words)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.

Task 2 of 2 – Business Memo (AC1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
This task is individual.
Instructions:

The Practice Manager, Mr Dee, has read that leadership is a critical success factor in most transformational changes. He has also read that it often helpful to employ external consultants as change agents. He has asked you to draft a memo for GPSDOCS board that analyses :

1. The relationship between leadership and change agents in transformational change

2. The characteristics and attributes of change agents

3. The relative importance of change agents and their role

4. The advantages and disadvantages of using external consultants as change agents.

Delivery and Submission:
? 1x essay (circa 1000 words)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Evidence to be submitted:
• Strategic change plan – 3500 words
• Essay – 1000 words

Scenario

Amazon Go supermarkets in the UK.

The cashier-less supermarkets use technology to allow customers to pick up items and walk out with them, instead, charging their Amazon account so they don’t have to stand in a checkout queue.

According to The Sunday Times, the retailer is looking for “a significant number” of sites sized between 4,000 square feet and 5,000 square feet across the UK.

Amazon initially launched the concept back in 2016, allowing Amazon staff to trial the new technology. Since then, it has opened five stores in the US across Seattle and Chicago.

Customers download an Amazon Go app before entering the store. They have to use the app to enter the store, which registers their Amazon account, and then they can put their phone away and start shopping.

Amazon’s “Just Walk Out Technology” uses computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning to detect when products are taken off a shelf, or later returned.

The technology keeps track of all the items in a virtual cart so there is no scanning involved. Once customers are done shopping, they can leave the store and Amazon will charge your account.

Amazon now has five Amazon Go locations across the US.

There is a difference between having the no checkout stores strictly for Amazon customers and allowing the general public in to try them out. In 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that the technology faced problems when there were more than 20 people in the store, something Amazon has been working to correct and, as a result, has delayed the expected roll out of further locations.

At the moment, it’s unlikely that Amazon Go will arrive to compete with your local Tesco or Sainsbury’s. The stores stock ready-to-eat items for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with some grocery essential ranges too, however, stock varies depending on which store you are in.

But, when it does arrive in the UK, it will no doubt be celebrated by busy Londoners. The idea of being able to pick up some lunch and walk out of the door without queueing is a dreamy one, we admit.

Task 1 of 1 – Presentation (AC1.1, 1.2. 1.3. 4.3, 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3)
Instructions:

Your local small business association has read about Amazon Go and is concerned about the potential competition. They wish to offer strategic marketing advice to local businesses, have asked you to prepare a presentation in which you should analyse and evaluate key marketing concepts as well as the marketing planning process by using Amazon Go as an example.

You should include:

1. An introduction, evaluating the purpose of strategic marketing

2. A diagram of the marketing planning process.

3. A critical review of at least three marketing concepts/models/theories and how they relate to the marketing planning process.

4. A critical discussion of the significance of branding using Amazon as an example.

5. Illustrate the concepts of ‘brand pyramid’, ‘brand positioning’ and ‘brand management’, and how and why these concepts should be integrated into marketing planning.

Delivery:
? 1x presentation
? 1x executive summary (circa 500 words excluding diagrams)
Submission:
? 1x PowerPoint Slides
? 1x executive summary (circa 500 words)
? 1x handout (if applicable)
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Task 2 of 2 – Marketing Plan (AC2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1 & 4.2)
Instructions:

Co-incidentally, a representative of Amazon attended your business association presentation and was impressed. The Amazon manager responsible for the introduction of Amazon Go to the UK has asked you to prepare a strategic marketing plan addressing the following:

1. A section in which you perform a PESTLE analysis and review Porter’s 5 forces relevant to your organisation.

2. A section with a SWOT analysis and a stakeholder analysis of your organisation

3. A section in which you should develop SMART strategic objectives for the organisation

4. A section concerning the market segment. This section should

a. Discuss how market segments could be used for the organisation

b. Select one or more market segment(s), justifying your decision.

c. Propose and justify a brand positioning for the targeted market segment

5. A section concerning the marketing mix. This section should

a. Analyse the significance of the marketing mix for the organisation

b. Contain a pricing, promotional and distribution strategy for one of its product ranges or categories.

Submission and Delivery:
? 1x marketing plan (circa 3000 words) – excluding appendices.
Referencing:
• Each section must reflect any supporting Harvard style citations.
• A comprehensive Harvard style reference list must be included at the end of the work.
Evidence to be submitted:
• Business Presentation – (1000 words equivalent)
• Executive summary of presentation – 500 words
• Marketing Plan – 3000 words