Global Strategy Implementation

The Assignment Brief:
Select one multinational enterprise (MNE) with any nationality that is active in one or more than one industry. This MNE can be small, medium, large or very large. This company can be famous or unknown, but the information about this MNE should be publicly available in English. Collect required data about this company and its global strategies from valid sources such as the company’s annual reports, the company’s press release, the company’s website, industry databases (such as Mintel, Euromonitor Passport, Orbis, or Statista), academic case studies, market research reports or news by reliable broadcasters.

You need to write an analytical report regarding this company that covers the following issues:
A) Identify the major influential factors in the implementation of global strategies in this company
B) Determine the barriers to implement global strategies in the company
C) Suggest how this company can prevent failure to implement its global strategies

Recommended Structure:
The structure of your work has its own mark. There is no need for an executive summary for this report. The recommended structure for this assessment is as follow.
Coversheet: Use the usual template for coversheet for assignment. This coversheet is available on SurreyLearn in the Assessment folder.
Table of Contents: Provide the list of headings and their page number in one separate page from the cover sheet and the introduction.
1. Introduction:
In one paragraph say what are you going to discuss in your work. You may mention the list of main headings would be discussed in your work.
2. Background to the chosen company:
In two or three paragraphs, give some short information about what your chosen company does and why you selected this company. If you could find relevant information, try to mention some of the global strategies that are being implemented or intended to be implemented in the future in this company such as global expansion strategies (entering to new country or region), global mergers or acquisitions, global production strategies, global marketing strategies, global human resources strategies, or global finance strategies. You may provide some graphs or/and tables to show the company’s market share and position among the competitors in the same industry. Indicate in how many countries this company do business.
3. Major influential factors in the implementation of global strategies in this company
3.1. Theoretical: Start your answer by having theoretical discussions regarding different scholars’ views on influential factors in the implementation of the strategy (any number of factors). You need to mention perspectives of at least two scholars regarding the inner-organisational or outer-organisational factors that can positively or negatively affect the execution of the strategy in an organisation. Your mark would be increased if you identify the similarities and differences that are exist among the perspectives of the scholars you mentioned. You might use a table to compare different views to each other (view of each scholar can be mention in one of the columns of this table). Teaching and reading materials from weeks 3 & 4 are directly relevant to this question. You may also use the teaching and reading materials from weeks 1, 2 & 7 in discussing this topic.
3.2. Factual: You are expected to try to find some direct or indirect information about the company’s global strategies and the factor that have impact on their implementation in your selected company. If you could not find information that are directly about the global strategies of this company you need to use the indirect information for ‘educated guess’ about the internal and external issues that influence execution of strategies in this company. Sources of your direct or indirect information can be the company’s annual reports, press release, advertising, case studies, reports prepared by reliable market research companies such as Mintel, Euromonitor Passport, Orbis, or Statista or news in reliable newspapers, journals or broadcasters. Try to identify 8 to 20 influential factors (either internal or external). That would be fine if all of your identified factors are only internal or external but it would be great if you could find both internal and external factors that affect the implementation.
4. Barriers to implement global strategies in the company
4.1. Theoretical: First you may use literature to explain briefly main obstacles to implement strategies (any number of barriers). Try to mention perspectives of at least two scholars regarding barriers to execute strategies. It would be helpful if you compare (find similarities and differences of) two or more views by two or more different scholars on any internal or external issues that may become barrier to implement strategy. Using a table would assist you in this comparison (you may allocate one column in the table for the view of each scholar) and the written words in the table do not count as part of the 3000-word limit. Teaching and reading materials from week 5 are directly relevant to this question. In discussing this topic, you may also use the teaching and reading materials from week 2.
4.2. Factual: Then try to identify any internal or external barriers to implement strategy in your chosen company. If you could not find information that are directly about obstacles to implement strategy in the company you selected, you should rely on indirect information about strategy execution barriers to have ‘educated guess’ about these internal and external barriers in this company. Try to identify 5 to 16 barriers (either internal or external). That would be fine if all of your identified barriers are only internal or external but it would be great if you could find both internal and external barriers to implement strategies in this company.
5. Suggestion on how this company can prevent failure to implement its global strategies
5.1. Theoretical: Initially analyse existing literature to assist you in brief discussions concerning main ways to prevent strategy implementation failure (any number of ways). It is recommended to compare two or more viewpoints by two or more different scholars regarding how failure can be avoided in executing strategies. Using a table would assist you in this comparison (you may allocate one column in the table for each viewpoint). Teaching and reading materials from week 6 are directly relevant to this topic. You may also use the teaching and reading materials from weeks 2 & 7 in answering this question.
5.2. Factual: After that you should propose the most effective ways of avoiding failure to implement strategies in your chosen company based on A) the factors influence implementation of strategy (based on your finding in section 3), as well as B) the reasons for ‘implementation failure’ that you identified in section 4. It will increase your mark if you make direct and meaningful relationship between your recommended ‘ways to avoid strategy implementation failure’ and your findings in section 3 (factors that affect implementation of the strategy) and section 4 (reasons for implementation failure). You may use a table with three columns one for identified barriers or factors leading to failure of strategy, one column for your suggested ways to remove the barriers and the third column for justifying your proposed solution. It is better to put each barrier or factors leading to failure in a separate row of this table. Try to suggest 5 to 16 ways of preventing strategy failure. It is alright if all of your suggestions are only about inner-organisation actions/decisions to avoid having failed strategies. However, it would be great if you could suggest one or more outer-organisation actions/decision (such as lobbying or strategic alliance with major competitors) to prevent strategy failure too.
6. Conclusion:
Summarise your findings and suggestions in one or two paragraphs. You might use a table to help you in summarising your findings and recommendations.
References: It is mandatory to have a full list of all sources you used directly in your work. Please do not mention the sources that you did not use directly in your work. Referencing should follow the Harvard Referencing system only.
Appendices: It is better not to have any appendices. Every necessary information and discussions should be provided within the main text between the introduction and the conclusion sections. If you really need to have an appendix, remember that the contents in appendix do not have any mark. I will not be reading what you put in this section, appendices.

Important Issues:
1. The deadline for the submission is 7th December 2021 at 16:00
2. The assignment should be submitted via SurryLearn.
3. You should avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as your own.
4. The length of the assignment is 3000 words. You are not allowed to write even one word more than 3000 words. The written words in the coversheet, table of contents, references, appendices, and any tables in the main text, would not be considered as part of the 3000-word limit.
5. It is expected from you to use any theoretical frameworks or theoretical discussions that can help you in strategic analyses of your chosen company. So, you need to combine theoretical discussions with the factual data about the company. Every theoretical discussion and every provided information about the company should be supported by relevant referencing (citation) from valid academic, international or the company sources.
6. Try to have at least one citation in every paragraph, for example: According to Porter (1990)
7. Having more than one citation in each paragraph would increase your mark. For the first class mark you need to have three citations in average in every paragraph.
8. Having multiple citations would improve your mark. You can have multiple citations if only one opinion or finding is supported or mentioned by more than one scholar (or co-scholars in one publication). For example, if scholars of three separate publications are agree on the influence of managers on implementation of strategies, you can write something like this: It is believed that managers influence implementation of strategies (Aboutalebi et al., 2016; Smith, 2015; Zhong, 2013).
9. You are expected to use at least 15 different sources in writing your assignment. These sources can be annual reports of the company, essential reading provided on SurreyLearn or any other academic or professional sources. To receive a top mark, you should use at least 25 different sources.
10. To receive a top mark, you need to use resources beyond lecture notes or the essential readings.
11. Try to have citations from relevant papers from top academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Long Range Planning, Global Strategy Journal, or Strategic Organization.
12. To identify academic sources concerning strategy implementation you need to use keywords such as ‘strategy implementation’, ‘strategy execution’, ‘strategy barrier’ and ‘strategy failure’ to search within the top strategy journals.
13. In order to find information about strategy implementation in your chosen company, you may also use each of the influential factors on strategy implementation (e.g. Implementation plan or implementation budget) as keywords to search within the company-related sources such as the company’s annual reports, news release, databases (e.g. Mintel, Euromonitor Passport, Orbis, or Statista).
14. Use graphs and tables in your discussions. Tables are great tools to help you compare two or more perspectives to each other. You may use a table with three columns to compare three perspectives of three different scholars regarding ways to prevent failure in implementation of strategies.
15. Try going beyond description of theories or current global strategies used in your chosen company. Analyse and criticise the theories or/and the utilised strategies in the company by findings their weaknesses.
16. Try not to rely solely on your personal opinion in criticising the theories. Find the criticism made by scholars regarding your mentioned theory, then you can add your perspective to these criticisms.
17. Use the Harvard Referencing System correctly.
18. Submit your assignment in PDF format.

Formatting Issues
1. It is recommended to use one of the readable and academic fonts such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman.
2. It is suggested to use fond size 11 for the general body of the text.
3. You might use font size 13 or 14 in bold for main headings.
4. Font size 11 in bold would be suitable for sub-headings.
5. Any default page margins (e.g. 2.54 for all sides or 2 for all sides) would be acceptable.
6. Try to have headings for every tables or graphs in your assignment. Put the heading above the table or the graph.
7. It is recommended to number all table or graph headings.
8. Mention the source of your tables or graphs under the table or graph. If you developed the table or graph just write ‘Source: Developed by the Author for this work’.
9. The recommended line spacing is either 1.1 or 1.3.

Important note on penalties. All students are required to submit their coursework on time by the deadline set in the coursework description document (7th December 2021 at 16:00). Late submission penalties will be strictly applied to the mark as follows:
Time of Submission Penalty
Up until 4pm on Day 1 –
Between 4.00.01pm on Day 1 and 4pm on Day 2 10 percentage marks
Between 4.00.01pm on Day 2 and 4pm on Day 3 20 percentage marks
Between 4.00.01pm on Day 3 and 4pm on Day 4 30 percentage marks
After 4pm on Day 4 Work not marked

Initial consequences of committing plagiarism
The amount of ‘similarity index’ in the Turnitin report of the submitted coursework would be used to judge initial actions to deal with the plagiarised assignment. It is normal to have a few percentage points of similarity (5-10%) in the assignment due to using a common coversheet and statement of originality. These minor similarities are not considered as plagiarism.
 If the similarity index in the Turnitin report is 20% or lower, there will be no penalty. It is highly recommended to keep the similarity index of your work well below 20%.
 If the Turnitin report shows a similarity index of 21 – 30%, the student will be required to attend an interview and viva (oral examination), concerning the potentially plagiarised work. In the interview the student would be asked to explain reasons for a relatively high amount of unacknowledged borrowing from other sources. The students who are under investigation would also need to verbally answer some examination questions to show the written discussions in the submitted assignments belong to them. There would be no penalty if the student passes the viva and gives satisfactory responses to the questions. Otherwise, the student may be introduced to the Academic Misconduct Panel to be considered for a fail mark for the plagiarised work.
 The student may be introduced to the Academic Misconduct Panel to be considered for a fail mark for a submitted work that has a similarity index of 31% or higher.