Here’s what you’ll need for this assignment: You need to select the public company that you will use.?? You’ll need at least 5 legitimate business sources, o

Here's what you'll need for this assignment:

You need to select the public company that you will use.  

You'll need at least 5 legitimate business sources, of of which must be the annual report for the company

Deliverables:.  You'll turn in a completed copy of the Q-SWOT spreadsheet and an 8-10 page paper.

Instructions:  For this assignment you'll use a variety of sources to learn about your selected company.  You'll complete a full strategic analysis using the Q-SWOT spreadsheet, fully develop a forward looking strategy, you'll also run all the numbers on the Pro-Forma tabs, and then you'll summarize your findings and pitch your strategy to me in an 8-10 page paper.

Final Project – The final project for Strategic Management involves a research project on a business of your choice. The deliverables for
the assignment are two files: You’ll turn in a completed Q-SWOT file, and you’ll also turn in a paper
written in the style and format that we’ve used for the case studies.
Guidelines:
1. Must be a public company (you need access to the full financials, so privately held companies
are not allowable)
2. Your paper should be around 8 – 10 pages in length, plus or minus a page or so.
3. You must have at least 5 different sources listed.
4. One of the five sources must be the annual report for the corporation.
5. You may not reference or use any website that traffics in SWOT analysis of businesses or term
papers on businesses. Yes, I’m well aware of the presence of these sites, and no, you may not
use them in any way.
6. All research for the paper must be from legitimate business books, periodicals and other
sources.
7. Remember that the website of the business you select is primarily a marketing tool, so it does
NOT provide an objective (or fully truthful) source of information.
8. Wikipedia is not a valid source for business research. It should not show up in your list of
sources.
9. Plagiarism is a crime – punishable by failure of the class. Let’s not go there.
10. Please use the NVU Library resources to your full advantage, and document and cite your sources using
MLA or APA style – whichever you are more comfortable with. If unsure, go with MLA style.

Outline: Here is the basic outline that your Final Project paper must follow:  NOTE – this list includes items not listed on the case study guidelines list…

1. Short introduction about the company
2. Review of the Key Internal Factors (1-3 factors that you believe are critical)
3. Review of the Key External Factors  (1-3 factors that you believe are critical)
4. Review of the Internal and External Scores, and what they are telling you.  (from the spreadsheet)
5. Review of the I&E Matrix Plot, and whether or not you agree with the location.  (from the spreadsheet)
6. Identify the Generic Strategy that you feel your company is using.  (from the text – Porter's Generic Strategy Model)
7. Talk briefly about the 5 forces model for the industry this company is in.  (from the text – Porter's Five Forces Model)
8. Provide written financial analysis of the key ratios and financial trends you identified  
9. Brief statement on where the company stands today.   (You're overall outlook on how the company is doing)
10. Briefly list 2-3 possible future strategies that could be employed.  (from your Strategies Tab in the spreadsheet)
11. Provide a complete detailed outline of the strategy you have selected  (From your Strategy Summary Tab)
12. Include discussion around forward looking financials   (How much will you spend, what is the source of funding, what is the return, and when will that happen)
13. Discuss the team members you will need in order to successfully implement your strategy – what skills do they need?  (from you previous HR and Management course work)
14. Discuss your implementation plan, and include a Gantt Chart showing the important factors and their timing  (from your previous Project Management course work)
15. Discuss the Marketing Plan for your strategy (this may be external marketing of a product or service, or internal marketing of the changes coming as a result of the implementation of the strategic plan.   (from your previous marketing course work)
16. Discuss the forward-looking financials and explain how and where your strategy will impact the financial statements of the company.  (from the spreadsheet)
17. Sell this strategy to me – convince me that this is the right next step for the company to take.
18. Summary and conclusion