Election Policy Brief and Business Strategy Memo Online Tutoring

Option A - Election Policy Brief or Option B - Business Strategy Memo. Choose one of these options but do not choose/submit both. Offering the final assignment in this way allows those students with a more business-centric focus to do Option B (if they so choose), while those more focused on policy can choose Option A. Of course, regardless of your background or academic focus, you can choose either Option A or B depending on your personal preferences. Ultimately which assessment option you choose is entirely up to you. 

Whether you choose to do an Election Policy Brief or a Business Strategy Memo, you should also prepare an accompanying PowerPoint presentation that sums up and presents your main arguments and findings. The PPT will be worth 10 points, the Brief/Memo will be worth 40 points.

Option A  - Election Policy Brief

Imagine you have been contacted by the trade advisor to either the sitting minister of trade of Australia or the shadow trade minister (i.e. the person currently holding this portfolio on the opposition front bench). Given that the next federal election is likely to be hotly contested, future developments and policy priorities affecting Australia's agricultural trade and investment policies are going to be a key policy battleground for both parties. The trade advisor is asking you to put together a trade and investment policy platform to help win the next election, particularly to help garner support among the agri-food industry and rural Australia. 

You can choose whether the policy platform you are writing here serves either the governing coalition or the opposition, depending on your personal political preferences.

Your policy platform should outline a clear set of policy objectives, a strategic framework for achieving them, a distinct menu of actions to take to achieve these objectives, a communications strategy and some consideration of the costs/benefits or pros/cons in advocating for this course of action. To clarify, the policy objectives should be aimed at improving the market access that Australia's agri-food exporters currently enjoy in overseas markets, or attracting more foreign investment into the agro-food sector and/or rural Australia. You can also make trade and investment policy proposals that improve the competitiveness of the sector as long as you also discuss the implications for Australia's international treaty commitments (particularly WTO).  

There is no word or page limit but remember that politicians are busy people (as are their advisors) and they are not going to read anything that is too long or wordy. Your policy brief needs to be succinct and impactful, without leaving out any important elements of your analysis. You must cite any sources you use, either in footnotes or endnotes. You must also include an annex with a comprehensive list of sources (references) used. 

Option A will be graded/evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

• To what extent the submission follows/complies with the instructions provided
• How well/clearly the policy platform is structured
• Originality/feasibility of proposals - including the objectives, the strategic framework, policy actions, communications strategy and cost/benefits analysis.
• Quality of evidence and arguments used to support the positions taken in the policy platform
• Quality of syntax, including correct use of English.

Option B  - Business Strategy Memo

Imagine you are an intern at a large producer of one of Australia's top agricultural exports, meaning one of the following:

You want to impress everyone with your knowledge and skills. You know that the foreign market access and new business development teams are presenting an updated business strategy at the end of the month to senior management in order to help better position the company for an expected surge in global demand starting in 2022. You have been asked to write a memo outlining what this business strategy could be, in particular what new markets could/should be cultivated, how to win back any lost market share, and how to improve the firm's market position in any economies it is already exporting to (scaling up sales).  

In preparing your business strategy memo, you can choose one and only one of the 10 product categories listed above, and you can choose which markets (countries/geographies/economies) you want to focus on (of which there may be several). 

The memo should clearly indicate what new markets you propose to enter, which markets you want to regain market share on, and which existing markets you want to ramp up sales on. It should set out a strategic framework for each market, including an identification of any existing trade and investment barriers your firm is facing on these markets, as well as a set of proposed actions to remove/overcome these trade and investment barriers. Keep the focus of your business strategy memo on trade and investment barriers that are negatively impacting your firm's exports on these markets, without digressing into any other factors that might be affecting your firm's performance on these markets. 

There is no word or page limit but remember that management are busy people (as are the market access and business development teams) and they are not going to read anything that is too long or wordy. Your strategy memo needs to be succinct and impactful, without leaving out any important elements of your analysis. You must cite any sources you use, either in footnotes or endnotes. You must also include an annex with a comprehensive list of sources (references) used. 

Option B will be graded/evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

• To what extent the submission follows/complies with the instructions provided.
• How well/clearly the memo is structured.
• Strength of the analysis of new potential markets, struggling markets and markets ripe for expansion.
• Veracity and accuracy of analysis of trade and investment policy measures negatively impacting the firm's exports to these markets.
• Originality and feasibility of proposed actions to overcome these trade and investment barriers.
• Quality of syntax, including correct use of English.