1. What are the fundamental elements of Shearwater Adventures strategy in 2006? Which of the five generic competitive strategies do you believe Shearwater is pursuing?

2. What competitive pressures must Shearwater Adventures be prepared to deal with? What do we learn about the nature and strength of the competitive pressures Shearwater faces from doing a five-forces analysis of competition (as described in Chapter 3)? Which of the five competitive forces is the strongest?

3. What are the key success factors for competing in the Extreme Adventure Sporting industry?

4. What is your assessment of Shearwaters financial performance and financial condition? Is its strategy working well in terms of delivering good financial results? Why or why not? You should use the financial ratio summary in Table 4.1 of Chapter 4 as a guide for doing the calculations needed to support your assessment of how well Shearwater is performing and whether its strategy is working well.

5. What does a SWOT analysis reveal about Shearwaters strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? Does your SWOT analysis indicate that the companys situation and position is attractive or unattractive? Justify your answer.

6. What issues confront the company heading into the future? What should Allen Roberts be worried about?

7. What recommendations would you make to Allen Roberts to sustain (or maybe increase) the companys 80% market share? What other avenues of growth might Shearwater consider?