Assignment:
You will be required to write a case analysis on a company of your choice. The papers should be 2 pages in length, double spaced, with a minimum 10 point Times New Roman font.
Guidelines:
1. Analyze the case and identify the strategic issues in this case
a. Subheadings: External or Industry Analysis, Internal Analysis, Strategic Issues; no introduction is necessary; start your paper with your first subheading to the analysis.
b. To identify the strategic issues one needs to examine the firm's competitive positioning. The firm's competitive positioning is arrived at after an analysis of the firm's environment (industry analysis), the firm's resources and capabilities (internal analysis) and the firm's strategies and its outcome. The strategic issue is something that has the potential to affect the firm's competitive positioning and may be due to changes in the environment, internal resources and capabilities, questionable strategies and the like. Try to make use of the concepts you have learned in class and through the readings.
c. To examine the competitive position you need to consider all relevant information in the case. Question any hidden assumptions. Make explicit all assumptions you make to arrive at your conclusions. Assess your logic and arguments for coherence and consistency.
d. A strategic issue is any issue that has the potential to fundamentally affect the company's competitive position, its strategy, its operations and its prospects. Typically, it is the issue which when addressed resolves all other issues. More importantly, the number of strategic issues facing an organization is limited in number - at the most there are two or three such issues.
2. Identify all alternative courses of action
a. Subheadings: Alternatives or Alternatives and Evaluation (next number)
b. The relevant alternatives are those that address the strategic issues that you have identified in the first step. The relevant alternatives should be logically based on the analysis that you have performed earlier. In other words, they must be consistent with the external analysis, the internal analysis and seek to solve the firm's strategic issues that you have identified. The tendency of students is often to have too many alternatives that are not very well developed and comprehensive enough to address the strategic issues. Spend the time necessary to develop well-developed, comprehensive alternatives.
c. Second, examine whether these alternatives are really alternatives. In other words, can the firm simultaneously undertake one or two or all of the alternatives? Some decisions like a make internally or buy externally decision are truly mutually exclusive; that is, you are not likely to try to do both because execution requires completely different activities. In most cases a firm may not be able to pursue all alternatives because it does not have the resources/capabilities.
3. Evaluate the alternatives and recommend one course of action. Justify your decision.
a. Subheadings: Alternative Evaluation; Implementation
b. To recommend any one of the alternatives that you identified in the earlier step you need to evaluate all the alternatives. What are the pros and cons of each alternative? Make sure to conclude with an among-alternative evaluation as well. In other words, why are some alternatives less feasible options for the firm than others? It is this analysis that enables you to identify and recommend the alternative that you think best addresses the strategic issue that you have identified.
c. Provide some specific ideas to make your recommendation come to life through some specifics regarding how you would implement your recommendation. This most often is the least developed aspect of a case analysis and yet has the most opportunity to illustrate your value-added thinking.
Evaluate your entire analysis in terms of its consistency, coherence, brevity and logic. Does it make any assumptions that you have not made explicit? Is the information used factually correct? Are the conclusions justifiable? Are they based on opinions, personal beliefs or logic and facts? Exhibits or figures do not count in page or word limit. You have a 1500 word limit in two page case analysis write-up.