Exercise 1

Purpose

Most colleges and universities do strategic planning. Institutions are consciously and systematically identifying and evaluating external opportunities and threats facing higher education in your state, the nation, and the world.

Instructions

Step 1 Join with two other individuals in class and jointly prepare an EFE Matrix for your institution.

Step 2 Go to the board and record your total weighted score in a column that includes the scores of all three-person teams participating. Put your initials after your score to identify it as your team's.

Step 3 Which team viewed your college's strategies most positively? Which team viewed your college's strategies most negatively? Discuss the nature of the differences.

Exercise 2

Purpose

The company featured at the beginning of this chapter, PetSmart, competes with PETCO in thousands of cities across the USA and Canada. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage is something that both firms strive to do every day. This exercise gives you practice identifying competitive advantages that could provide a basis for strategic action.

Instructions

Step 1 Using the Internet sites described in this chapter as well as other sources of information including an on-site visit, conduct research aimed at comparing PetSmart with PETCO.

Step 2 Identify four competitive advantages that PetSmart has over PETCO and four competitive advantages that PETCO has over PetSmart. Give a rationale and source for each of your identified factors.

Step 3 Discuss or write up how PetSmart can best sustain and promote its competitive advantages while at the same time minimizing PETCO's competitive advantages.

Exercise 3

Purpose

Monitoring competitors' performance and strategies is a key aspect of an external audit. This exercise is designed to give you practice evaluating the competitive position of organizations in a given industry and assimilating that information in the form of a CPM.