MGT 5170 Nova Southeastern University Applying Strategy for Mangers Case Study
Case Instructions, Guidelines & PreparationRemember, the cases are graded per the rubric. The Board of Directors want your recommendations with the proper analysis and support. If your work requires more than 5 pages, analysis details should be covered in an appendix.Do not go to the Internet to find, for example, a SWOT or external analysis analysis and use it for your case. Do your own research and develop your own strategic analysis.In doing your cases you will need a minimum of five references outside the material given you with the case. Use current business websites to find out about recent developments. Certainly do not use websites that develop term papers or do strategy analysis on companies and publish them, such as CourseHero, Panmore, and marketrealist. This would lead to charges of plagiarism and the associated consequences.The case study analysis allows you to apply your knowledge to the real world. Your goal is to identify a major problem confronting the subject company and provide a strategic solution for the problem. You will need to collect data and interpret it. You must also isolate the critical issues that the company faces. Remember that in the words of Lord Kelvin, "anything that cannot be expressed in numbers represents knowledge that is of a poor and uncertain kind."After identifying the critical issues you can generate alternatives to address the company's competitive situation. Evaluating these alternatives allows an organization to select one course of action. With a course of action defined, the strategic manager can then provide a plan for implementation. This is what you are to do on the case studies. Always refer to the rubric for the critical points to cover.The format for the case studies should be as follows.APA cover page,One-page, single spaced Executive Summary for the case as noted below. This is a summary of your report and, therefore, must be done after you finish the report. This one-page report must use headings and subheadings indicated in the following format to identify the critical issues. Begin with your understanding of the situation in a problem statement. Follow this with a concise presentation of your analysis and the alternatives you see. Recommend one course of action and support that recommendation with facts and other information, such as competitor’s moves. The last item is presents a plan for implementation –a sentence or two is sufficient. A sample of the Executive Summary is available with all this material.Body of your report. The summary page should encapsulate your understanding to the problems facing the company, a brief summary of the strategic analysis, financial analysis, the alternatives considered and a single recommendation with an implementation plan.After the executive summary page, you are to use standard APA formatting for a 5-page report. Tables, charts, graphs, etc. are to be put in the appendix and referenced from the body of your paper. Deductions may be taken for papers where the body is longer than five pages. Remember, in management you must get your thoughts across quickly if you expect your work to be read. Long reports generally wind up in a stack awaiting reading at some future date (which never comes).Case Study Report Format:Your report must include:NSU Cover page (1 page in length). It will present the name of the case and the author(s) of the report.Executive Summary (1 page in length). The Executive Summary is a concise overview of the report. The Case Study Report should be written from the perspective of an outside consultant, writing to the Board of Directors of the firm. It notes the essential points of the report and must have the following sections:Problem Statement: State the main problem facing the firm (or industry) in one, succinct sentence.Analysis: Summarize the main findings of your analysis. You may use bullet points, bold, italics – any means to convey and highlight the key factors you have determined based on your analysis. Don’t repeat items from the body of your report like the SWOT. Summarize the major issues.Alternatives: State briefly (one sentence or a bullet point each) 2 or 3 alternative courses of action that could be implementedRecommendation: Choose one course of action and support your choice.Implementation: Briefly (1 or 2 sentences are sufficient) present how the plan would be implemented. This tests the viability of the choice. For example, your plan would demonstrate that the company has the people, financial resources and time to implement your recommendation.These bullets should appear in your paper. The following is a precise format for the Case Studies. Formatting for Executive Summary:Single-spaceOne inch all marginsUse bullet points, lists, or other means to convey information briefly. Further explanation can be found in the main body of the report.Use headings and subheadings to organize the material in an easy to read and understandable manner that highlights the essential points of your analysis.Do not include a summary or overview of the firm in your report. The Board of Directors are knowledgeable and need no background presented.The body of your paper should be in standard APA format, double-spaced, with appropriate references, but not exceeding five pages. You may attach Appendices for tables, charts, anything useful that is referred to in body of the case report.Case Study OutlineBelow is an outline and some key points for you when you prepare your case study analyses. Be sure to submit your papers using the outline order and flow as these are necessary for a coherent paper and to earn full credit as per the grading rubric provided in the Official SyllabusI. Executive Summary/Problem Statement. (worth up to 20 points)Provide a brief summary (1-2 paragraphs, maximum) of the key points of the case and clearly state the crucial / main problem facing the company in the case. You may include more than one problem, but you must clearly state the problem that you feel is most crucial to the management team of the company.Bring the situation up to the current time.II. Provide a detailed analysis of the company in the case using tools and concepts of strategic management. (worth up to 20 points)Leverage tools explained and provided in your text (from bsg-online.com). For Case 1 the tools are in Chapter 3.Such tools include Porter's Five Forces Model and analysis of the macro-environment.Be specific in your analysis and bring the analysis up to the current day.This will require you to conduct online research about the company.III. Provide a quantitative analysis of the company using information provided in the case as well as what you may find through your own research. (worth up to 10 points)Be sure to explain the quantitative data you include – do not just post data without analysis.Data can be financial and non-financial.IV. Proposed solutions to the company's crucial problem. (worth up to 10 points)Generate at least two potential strategies that could be implemented that would help remedy the challenges caused by the crucial problem you stated in your Executive Summary/Problem Statement section.Each alternative must be explained and justified as to how it might help ameliorate the main problem facing the company.V. Optimal Solution & Evaluation. (worth up to 20 points)Select the optimal solution from the potential strategies from section IV above.Provide detailed justification as to why this solution is the best for the company and how it will fix the issues presented by the main problem.VI. Implementation Plan (worth up to 10 points)Include a short plan about how the company should implement your recommended solution. The implementation plan should present data that demonstrates the company has the resources, or can acquire the resources needed to adopt your recommendation. Resources can include financials, time and talent.Remember that cases are graded per the rubric. The Case Study rubric can be found here or in the in the Course Instruction Tab and should be added at the end of your submission.Case Study PreparationThe preparation of the cases in this course is different than the cases you have written in the past. These will require substantial investigation into case company’s strategies, competitive positions and actions, problems being faced, the company financials, ratios and trends. The case studies are about a real company's current position in the industry, the external competitive environment, the current strategies being used, and recommendations for strategies the company should use going forward. The cases should identify a problem faced by the company, using the strategic management tools highlighted in the text and a quantitative analysis. You then generate realistic solutions, evaluate and select one, and then provide recommendations and the timeline to implement your recommendations. Remember that you are working to understand the company's current strategy and future direction that offers a solution to the problem of meeting the company’s shareholder requirements. Again, remember that you are fulfilling the requirements of the rubric for each of these cases.>By analogy, in the BSG you have a set of prescribed goals to attain and a set of reports issued weekly to assist you in understanding how your company is doing relative to the competition and giving you an opportunity to revise your operational plans for the next period. However, in a case study you have to look at a company’s performance over the past few years and understand how their performance is changing and identify underlying problems. You are to identify trends in performance, problem areas, and how the company is performing using all of the tools that you have learned throughout your MBA program. Remember that you are working to meet or exceed the shareholder expectations.The perspective for your report analysis should be directed to the company’s Board of Directors (BoD). Remember that the BoD is familiar with the company’s history, its management structure and the strategies deployed in the past. Recycling old history about the formation of the company, its previous management, etc. will not be looked upon favorably by the BOD (or your instructor). Remember that your case study must be brought up to date with the most current 10K report or financial information. Get at the critical issues and report on them. Remember that in business, situations do not come with a set of questions. The questions sometimes have to be generated and then researched to find solutions to those questions. Success in the cases is important to your final grade.CASE 2!!!!!For the financial analysis:Present one or more ratios to represent each of the four areas of financial analysis:Profitability (more than Gross Profit Margin)LiquidityLeverage (what I call Risk)Activity (what I call Efficiency)Then, present a minimum ½ page discussion of the company’s financial situation, using ratios to evaluate the company’s profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity. Of course, most of these ratios are meaningless by themselves; they only have meaning as a comparison. You must therefore compare the Kroger ratios to one of three choices:Where the company is now versus where it has been over time (last two years), orThe industry averages for the ratios, orA significant rival’s ratiosThe ratios and financial information should be in the Appendix so you have all the five pages of the report for your analysis and recommendation. The financial analysis should be a significant part of your internal analysis – What could be more important about a company’s strengths and weaknesses?You are a consultant hired by the executive leadership of Kroger. Based on your analysis, you recommend to the company’s leadership what they should do strategically. Then, support your strategic recommendation. Why is it the best solution to the significant problem you have identified? Your recommendation should have as foundation at least 1-2 internal factors and at least 1 -2 external factors. You can mix and match - what strengths should the company use to take advantage of an opportunity; or what opportunity should they take to solve one of its weaknesses. What strengths could the company use to mitigate a threat; or what weaknesses must the company address so they do not fall victim to the threats facing the industry?Yes - this is a SWOT analysis. And the true payoff of SWOT analysis is learning enough to develop a strong strategic approach to gaining competitive advantage.Please see the files for instructions regarding Case Studies in this class. Remember: your report is based on where the company and the industry are now!