Firm Project Imagine that you have been h

Joel Bolton, Ph.D. MGT660 Syllabus Fall 2022

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APPENDIX B – Firm Project

Imagine that you have been hired to consult a Fortune 500 firm. The firm needs strategic advice related to external and internal problems. Your task is to identify the problems and propose solutions. Some of the executives did not attend business school at USM, so you will need to provide clear and comprehensive explanations for your recommendations. If you impress them, you will collect your fee and probably be invited for future engagements. If not, you have wasted valuable time and injured your professional reputation with many involved parties. You might even lose your apartment. I am giving you the freedom to choose your own firm for this project, but no two students will analyze the same firm. You are limited to the 2021 Fortune 500 (see list under the Documents module in Canvas), and you must email me your “Top 5” list of prioritized choices as soon as possible. The first student to choose a firm (as evidenced by time/date stamp on the email to [email protected]) will get to analyze that firm. The deadline for choosing your firm is 9/18/2022. You may use any source of information and must document your sources and references appropriately. The finished product will be an original analysis paper that will ultimately be the primary content of your Presentation. The Firm Project paper must be submitted electronically through the Turnitin Assignment link found in the Canvas writing module by 11:59pm on 11/20/2022. The required format of the paper is as follows: 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, margin of 1” on all sides, and page numbers in the lower right corner of each page. The paper should be consistent and compliant with APA, MLA, or some such other common writing standard for manuscripts in an academic context. You must use current firm-specific accounting data (as of 12/31/2021 if available) as appropriate for the firm analysis. The length of the properly formatted Firm Project document should be approximately 20-25 pages. Project Outline

1. Situation Analysis (40%) a. SWOT Analysis (20%) – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

i. In table form, present a 2×2 matrix which displays the top two entries that are relevant to your focal firm in each of the four categories

1. This will require one 2×2 table (see example at right).

ii. In paragraph form, explain the items in section 1.a.i. above.

b. Firm-level trend analysis (20%) i. In table form, present data from the

focal firm and two industry competitors (from same 4-digit SIC) with four important financial ratios over at least four years.

1. For more information, drill down to 4-digit SIC at https://www.barchart.com/stocks/sectors/industry-rankings/sic

ii. In paragraph form, explain the data trends in section 1.b.i. above.

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Strengths Weaknesses (example #1) (example #1) (example #2) (example #2)

Opportunities Threats (example #1) (example #1) (example #2) (example #2)

SWOT Analysis – Market:Ticker

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Joel Bolton, Ph.D. MGT660 Syllabus Fall 2022

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2. Identify and explain management problems and solutions in the focal firm (60%) a. External environment: Choose one problem from any two of the following areas:

i. Political factors ii. Economic factors

iii. Sociocultural factors iv. Technological factors v. Ecological factors

vi. Legal factors b. Internal environment: Choose one problem from any two of the following areas:

i. CEO, Executives, Corporate Officers, Board of Directors ii. Corporate culture, Organizational structure

iii. Operations iv. Marketing v. Human Resources

vi. Finance vii. Accounting

viii. Information Technology ix. Research and Development

c. You will identify a total of FOUR problems: two external and two internal. d. Why does each of the four identified problems exist?

i. Who are the stakeholders involved in each problem that you have identified? 1. There MUST be at least two stakeholders involved for a problem to exist

in the first place. a. Examples include: Investors, Creditors, Customers, Suppliers,

Employees, Partners, Governments, Communities, Media, etc. ii. What are the competing demands of the stakeholders involved?

1. Stakeholders must have competing (mutually exclusive) demands for a problem to exist.

a. If mutually exclusive demands of involved legitimate stakeholders do not exist, then the “problem” is not worth management’s attention to address and resolve and is, thus, NOT a real problem.

iii. For each problem, is the firm pursuing the best strategic solution? 1. If yes, then IDENTIFY, EXPLAIN, and DEFEND the firm’s choice. 2. If no, then IDENTIFY, EXPLAIN, and DEFEND a better strategy.

e. Predict the future of EACH problem and solution. i. If the global economy contracts, how should each strategic solution be shifted?

ii. If the global economy expands, how should each strategic solution be shifted? NOTE: Do not forget your role in this imagined assignment. You are a consultant who has been hired to identify problems and propose strategic solutions. You are NOT a cheerleader or a public relations manager or an internal sales champion or a member of the human resources staff. You should be cool and dispassionate as you analyze the firm. Your singular focus is the sustained competitive advantage of the firm that has hired you. The fact-based realities of global business are not always nice and happy and covered with unicorns and rainbows. As you do the hard and necessary work to create value for the firm and its stakeholders, keep in mind that your solutions may ruin someone’s year. So be it. Be the smartest person in the room… The one the firm cannot imagine life without. #MBA #ToTheTop