Assignment

This assignment focuses on the topics from Units 6 and 7. Review the Corporate and Business Model Strategyvideo, linked in the Resources, for additional information that will help you complete your assignment.

Select a publicly traded, multinational corporation (MNC) to use as the case study for this assignment. The corporation you choose must have several strategic business units (SBU) and must not be a company that you have used in previous assignments. An example of an MNC is Walt Disney Company, a global entertainment company. As of 2016, Disney's SBUs are: (1) Parks and Resorts, (2) Media Networks, (3) Studio Entertainment, (4) Consumer Products, and (5) Interactive.

There is no "right way" for MNCs to structure their SBUs. Take the time to look-up the MNC's annual report or SEC 10k to understand how the SBUs are organized. For example, Apple organizes their SBUs by geography, not product groups.

Once you have selected an MNC, complete the following:

• Identify the organization's corporate generic or base strategy (as defined in the text readings) and explain the overall direction for the corporation. What corporate guidelines are provided to the strategic business units?

• Select one strategic business unit under the corporation:

• What is the basic business model? How do the activities in the business model fit together? The most effective technique to use to answer these questions is to create a table or figure to illustrate how the elements fit together. Examples: customer segments, value proposition, revenue stream, customer relationships, channels, key activities (processes), key resources, key partners, cost structure.

• Assess the success of the SBU business model.

• Analyze the underlying competitive trends that have affected the SBU.

• Identify any radical shifts that have occurred within the industry in the last five years and explain how those shifts affected the SBU.

• Identify key company resources and explain how they are deployed within the SBU.

• Identify how the corporate generic strategy is deployed within the SBU.

• Assess how well the SBU aligns with the corporate generic strategy.

Reminder: Be sure you clearly articulate your analyses and support your case study with information from multiple sources.

Your submitted assignment must meet the following requirements:

• Be a minimum of 2100 words.

• Follow APA (6th edition) guidelines for style and formatting, and include a cover page and appropriate headings.

• Use a minimum of five peer-reviewed journals, practitioner journals, and other references not included in the required course readings-one on theory and four on your case study organization.