1. Formal strategic planning process is said to have advantages as well as disadvantages. Martin (2014) is quite sceptical of the formal process, stating: “This is a truly terrible way to make strategy”. Critically discuss Martin’s (2014) view, bringing out your perspective on whether companies would be better served by keeping the process quite simple, or by having a more elaborate, comprehensive process that involves external and internal analysis and the preparation of detailed plans and budgets for different organisational units. You may use relevant companies and industries as examples to illustrate and support your arguments.

2. Consider H&M, a Swedish clothing-retail company. (i) Explain which industry type (viz., monopolisitic competition, oligopoly, or perfect competition) best describes H&M’s industry. (ii) Indicate whether you regard the strength of each of Porter’s five forces affecting H&M as low, medium, or high. Provide the rationale for your assessment. You may refer to industry and company information from online sources. (iii) Identify either a resource or a capability that H&M has in relation to each of the primary value-chain activities. You may base your answer on information available about H&M online (e.g., in H&M annual reports) and/or the H&M case discussed in the module textbook (pp. 573-582). (iv) Critically appraise the argument that the resource-based view (RBV) “breaks down in high-velocity markets” (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000). (v) In the light of your appraisal and the ongoing transformation of fashion retail, what resources and capabilities would you advice H&M to strengthen and/or acquire if the company’s goal is to keep increasing its market share.

Answer both questions above. Assignments should be a maximum of 3000 words in length.
All coursework assignments that contribute to the assessment of a module are subject to a word limit, as specified in the online module handbook in the relevant module area of the MINERVA. The word limit is an extremely important aspect of good academic practice, and must be adhered to. Unless stated specifically otherwise in the relevant module handbook, the word count includes EVERYTHING (i.e. all text in the main body of the assignment including summaries, subtitles, contents pages, tables, supportive material whether in footnotes or in-text references) except the main title, reference list and/or bibliography and any appendices. It is not acceptable to present matters of substance, which should be included in the main body of the text, in the appendices (“appendix abuse”). It is not acceptable to LUBS5225M
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attempt to hide words in graphs and diagrams; only text which is strictly necessary should be included in graphs and diagrams.
You are required to adhere to the word limit specified and state an accurate word count on the cover page of your assignment brief. Your declared word count must be accurate, and should not mislead. Making a fraudulent statement concerning the work submitted for assessment could be considered academic malpractice and investigated as such. If the amount of work submitted is higher than that specified by the word limit or that declared on your word count, this may be reflected in the mark awarded and noted through individual feedback given to you.
The deadline date for this assignment is 12:00:00 noon on Tuesday 4 May 2021.
An electronic copy of the assignment must be submitted to the Assignment Submission area within the module resource on the Blackboard MINERVA website no later than 12:00:00 noon prompt on the deadline date.
Faxed, emailed or hard copies of the assignment will not be accepted.
Failure to meet this initial deadline will result in a reduction of marks, details of which can be found at the following place:
https://lubswww.leeds.ac.uk/TSG/coursework/
SUBMISSION
Please ensure that you leave sufficient time to complete the online submission process, as upload times can vary. Accessing the submission link before the deadline does NOT constitute completion of submission. You MUST click the ‘CONFIRM’ button before 12:00:00 noon for your assignment to be classed as submitted on time, if not you will need to submit to the Late Area and your assignment will be marked as late. It is your responsibility to ensure you upload the correct file to the MINERVA, and that it has uploaded successfully.
It is important that any file submitted follows the conventions stated below:
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The name of the file that you upload must be your student ID only.
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FRONT COVER
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