The Questions

(I’m doing Nokia Corporation)

Part 1 – Individual Homework Company Analysis – BAD 490

The Basics

• This assignment is to be done in PowerPoint and submitted electronically.
• The purpose of this assignment is to use the tools from class to analyze a real company. Ideally, you will be able to take these tools and use them in companies that you work for, work with, or found.
• You are expected to use course material to help you with your analysis and you should be able to do the assignment using only your company’s annual report and letter to shareholders and related documents (some companies split out their annual report materials into multiple documents).
• Avoid at all costs: generalities, platitudes, gut-instincts and blah-blah-blah-ing.
• No fluff, please! Good answers are specific and concrete, and use things like numbers and identifiable products, brands, names and locations.

The Questions

• (15 points; 3 slides max) Generic Business Strategy (Intro; Chapter 5). Identify and explain how your company achieves its generic business strategy.
  • Clearly identify your company’s generic business strategy (Broad Differentiation, Broad Low Cost, Focused Differentiation, or Focused Low Cost?)
  • Explain how/why the company’s scope is narrow or broad. Remember that a scope discussion MUST address products, customers and geography.
  • Where does its main competitive advantage flow from? If it is a low cost leader, explain how it keeps costs down. If it is a differentiator, explain how it makes itself better/different/superior than others.
• (20 points; 3 slides max) Industry Environment (Chapter 2). Do a Porter’s Five Forces analysis of your company’s industry environment using the factors identified in class.
  • For each force, address at least 2-3 different factors impacting the strength of that force. Note that you are expected to use course material here. Reference things like switching costs, economies of scale, differentiation of products, etc.
  • Assess the strength of each force and assign them as High/Medium/Low based on your analysis above. Please note that the strength of force in (b) must logically follow from the factors addressed in (a).
• (20 points; 4 slides max) Value Chain Analysis (Chapter 3). Do a Value Chain Analysis of your company. Remember that there are two types of activities: Primary, which includes Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing & Sales, and Service; and Support/Secondary, which includes General Administration, Human Resources, Technology Development, and Procurement. A proper analysis will include:
  • For all activities, explain the company executes them. Generally speaking, you’ll need 3-5 bullet points to give a rough outline of how the activity is accomplished. If your company outsources an activity, that is still noteworthy here.
  • Highlight visually 1-2 primary activities and 1-2 support activities that are key to your company’s performance. Note that not all activities can be key, and that your selection of key activities should be reflective of the value chain as well as the company’s strategy.