Essay Topic:
Choose a company that is listed on the London FTSE or New York stock exchange, and that
has implemented a strategic initiative successfully or unsuccessfully.
Critically evaluate the strategic initiative and its outcome using strategic management
concepts and tools drawn from the first six weeks of the module, in order to explain its success
or failure.
Guidance:
Your essay should reflect your ability to define, identify and critically evaluate a strategic
initiative, one that has been implemented successfully or unsuccessfully in the past 10 years.
You should support your argument using at least one of the strategic concepts (and the
associated tools and techniques) that were covered during the early weeks of the module
during which we studied the internal and external environment, resources and capabilities,
strategic purpose, organisational culture, and corporate and business level strategy.
You should demonstrate your research skills by obtaining, critically evaluating and using data
and information from a range of quality sources. Critically evaluate means ‘make reasoned
judgements based upon sound evidence and argument’. In-text citations and a references list,
in Harvard Referencing Style, are required.
In your conclusion you should summarise your argument by integrating your research and
analysis to explain in terms of strategic management theory the outcome (the success or
failure) of the strategic initiative that you have chosen.

