Strategic Analysis

This week’s paper is required to be approximately 4 -6 pages in length, not including the title page and the reference page.    No paper should be fewer than 1400 words.   Double space your work, cite your work, limit quotes, and edit your work well for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.   If you have quotes included in your paper, you should have more than 1400 words to compensate.   Your work will be automatically reviewed by Turnitin upon submission.   Please make sure you have cited your work properly.  Utilize the APA resource material provided in the lessons section of the classroom under course materials. 

After our readings over the past five weeks, you should have an understanding of the  types of strategy, organizational culture, the pros and cons of different organizational structures, the elements of internal and external environments, and the types of risk a company may take.   After reading the attached articles below, you then can incorporate how the strategy decisions affect the company.

Read the two articles attached about managerial economics.

Your essay will address these items: 

A. Select a company from the 35 listed at the end of our text (Case Studies – pages 540-541).  Do not use any company that you previously wrote about in previous classes.  This must be original research.   In addition to the information in your text, research this company using at least (2) outside scholarly articles.  Do not use a website as a reference.  Your reference source must have an author.  Discuss six selected topics from our studies throughout weeks one through five.  Discuss these six topics in relation to your company and discuss how the economic situation of today influences the strategic decisions your company is making.  Each of the six topics discussed should be in bold print.  For example, one topic you may choose may be how your company handles competition (Five Forces Framework).  Another topic may be your company’s organizational structure and why they have the structure they have.   You may choose to discuss your company’s strategic grouping or value chain. Choose your topics and explore them in detail throughout your paper. 

Give examples using the terms and concepts in your textbook readings and your research articles.

B. What is the importance of each of the six topics within your company?

C. What is the usefulness of understanding this topic in today’s corporate structure? 

D. Through what strategies does your selected company choose to excel over other strategically grouped companies.   For example, what strategies does Apple choose that keeps it on top? 

Paper Format (no abstract is necessary):

Title Page – Include a title page with your name, student number, title of your paper, course number & course name.

Introductory Paragraph – Include an introductory paragraph that states your company and your six topics and why you selected them.

Font and Spacing – Use Times New Roman 12 pitch font with double-spaced lines.

Length – Write a 4 to 6 page essay not including the title page and citation page. Make sure you have at least 1400 words, not including the title and reference page. 

Reference Page – Include all sources including your textbook on a separate reference page.  Use references with authors, not websites. All references must have citations within your paper.

Utilize the APA Style for documenting sources. You will need to include at least 2 sources in additional to your textbooks. Finally, remember Wikipedia is NOT a scholarly source.

Punctuation, essay format (thesis, supporting paragraphs with transition and topic sentences, and summary) grammar and documentation count toward your grade. 

Review the Grading Rubric attached here for detailed information about the essay grading criteria.

Late papers will have deductions.