consultancy report

Please read through, understand everything about this paper.
– add a brief introduction around 200 words.
– Follow the Report Structure and Table 2 to revise the structure of the paper.
– Add some relevant charts, graphs, tables, extracts or photographs.
Learning Outcomes
1. Demonstrate an understanding of how to identify client needs and be able to develop appropriate research strategies for consultancy interventions
2. Appraise the importance of expert tools and techniques to a consultant
3. Evaluate the relationship between strategic management, leadership and leadership styles and principles that support organisational ethical and value based approaches to leadership
4. Evaluate the application of leadership strategies and the impact on organisational direction
Writing requirement

1. How to write the report – your ‘voice’/the ‘audience’

1.1 The report for Consultancy:
Is written within the scenario that you are acting as a consultant for the case study scenarios offered.

1.2 Sections summary
Here is a summary showing the analytical tools/approaches and writing style to adopt for each section. Section 1.3and 1.4will explain briefly what I mean by ‘Third person’ and ‘First Person ‘in this context.

Assessment Brief:
1. You are a new consultant working for International Management Consultancy organisation (it is a fictional consultancy firm).
2. You are required to complete ONE consultancy project out of the employer scenarios (See “Case Studies”).
3. You must use an employer case study. With reference to the employer scenario, produce a 3000-3500 word report
4. which will be assessed on the following areas:
– Section 1. An analysis of the company’s strategic position
– Section 2. A set of recommendations to address the issues identified
– Section 3. An evidence-informed implementation strategy Section
– A reflection on key learning from the course (refer to the document- Knowledge of the course)
– Organisation/academic writing Referencing

You are required to follow the consultancy report structure below.

Report Structure Your report should be 3000 to 3500 words.
Section 1: An analysis of the company’s strategic position 1,200–1,500 words. (Academic/strategic/business ‘analysis tools.)
Writing style：
– Report style
– Academic writing.
– Third person.
Provide an overview of the company you have chosen.
1. Identify and apply 2 appropriate tools and techniques to analyse
A) The internal environment of the company
B) The external environment of the company
2. This analysis of the company’s strategic position should include:
1. a) Leadership and communication
2. b) The company culture including its ethical and value base
3. c) The company’s position in the sector
4. d) A critical evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the tools and techniques you have used
5. e) The client needs
3. Following your analysis on the company’s strategic position, identify the main issues that you could advise the company to address.
NOTE: This section refers to Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3

Section 2: Recommendations to the organisation （Clear set of recommendations.）300–500 words.
1. Based on your analysis in Section 1, propose 3 recommendations for the company.
2. Ensure that each recommendation is clear, has appropriate detail, is justified and is feasible in this context.
3. Recommendations should refer to the leadership and communications strategy of the company, taking account of internal and external stakeholders.
Writing styele：
– Report style
– Academic writing.
– Third person.
NOTE: This section refers to Learning Outcomes 1,3 and 4

Section 3: Implementation of Recommendations (Implementation of recommendations, with evidenced based implementation strategy.) in 1000 words.
1. Based on Section 2, explain how the company would implement the recommendations put forward to support the changes in its strategic direction.
2. This section will include analysis of the following:
1. a) Leadership styles – this must include reference to different leadership styles supported by theories, models and/or evidence.
2. b) Communicating the vision to the key stakeholders
3. c) Leadership strategy and the impact on organisational direction
3. This section considers the actions that should be taken by the company in order to achieve the recommendations that you have described above.
Writing style：
– Report style
– Academic writing.
– Third person.
NOTE: This section refers to Learning Outcomes 3 and 4
Section 4: Critical Reflection (Use a reflective model to underpin your reflections for this section.) 300-500 words.
You need to reflect critically on the learning experience.
Select and use a model (e.g. Gibbs reflective cycle) to reflect your learning experience on the CMI module (i.e. the course content, learning journeys, etc.) Consider the following question:
1. How you might apply your learning and knowledge from this module to your own area of study and future career aspirations?
Writing style：
– First person.
– Critical reflection style
Remember:
In this paper you need to apply some of the tools and methods that have been referred to in the course content and learning journeys and discuss their relevance to the client’s situation. You will need to provide information on how you have gathered and sourced key information for your report.

1.3 Your ‘voice’ –Third person.
• Typically reports and academic work will be written in third person (unless instructed otherwise). For this assessment we expect the report element (Part 1, sections 1 -3, see 1.2 above) to be written in the third person. This is relevant here in that we are asking you to complete sections 1 to 3 as though you a writing a consultancy report.
• As you engage with the research and writing up your report you will probably find yourself wanting to write something along the lines of ‘I recommend that Newsprinters….’, or ‘ my analysis suggests that….’. As you know, this means you are writing in first person.
• An approach to address this problem is suggested. You can include a very brief introduction, here is an example:

o Example introduction: ‘The first three sections of this report have been written in a report style, within ascenario where the author of the report is acting as a consultant for [add case study company name]. Within this scenario the author will refer to their fictional consultancy company as [add a name for your fictional/made up consultancy company].
• You can now write freely about your analysis, for example now the sentence ‘I recommend that Newsprinters…’ becomes ‘[your consultancy name] recommends that Newsprinters….’

1.4 Your ‘voice’ – first person
• As you will see in the table above (Figure 1) I suggest that you write the reflective section – section 4 – in first person.
• If you chose to write in first person you will need to briefly explain why (as with all academic work give your rationale).

1.5 Structure/Introduction
The structure of the report.
• Follow this format/structure. You need to add a brief introduction.
• Table 2 offers is an example of how you can use heading numbers and subheadings to structure your report, mapped to the assessment requirements.
• The Introduction and first section of the report in Table 2 as an example – follow this approach you need to continue this heading/sub heading format for sections 2,3 and 4).
• Please note – The introduction should be very brief.. for example:
Case study focus and rationale – here,briefly stating the case study the report analyses (from a consultancy perspective) /brief reason the case study was selected (rationale).
Report style – a brief note to indicate that you will write the first three sections of the report in third person (as it’s a consultancy report following professional protocols), with a brief note to explain that section 4 will be written in first person (if this is the approach you take). If section 4 is going to be written in first person you must briefly support (with theory) your rational for this – citing examples of scholars who argue that that writing in first person aids reflection.
• (keep the Introduction brief as it will be included in your word count!).

1. Introduction
1.1 Case study focus and rationale
1.2 Report style
2. Analysis of the company’s strategic position
2.1 Analysis exploring internal and external environment
2.1.1 Internal environment of the company
2.1.2 External environment of the company
2.2 Analysis of company’s strategic position
2.2.1 Leadership and Communication
2.2.2 The company culture – including ethical and value base
2.2.3 The company’s position in the sector
2.2.4 Critical evaluation of the strengths and limitation of tools and techniques used in this analysis
2.2.5 The client needs
2.3 Main issues for the company to address (based on the analysis above).
table 2: Example of report structure, using numbered headings and subheadings

1.6 Back to the introduction
The introduction would look something like this:
o Example introduction 2: ‘The first three sections of this report have been written in a report style, within ascenario where the author of the report is acting as a consultant for [add case study company name]. Within this scenario the author of this report will refer to their fictional consultancy company as [add a name for your consultancy company]. The final section of this report, section 4 is a reflective section, and considers lessons learnt from undertaking the consultancy course. To help facilitate this reflection section 4 will be written in the first person [briefly adding your rationale for this approach, underpinned by relevant theory].
• Two things here:
o This is just an example introduction, not an instruction, it gives you a staring point to think about how you write your report.
o If you decide to give yourself a fictional consultancy company nameplease make sure it is your own. (do not copy others!).

1.7‘the audience’
As you will know, successful writing, of any kind,considers who the audience is for the piece of work. You start with the question ‘Who am I writing for?’. My style here is conversational, although I have used a report format so that I can cross refer to topics/points made. I am being conversational for lots of different reasons, for example, I am your tutor and I want to develop a conversation/connection with youand we are in a joint learning adventure. In terms of answering the question for your report‘whoam I writing it for?’, I would say the process of writing and learning is for you. In terms of your assessment being read we can think of it as having two audiences, these are:
• The ‘real audience’ –this is an academic piece of work, all the academic protocols apply (referencing, underpinning your arguments with theory/evidence etc, as outlined in the Brief). So, the ‘real audience’ is the academic marker/s.
• The ‘scenario’ audience – you are writing the first 3 sections of your paper as a report, within a scenario that it is a consultancy report for the organisation you have chosen as your case study. So, continuing with the example of Newsprinters, the ‘scenario audience’ for the report element (sections 1 to 3) would be (for example) the senior management team at Newsprinters.
• So, you can see why the brief introduction suggested in section 1.5 helps you to establish how the report has been written (showing the reader that you have considered who the audience is – a vital component of writing a consultancy report).

2. The case studies（see case study in another document）
However, there are some useful and helpful insights for you here, in particular you might want to look at the following sections:
o Analysis (it has some good tips).
o Recommendations and Implementation Plan (this offers some examples of what to include).
o In the ‘Key Takeaways’ section it says:
‘Ensure that your report is written at a level that would appeal to a business audience rather than an academic one.’As discussed your balance here is to write a consultancy report for the ‘scenario’ audience, while ensuring you meet all the criteria for the ‘real’ academic audience (see 1.7 above).

3. Reflection
Q: Guidance about completing section 4 (Reflection) of the report:
• Remember, the slide below uses Gibbs (1988) cycle which has two types of conclusions (a general conclusion and a specific conclusion). You will often see the Gibbs cycle (1988) produced where there is just a ‘conclusion’ – so that would be an adapted version of Gibbs (1988). It does not matter which version you use as your reflective analysis tool, the original Gibbs (as shown below) or an adapted version – just make sure your citations are correct.
• You will obviously apply Table 1 to your own reflection if you use it. You will discuss/critically appraise your learning from applying the Gibbs cycle (1988) to your own reflection topic (outlined in your ‘Description’) in a narrative to accompany the table. So, you are critically discussing, underpinned by theory/evidence/examples the different stages of the Gibbs cycle (1988) applied to your chosen reflective topic.
• Noted that Gibbs (1988), in this version of his cycle, has the ‘conclusion’ split into two categories, specific and general. You will see many versions of this model where ‘conclusions’ are not split into two categories. It is up to you how you use this model but ensure you give a clear rationale for your approach supported by theory/evidence (e.g. you have ‘ a conclusions element’ in the cycle or a ‘conclusions general’ and a ‘conclusions specific ‘elements, as Gibbs does (1988), in your reflection).

Applying the Gibbs (1988) cycle
Table 1 shows the Gibbs (1988) cycle, which starts with ‘Description’. In Section 4 – you are asked to consider the following question through the application of the Gibbs reflective cycle (1988):
‘How you might apply your learning and knowledge from this model to your own area of study and future aspirations?’
For example, if you were planning to develop a career in project management you would be required to develop your communication skills – these will include working on a range of formal and informal platforms for example ‘Slack’(see https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/ and ‘Teams’ (see https://www.microsoft.com/en-GB/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software ). You might want to reflect upon how/why/when/what and if (!). So, your description might be: Exploring why I did not take part in the comment/discussion element during my Consultancy course. What can I learn from this to help me to develop my communication skills when using virtual/on -line team communication tools in my career as a project manager? (this is just an example!).
You would then explore this personal question (the example in italics above) by moving through the different stages of the Gibbs (1988) cycle.
As you move through the Gibbs cycle your reflections should be supported by theory and evidence.
For example, when looking at the evaluation phase of the reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) I often use a thinking tool developed by Edward De Bono (2018), Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) points to help when conducting the evaluation.
When presenting the Personal action planyou need to make your objectives SMART.

Table 1: course notes (Brock,2020)
Using Gibbs Cycle
Using Gibbs cycle to discuss the reflections from this course. The table below shows stage by stage how you going to demonstrate your reflections.
Phase Content Explantion
description My learnings
What is it I have learnt?
How empacting is the learning environment I have learnt different leadership styles and I have also identify the best, I have also learnt how to identify client’s needs, importance of communication and being a creative leader etc
feeling/Reactions How I felt during learning,
Sad, anxious, engagingboard, confused,
I was always commenting on my learning I was commenting during my learning and it makes me feels really confidence especially when I see educator respond or react to my comments.
Evaluation How I feel
Good
Bad What I have been through going through this module, is been challenging because some of the tasks are to be discussed as a group and because this learning environment is virtual, students and participant don’t know one another, hence no conversation and nothing to learn from each other.
Often time, I forgotten that meeting was schedule, sometimes, network won’t be friendly so I was quite challenging.
Analysis Culture
Environment
Network
No Collaboration The learning environment is virtual and student don’t get to know each other and no collaboration or team work which is very impactful in learning.
General Conclusion Seminars
Facilitators
Timing
Explanations
Experience of the facilitators
question asked were well treated by facilitators

Specific Conclusion Good consultant
Identify clients’ needs
Creative consultant
Effective communication Explain what I learnt on identifying clients’ needs
Action Plan S
M
A
R
T Better way of doing things
How to do things better.
The above table displayed the reflective learnings and gibbs learning cycle identified two parts of conclusion namely specific and general conclusions.

4. Analysis tools
• I drew your attention to the textbook (below). This is a key textbook for the course, and it covers a range of company analysis tools (both external and internal). I strongly advice you to refer to and cite (where appropriate) this textbook (as one of your academic sources).

(Citation: Whittington, Richard, Regnér, Patrick, Author, Angwin, Duncan, Author, Johnson, Gerry, Author, Scholes, Kevan, Author, Evans, Jason, Author, and Kerridge, Clive, Author. Exploring Strategy : Text and Cases. Twelfth Edition / Richard Whittington, Patrick Regnér, Duncan Angwin, Gerry Johnson, Kevan Scholes with the Assistance of Jason Evans, Clive Kerridge.. ed. 2020. Print.)