Description
Use 1 page for the write-up and AS MANY attachments as needed. Graphs and Figures can also help because they can be used also in the final group presentation. MAKE SURE TO BE CURRENT. Embed yourself in TODAY and LOOK 5 years into the future. Don’t forget to examine and benchmark to the competion. DO NOT IGNORE the COVID-19 global epidemic [How does it change the external/internal environment of firms, how does it affect the company performance (especially outlook), and is the current strategy resilient/will it create value if unchanged despite the epidemic?]. Make sure to have a CLEAR synthesis with your opinion and potential strategic recommendation based on what you see. Remember the 2 big tricks to succeeding: READ A LOT RECENT NEWS about the company and its competitors and current business environment + Apply the course frameworks. THEY ARE LINKED IN OUR SYLLABUS.
More GUIDANCE:
First: tell the reader which division and company you are analysing ans what your task is (IA/EA/SPA or SA).
Second: Use the frameworks you are supposed to. So if you are doing an SPA use COBS (most people seem to do that here) and really dig for ALL key metrics or performance measures that matter including qualitative measures. Make sure to benchmark to competitors and project into the future. And if you are doing SA make sure you do both a BUS/who/what/how. and a CS/4 poles. If you doing an IE analysis make sure to use DRAMS and highlight ALL the key resources and capabilities as we did for Niantic in class. For the EA remember it is a GE+CE. So start by stating clearly which industry (or industries) you are analysing then FORGET the company and do a GE/GDPest and CE/5-Forces analysis. As a note to all: YOU CANNOT IGNORE the impact of COVID-19 in your work so make sure to think about the epidemic’s impact in your analysis. ..
AVOID OVERLAP: Make sure your SPAs does not read like an SA, SA does not read like an SPA.., EA does not read like an IA.. Remember that we are using a divide and conquer strategy. Stick to the task assigned to you by the team and give the information on other parts to your teammates to use.
BE MORE CRITICAL AND CURRENT: DO NOT USE OLD INFORMATION that is not shown to be relevant for today’s decisions. Many of you do did not seem to be anchored in TODAY. You need to think you are talking to the company’s CEO today. Make sure your work is current. That is always a struggle for junior strategists but you need to rise above this difficulty to show that you can be of relevance to a senior executive and are embedded in TODAY – APRIL 9/10 ;-).
