Reference no: EM13819801

Group Project Guidelines

Choose two companies that are broadly comparable and competitors in some specific market (e.g. Dell vs. HP, Wal-Mart vs. Target, AT&T vs. Verizon). Because it is much easier to access data for the public companies, I encourage you to consider public companies. Note that you are not allowed to use the companies we use in the course as cases (Apple, Benetton, Walt Disney, Volkswagen and eBay).

Start the report with a brief introduction of what you intend to discuss in the document. Following the introduction, examine the broad environmental trends within which the two companies operate. You should use Porter’s five forces framework to understand the structural attractiveness of the industry in this section. Also focus on the stage of the industry (embryonic, growing, mature and declining) to understand the competitive condition of the industry.

Once you have analyzed the industry, focus on each company’s strategy and performance over the last 5 years. Specifically, compare their key strategies. Strategies that you may consider are their business-level strategy (cost leadership, differentiation and focus), corporate strategy (diversified vs. nondiversified,related diversification vs. non-related diversification), and global strategy (mode of foreign entry-exporting, licensing, joint venture and wholly-owned subsidiary through acquisition or green field projects). Try to analyze the factors that drive the differences in strategies given that the firms are operating in similar environments.

In the penultimate section, develop two brief mutually exclusive scenarios for the next 2 to 5 year period about likely states of the environment in which the two companies compete. Based on your analyses in the previous sections, examine how the competitors are likely to perform under each scenario, given their current strategy and organizational capabilities. Try to provide some specific possibilities with respect to their market share and profitability. End the report with a conclusion section by summarizing the key elements of the analysis and by highlighting the limitations of the project. Please provide a list of references that you have used.