Assignment:
External Environment Analysis
You will use the tools and apply concepts learned business courses to demonstrate an understanding of how organizations develop and manage strategies to establish, safeguard and sustain its position in a competitive market.
Monitoring competitors' performance is a key aspect of performing an external environment analysis. The assignment provides you with the opportunity to evaluate the competitive position of one of the organizations listed below and integrate that information in an External Factor
Evaluation (EFE) matrix and Competitive Profile Matrices (CPM).
You are presenting a PowerPoint presentation. The expectation is that the presentation provides the level of detail to help a viewer grasps the main topics and to fully understanding the External Environmental Analysis.
Analysis is the operative word. In analyzing the external environment, you are expected to thoroughly research and take that research and break it into small parts to gain a better understanding of what is happening in the external environment of the business. In researching an industry, it is important to understand that every company within an industry is different so gathering information on one company does not mean that the collected information is relevant to other company within that industry. When researching, parsing the material is critical to an accurate analysis. Avoid presenting just any information as that may lead to using irrelevant information.
You will then create the PowerPoint Presentation using the Note section to share the analysis. In using the Note Section of the presentation, you are expected to present information and support the ideas and reasoning using the course material and your research. You will not lift any information from source documents without properly citing and referencing. For the technical analysis aspect of the assignment, you are required to create the technique on your own and may not use from any source material that you happen to find. No work from a clearinghouse or similar website may be used or cited as a credible source.
Instructions:
Step 1: The External Analysis
You will perform an external analysis on an industry where a company from the list below operates and competes. You will select one of these companies to complete the analysis. Using a company other than these will result in a zero for the assignment. You will perform research on the selected company, its industry and its competitors.
Focus on factors related to the company's industry and the environment that it and its competitors make. The factors to measure are those identified in a SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, PESTEL, EFE, and CPM.
• Marubeni Corp [TYO: MARUY]
• Palo Alto Networks, Inc. [NYS: PANW]
• AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. [NYS: AMC]
• Geely Automotive Holdings Ltd [NBB: GELY F]
Step 2: Complete the External Environmental Analysis
In the past weeks, you have learned new concepts and techniques to assess the business environment. You will use these techniques (tools), concepts and information from your own research to perform the external analysis of the selected company's environment. You are not lifting from other sources but performing your own analysis. Include the following:
• Company overview
• Industry analysis
• Competitive analysis: [Use the company's closest competitors (3) plus the selected company.]
• Techniques Analysis: PESTEL, Five Forces, OT from SWOT, EFE, and CPM.
• Trends: Discuss trends significant to the industry and company and discuss key areas of uncertainty related to trends or events that potentially could impact the company's strategy.