Identify as many alternative strategies as possible for fixing/addressing the strategic priority. 

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Sections
(Detailed descriptions below): 

1.
Introduction 

2.
Company Overview 

– 2.1 background 

– 2.2 performance analysis 

3.
Opportunities and threats 

– 3.1 General environment 

– 3.2 Industry environment 

– 3.3 Opportunity and threats summary 

4. Strength
and Weaknesses  

    – 4.1.
Company Resources  

–
4.2 Company Capabilities 

–
4.3 Summary of strengths and weaknesses  

5.
Strategic Overview 

– 5.1 Current business level strategy 

6. Strategic
Problems and Priorities 

– 6.1.   Problem Statements 

– 6.2.   Strategic Priority 

7. Strategic
Options and Recommended Response 

– 7.1.
Strategic Options 

– 7.2 Strategic Recommendation 

– 7.3.   Implementation Plan  

8.
Conclusion 

Follow this structure exactly. 

1.     Introduction 

Introduce
what you are going to do in the situation analysis.  State the purpose and
objectives of this analysis, summarize the organization the analysis, and offer
some hints about the central insights gained.  You want a positive and
constructive tone at the very beginning (feel free to be creative). 

2.     Company Overview 

2.1.   Background 

Products
/ Services: Briefly summarize the company; describe each brand, division,
and/or service.  What is the company’s mission, values, and objectives? 

History:
Develop a brief timeline of the company that includes the date of the founding
and major corporate events including IPOs, M&A’s, CEO transitions, other
major events (e.g., bankruptcy filings), etc. 

Industry:
List the company’s primary and secondary SIC codes and NAICS codes and include
the industry descriptions.  In addition, include the company’s stock symbol,
CUSIP number, and all other relevant classification information. 

Background
summary: Comment on the situation the company is facing in the case you read. 

2.2.   Performance Analysis (some
of these will require external research) 

Financial
Performance: Select two performance measures/ratios.  Then, in separate graphs,
plot the performance measure over a five-year period comparing the measure
against those of the company’s top 2 or 3 competitors and the industry
average.  In a short paragraph, discuss whether the company is enjoying
competitive advantage or suffering competitive disadvantage. 

Now
discuss the company’s primary stakeholder performance (i.e., investors,
customers, and employees):  

Investor
Performance: In a single graph, plot the company’s stock price against the
stock prices of its top three competitors and the S&P 500 index.  Make note
of any stock splits, stock buybacks, etc.  Then, in one table, summarize the
stock analysts’ buy/sell recommendations of stock analysts (see Yahoo!
Finance).  Compare this information to the company’s top three competitors.
Finally, in a short paragraph, summarize the information and assess the company’s
investor performance.  To what extent is the company meeting investor
expectations? 

Customer
Performance: Find customer satisfaction rankings, product reviews, product
recall information, etc. from Consumer Reports.  If you can find the data,
discuss the rate of repeat business, price comparisons, quality, etc.  Provide
a comparison to the company’s top competitors. Then, in a short paragraph,
assess the company’s customer performance.  To what extent is the company
capable of satisfying its customers’ needs?  How does the company’s customer
satisfaction and/or product quality compare with its competitors? 

Employee
Performance: Find any information on the company’s performance in context of
its workforce.  Look for rankings of the “best companies to work for,” news
reports of labor troubles (e.g., lawsuits), and whether the company’s workforce
unionized).  Then, in a short paragraph, assess the company’s employee
performance.  To what extent is the company capable of satisfying its
employees’ needs?  Is the company rated a good employer? 

Other
Stakeholder Satisfaction: Find information concerning the company’s
environmental performance (e.g., rankings of “green companies” and company
environmental programs). Find information concerning the company’s social
responsibility (e.g., charitable and “cause-related” activities). 

Performance
Summary:  In a short paragraph, summarize what the performance assessment
reveals about the company.  A good financial analysis goes beyond the numbers
and makes conjectures about emerging trends and likely strategic implications
of the numbers, often by combining insights from multiple elements of the
financial statements.  Consider some of these questions in your discussion: How
does the performance of the company compare with its competitors?  Over the
past five years, has the company’s performance improved or decline?  Based on
your analysis, does it appear that the firm’s financial performance is headed
in the right direction?  What is your prognosis for the next couple of years?
Are there signs of competitive (dis)advantage? 

3.     Opportunities and Threats 

3.1.   General Environment 

Economic
trends:  Identify the three economic trends most relevant to your company.
Discuss the most salient issues of the following: over the past three years,
how have factors such as personal income, GDP growth, unemployment rates,
interest rates, currency exchange rates, personal and corporate saving rates,
etc. affected your company, if at all?  Provide facts, data, and other information
to support your assessment. 

Sociocultural
trends:  Clearly identify the top three cultural trends most relevant to your
company.  Discuss the most salient issues of the following: over the past three
years, how have factors such as social attitudes, concern for the natural
environment, shifts in work / career preferences, etc. affected your company?
Provide facts, data, and other information to support your assessment. 

Demographic
trends:  Discuss the most salient issues of the following: Over the past three
years, how have factors such as changes in population size, age structure,
ethnic mix, incomes, etc. affected your company?  Provide facts, data, and
other information to support your assessment. 

Political
/ Legal trends:  Discuss the most salient issues of the following: Over the
past three years, how have factors such as Federal, state, and local laws,
regulations, and policies affected your company?  Provide facts, data, and
other information to support your assessment. 

Technological
trends: Discuss the most salient issues of the following: Over the past three
years, how have factors such as new technologies, product innovation,
private/public R&D expenditures, etc. affected your company?  Provide
facts, data, and other information to support your assessment. 

Global/International
events: Discuss the most salient issues of the following: Over the past three
years, how have factors such as political events, different national cultures,
global markets, currency exchange rates, international trade, etc. affected
your company?  Provide facts, data, and other information to support your
assessment. 

Physical
environment events: Not required, but you may address if you wish. 

3.2.   Industry Environment 

Industry
Structure: Clearly identify the structure of the industry in which your company
operates.  Support your point of view with facts, data, etc. to support your
assessment. 

Five
Forces Analysis: Draw the five forces framework. Label each force as low,
moderate, or high.  In the following paragraphs, discuss each force: 

Threat
of entry: Characterize quantitatively and qualitatively this force as low,
moderate, or high.  Provide facts, data, and other information to support your
assessment. 

Supplier
Bargaining Power: Characterize quantitatively and qualitatively this force as
low, moderate, or high.  Provide facts, data, and other information to support
your assessment. 

Buyer
Bargaining Power: Characterize quantitatively and qualitatively this force as
low, moderate, or high.  Provide facts, data, and other information to support
your assessment. 

Threat
of substitutes:  Quantitatively and qualitatively characterize the threat posed
by substitute or alternative products/services as low, moderate, high.  Provide
facts, data, and other information to support your assessment. 

Threat
of rivalry:  Characterize quantitatively and qualitatively this force as low,
moderate, or high.  Provide facts, data, and other information to support your
assessment. 

3.3.   Opportunities and Threats Summary 

Opportunities:
Clearly identify and summarize the top three opportunities identified by the
general environment analysis and the top three opportunities found by the
industry environment analyses. 

Threats:
Clearly identify and summarize the top three threats identified by the general
environment analysis and the top three threats found by the industry
environment analyses. 

4.     Strength and Weaknesses  

4.1.   Company Resources  

Financial
Resources: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess the company’s current assets,
borrowing capacity, and its ability to generate funds quickly either internally
(e.g., move money from one business to another) or externally (e.g., additional
borrowing or stock sale). 

Physical
Resources: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess the company’s physical resources
including building and property assets (owned or leased), its business
locations, geographic access to product markets, geographic access to supply
markets, and/or plants and equipment. 

Human
Resources: Qualitatively assess the management expertise and experience of the
company’s top management team.  Compare the expertise and experience of your
company’s top management team (i.e., Chairman, CEO, and COO, if applicable) to
those of its top three rivals. 

Organizational
Resources: Qualitatively assess the company’s culture, reputation, brand
identity, trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, other intellectual
property, etc. 

4.2.   Company Capabilities 

Operations
and Distribution Capabilities: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess your
company’s use and management of supply chain, distribution channels, and
general logistics.  For example, you might look for information on inventory
costs/turnover ratios, supply chain bottlenecks, and efficiency. 

Human
Resource Capabilities: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess your company’s
ability to attract, retain, empower, motivate and train employees.  For
example, you might look for information on employee turnover, workforce
training programs, salary comparisons, and education benefits. 

Management
Information Systems: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess your company’s ability
to use and deploy MIS/IT technologies for point-of-sales data collection,
inventory management, customer service, etc.  For example, see if you can information
on IT expenditures. 

Marketing
Capabilities: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess your company’s ability to
build and promote its brand(s), customer service abilities, merchandising, etc.
For example, see if you can calculate an annual Advertising Intensity ratio
(advertising expenditures / divided by total sales). 

Product/Technology
Development: Quantitatively/qualitatively assess your company’s ability to “see
the future” of the market and/or develop new technology or products quickly.
For example, see if you can calculate an R&D Intensity ratio (R&D
expenditures / divided by total sales). 

4.3.   Strengths and Weaknesses Summary 

Use
the VRIN framework to identify the company’s (1) strengths and (2) distinctive
competences.  Thoroughly assess the value, rarity, and imitability of each set
of resources and capabilities.  Strengths: In a single paragraph, based on the
VRIN assessment, clearly identify and summarize the top three resource
strengths and the top three capability strengths. 

Weaknesses:
In a single paragraph, based on the VRIN assessment, clearly identify and
summarize the top three resource weaknesses and the top three capability
weaknesses. 

5.     Strategic Overview 

5.1.   Current Business Level Strategy 

Draw
the 2 by 2 generic business strategy matrix.  Be sure to label the matrix
completely.  Put each of your company’s businesses/brands in the appropriate
box in the matrix. Then, discuss the “Source of Competitive Advantage.”  Assess
the extent to which each business/brand competes on the basis of low cost versus
the uniqueness of its products or services.  Finally, discuss the “Competitive
Scope.”  Assess the extent to which each business/brand exploits its
competitive advantage in a broad or narrow target market.  Do not talk in vague
generalities.  Be specific and detailed in your discussion. 

6.     Strategic Problems and Priorities 

6.1.   Problem Statements 

Based
on the situation analysis, briefly list all of the
strategic issues/problems/ opportunities/challenges revealed by the situation
analysis, the SWOT analysis, and the strategic assessment.  Think
strategically: what are the most critical and fundamental issues the company
needs to grapple with to obtain and/or sustain a competitive advantage?  Make
sure the problem/issue statements are focused, concise, clear, and well
written.  Each problem statement should be communicated in one sentence and written in italics to make it easy to see.
When writing each problem statement, please keep the following in mind: 

BAD
problem statements are not firm-specific, meaning they are generic and could be
said about any company.  Moreover, problems like poor profitability and limited
market share are often symptoms of more fundamental issues such as poor
R&D, bad customer service, failing to leverage company
resources/capabilities, improper management, etc. 

• Bad Example #1: ABC Inc. needs to internationalize to
  increase its market share.  (This statement is superficial and not
  firm-specific.) 
• Bad Example #2: ADAMS Division of ACME Corp needs to
  increase profits or sales.  (This statement identifies is a symptom of a
  problem, not the problem itself.) 

GOOD
examples of business-level problem statements are detailed and firm-specific: 

• Good Example #1:  BETA Corp has failed to exploit its
  strong marketing capabilities to target college students with their digital
  notepad products, which convert pen-and-paper notes into digital format,
  resulting in severe declines in new and repeat sales from the college segment
  over the past five years. 
• Good Example #2:  The central problem with GAMMA Inc. is
  that its production facilities are geared for small, niche jobs in support of
  its product differentiation strategy despite the fact that the industry
  environment—especially intense rivalry—is is generally better suited to a
  low-cost leadership strategy. 

Once
listed, briefly discuss each problem statement.  Use very specific information,
facts, data, etc. to convey the relevance, significance, and importance of the
problems/issues.  Again, be as specific as possible—no vague or generic
commentary here.  For each statement, discuss the following:  What is the
magnitude of the problem?  Is the problem/issue major or minor?  Is the problem
part of a bigger problem?  Is the problem/issue “stand alone” or is it
intertwined with more fundamental factors/problems/issues inside or outside the
company? What happens if the problem/issue is ignored?  If the problem/issue is
inadequately resolved, are we talking about the end of the company as we know it or would it be a
minor setback.  (NOTE: the bigger the problem/issue, the more interesting and
engaging the project will be.) 

6.2.   Strategic Priority 

Now
look over your list of problem statements.  Clearly state which of the core
problem statements from the above list is the single most important
problem/issue/challenge/opportunity for the company to address or resolve?
Clearly explain why this is the strategic priority for the company. 

By
the way, if you are convinced that your company is very well run and faces no
major problems (this has to be
justified), focus on any future problems/issues indicated by your situation
analysis.  Your problem statements should discuss any future
problems/issues/opportunities/challenges the company will have to deal with to
maintain its competitive advantage.  Remember, no company—no matter how
successful—can keep doing the same thing and remain competitive.  Stated
differently, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” is not a valid
conclusion for the strategic plan. 

Case
Study:

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/strategy/SunPower/Pages/SunPower.aspx

NOTE: Given the Strategic Priority, now discuss with your
teammates how to respond to the problem. 

7.     Strategic Options and Recommended Response 

7.1.   Strategic Options 

Identify
as many alternative strategies as possible for fixing/addressing the strategic
priority.  These options should be creative
and strategic, realistic and plausible,
and build on firm-specific information
uncovered by the situation analysis.  DO NOT suggest generic or “business
as usual” solutions to the problem.  Also, each option MUST be mutually exclusive (this means that it is
not possible to implement more than one strategy to fix the Strategic
Priority).  When writing each strategic response statement, please keep the
following in mind: 

BAD Strategic Options for
the BETA Corp problem statement above: 

• Bad Option #1:  BETA should reduce their marketing budget
  by 50 percent.  (This is a bad example because it does not fix the “repeat
  customer” problem.) 
• Bad Option #2:  BETA should expand their operations
  overseas.  (This is a bad example because it is too generic, does not fix the
  repeat customer problem, and is not mutually exclusive with other responses.) 

GOOD Strategic Options for
the BETA Corp problem statement above: 

• Good Option #1:  BETA should develop a strategic alliance
  with textbook publisher GOTCHA LLC to develop paper templates for students to
  speed note taking in class or while reading.  (This is a good example in that
  it may fix the specified problem, builds on firm specific resources, and it
  suggests a firm-specific action.) 

Once
stated, briefly discuss each strategic option.  Use quantitative information,
facts, data, etc. to convey the effectiveness of your solution.  Again, be as
specific as possible—no vague or overly general commentary here.  For each
strategic response, discuss the following:  How likely is the strategic
response to fix/address the strategic priority?  Will the strategic response
fix/address other problems in addition to the strategic priority?  How risky it
the strategic alternative?  What happens if solution fails? 

7.2.   Strategic Recommendation 

Now
look over the strategic options.  Clearly state which of the strategic options
you recommend as the solution/response to the strategic priority.  Give some
discussion as why the rejected strategic options are not as good as your
strategic recommendation.  Provide good, concise, and logical support for your
position. 

Use
the VRIN framework to evaluate whether and how your strategic recommendation
will translate into sustained competitive advantage.  NOTE: It is critical that
you demonstrate mastery of the VRIN framework here.  Discuss the V, R, and I of
your recommendation and briefly comment on the N. 

7.3.   Implementation Plan 

Describe
in some detail how the firm should go about implementing the strategic
recommendation.  Provide a timeline for implementation, a list of the resources
or capabilities the company needs to acquire or develop, some assessment of
costs involved (to the extent available financial information allows), the
organizational/structural changes required and problems that might be
encountered during the implementation.  Talk in specifics.  (HINT: If you
recommend a merger or international strategy, for example, be sure to discuss
how the structure/controls will have to change as a result!) 

Provide
a summary back-up plan.  Discuss the conditions under which your strategic
recommendation might not work.  For example, does your strategic recommendation
depend on the economic recovery or interest rates remaining low?  If your
strategic recommendation cannot be implemented as planned, then what would/could
the company do? 

8.     Conclusion  

Offer
some substantive concluding remarks to your strategic plan.  What did you learn
about your company that is interesting, surprising, and/or telling about its
past and future competitive advantages?  In the last paragraph, make a
prediction something that might happen in the next 12 months (e.g., growth,
bankruptcy, M&A, etc.). 

References 

Use
footnotes to cite your sources. You do not need a separate references section. 

Things to keep in
mind

1. Plagiarism means to
   steal, purchase, or pass off the ideas or works of others as one’s own. Your
   analysis must be your group’s own work undertaken specifically
   for this course. There is to be absolutely no collaboration with any other group. 
   Evidence of plagiarism and inappropriate collaboration will result, at a
   minimum, in an F for this course.  Please cite
   everything necessary using numbered footnotes.
2. Consider
   the evidence: Go over the evidence you find and try to sort it by
   course topic.  Beware your hidden assumptions (i.e., don’t assume that
   what you know is correct without more research).
3. Don’t look at the numbers and expect them to say something.
   You have to look into the numbers and combine them with
   other information to draw meaning and conclusions.
4. There never
   is enough data: Don’t expect to know everything that is going on. 
   Strategy is about making informed choices without full and complete
   information.
5. Team work: Each
   member of your team should develop his or her own ideas & discuss them with
   the group.
6. Integrate: Provide
   an analysis of the situation.  Interpret, infer, read tealeaves, make
   hunches, and generally try to get a sense of the story the data is trying to
   tell you.  Make it interesting.
7. Accuracy:  Evaluate your entire analysis
   in terms of its consistency, coherence, brevity, and logic.  Is the
   information factually correct?  Are the conclusions justifiable and based
   on hard facts?

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Identify as many alternative strategies as possible for fixing/addressing the strategic priority.  These options should be creative and strategic, realistic and plausible, and build on firm-specific information uncovered by the situation analysis.  DO NOT suggest generic or “business as usual” solutions to the problem.  Also, each option MUST be mutually exclusive (this means that it is not possible to implement more than one strategy to fix the Strategic Priority).  When writing each strategic response statement, please keep the following in mind: Essay Essayprowess: Buy Cheap Essays Online from the Best Custom Writing Service on the Web.