CASE ANALYSIS PROCESS STEPS I have found it useful to first start with your financial analysis to give your

audience some sense of how well the focal firm is performing in relationship to major competitors in their industry (This information should be presented as an Appendix or chart). What is required here is that you identify what indicators drive success or failure for the focal firm and compare your findings with a benchmark indicator for the industry. Second, in Appendix 1: Segments of the General Environment (elements in the broader society that affect industries and their firm). As we have discussed in class, firms cannot directly control these activities but they can manage them. The challenge for your group is to understand each segment and its implications for the focal firm so appropriate strategies can be formulated and implemented. The objective is to identify the strategic relevance of each stakeholder activity for the focal firm. As apart of your presentation you should highlight the activities that the organization is worrying about. In other words, you want to get some sense of the potential of these stakeholder activities to change how the organization defines itself. It is helpful to present this information as a chart for each segment. Third, in Appendix #2, you should provide an analysis of the industry environment (factors that influence a firm, its competitive actions and responses, and the industry profit potential--threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of substitute products rivalry amongst firms and threat of government. If your assigned company is a vertically integrated company, this analysis should be on a specific business unit. This helps your reader and your audience to get an understanding of what industry segment you have targeted to address. This key step is an anchor point for this analysis. In addition, you should provide an assessment of the competitor environment. The purpose of this analysis is you are seeking to understand: what drives the competitor (in the targeted industry segment), as shown by its future objectives; what the competitor is doing and can do, as is revealed by its current strategy; what the competitor believes about itself and the industry, as shown by its assumptions; and what the competitors capabilities are, as shown by its capabilities. This analysis should be done on at least two of the major competitors in the targeted industry. Both the industry and competitor analysis should be presented as figures in your presentation. The purpose of your environmental analysis is to identify opportunities and threats to the focal firm. Fourth, in Appendix 3: External Analysis Summary, you should list opportunities and threats (5-10 each) and follow the process outlined in the syllabus for preparation of this Appendix. The data for this Appendix is drawn from Appendix #1: General Environment Analysis and Appendix #2: Industry and Competitor Analysis. Fifth, in Appendix 4: Internal Factor Analysis, as with Appendix #3 you should list strengths and weaknesses (5-10 each) and follow the process outlined in the text. The data for this Appendix is drawn from an analysis of the focal firms value chain to identify core competencies. In

this regard you should prepare a value chain map for the focal firm to identify those core competencies. You should also prepare a value system map for the firm. The purpose of this exercise is to determine how many activities are critical for the firm to participate in to create and sustain its competitive advantage. This information should be presented as a chart or table. Sixth, in Appendix 5: Strategic Factors (See your syllabus), when strengths and weakness (as identified through the study of the firms internal environment) are matched with opportunities and threats (through the study of the firms external environment). With SWOT analysis you are drawing conclusions about (1) how the companys strategy can be matched to both its resource capabilities and its market opportunities, and (2) how urgent it is for the company to correct resource weaknesses and guard against external threats. In summary, simply listing a companys strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities is not enough; the payoff of SWOT analysis comes from the evaluation and conclusions that flow from the four lists. Finally, this is the work that has to be done as apart of the strategy formulation exercise in Appendix 6: A Tool for Situation Analysis. This step is one of the most important parts of your process. It is important to trust what the data is telling you. As a consequence, once you have developed strong alternatives (best, middle and worst). Your choice must be defensible and promote benefits over the other alternatives. You should also consider effective implementation. The implementation actions you recommend must be explicit and thoroughly explained. Occasionally, careful evaluation of implementation actions may show the strategy to be less favorable than you originally thought. The evaluation and control process ensures that the firm is achieving what it set out to accomplish. Your recommendations for this process should include some assessment of these metrics: (1) determine what to measure, (2) establish standards of performance, (3) measure actual performance, (4) compare actual performance with the standard and (5) take corrective action.