Individual Case MGMT 6110 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store - CBRL

Complete the project using your approved company Cracker Barrel Old Country Store - CBRL . Each of the areas for analysis should be completed using paragraphs-this is NOT a short answer project. Be creative.

Required Data Sources

Mergent Online - Objective source for comprehensive data on global companies.

EDGAR (at SEC.gov) - latest company filings with the SEC, including the 10K report

Company's website - latest Annual Report, press releases, history, etc.

Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source. Wikipedia is fine for general information, check the links for sources.

Use of the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and other major business publications is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

All required data sources are available online through TSU's Library site.

Required Topics to be Covered

1. Macro-Environmental Analysis

Complete a PEST analysis using the expanded form covered in class. After completing the analysis, explain what you think are the key issues facing companies in your industry. What do you think an executive in this industry should be most concerned about?

1. Five-Forces Model

Complete the Five Forces Model for your industry. What are the forces that present the greatest challenges or opportunities in this industry?

1. Competitors

Identify the company's chief competitors. Rank them using the appropriate measure to identify which companies are the "strongest" and which are the "weakest" in the group. What should a manager conclude from this analysis? (Mergent is your best source.)

1. Financial Analysis

Complete a horizontal analysis of your company's income statement. Present basic financial ratios. You do not have to calculate the ratios if you can find them from other sources.Cite the source of your ratios, whether you calculated them yourself or are using another source. Once you have presented your analysis, explain what areas the reader should note. (In other words, what did you find that raises concerns? What are the trends in the numbers? What is exceptional about your company?) Include analysis of the company's stock price.

6. SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

Do a complete SWOT analysis.You can set up the initial analysis in a table and give more details about each item below the table. Explain why a particular item is a strength, weakness, opportunity, or threat. For example, if you place customer service in the strengths category, be able to explain why it is a strength. Cover risk factors from the 10-K. Complete a SWOT matrix.

1. Analysis of Strategy

Start by identifying your company's generic strategy. You can pull together all the earlier materials you have produced to describe the strategy. How does this company compete in its chosen markets?

8. Recommendations

Now that you have completed the analysis of your company, develop a list of actions that should be taken to achieve above average returns. What do you think is the biggest threat to your company in the next five years?Specifically address issues identified in the SWOT analysis. It might help guide your work in this section to imagine you are in a meeting with the executives of the company you have analyzed. What do they need to know and what actions do you recommend they take?Present your analysis in this section in an organized and logical format.

This section should use the following format. First, list your recommendations from most important to least important. Number the recommendations. Indicate which recommendations are critical recommendations.Next, give the action or actions you think the company should take on the recommendations you are making. Some recommendations cover critical issues while others are not as high a priority. Lower priority recommendations do not need detailed action lists.

9. Works Cited

Citations must be properly formatted - just listing a web address is not an acceptable format.

Noodle tools can help you with this process. http://www.noodletools.com/

Use American Psychological Association (APA) style for references and format of the paper. For this paper, no abstract will be required. Failure to conform to APA format will result in significant reduction in the overall grade of the paper. Reference all information. If you state something as fact but it is not common knowledge or referenced, it will have no credibility.