Assignment task
This EMA is made up of three parts: Part A, Part B and Part C. You need to complete all parts of the assignment.
Part A: Case study – Tesco
Part A of this EMA will be marked out of 60 marks. The word limit is 2400 words.
Read the case study, which you can find in the assessment area and on the study planner in week 23, and answer the following questions:
Using concepts and theories from Block 1, explain why Tesco places high importance on innovation. You should consider how the various business functions within Tesco integrate to facilitate innovation. (20 marks)
Globalisation has created a new and dynamic relationship between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’. Based on your work during Block 2, how would you advise Tesco to balance these two competing perspectives as it continues to pursue its global expansion strategy? (20 marks)
Applying concepts from Block 3, explain how Tesco seeks to nurture long-term value creation. (20 marks)
Guidance notes
General guidance
In tackling the EMA, you are expected to use appropriate concepts from B207 and choose those which support the argument you are making. In addition:
Relate your answers to the questions in Part A about the case study given rather than write everything you know about a particular area – i.e. answer the question(s) you are asked.
Note the word limits: do not try to write about all you have learnt while studying B207.
Read the guidance notes accompanying each of the EMA questions carefully before you start drafting your answers.
Plan ahead to allow plenty of time for drafting an answer you will feel happy about. You have the time to work on several drafts if you wish.
To ensure that you submit your EMA in a format that can be read by the markers, you must make sure that your file is in a format readable by all versions of Microsoft Word. This means that it must have a file extension of .doc, .docx or .rtf. If your word processing software creates a file with a different extension (e.g. .odt) you should use ‘Save as’ to save as either .doc, .docx or .rtf.
Make sure you reference ideas or phrases/sentences taken from elsewhere, including the case study and the module materials. Referencing should be in the OU Harvard style, about which you have learnt in several activities throughout B207.
Finally, if there is anything about completing the EMA or if there are questions within it that you do not understand, ask your tutor.
Your answers to the EMA questions will be marked on how well you apply ideas and concepts from B207. You must therefore make sure that you understand the relevant concepts and ideas thoroughly and that you read the case study carefully before attempting to answer the questions. Also, be careful not to copy and paste any material from the internet or published sources into your answers. What you find published elsewhere is very unlikely to address the questions, so copying any material from elsewhere will not result in a good mark (and may lead to potential charges of plagiarism).
Part A
All three questions in Part A ask you to explore the integrative nature of B207. Much of the work that you undertook in the Session 1 of the Module conclusion, ‘Thinking holistically about business opportunities’, was designed to prepare you for tackling this part of the EMA. The session discussed approaches to working with, and analysing, case studies. You also explored integrative thinking and had the opportunity to practice working with a variety of case studies. The aim of this was to further develop your abilities to apply concepts and theories from throughout the module to real world scenarios.
The questions ask you to closely analyse the Tesco case study. By this stage of your studies you will have a lot of experience working with case studies, but it is worth repeating the basic steps:
Read the case study through fairly quickly to get a feel for the sort of situation involved.
Make sure you understand what you are required to do (in this case, by reading the EMA questions). Go through the case study materials again looking for potentially important points and check that you are clear about what is required of you – if you are really unsure, check with your tutor.
Then re-read the case study again, this time very carefully. Make brief notes (and/or sketch a few diagrams) about the key issues that seem to be relevant to the questions. Identify anything that may be relevant.
Start organising your observations, for example, by identifying any underlying issues or events.
Use concepts and theories from the module to help you expand on and support your diagnosis.
Remind yourself again of the questions you have been asked to address, and organise your ideas appropriately.
Remember you are working to a word limit, so concentrate on what is clearly relevant. Support your argument with evidence from the case study, stating any assumptions you have made.
For all three questions in Part A you might want to revisit the various mind maps you have made throughout the module to remind yourself of the overall ideas within each block.
If you need to cite the case study in your answer, you can use within the text: Hinton (2018); (Hinton, 2018) and in the reference list Hinton, M (2018) “EMA Case Study: Tesco”, Open University, Milton Keynes
Part B
You were introduced to presentation skills in Session 2 of the Module conclusion. In particular, Section 2.5, which covered presenting ideas using slides. This section offered step-by-step instructions on creating slides, from selecting and condensing relevant information, right through to formatting your slides using presentation software, such as PowerPoint. It is worth revisiting Session 2 to remind yourself of this advice. You have a limited number of slides to produce so think carefully about what you consider to be the most important information you want to convey. It is a good idea to make sense of any evidence from the case study using concepts and theories from the module.
Part C
In Session 2 of the Module conclusion you were introduced to reflection as a key skill. Part C encourages you to use reflective techniques to look back at how your skills have developed. Your skills began developing in the very first week of the module when you were introduced to key skills, such as critical thinking, and undertook the skills audit. The skills audit was designed to help you identify any areas you could have developed as you proceeded through the module. A suitable approach to tackling this task might be to:
think about the range of skills you have developed
give examples showing how your skills have developed and how they could be transferred to your ongoing studies or professional life
identify any remaining barriers or limitations
think how you might tackle any future skills development and learning.
