From a business standpoint, critically assess the strategy of a Lloyd’s List Top 100 ship-owner of your choice. Some ideas to get you started: What has been the current business environment in the sector(s) the ship- owner operates in? How did they adapt to recent changes? Based on your analysis of the business environment, what were the possible strategies the ship-owner could have followed? Which one did they end up following? Can you explain why? Would you say it was justified? Was the ship-owner’s strategy different from their major competitors? If so, what were the differences? Again, can you explain why? How did the ship-owner implement their chosen strategy? Was there anything out of the ordinary, a setback or an unexpected boon? Could the ship-owner have done things differently – or even better?! e.t.c. Don’t forget to cover all three levels of strategy: operational, competitive AND corporate. Remembering these three levels of strategy should be useful when trying to find examples where the ship-owner differentiated themselves from the competition. You can employ operational knowledge and theoretical concepts from other disciplines, provided they are used to support – not displace – your main objective (ie. critically assess the ship-owner’s strategy from a business standpoint).
