In this extra credit assignment you will choose a company from the S&P 500. You will meaningfully analyze their external and internal environment. By external and internal environment you will follow the book description of those environment as well as our discussions in class, and not ARBITRARILY putting meaningless words. You will then analyze the industry/industries in which the company operate and have businesses by using the book frameworks of industry analysis. You will also analyze their financial position using the financial ratios that I provided to you and they are in the book too and you will explain what these ratios you calculated mean. You will analyze the major sources of competitive advantages for the firm using the book concepts on that. You will discuss the firm’s key resources and core capabilities. Finally, you will HAVE TO determine key challenges, problems, struggles, and concerns whether these are from competitors, from the firm itself, from the firm’s strategies and policies, from the firm’s suppliers, basically you will have to investigate the root-causes of these problems and concerns, after that you will need to use your knowledge to suggest and recommend professional solutions to these problems. You will have to list some important decisions you think the firm should take and you will have to provide the necessary support for why you think these are the proper decisions. My ADVICE is that you read the chapters 1-6 while conducting this work. Otherwise, I am pretty sure you won’t get it right.
