Question: COB: The Entrepreneurial Edge of Fortune Brands

INSTRUCTIONS: Critique how a mature Fortune corporation that is headquartered in New England has adopted entrepreneurial business and marketing practices, what they are hoping to accomplish, and how doing so has repositioned their brand in today's innovation economy. Applying Lodish et al's premise that "entrepreneurial marketing can add sustainable value to any sized company," as the CMO, you are evaluating how they're doing. Your submission must answer all of the questions within each section for full point credits. Be careful not to use valuable space by restating the question; just declaratively present your answers, footnoting references as confirm your required use of primary and secondary research (Blackboard: Library Resources, plus list below). Follow these content guidelines carefully, matching each Section's requirements to those shown in the Grading Chart.

1. Company Story: Introduce the corporation's product mix, target audiences, market position and competitive environment. Include the stock ticker, NAISC code and an analysis of its recent financial performance, noting any important product, market or organizational milestones that impacted those numbers. Briefly demonstrate your familiarity with its mission and the competitive and Federal regulatory environment within which it markets its business.

2. Internal Entrepreneurism: Name two (2) ways through which the corporation's executive leadership has set out to build and articulate an entrepreneurial or team culture. What is new, what is intended by these changes, and has there been any impact to the employee experience? Who evangelizes the brand personality and do you feel that this executive inspires the workforce to feel empowered or to be inspired? As the CMO, what you do anything differently, if anything?

3. Business + Marketing Reengineering: Has the company restructured in order to be more streamlined or less hierarchical, changed its customer product direction, revamped customer-facing communications or improved its speed-to-market product R&D? Briefly bullet three (3) ways the company claims new agility to achieve sustainable growth. Perhaps it has a 'hot' new division, R&D lab, partnership with a university, claims an innovation center, implements workforce development, embraced social media, made strategic acquisitions or has rebranded altogether. Be sure to include what is intended by these actions.

4. Employer Appeal: Comment on two (2) ways that this company's current story appeals to you as a prospective employee, or did not. Did anything you learned surprise or intrigue you? Consider in your analysis the corporate culture, diversity, company values, ability to innovate and the presence of a social impact commitment-any criterion important for them to hire you and for you to want to work there.

5. Customer Experience (UX): Name two (2) ways that the company had tried to redefine its customer experience in order to build and reward loyalty. Has it successfully reinvented its B2B/C product or service delivery, diversified into promising market sectors or otherwise changed the customer's experience? Does the company utilize a means of listening to customers?

6. BONUS Quote: Set up as one Q&A, report a direct interview of an executive from the company that you chose with a first-person quote. It should be the executive's response to an insightful question that explores any aspect of how the company has changed its marketing communication in an effort to convey new agility, inventiveness and relevance to customers or investors. It can also address how the company values bottom-up employee contributions. Be strategic: chose a company in which you have genuine interest (brand or category) for future internship or job prospecting! Include your source's contact info (name, title, email and Linkedln). Please set the expectation that they could be contacted to verify your chat. Be sure to have connected with them on Linkedln!

7. Research Use at least one source from each of these research categories:

- Company Sources: Annual Report, website, social media, newsletters

- Direct: Employee executive reached through Linkedln

- Online: Mergent, ProQuest Business Databases, Business Source Complete, Industry Report, US Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics

- News: Boston Business Journal, Providence Business News, Bloomberg, trade journals, regional or national business periodicals