Assessment 1 (Part A):
Your organisation and its Strategic Service Vision (Stages 1 & 2) Due: Sunday 11th August: 11.00pm Length: up to 1750 words
Many organisations face choices regarding the types of services they wish to offer and to whom, and the operational procedures they employ. Frameworks are sometimes used to assist in these decisions. Using Heskett’s ‘strategic service vision’ framework as a template, specifically stages one and two, provide:
• an overview of your organisation o you might also like to create a logo for your organisation! • its ‘target market segments’ and • its ‘service concept’.
In addition to the above, the following questions should be addressed:
Q1. Outline the core and peripheral services that make up the bundle of services you will offer to the customers of your organisation.
Q2. Provide a description of the proposed servicescape.
• NOTE: although this is relevant to Part B, it will provide substance to your overview.
Q3. The service sector is now a key generator of economic prosperity in many countries. However, changes in the context in which businesses operate are having an impact on their ability to provide this economic wealth. Using newspaper articles (print or online) written in the past 12 months:
• identify three current issues that would impact on your specific organisation, and strategies that your organisation might implement to minimise these factors.
• Ensure you reference these correctly
Q4. Using a range of sources of information, including non-academic and academic articles as supporting evidence:
• identify and evaluate four factors that you think will impact on your business in the future.
Guidelines to your Strategic Service Vision report – Part A
This assessment is designed as an experiential learning exercise by having you apply theoretical concepts to a potential real-world situation in a critical manner. You should adopt the mindset of a real business owner/investor for the organisation you have elected to base your report on. NOTE: do not submit general service concepts that might be applied across lots of organisations: this assessment is specifically about the organisation you have created.
Your strategic service vision report must be presented using academic report format. It should conform to the following format, and should also include a professionally laid out table of contents prior to the executive summary. The word count for each section is a guide to help you, but you may be longer or shorter in some sections depending upon your organisation.
Executive summary [250 words]
An executive summary of a report is a summary that contains a statement of the report’s purpose and an overview of the findings. Write in past tense (e.g. The purpose of this report was to…). If an executive summary is well written the reader should be able to understand the main points, findings, and conclusions of the actual report without having to read the full report.
Section one – Introduction [100 words]
This is a brief statement of the purpose of the report, what its objectives are, and an overview of how the report is structured
Section two – Organisation overview [400 words]
This is where you will briefly showcase your organisation, its name, description of operations, its bundle of services [Q1] and its servicescape [Q2]. A good place to start is Topic 2 of the Study Guide (core and supplementary services) and your text book (servicescape). Your goal here will be to sell the idea of your organisation to the reader/marker. You might like to include a logo here too!
Section three – Target market segments [400 words]
In this section you are to refer to Heskett’s strategic service vision, stage 1 and using the most relevant headings, identify the type of customers you plan to attract. Although there are a number of headings, you are not restricted to this list and it is recommended that you source other data and/or literature to help determine the appropriate markets. Study Guide Topic 2 is useful for this section.
Section four – Current and future implications [400 words]
You need to identify three (3) current issues [Q3] (sourced from non-academic and academic literature) that are impacting your organisation. It is important here to source information that is actually relevant to your organisation and you must critically analyse the information, potentially exploring strategies to minimise these factors and implications.
Also on this section, you need to identify four (4) issues that may impact your organisation in the future [Q4]. Use a range of source material to support your identified issues.
Section five – Service concept [100 words]
Here you are laying down the foundations for Part B of your assessment. It is the how and what of service design, where you need to bridge the customer s’ needs (as determined in your Target Market research) and the intent of your organisation. You should be aiming to show how you wish the services to be perceived by the customers and other stakeholders. For example, if your organisation is a backpacker accommodation, you might emphasise a cheaper service, utilizing mobile technology whereas a luxury resort may emphasise quality service and personalised attention.
Section six – Conclusion [100 words]
Within this section restate the purpose of the report, then provide an overview of main points covered in your analysis. Ensure that you do not include any new information, only that which has been discussed within the main body of the report.
Reference list
All works cited must be included in your reference list. Citations must conform to the
Harvard referencing style.
Appendices
This is an optional section in which you are able to place relevant material which would have otherwise disrupted the logical flow of your report e.g. business data reports. Material included in this section will not count towards the overall word count for this assessment.
Marking Criteria [25 marks]
Section 2 Organisation Overview [Q1 & Q2] 5 marks
Section 3 Target market segments 5 Marks
Section 4 Current and future implications [Q3 & Q4] 5 Marks
Section 5 Service concept 4 Marks
Referencing 3 Mark
Report Presentation 3 marks
General marking criteria
Demonstrated ability to critically analyse sources
You are expected to ask critical questions of the material you read. Only minimal marks will be awarded in cases where you have merely re-stated what the authors have already said. Can you identify any potential flaws in the concepts? Is there a difference in opinion between scholars? Who do you think is right, and why? These are potential areas of critical analysis you could focus on.
Evidence of original thought and creativity
You must show that you have developed an ability to think about how the theories and concepts covered might be applied in the real world though their links to your own created organisation
Quality of presentation structure; overall content; quality of bibliographic details; written expression
You should present your work in a logical, easy to read format. It should also conform to the structure outlined previously. NOTE: any suggestion of plagiarism, ghost written assessments or use of ‘sham referencing’ will be immediately reported for Academic Misconduct