Consider that you work for a company that develops and sells case studies and case study analyses. Your company's primary customers are colleges and universities wanting to use them within their courses, but your company also has customers using them for management training and development. Your manager asked you to conduct research and develop a case study analysis on the company's supply chain strategy, including transportation. She's specifically interested in you doing the analysis on one of the companies from this list:

• Amazon.
• Apple.
• L. L. Bean.
• Starbucks.
• Walmart.

Research and write about the company that you have selected from the above list.

You and your manager discussed the high-level outline of your analysis and agreed you should address the following items:

• Describe the company's business model and illustrate the business model through the use of a diagram or visual.
• Compare and contrast the company's supply chain strategy with another organization's strategies and summarize key findings of areas the other organization excels in.
  • Use another company from the list to determine which supply chain areas the company excels at compared to your selected company.
• Analyze the transportation strategy of the company usingexamples of the various transportation modes to support the effectiveness of moving products from factories to customers.
• Analyze the global challenges that the company faces in its supply chain and discuss risks and associated strategies to minimize the risks.
• Analyze the economic and political factors that can impact the company's transportation network and relate to future improvements.
• Analyze the role demand forecasting plays in the company's supply chain strategy and support the analysis with ways to manage challenges of forecasting in times of uncertainty.
• Analyze how pricing promotions are used to change demand through relevant examples that demonstrate this strategy.