For This Assignment:

Students will be assigned a US publicly$-$traded company for the course Business Case project which will require the implementation of many tasks outlined in the Analysis$-$Formulation$-$Implementation framework provided in the textbook. The intermediate assignments will build toward a final report and presentation of a strategic planning proposal for the company. Strategy is NOT a report about the company and it is NOT proposing something they currently do better. It is a major change in their business involving one of the three business strategies you will learn about in the course $($BUSINESS$,$ CORPORATE, GLOBAL$).$ In order to pick a theme$($s$)$ for your strategy, you must learn all you can about that company or industry.

There is some limited opportunity for swapping if you happen to know more about another company in your industry then let me know and I will see if I can negotiate a swap. Likewise if you have another choice within that industry that I have not listed, let me know. Finally, if you are the entrepreneurial type, it is possible to do analysis using your assigned company but formulate a startup strategy for a new entrant rather than a strategy for the assigned company $($this option requires some additional effort in the formulation section as you need to submit other components of the business plan$).$ I do mentoring at University of Colorado$-$Boulder in their Destination Startup program and work with business students$/$faculty involved in funded startups of all sorts so I will push you the way I push them to build the necessary skills.

The companies come from $4$ different industries and other students are being assigned companies which are competitors of yours within your industry.

You will be scored on an absolute scale to the assignment rubric and also a relative scale to the quality of your competitor submissions. As in business, you are always being compared to your competition and the better product or service is rewarded for that effort. But a winning strategy is not just the best idea, it is the best implementation of the strategic planning process that demonstrates a strong understanding of the company and industry and the ability to justify the proposal based on that analysis.