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TOM411Strategic Analysis

The Strategic Analysis is worth 100 points toward your course grade. You may work onthis assignment with one or two partners, but all participants in a group will receive thesame grade, so choose partner(s) carefully.

Instructions:

Select a company (a public company is STRONGLY recommended), about which youcan find detailed investors information, such as a shareholders report and analystsevaluations. Submit your choice of company and the name of your partner(s) onBlackboard before beginning work. Once you choose team members and post yourcompany selection on Blackboard, you may NOT change either, so make sure adequateinformation is available for your company BEFORE you make your choice!

Then, based on your research and using the Crafting and Executing Strategy text as aguide, complete the following, with each as a separate section in your report:

1. Environmental Scanning:Using the analysis framework in Chapter 3 of thetext, identify and explain variables in the societal and task environments thataffect your company. What are they, and how do they impact your companyscompetitive position?NOTE: This is NOT the place to discuss your companys internal characteristicsor competitive tactics. Confine your discussion to the EXTERNAL environment.

At a minimum, your discussion should include:a. Customers: Who are they and how do they affect the way your company

competes? What sociological forces affect your companys environment?b. Competitors: Who are they and how do they affect the way your company

competes?c. Economic forces: Which external economic forces affect they ways in

which your company must compete?d. Technological forces: In what ways do technological change affect they

ways in which your company must compete?

2. Internal Scanning:Using Chapter 4 of the text, discuss what organizationalcharacteristics affect your companys competitive advantage.At a minimum,your discussion should include the following:

a. Structure: What is the organizations structure (as per your text)? Howdoes this structure affect your companys competitive approach?

b. Resources: What resources can your company draw advantages from?

What weaknesses does the company need to address?c. Culture: Does corporate culture affect your companys ability to recognize

and seize opportunities? Does the company have significant humanresources issues to contend with? Why or why not?

3. Strategy:Using chapter 5 of your text, discuss the competitive or cooperativestrategies that are used by your company. Your discussion should include:

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a. Generic strategies(as outlined in chapter 5) that you can identify in thecompanys competitive approach

b. Corporate- orfunct ional-level strategies being used by your companyc. Tacticsused to implement generic strategiesd. Objectives used as milestones to measure progress toward goals

4. Evaluation and Control:How does your company measure performance andensure satisfactory progress toward goals? Have they had problems meetingobjectives? If so, why?

5. Corporate Governance and Business Responsibi lity: What does yourorganization do to ensure that it acts in the best interests of all its stakeholdergroups? Your discussion should include:

a. A summary of the corporate/organizational governance structureb. A summary of how the company communicates its policies and

procedures to employees and officersc. A brief discussion of the organizations sustainability and/or community

programs

Your assignment will be in the form of a formal written report, and will be submitted bothin hardcopy formANDonline using the Turnitin.com module on Blackboard. Outsideresearch will be necessary, and ALL source material used must be appropriately cited(with quotes noted as such) within the text. Full reference citations must be providedusing either APA documentation, or footnotes formatted as full APA-style referencecitations. The final hardcopy report must be no more than(15) pages, and shouldinclude:

1. Cover sheet/report certification (download from Blackboard)2. Report body

3. References (unless full citations were included in footnotes)

Your report will be graded based on the following objectives:

Content: Excellent research quality and proper application of course concepts

Written communication: Well-organized content with spelling, grammar,punctuation, and mechanics appropriate for University-level work

Documentation: Thorough documentation of research material in the properformat

Format and appearance: Professional formatting and thorough attention to detail

WARNING:Plagiarism will result in a failing grade on the assignment for ALL teammembers, and will be reported to the Academic Judicial Affairs office for furtherdisciplinary action as per University policy. DONT RISK IT!