Steinway and Sons It is rumoured Steinway and Sons is up for sale again. The world’s most iconic piano brand was founded 1853 in Manhattan, New York by German immigrant Henry Steinway. The firm grew to become the benchmark acoustic piano producer, serving professional musicians and orchestras in particular. Over its life Steinway has been owned by several different enterprises, including the USA music giant CBS. All of its owners have contributed in some way to the development of the Steinway business. Steinway was purchased by USA hedge fund financier John Paulson for $512 million in 2013. It was always suspected that Steinway was a tangential business interest for John Paulson and now the rumours are starting to suggest that Steinway will be offered for sale once more. You are to prepare a paper which presents an objective overview of Steinway for potential purchasers and interested parties. The paper has two parts to it.

Part 1 An analysis and summary of Steinway’s market position, its capabilities and its current strategy.

Part 2

A forecast of how Steinway’s market might change over the next five years and the main strategic options of Steinway. Conclude with a comment on the appropriateness of Steinway’s current strategy and your recommended direction for Steinway and Sons. Your paper will be used by potential investors/interested parties (for example, the business media) as a foundation for their own decision-making. You are not required to make a recommendation about the buy/not buy decision (Paulson is yet to indicate how much he wishes to sell the business for). You will provide an objective opinion about whether Steinway and Sons is in a strong position strategically or not.(100 marks)

END Postgraduate Taught Programmes – Online MBA Page 2 of 4Submission instructions Deadline: 11:59pm UK time Word limit: Overall word limit 4,000 words maximum.

Written assignments and dissertations/business projects must not exceed the word count indicated in the module handbook/assessment brief. The word count should:? Include all the text, including title, preface, introduction, in-text citations, quotations, footnotes and any other item not specifically excluded below.? Exclude diagrams, tables (including tables/lists of contents and figures), equations, executive summary/abstract, acknowledgements, declaration, bibliography/list of references and appendices. However, it is not appropriate to use diagrams or tables merely as a way of circumventing the word limit. If a student uses a table or figure as a means of presenting his/her own words, then this is included in the word count. Examiners will stop reading once the word limit has been reached, and work beyond this point will not be assessed. Checks of word counts will be carried out on submitted work, including any assignments or dissertations/business projects that appear to be clearly over-length. Checks may take place manually and/or with the aid of the word count provided via an electronic submission. Where a student has intentionally misrepresented their word count, the School may treat this as an offence under Section IV of the General Regulations of the University. Extreme cases may be viewed as dishonest practice under Section IV, 5 (a) (x) of the General Regulations.

Format: Your assignment MUST be word-processed as an A4-size document, i.e. width 21cm (8.3 inches) x height 29.7cm (11.7 inches).

Postgraduate Taught Programmes – Online MBA

Marking guidelines Performance in the summative assessment for this module is judged against the following criteria:? Relevance to question? Organisation, structure and presentation? Depth of understanding? Analysis of discussion? Use of sources and referencing? Overall conclusions Your assignment should be well organised and structured, using headings and subheadings as appropriate to indicate topics discussed. You should follow any instructions, for example to describe or to discuss. You should demonstrate an understanding of theory and literature, and should show interpretation and application of this. All references must be clearly indicated and a complete bibliography of all sources used must be included. Please use the Harvard style referencing