In a 7- to 10-page paper, integrate your external and internal company analysis, completing a formal company SWOT.

In a 7- to 10-page paper, integrate your external and internal company analysis, completing a formal company SWOT.

MGT 599 Strategic Management

Module 2 – Case

THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT, INTERNAL PROFILE, AND SWOT

Assignment Overview

Remember that the Case in this course is an ongoing exercise, meaning that we will be taking an intensive look at one company over the course of our four modules. This session, we will be conducting a strategic analysis of Pepsico.

The outcome of this Case is to use a completed external and internal analysis of Pepsico in the completion of a SWOT.

Case Assignment

In a 7- to 10-page paper, integrate your external and internal company analysis, completing a formal company SWOT.

Keys to the Assignment

• Step 1: Perform research, and complete an industry analysis using each of the Five Forces in Porter’s model. Support your analysis with current financial, operational, and marketing data.

• Step 2: Complete your external analysis using each of the four elements in the PEST analysis. When considering economic data, use the most current data you can find.

• Step 3: Write up the results of your external analysis, and be sure to label the impact of each of the Five Forces as high, moderate, or low. Taken together, the Five Forces analysis and the PEST analysis should lead to conclusions about the overall opportunities and threats facing Pepsico as revealed by your research. All data and factual information that you report in your Five Forces and PEST analysis must be properly cited using APA style.

• Step 4: Conduct a critical and thorough internal analysis of Pepsico, assessing as many of the company’s key internal strengths and weaknesses as you can. Consider the operations, customer service, finance, human resources management, and marketing functions. See the following website, as it will help you decide which strengths and weaknesses you might wish to evaluate: http://www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm

• Step 5: Discuss the results of your internal analysis, including your conclusions concerning the strengths and weaknesses facing Pepsico.

• Step 6: Synthesize your internal analysis with your external environmental analysis, formulating a complete SWOT analysis. Provide a SWOT diagram (include as an Appendix – not as part of the written analysis) in which you show – in each of the four quadrants – the most important 3-4 company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Each of these should be discussed thoroughly within your written analysis.

• Based on your SWOT, give very specific and informed recommendations as to what the company should do. Give your overall analysis—does the company have more strengths than weaknesses? More weaknesses than strengths? Whatever you decide, you need to recommend (with strong, convincing support) what you believe should be the company’s strategy — in response to your collective assessment of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You must demonstrate evidence of critical thinking – do not simply restate facts you have learned about the company. Interpret the data and factual information you have found instead.

• Step 7: Consider the Case as a formal business report that you are developing for the Board of Directors and CEO as Pepsico’s external consultant. This is a professional document. Follow the format below:

• Executive summary: This is a synopsis of the main points, conclusions and recommendations made in the longer report. If you would like a refresher on writing an executive summary, check this website: http://www.csun.edu/~vcecn006/summary.html

• Introduction: State the main purpose of the paper (thesis statement), what you hope to accomplish, and how you will go about doing it.

• Main Body: The “meat” of the paper. Emphasize analysis, not just description. Delineate separate topics or sections with section headings.

• Conclusion: Summarize your paper in the light of your thesis statement.

Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the grading rubric.

Tips and Suggestions

Note the following tips and suggestions:

• Business school case-study assignments are meant to offer practice opportunities for future businesspeople who are earning their MBA degrees. Consider yourself a consultant hired by the company to make these critical assessments. There are no right or wrong answers to the Case questions – however, your position must be well-defended.

• Study the theoretical concepts provided in the Background materials section of the module, and identify main strategy concepts.

• Conduct additional research on the organization using IBISWorld in the TUI Library. IBISWorld is accessible through the Library Access search located at the TLC Home Page. Under the Library Access search box, click on “Additional Library Sources.” IBISWorld is included in the list. For navigation help, click here: IBISWorld Navigation Tips.

• Include a cover page and reference page, in addition to the 7-10 pages of analysis described above.

• Include section headings in all papers.

• Cite and reference all sources, including those that you paraphrase. This means include citations and quotation marks for direct quotes, and citations for information you have “borrowed” or paraphrased from other sources.

• Follow Guidelines for Well-Written Papers.

• Submit your analysis by the end of this module.

MGT 599 Strategic Management

Module 2 – SLP

THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT, INTERNAL PROFILE, AND SWOT

Simulation

Wonder Company Simulation

Simulation

The Module 2 SLP requires that you continue with the scenario and simulation you began in the Module 1 SLP.

SCENARIO CONTINUATION

SLP2 – It is January 15, 2017. You have finished analyzing the performance of the Wonder Company, and you have submitted the report requested by your CEO, Sally Smothers. You are ready to move forward to 2017, but then…..

….as you turn on the TV, you notice something very strange. You recognize that the date is January 1, 2013, and that you get to make the decisions for the Wonder Company for the 4-year period beginning with 2013. Your challenge is to do better than Joe Thomas.

At the beginning of each year (2013-2016), you will determine your pricing, your R&D allocations, and whether or not to discontinue any products. You are required to make your decisions for each year, and to report your results to see what happened. You must keep track of your decisions, making specific notes supporting each of your decisions.

Run the Wonder Co. simulation through the end of 2016. When you are finished, the date will be December 31, 2016. What is your total Score? Did you do better than Joe Thomas?

You organize your notes about your decisions, your analysis, and your reasoning into a well-written report.

Session Long Project

Run the Wonder Company simulation with your strategy, making decisions year by year for prices and R&D allocations. Write a 6- to 7-page paper, not including cover and reference pages, in which you discuss the decisions and the results for each year. Discuss why you did better (or worse) than Joe Thomas.

KEYS TO THE ASSIGNMENT

The key aspects of this assignment that should be covered and taken into account in preparing your paper include:

• As you run the simulation, keep track of your decisions and the results – both financial and marketing. Copy and paste the results into Excel or into a Word document. You will also want to record the information that you get from the Advisor. Make a note of your Final Total Score.

• Include your Final Total Score, some tables, and/or graphs showing key results. Using sound logic, be sure to clearly explain the differences from Joe.

• Remember that the key here is quality of analysis.

• Time Line Summary:

SLP1

• 2016: You are hired on December 31, 2016.

• Turned in first report to the CEO on January 15, 2017.

SLP2

• You again find yourself in a Time Warp that takes you back to January 1, 2013.

• You revise the decisions made by Joe for 2013 – 2016. You make new decisions each year.

• December 31, 2016 – You have gone through all four years, and you write your second report to summarize how you did.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the grading rubric.

TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS

Please note the following tips and suggestions:

• Include a cover page and reference page, in addition to the 6-7 pages of analysis described above:

o Use section headings as appropriate. Use graphs, charts, or figures strategically – but do not use these as “space fillers.” Include large graphs, etc., as an Appendix instead.

o Cite and reference all sources that you use in your work, including those that you paraphrase. This means include citations and quotation marks for direct quotes, and citations for that information which you have “borrowed” or paraphrased from other sources.

o Follow the Guidelines for well-written papers.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires alot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource