Business Strategy

BAA1019

Kerrygold Strategic Evaluation

For this year long module, we partook in a group project which accounted for 50% of our final grade. We had to pick a client company in which we would do a strategic evaluation of and propose 3 recommendations. Ornua, with a focus on their consumer brand Kerrygold is who we selected. As we dove into the strategic analyses, from PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces to VRIO and value-chain mapping, I saw firsthand how each of our team member’s expertise added depth to the report, which ultimately earned us a grade of 80%. The report can be seen below. Additionally, we had to pitch our analysis, where myself and two others presented, acting as management consultants and we managed to score 78%! These great results set us up really nicely for the individual case analysis which accounted for the other 50% of our final grade.

Individual Case Study

For the individual Hitachi case study, we were tasked with analysing the company’s strategic challenges and offering a tailored recommendation to address one of them. This involved a deep dive into Hitachi’s complex business portfolio and the macroeconomic forces affecting its direction, where I recommended a strategy to better balance long-term innovation with short-term shareholder pressure. In the second part of the assignment, we critically evaluated Hitachi’s organisational culture and its role in the firm’s pursuit of global expansion, applying frameworks like Schein’s cultural model and the CAGE distance framework. This section pushed me to think more about how deeply rooted national and organisational values can either enable or constrain international success. Overall, this assignment enhanced both my strategic thinking and cultural awareness. I developed a stronger ability to link abstract theory to real-world business issues and realised how essential it is to consider cultural compatibility alongside economic logic when advising global firms.