18 Nov Using Porter’s Five Forces, describe how competitive this particular industry is and your reasoning for coming to that conclusion.
Order Instructions
Current Topics Case Paper (30%)
You will submit an individual paper based on “Current Topics in the News” case. The article should
be drawn from the press from sometime in the past 18 months. Article should be drawn from widely
read sources. This includes but is not limited to local, national, or global newspapers (e.g., New York
Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times), widely read magazines (e.g., Fortune,
BusinessWeek, Forbes, Wired, New Yorker), or comprehensive blogs or electronic media (e.g., Vox,
Business Insider, Axios). If you have a question about whether an article is acceptable, please let me
know. The companies in your articles must be publicly traded US Based companies.
You should draw upon course concepts
to provide a rigorous analysis based on well supported arguments:
o What does this organization do and what is its business strategy (e.g., low cost,
differentiator)? Provide a brief summary.
o What was the strategic decision? Provide a short description or summary and a
citation for the article.
o Provide a combined SWOT/PESTLE analysis (3-4 paragraphs with a table) to help
provide macro environmental context and explain the opportunity that the
company may be taking advantage of and/or the threat they may be trying to
mitigate.
o Using Porter’s Five Forces, describe how competitive this particular industry is and
your reasoning for coming to that conclusion. (NB:That will mean specifying the
industry.)
o Why do you think the organization made this decision?
o Was this a good or bad strategic decision and why? Take a clear stance and argue
for it.
§ For these final two points, you will want to use material and theory from
the class to support your claims regarding the company’s strategic
decision.
§ You should connect it to the SWOT/PESTLE and Competitive Analysis
§ But in addition, you should draw on at least one (1) additional framework
from class. It must be something different than SWOT/PESTLE or Porter’s
Five Forces
