Postgraduate Studies in Maritime and Logistics Management; a.james

Assignment 3 General Comments (all students); moving forward into the examination
Broad comments applicable to all parts
To achieve a high mark, you were required to discuss issues as opposed to being descriptive. Since
you are undertaking a business qualification, conciseness of wording, professional presentation and
layout of your document were taken into consideration.
Whilst this was an organisational based paper, where relevant, it was important to acknowledge your
sources (for example to support your suggestions/justification). As we were working/discussing this
paper, I did make several suggestions to teams about how to realistically handle the unique nature of
this paper and referencing. Outside of such a discussion and any agreements made, you must have
correctly used the Harvard System of referencing. When citing material please refer to the
Referencing Requirements for Assessments. Also, please refer to the example assignment.
Comments on content
Note: I made a number or adjustments and agreements to change the application of the concepts to
suit your selected organisation as relevant to the current strategic management/planning and
structure. So, if I did this for you the sections below might be applied differently.
As each assignment focused on a different organisation, providing a model answer for the assignment
is impractical. The direction that your paper took depended on the current strategic management
process (SMP) in your organisation and your suggested changes. However, a range of issues should
have been covered. Part A was merely straightforward organisational information – so I will move to
the next Part.
Part B SWOT
This part required a profile of the organisation including an internal and external analysis as covered
in Modules 3 and 4. You were required to demonstrate, through the application of the basic principles
how managers use strategic thinking to solve problems. This means taking a holistic perspective in
analysing strategic issues affecting an organisation.
The SWOT Analysis must have been analytical as opposed to being descriptive. Most papers used
various headings to organise the analysis. As required in the assignment question and in the guidelines
on MyLO, the analysis needed to be concluded or drawn together in the body of your assignment.
This was via either a list of key issues/recommendations, or a list of priorities (discussed on MyLO; I
had various discussions with students and if your organisation had their own unique way then we used
that approach). This draws together the key implications of the SWOT – which is then linked to the
next section of your strategic plan.
Postgraduate Studies in Maritime and Logistics Management; a.james
P 2
art C Corporate Strategic Intent or Purpose (Vision/Mission/Values)
These statements needed to present well and logically as a set. They should address the needs of the
stakeholders and fit with your SWOT. They needed to be understandable by all stakeholders on first
time read.
Some assignments identified criterion for evaluation – in particular the Mission Statement. Where
specific criterion was applied, students generally used one of the David & David textbooks using the
components of a Mission Statement. Remember that it is not compulsory that all components are
included in a statement.
An excellent approach was to directly use the stakeholder perspective and you SWOT analysis to
support your response. Another approach that seemed to be a favourite was to contrast your
organisation to say a competitor or use an example of an organisation’s past failure or success to
justify your position☺. Resources and readings provided or ones you have independently sourced
should have been used to support your position.
Current practices favour mission/vision statements of one/two sentences – as evidenced in the
examples provided.
Part D Corporate Goals
This required you to move onto the next part of the SMP to critique and/or develop a set of goals that
relate to key areas noted in your SWOT and ‘fitted’ with the Strategic Corporate Intent written in Part
C. Goals are broad statements of what the organisation wants to achieve – they must be something to
aim for (See module 5/Topic Notes of the MyLO Study Guide). There are no set rules but as a guideline
most organisations will set at least one broad goal on each key area.
You should have identified relevant areas upon which to write goals and clearly set out the goals in
relation to your SWOT Analysis and your organisation’s Corporate Strategic Intent. Key areas often
include: Community; Employees; Finance; Environmental; Operations; Infrastructure;
Trade/Marketing Position…and the like.
A note on the Examination
I will be looking for the links back to your SWOT analysis; in particular the ‘conclusion/issues’ and
strategic intent/purpose to the remainder of your strategic plan in the exam. When marking your
exam, I will have your assignment 3 open and be able to look for the links. As such, it is unnecessary
to repeat information from this assignment in the exam.
Feel free to contact me to discuss this assignment further or your examination. For distance students,
I am happy to speak with you individually or we can link up with your teammates via Zoom (before
the commencement of the exam). Otherwise, email and phone calls seem to be working very well!
I wish you well for the remainder of your studies.
Kind regards
Allison James