Reference no: EM133163332 , Length: 22 pages
MGMT 441 Strategic Management - Southern Illinois University
Instructions
Prepare a capstone project
In this capstone project, there are basically three sections as you can see on the syllabus.
Section 1: Industry Analysis
Section 2: Company Profile and Strategic Analysis
Section 3: Viability
Access the last three years of financial information for ALL three companies
Comparing Schwab to (2) publicly traded companies (Fidelity & Morgan Stanley)
General Industry Environment Analysis - (1) Comprehensively identify the most important internal forces/trends (like structure, marketing, prices, financials, labor, R&D, management, inventory, etc....) and external forces/trends(the economy, technology, global, competition demographicand legal/political/regulatory, etc....) in the general environment and why these forces/trends are current and of significant importance; (2) discuss the effect of each force/trend on the industry; (3) support with evidence (actions/statistics/research findings) or/and theoretical reasoning. THIS IS NOT A SWOT analysis.
Industry Five Forces Analysis - (1) For each of the five forces: (a) identify the force (b) assess the magnitude of the downward pressure the force exerts on the industry's profitability (strong, medium or weak); (c) explain why the threat of the force is strong, medium or weak and support the argument with evidence or/and theoretical reasoning;
(2) Summarize the threats of the Five Forces and assess the overall attractiveness exerted by the five forces with respect to industry profitability.
Financial Analysis - Provide a comprehensiverecap of financial performance measures for ALL COMPANIES, FOR ALL FINANCIALS, FOR THE LAST THREE YEARSper the guidelines of the paper-tables is acceptable; thoroughly interpret the performance measures forall three firmsand what these measures mean for all companies. Compare and contrast all companies on financial performance. BE SURE to include industry averages and use these as benchmarks when analyzing the financials.
Business Strategy Analysis - Clearly identify the company's strategy(s)-business-level and corporate-level strategies;(costleadership, product differentiation,vertical integration, diversification, strategic alliance, mergers and acquisition, or other); support these business and corporate-level strategy(s) with sufficient evidence; clearly describe the firm's recent strategic actions which are critical to the execution of the firm's business strategy; explain how these actions are linked to the firm's business strategy. Explain if the actions of the company support or distract from the company's business-level and corporate-level strategies.
Competitive Advantage Analysis - (1) List, explain, and assess a minimum of 12+ competitiveadvantages (resources and capabilities); give sufficient support;(2)conduct a VRIO analysis for each of the advantages identified; state if the competitive advantage is TEMPORARY OR SUSTAINABLE, plus what is the BENEFIT to the company of each competitive advantage;support the VRIO analysis with sufficient evidence and theoretical reasoning;(3) complete a more comprehensive analysis PLUS a recap of ALL of the VRIO criteria for each of what you think are the TOP THREE competitive advantages.
Company-environment: You have analyzed the industry and the company. Use this information and clearly summarize major threats and opportunities present or emerging in the firm's general environment; discuss if and how the firm's resources/capabilities and strategy enable it to neutralize the external threats and take advantage of the external opportunities; assess the firm's performance in the next few years to do better than their competition, the same as their competition, or worse than their competition-- provide sufficient support forthis assessment from information in the text.
Composition skills and Following Assignment: (1) Is the paper well written, organized and free of (or with very limited) grammar and spelling errors;
(2) Aminimum of 10, references were used including a variety of reliable sources/references;Investopedia, Wikipedia and other similar references are NOT ACCEPTABLE. (3) Citations are made appropriately (e.g. quotation marks are used for direct citations; sources for data and information are cited in the text in addition to being listed in the reference page)
(4) Assignment guidelines were followed (e.g., paper length, adherence to outline, submission deadline, turnitin submission.)
(5) Paper was written in third person-points off for "I" "you" "we" etc.
Should include a book, article references
**Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Morgan Stanley are my comparing publicly traded firms**
12 point font (Times New Roman) Double spaced *Using APA 7th edition*
This paper should be a maximum of 20-23 pages