Choose an industry you have not yet written about in this course, and one publicly traded corporation within that industry. Research the company on its own Website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), in the University's online databases, and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.
Write an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you:
1. Choose the two (2) segments of the general environment that would rank highest in their influence on the corporation you chose. Assess how these segments affect the corporation you chose and the industry in which it operates.
2. Considering the five (5) forces of competition, choose the two (2) that you estimate are the most significant for the corporation you chose. Evaluate how well the company has addressed these two (2) forces in the recent past.
3. With the same two (2) forces in mind, predict what the company might do to improve its ability to address these forces in the near future.
4. Assess the external threats affecting this corporation and the opportunities available to the corporation. Give your opinions on how the corporation should deal with the most serious threat and the greatest opportunity. Justify your answer.
5. Give your opinion on the corporation's greatest strengths and most significant weaknesses. Choose the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to take maximum advantage of its strengths, and the strategy or tactic the corporation should select to fix its most significant weakness. Justify your choices.
6. Determine the company's resources, capabilities, and core competencies.
7. Analyze the company's value chain to determine where they can create value using the resources, capabilities, and core competencies discussed above.
8. Use at least three (3) quality references.
Discussion Question:
Use the Internet to research a company with which you regularly do business or are a regular customer. Focus on how that company relates to their customers. Be prepared to discuss.
Business-Level Strategy" Please responds to the following:
- From the first e-Activity, assess your satisfaction with the company you researched and make recommendations about how that company could modify its business-level strategy to both increase your overall level of satisfaction and to attract new customers. Provide specific examples to support your response.
- Analyze the five business-level strategies discussed in Chapter 4 to determine which strategy the company you researched most likely applies. Determine how your experience with that company might change if it switched to one of the other four strategies (your choice). Explain your rationale.
Use the Internet or the Strayer Library to research Apple's strategy for competing against other technology companies. Be prepared to discuss.
"Apple, Inc: Keeping the "I" in Innovation" Please respond to the following:
- From the second e-Activity and the case study, determine how market commonality and resource similarity impact Apple's competitive standing in terms of its main rivals. Provide specific examples to support your response.
- Determine what additional steps Apple's competitors are likely to take and how Apple will most likely respond. Explain your rationale.