Global Commercial Strategy Evaluation Assignment: Structures, Supply Chains, Resources & Cost Management

Whilst the task asks you to prepare a business report, it is important to bear in mind that this is an academic assignment and not a business report. As such, make sure that you write your assignment in the 3rd Person. Also, if your organisation does have a standard report template, do not use it as it is not appropriate for this academic assignment.

Refer to the Candidate Assignment Guidance document for details on how you should structure your assignment.

Also, remember that you are being asked to evaluate global commercial strategy within your organisation, so it is really important that you always relate the content back to your organisation.

Command Words:

Evaluate – Calculate or judge the value of something; include your personal opinion in your evaluation together with appropriate reasons for your opinion

• How is your organisation structured? Is there an opportunity for you to include a diagram showing your organisational structure? How does this support the achievement of your organisation’s corporate objectives?
• What are your organisation’s strategic aims? How do these link to the mission and purpose of your organisation?
• Within your organisation, how does your organisation’s corporate strategy influence and impact upon the (i) corporate, (ii) business and (iii) functional structures?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of your current structure? How could the structure be improved to help you achieve your organisation’s corporate objectives? Which model could you apply here?

• How much visibility do you have of your supply chain?
• How (if at all) does your organisation currently analyse your supply chain(s)? What performance measures does / should your organisation use to measure supply chain performance? How do these performance measures link to your organisation’s strategic goals?
• What impact does this have on your ability to identify, assess and manage risk? Which model could you apply here?
• What is the level of competition amongst / between supply chain parties? Which model could you apply here?
• How could improved supply chain analysis and management help your organisation to achieve its corporate strategic aims?

• What resources will have an impact on the development and implementation of your organisation’s strategy? (People / Information / Technology / Finance)
• Who are the stakeholders who could / should be involved in the (i) development and (ii) implementation of your organisation’s corporate strategy? What is their level of power / interest? Are they active or passive? Who are the dominant stakeholders? Which model(s) could you apply here?
• What external factors could influence and affect the development of your organisation’s strategic aims? Which model could you apply here?

• What is the financial objective of your organisation? How does this impact on your approach to supply chain management?
• What pricing arrangements does your organisation currently have in place with suppliers? How effective are these at helping you to manage costs effectively? What impact does this have on your relationship with your supplier and the supply chain?
• What external factors could affect the volatility of prices within you supply chain? What risks does this present? How could this be managed?

Think about the gaps / areas for improvement that you have identified in the sections above, and how you could use these areas for improvement to develop your assignment’s recommendations.

Really focus on what the assignment task is asking. Try not to digress or get distracted with things that don’t answer the task. Always ask yourself:

1. Has what I’ve written answered the question?
2. Has what I’ve written added value to the assignment?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, really think about whether you should keep it in the assignment.