31 Aug Organizational Decision of a publically traded US Based Company with Current Topics in the News
Final paper based on Current Topics in the News case:
- Please select one article that prominently features an organizational decision related to strategy. The article should be drawn from the press from sometime in the past 18 months. Article should be drawn from widely read sources (e.g., New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Wired, New Yorker, Vox, Business Insider, Axios). The companies in your articles must be publicly traded US Based companies.
- Write approximately 7-9 pages, (Times New Roman, 12 Font Double spaced) in which you answer the questions provided below. You should draw upon course concepts to provide a rigorous analysis based on well supported arguments ( Strategy External/Industry Analysis Internal Analysis Generic Strategies Value Creation and Capture – The Stoplight Value Chains Porters Five Forces Organizational Structure and Culture Vertical and Horizontal Scope Internationalization and Global Scope Technology):
- What was the strategic decision? Provide a short description or summary and a citation for the article.
- Provide a 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.
- Briefly describe how competitive this particular industry is and your reasoning for coming to that conclusion. (Porters Five Forces will be relevant here.)
- Why do you think the organization made this decision?
- 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 companys strategic decision.
- You should connect it to the SWOT/PESTLE and Competitive Analysis
- But in addition, you should draw on at least two (2) additional frameworks from class ( Strategy External/Industry Analysis Internal Analysis Generic Strategies Value Creation and Capture – The Stoplight Value Chains Porters Five Forces Organizational Structure and Culture Vertical and Horizontal Scope Internationalization and Global Scope Technology)
Case will be evaluated as follows:
- Required case questions (45 points)
- Did the writer clearly address the questions required?
- Were the answers to those questions, more or less, correct?
- Explanation and Use of Course Content (30 points)
- Did the writer use course content and/or theoretical frameworks and connect it directly to matters in the case or in the article(s)?
- Did the writer use the course content and or theoretical frameworks correctly?
- Did the writer point to evidence in either the case, the article(s), the course material to draw a conclusion and support the claims being made in the writeup?
- Clarity and Technical Aspects (25 points)
- Was it easy for the reader to see that case questions were answered?
- Was the document well written and clear?
- Was the document free of spelling errors, grammatical errors?
- Was a citation for the article and other course materials provided where appropriate?
- Citation – APA.
- OWL/Purdue is a great resource for citations,
*Use your strategic analysis of this case, not someone elses. Please do not look up strategic analyses/PESTLE analyses of companies on the internet. Use your heads and do great strategic work.
*Follow and use the attached Final Paper Questions as well to complete this paper.
