Individual Assignment #1

Select a company that you perceive as having strategic issues.

1. Identify the company's overall strategy and describe the key strategic risks it is facing as well as their potential impacts. Consider the relevant competitive forces in your analysis (threat of new entry, supplier power, threat of substitution, buyer power, and competitive rivalry).
2. Recommend approaches to mitigate the strategic risks that you have identified under (#1).
3. Opine on whether the company's overall strategy can be pursued successfully. Would your recommended mitigation strategies (see (#2), if implemented, change your assessment?

Your selected company needs to be one where you can gather a broad array of information; assuming it is a public company, its 10k filing with the SEC will be a very productive source of information. We recommend you choose a company that interests you or that you have read about in a business journal.

This assignment is worth 20% of your grade. Your work will be evaluated based on following criteria:

• Ability to identify key aspects of points (#1) through (#3) above.
• Supporting Analysis: you are able to support your analytical observations and strategic recommendations.
• Writing: you are able to communicate your analysis in a clear and concise manner.

Five pages and the word count refers to your actual analysis section. You do not have to count in table of content, , citations, appendix, etc. - should you choose to include any of those in your paper.

We encourage you to include external sources in your paper but, at the same time, the use of clear citation is of utmost importance.

When writing the paper imagine you are a new but aspiring analyst at a firm writing for a busy senior executive. Keep your paper clear and concise!