Assignment : External Environment Analysis

Purpose: This assignment is the first of three assignments. You will use the tools and apply concepts learned in this and previous 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. This 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).

In this assignment, students 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:

NOTE: All submitted work is to be your original work (only your work). You may not use any work from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse.

You are expected to understand the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy, and know that it is your responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources as specified in the APA Publication Manual, 6th Ed. (You are held accountable for in­text citations and an associated reference list only).

Step 1: The External Analysis

After reading the course material for the first three weeks, 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.

Team, Inc. (NASDAQ: TISI) HealthStream (NASDAQ: HSTM) United Rentals (NYSE: URI) Hawkins (NASDAQ: HWKN)

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:

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.

Utilize the Notes section to support each slide

Step 3: Use the Grading Rubric

Use the grading rubric to ensure all required elements are represented in the presentation.

Step 4: Proofread

Proofread for organization, spelling, and grammar and completeness.

Use the spell check in MS PowerPoint as a first measure;

Read through the PowerPoint aloud;

Have someone who has excellent English skills proofread the presentation.

Step 5: Submission of PowerPoint Presentation

Submit the presentation in the Assignment Folder. (The assignment submitted to the Assignment Folder will be considered a student's final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor. It is incumbent upon the student to verify the assignment is the correct submission. No exceptions will be considered by the instructor).

Preparation for the Assignment

As you prepare to create the PowerPoint, read the following requirements that will help you meet the writing and APA requirements. Not reading this information will lead to a lower grade.

Use the grading rubric while completing the assignment. Refer back to the rubric to ensure you have met the requirements.

Third person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words such as "I, me, my, we, or us" (first person writing), nor is there use of "you or your" (second person writing).

Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them in this assignment.

You are expected to paraphrase and NOT use direct quotes unless related to a company's mission or vision statements.

In completing this assignment, you are required to support reasoning or conclusions using in­text citations. Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in­text citation and vice versa.

When using a source document, the expectation is that the information is cited and referenced with a page or paragraph number.
No books are allowed other than the course eBook.

Including the title page and reference page. You will use the note section of the PowerPoint to discuss, explain and support the reasoning and conclusions for the information presented in each slide. The expectation is that what is presented is more than a few sentences for each slide. The analysis must be thorough.