Team Live Case Analysis Apple Inc.

For this capstone course, the core assessment is a team project that involves a strategic analysis of a publicly held company to be administered in all sections of MG495. This team project is worth 20 percent of the student's final grade and will test students' mastery of the Core Learning Outcomes through a detailed analysis of managerial decisions and actions that help determine the long-term performance of an organization. It includes the environmental scanning (both external and internal), strategy formulation (strategic or long-range planning), strategic implementation, and evaluation and control.

The teams for the core assessment project will consist of 3 - 5 members. Each team must submit the name of their company for the instructor's approval by midnight on Sunday of Unit 1. Each team will have a designated Live Case Analysis Work Area to communicate among members and work on their project.

Live Case Analysis:

This team project is worth 200 points. 

Required:

• Historical overview of a company your team selects and products and/or services provided by that company. 1-1.5 pages in length

• Analysis of economy and industry. 1-2 pages in length
  

• Guides and Tips:  (Overall length: 10 - 15 pages, not including references, charts, etc.)
• A team must select a publicly held company where financial data is readily available. Most publicly held companies have this information readily available. You will need at least 3 years of historical data (5 - 10 years is preferred). A private company can be used if they provide you access to financial data.
• Discuss the relationship, if any, between the economy and industry, and the industry and company.
• Provide an overview of the company's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Please note that Strengths and Weakness are internal, Threats are external, and Opportunities tend to be a combination of internal Strengths combined with favorable industry/economy factors. There is a difference between Opportunities and Options.
• Use one of the readily available forecasts of the economy versus trying to develop your own economic forecasting model. Most major industries are forecasted by the government, think tanks, and/or industry trade groups. Use their information for your forecast of the industry. For the company, use historical sales data and perform regression analysis. Regression analysis for most publicly held companies will provide strong R squared and R values to be used in forecasting future sales. In those cases where R squared and R values are too low for forecasting purposes, you will have to develop your own methodology to forecast sales. Be sure and explain how you arrive at a forecasted sales value.
• An abbreviated Pro-forma Income Statement and Balance Sheet is needed. You do no need to encompass all the variables but rather show sales, cost of goods sold or cost of services provides, and fixed costs. Other noteworthy items can be included if they are significant.
• Draw conclusions based on your forecast and analysis of the company including the challenges faced by the company and industry.