This activity is important because, as a manager, you must be able to accurately assess the external environment in which your organization operates and choose the most appropriate strategy. To do this you will need to conduct a PESTEL analysis and evaluate the industry structure.

$$

The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of the PESTEL analysis and Porter$$s five competitive forces by applying the principles of each to a real company$$s recent history.

$$

Read the MiniCase below and answer the questions that follow.

$$

Our mission is to democratize finance for all.

$$

Robinhood Markets, Inc. is a financial services firm best known for its commission$-$free stock trading app, which went live in $2015.$ The Robinhood app is popular with Millennials and Gen Z; it had $23$ million users $($in $2022).$ Indeed, users doubled during the Covid$-19$ pandemic, when people were stuck at home and flush with cash from stimulus checks. Many young people started investing using the Robinhood app. More than $50\%$ of Robinhood users are first$-$time investors.

$$

Just six days after going public in $2021,$ Robinhood$$s market valuation reached $$60$ billion. At the IPO, Robinhood had a mere $2,800$ employees. In comparison, Goldman Sachs, one of the oldest and most prestigious investment firms, had $44,000$ employees and a peak valuation of $$141$ billion $($also in the summer of $2021).$ How did Robinhood accomplish such a remarkable feat?

$$