Instruetions:

For this assignment, your team will be acting as an external consulting group for Costco. The name of your consulting group is the name of your team's company $($e$.$g$.,$ Chipotle Consulting Team$).$ Please feel free to use this name in the signature of your letter to the Board of Directors as this is to be as professional$-$looking as possible.

Your objective is to ereate a prefessional report to be delivered to the Board of Directors of Costco centered on answering the following questions below. An ideal submission would have a $($a$)$ Cover Sheet providing a brief overview of your answers followed by $($b$)$ more detailed answers, to the questions on the following pages in a business format. This should not be a list of numbers answering the questions but rather written professionally.

Keep in mind that your responses should be related to the historic case study $-$ not real time information $($e$.$g$.,$ current performance$).$ Providing current information outside of the case based upon present information will result in point deductions.

You will be competing against other teams in the class, so be sure to do your best work.

Business Model and Strategy Analyses: What is your assessment of Costco's business model and strategy? How well is Costco's strategy working? Why do you say so$?$ Be sure to highlight chief elements of Costco's strategy in your analysis. $($See an example of an analysis of key elements of Apple's strategy in Illustration Capsule $1\mathrm{.}1$ in the book$).$

Leadership Effeetiveness: Do you think Jim Sinegal was an effective CEO? What grade would you give him in leading the process of crafting and executing Costco's strategy? Why do you give this grade? How well is Craig Jelinek performing as Sinegal's successor? What grade would you give him so far in leading the process of crafting and executing strategy? Why do you give this grade? Provide support for these grades. Refer to Figure $2\mathrm{.}1$ in Chapter $2$ for help in developing your answers.

Financial Performance Analyses: How well is Costco performing from a financial perspective $($based upon the information in the case$)?$ You should perform financial analysis here. In your analysis, please also include comparisons to Sam's Club and BJ$\text{'}$s Wholesale. $($See data in case Exhibit $1,5,$ and $6$; financial ratios presented in Table $4\mathrm{.}1$ of Chapter $4$ may also help you diagnose Costco's financial performance$).$ Does the data in case Exhibit $4$ indicate that Costco's expansion outside the U$.$S$.$ is financially successful? Why or why not?

Competitive Analyses: How well is Costco performing from a strategic perspective? Does Costco enjoy a competitive advantage over Sam's Club? Over BJ$\text{'}$s Wholesale? If so$,$ what is the nature of its competitive advantage? Does Costco have a winning strategy? Why or why not?