Management
Stand-Alone Project: Industry Analysis (200 points)
Each assignment in this course focuses on a different portion of an industry analysis. The activities and discussion questions serve as an introduction to the process of critically evaluating a corporation, one of its direct competitors, and the industry as a whole which constitute a thorough and complete industry analysis. Your MB609 Capstone Project will be a complete industry analysis including a publicly traded company, its industry, and two of its competitors.
This Industry Analysis project (MB601) is an introductory project to prepare you for the Capstone Project (MB609). At this time you will only analyze a publicly traded company and its industry (none of its competitors will be analyzed). To begin this project, select a publicly traded corporation to study. In other words, you should be able to purchase stock in the corporation you select. The corporation must be large enough for the business and trade press to have written about it, but not so large that the amount of available information is overwhelming making your ability to suggest innovative recommendations for the corporation’s survival and success. Consequently, make sure that you do not choose one in which any and all potential strategies and recommendations have been discussed at length in the press. A table of contents and a bibliography listing only those works that you cited in your analysis are required. Your Stand-Alone Project responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct, and formatted in the same fashion as the project itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document in a bibliography using APA style. (200 points) (A 10-page response is required for the combination of Parts A through H.)
First, collect the following documents and information.
- The corporation’s annual report
- At least 15 business or trade articles concerning the current status of your corporation and predictions of its future success
- Information on your corporation’s CEO and Board of Directors
- Information about the industry in general, including major players, consumers,
trends, etc.
Next, thoroughly read the information and documents you collected on your company
and its industry. As you read, make notes on the topics listed below, synthesize the information, and analyze the current state of the corporation and its industry. This synthesis and analysis process is essential to build your conceptual skills which are to be further developed as you proceed through the MBA Program. It is the goal of an MBA program to build your conceptual skills which are required for management positions which oversee a variety of departments, specialists, and projects.
Following the outline below, write your analysis of your corporation and its industry.
Part A CEO Profile and Assessment of Effectiveness
- Profile your CEO’s qualifications (experience, education, etc.) as well as why this person was selected and the circumstances that created the CEO vacancy.
- Students should relate the CEO’s qualifications as it applies to the type of strategy the company has elected to follow and the type of CEO that typically is successful in achieving that strategy.
- Discuss the impact that the CEO has made on the organization thus far and why.
Part B Board of Directors Profile and Analysis: This section includes a wealth of information regarding the role that the Board of Directors plays in your organization.
- You should discuss the manner in which the Board of Directors is nominated and selected, the way in which the Board is organized and why, and the way in which the Board utilizes or matches the trends in corporate governance that are listed in the text.
- You should also evaluate and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Board of Director’s composition with respect to their affiliation (who they really work for and that company’s relationship to your corporation), diversity, experience in the industry and the company, insiders/outsiders, etc.
- Also, evaluate the changes in members to the Board in the last five years. If there have been changes, do those changes (new board members with different attributes and affiliations) suggest a change in your corporation’s strategy, target markets, etc.? Are these changes in any way indicative of a new strategic move?
