Guidelines for the report
• This report will require you to apply theories and techniques covered in lecture notes. Not all the theories / techniques will necessarily be applicable or helpful. Part of your job as an analyst is to identify and apply the right tools and techniques for your analyses.
• A useful approach is to think of “theory and evidence based reasoning”. That is, provide interpretations and arguments explicitly based on what the facts, and theory-based analyses of the facts, tell you about the key strategic issues in the case study. Try to avoid opinions that are not explicitly supported by facts or analyses.
• Adequately conducting the analyses will not guarantee an excellent mark. It is an important but not the only part of the process. A really good summary requires that you synthesise your information to build a compelling case rather than just report findings. The assignment requires that you demonstrate your understanding of strategic management through application of your strategic analysis knowledge.
• We focus on just the executive summary, because in your career that is what management will most often read from your report. The focus is on the logic of your argument and how well your report builds a clear coherent business case for decision makers. This means part of your task is to decide what information to include in your summary and what information is not essential. Your writing will need to be crisp and precise.
• There are multiple potentially correct answers to this case. The quality of your summary comes down to how well you can justify your conclusions and how persuasive your argument is. Therefore, you will need to consider not just what you say but how and why you say it.
• Showing where you obtained the data from through appropriate referencing is an important aspect to substantiate your analysis. The references you use may be checked. If you use ideas that are not yours but are taken from a resource you have to reference it. Remember that the quality of the source will determine the credibility of the argument. Referring to essays from other students found on the internet is therefore highly inappropriate.
Topic: Strategic analysis of Billabong case study, which is provided (attached).
Purpose of this assessment: This assessment is designed to develop your ability to apply theoretical frameworks and analytic methodologies covered in class to undertake a strategic analysis.
Background:
Assignment instructions:
Word limit is 1000 words excluding reference list
You are an analyst from the Brisbane office of a global strategy consulting firm. Your client is Neil
Fiske, the newly appointed head of Billabong International Limited.
As a first step, your consulting firm decides it needs a better understanding of both Billabong and its competitive environment. To get you started, your firm’s research department has prepared two documents (see Attachments) for an overview of the company’s current situation:
• Billabong Case Study
• Billabong Full Year Results Presentation
Your boss has asked you to do the following:
1) Critically analyse Billabong, its markets, and its competitors.
a) Billabong (internal analysis): What are the strengths and weaknesses of Billabong? What has caused Billabong’s revenue and profits to drop over recent years? What factors are constraining Billabong to grasp the opportunities the market offers? What sources of competitive advantage and/or disadvantage does Billabong have?
b) Market (external market analysis): What are the key factors that affect profitability in the Surfwear and Skatewear industry? What are the overall trends in and size of the market? Which segments are declining and which offer growth opportunities?
c) Competitors (external competitor analysis): Who are Billabong’s traditional and new competitors? What are they doing better than Billabong? What is Billabong doing better than its competitors?
2) Identify the key strategic issues we need to take into account when developing a strategy for
Billabong.
a) Use step 1 to create a list of key strategic issues that Billabong needs to address if it is to restore its revenue and profitability growth. Strategic issues are events, developments, trends or characteristics in either the internal or external environment that have the potential to affect organizational performance. Strategic issues may emanate from (a) the external environment (e.g. a large competitor enters a key market or there is an untapped opportunity in the Indian market) (b) the internal environment (e.g. production costs have been rising steeply or internal R&D has developed a new technology) or (c) an interaction between the external and internal environments (e.g. competitor’s new technology surpasses our internal R&D efforts). By implication strategic issues demand organization response to one or more of (i) mission, vision or mandate; (ii) mix of products and services; (iii) target customers; (iv) how products or services are positioned in the market; (v) internal factors such as cost, strategic resources, financing, organization, or management; or (vi) strategic partnerships or alliances.
3) Prioritise these issues.
a) It is impossible to address all strategic issues to the same extent. It is therefore critical that you prioritise the issues in terms of the impact that you believe their resolution will have on restoring growth and profitability. In your report, (briefly) elaborate on only the most important 2-3 issues.
4) Hand in a 1,000 word executive summary discussing the most important strategic issues.
a) Your boss is not interested in a full report. She argues that the issues you come up with are a very good indication to what extent you have researched and understood the situation facing Billabong.
b) As this is a lengthy executive summary, you are encouraged to use some headings to structure the major sections.
c) You are encouraged to use short paragraphs, concise language and dot point lists where appropriate to effectively communicate with sparse use of words.
d) You are encouraged to use key graphs or tables where appropriate to provide supporting evidence for the key points you are making.
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