Aeroplan Strategic Analysis
This assignment is about Aeroplan – Groupe Aeroplan Inc.

Assignment Overview

Strategic management has become one of the most fascinating and complex fields of management. As such, it poses challenges to managers and organizations, which you will explore during your strategic analysis of a company of your choice.

There is a suggested list of companies posted on the Blackboard site from which you can choose. Choices are on a first come first serve basis as only one student per company is allowed. Please notify the TA of your choice as soon as possible to ensure your preferred company is available.
The other option is to select a company of your own choice. Either the course professor or the TA must approve your choice. If you select your own company you will need to do some preliminary research to ensure your company is a viable choice and that you will be able to find the information necessary for the project. It is recommended that you choose a publicly traded company, as the availability of strategic and financial information is limited with privately held companies.

Introduction
The role of the Strategy Analysis and Formulation processes is to answer some fundamental questions regarding the future direction and scope of the company such as:
?1 Who are we and what do we do?
?2 Where are we now?
?3 How did we get here?
?4 Where are we heading?
?5 Where would we like to be?
?6 Are we on course?
?7 How do we get there?
In an effort to answer these questions strategists (and budding strategists) employ a variety of tools to help them make sense of the current and future situations facing the organization. This involves performing an assessment of the current strategic direction, a macro-environmental scan of the general environment, an analysis of the industry in which the company competes and matching these against a value chain analysis and an internal review or audit of the organization.

The end result of these five tasks is a portrait of the relative ability of the organization to mobilize its inherent strengths or overcome its weaknesses in order to take advantage of external opportunities or defend against external threats. We call this portrayal a SWOT analysis and it is the culmination of matching the findings from the External Environmental Scan with the Internal Assessment findings.

You will then determine which of the generic strategies are currently being employed by your company in order to realize their current strategic objectives. Finally, you will use the SWOT analysis to determine which generic strategy SHOULD be used in order to achieve the new strategic objectives revealed from the impact of the macro-environmental trends in the SWOT analysis.
The project is divided into 6 major sections and will involve the completion of an:
1. Assessment of your organizations’ current strategic situation;
2. External environmental analysis;
3. Internal assessment of the organization;
4. SWOT Analysis;
5. Generic strategy; and,
6. Discussion and Recommendations.

Your project will be a work in progress throughout the term. It is suggested that you work on the project in stages as we progress through the material in class so that you have an understanding of the material and are able to complete a sufficiently thorough analysis. Leaving the project until just before the due date will result in a rush to complete it and may impact your grade significantly.

Your final report will be the culmination of a comprehensive strategic analysis and must answer the fundamental questions posed in the introduction and include specific elements within each question and specific appendices.

Here are the required elements for the final report and a suggested outline that covers the questions to be addressed in each section. You can organize the elements with additional subheadings of your choice:

INTRODUCTION (answers the questions – Who are we? What do we do?)
v? Give a brief company overview including the:
o Current Mission
o Current Vision
o Current Strategic Objectives
v? Analyze these components against the criteria that determine a good vision and mission. Conduct a SMART analysis of the strategic objectives.
EXTERNAL ANALYSIS (answers the questions – Where are we now?)
v? External environmental scan
o STEEP / PEST / PESTEL analysis (you may use which ever tool you prefer – this can be done is a chart / table format)
– Socio-cultural
– Technology
– Economic
– Environmental
– Political-Legal
v? Select three macro-environmental trends from your above analysis that will most impact your company’s strategic direction and complete a future oriented competitive analysis
o Competitive / Industry Analysis – Porter’s Five Forces
– Industry Rivalry
– Threat of New Entrants
– Threat of Substitutes
– Bargaining Power of Buyers
– Bargaining Power of Suppliers
From this analysis you will Identify Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) that you will present later in your SWOT analysis.

INTERNAL ANALYSIS (answers the questions – How did we get here?)
v? Internal Assessment
o Resource-Based View Analysis
– Tangible Resources
• Financial (be sure to include a financial performance analysis)
• Physical
• Technological
• Organizational
– Intangible Resources
• Human resources
• Innovation & creativity
• Reputation
– Organizational Capabilities
• Specific knowledge, skills and abilities
• Capacity to combine resources
o Value Chain Analysis
– Primary
• Inbound logistics
• Operations
• Outbound logistics
• Marketing and sales
• Service
– Secondary
• Procurement
• Technology Development
• Human Resource Management
• General Administration
From this analysis you will identify Strengths (S) and Weaknesses (W) that you will present later in your SWOT analysis

SWOT ANALYSIS
v? Compilation of the key external and internal strategic factors (SWOT) – this can be a chart / table that summarizes your findings from the external and internal analyses
o Core competency Assessment
– VRIO Analysis
o Key success factors
o Key Industry Pressures

GENERIC STRATEGY (answers the questions – Where are we heading? Where would we like to be?)
v? What generic strategy does your company employ? Support your choice with evidence form the company’s strategic activities

DISCUSSION & RECOMMENDATIONS (answers the question – How do we get there?)
v? From your analysis above – should they stay the course and stick with their current strategy and strategic objectives OR do they adopt a new course and if so what should it be (recommended new generic strategy and/or new strategic objectives). Support your discussion and recommendations with evidence from your external and internal analyses.
Deliverable
Each individual is required to submit a completed report in business report format with appropriate cover page, sections and pagination to show distinct report sections, references and appendices, that contains the required elements and should thereby answer the seven fundamental questions.

Any worksheets, SWOT tables / grids etc. should also be included as appendices / additional pages within the report.

Any and all external sources of information, data, analysis, ideas and/or suggestions external to the group are to be documented in full and in accordance with the University Policy on Academic Integrity.
The report should no more than 20 pages not including appendices cover page, TOC etc. It should be single-spaced in business report style and use APA format for in-text citations and referencing.

This paper has to pass plagiarism detection service.

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