Business Strategy Reflective Essay

Follow the instructions below while working on your business stategy essay

Length: 2,000 words (10% allowable either way, does not include title page, table of contents, appendix and references)

Specific requirements:  

• Use a minimum of 15 references including chapter content, academic journals, papers, books sourced from the university library or other academic resources.
• UseAPA7th edition or Chicago Author-Date
  Use either Times New Roman (12 pt), Arial (11 pt), Calibri (11 pt)
• Set page margins to 2.54cm
  Double-space text including headings
• Include page number on every page

LEARNING OUTCOMES

On completion of this assignment, students will be able to:

1. Evaluate strategic frameworks to inform business decision making.
2. Appraise and recommend various strategies to achieve business goals and create competitive advantage.
3. Identify, evaluate and response to risk on strategic projects.
4. Hypothesise the variation of strategic change and apply relevant approaches to change management.

BRIEF

Prepare a reflection essay (1,500 words) based on a business strategy you have developed or participated in implementing or supporting or a strategic analysis you have conducted

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Reflective writing is documenting the thinking process or revisiting a practical situation and reviewing your experiences through the lenses of the concepts or theories you are studying. In other words, reflective writing is recounting a particular experience and explore how you have changed or learned from those experiences.

When engaging in reflection, you begin by recalling a situation and the thoughts and feelings you encountered during the experience. From there, you explore your beliefs, values, and attitudes that underpin these thoughts and feelings. Lastly, as you study the subject, identify one or two salient points, concepts, or theories that you can relate to your situation and discuss your insights.

 It is important to realise that while you are writing your reflection, the story of the incident or event is not the focus. Rather you should focus on the insights you gained from re-examining and documenting your reactions and connecting the salient points, concepts, or theories to real-life situations.

For this assignment, research and write a reflective essay based on a business strategy you have developed or participated in implementing or supporting or a strategic analysis you have conducted for an organisation or business of your choice. If you are not currently associated with a business or organisation or have not had this type of experience, you may select a recent incident or event reported in the media.

When writing your reflective essay, you are not expected to review all the chapters in the subject prior to completing this assignment but rather focus on the relevant chapters that are indicated in the Key Information section of this brief. Additionally, a reflective essay consists of a balance between your personal observations, opinions, feelings, and beliefs and conventions of academic writing, such as crafting a thesis statement and using the salient findings, concepts, or theories to support or further explain your reflection.

Reflection Essay

When writing your reflective essay, we suggest you use the 4Rs Model to Reflective Writing (Moon, 2006; QUT, 2010) to guide the organisational structure. Consider including the following elements in your essay

1. Introduction Paragraph

For your introduction paragraph, you should include the following:

1. A hook is the first sentence that sets the tone for your report. The hook should give the reader a sense of the topic you are writing about and why it is interesting.
   1. Provide either background information regarding the context of your experience, a summary of any key learnings you gained or introduce any salient points, concepts, or theories you will highlight in your essay.
   1. Thesis Statement – Include a sentence or two that summarises the main idea of your essay
   1. Provide a brief overview of what you have learned from your experience.
2. Reporting and Responding -Report your experience or explain what issue was involved.
   1. Explain the chronological story of your selected incident or event.
   1. Include your initial thoughts, feelings, and perspectives.
   1. Introduce the salient points, concepts, or theories you will use in the reflective discussion section.
3. Relating –Relate or connect between your business strategy experience with your own skills or knowledge.
   1. Discuss how your own beliefs, values, and attitudes influenced your thoughts and feelings.
   1. Explain how your incident and thoughts and feelings are connected to any salient points, concepts, or theories you have been studying.
   1. Discuss your current knowledge and skills that are relevant in dealing with the experience. Did you have the skills or knowledge to deal with the issue? What skills or knowledge did you need to develop a business strategy or perform a strategic analysis?
4. Reasoning –Detail significant factors underlying the experience.
   1. Highlight any significant factors underlying the experience. Explain why the factors are important to understanding your specific experience or outcome.
   1. Connect any relevant salient points, concepts, or theories to support your reasoning.
   1. Are there any other perspectives you might use? How would a knowledgeable person perceive or handle a similar situation or issue?
5. Reconstructing –Reconstruct future practice or professional understanding.
   1. Reflect on your experience and detail what you have learned. Explain how you would deal with the situation in the future and what might you do differently.
   1. Describe any different options you may use in the future. Are your ideas supported by any theories or concepts? Provide scholarly references to support your ideas. Again, use salient points, concepts, or theories you have identified to support your ideas.
   1. Explain any changes you may make to benefit others.
6. Conclusion Paragraph
   1. Restate the main points you made in your reflection analysis.
   1. Summarize what you have learned and your suggestions

SUGGESTED STRUCTURE

The following suggested structure is provided to guide the organisation and structure of this assignment. You may use this structure or one that best features your work.

1. Cover Page
   1. Introduction
   1. Provide an overview of the situation or event and the salient points, concepts, or theories you will use for your reflection discussion.
   1. Provide a brief overview of the lessons you have learned.
   1. Reflective Discussion
   1. Report your experience or explain what issue was involved.
   1. Relate or connect this experience with business strategy with past experiences, skills, or knowledge.
   1. Detail significant factors underlying the issue or experience.
   1. Reconstruct future practice or professional understanding.
   1. Conclusion
   1. Summarise your perspective or stance and reiterate your learning
   1. Summarise the implications for practices and future development5.List of References6.Appendix, if needed
   1. List of References
   1. 6.Appendix, if needed

CONSIDERATIONS

Upon review of your analysis, consider how you have demonstrated critical thinking. Specifically:

• » Have I identified and defined the academic concepts related to the analysis task using current academic literature?
• » Have I demonstrated analysis of these relevant theories, frameworks, and findings?
• » Have I demonstrated an ability to apply and integrate the relevant concepts and topics in the analysis?
• » Have I developed an argument and demonstrated understanding of differing points of view?
• » Have I demonstrated an understanding of considerations and implications for contemporary management practice?
• » Have I demonstrated an understanding of the relevance of the chosen concepts to the overall concept of contemporary leadership practices?
• » Did I produce a quality essay? Consider the balance between academic and industry sources.