Posted: May 9th, 2015

Assume you are an independent management consultant. You have been asked to write an analytical business report of 1,500 words (see guidelines below for the structure of your business report) on the following case study company:

Assume you are an independent management consultant. You have been asked to write an analytical business report of 1,500 words (see guidelines below for the structure of your business report) on the following case study company:

Coca-Cola

•    Choose one of the following three business and management lecture topics taught in Term 2, and, using this topic, criticallyexamine how the case study company you have chosen can gain and/or increase its competitive advantage in the market.
o    The Marketing Mix
o    Market Segmentation
o    The Product Life Cycle

•    You must discuss, analyse, and evaluate the theories and concepts using appropriate academicliterature and examples for the topic you have chosen.
Guideline Structure for Business Report
1.    Introduction                             (Approx. 100 words)
2.    Background on the case study selected             (Approx. 100 words)
3.    Critical analysis of case study: demonstrate how competitive advantage will be gained/increased by focusing on the topic chosen to provide recommendations
(Approx. 800 words)
4.    Conclusion & Key Recommendations             (Approx. 200 words)
5.    References

•    Your source material should include: academic articles, the business studies textbook, lecture notes and seminar reading material AS WELL AS material from the University library, reputable business publications, and newspaper articles.
•    Your introduction and background should explain clearly the case study and topic you have chosen, and what/how you are going to do the assignment. You can also explain briefly, with evidence, why the chosen topic and case study are important/relevant.
•    Analysis – this is the largest part of the report and should be treated with importance. Your analysis must be critical and, based on academic articles, consider discussing any present challenges facing the chosen organisation and, with specific references and relevant examples, how your chosen topic can assist the organisation with gaining competitive advantage.
•    Conclusion and Key Recommendations – do not introduce new information here. Your conclusion should be based on your discussion and analysis within the previous sections of the report. Recommendations should be clearly itemised and explained as well as clearly related to the analysis and rest of the report.
•    Your assignment must have appropriate referencing and a clear and logical structure.

Instructions for Assignment 3

•    Assignments are marked in Microsoft Word, so this program should be used for the submission of assignments. You should use a legible font (for example, Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri) and in size 12. Assignments should also be double-spaced (or 1.5) and on A4 paper.  All pages should be numbered and all pages should have your student number on them.

•    You will need to cite your sources according to a standard academic convention. A reference list of all the references you have used in your assignment should be included at the end of your assignment.