You will submit an individual paper based on Current Topics in the News case. The article should be drawn from the press from sometime in the past 18 months. Article should be drawn from widely read sources. This includes but is not limited to local, national, or global newspapers (e.g., New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times), widely read magazines (e.g., Fortune, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Wired, New Yorker), or comprehensive blogs or electronic media (e.g., Vox, Business Insider, Axios). If you have a question about whether an article is acceptable, please let me know. The companies in your articles must be publicly traded US Based companies. The case paper grade accounts for 30% of the final grade. The paper should be approximately 5-7 pages, max of 9. (Times New Roman 12, typed and double-spaced). It should focus on and be structured by case-specific questions/prompt, but also reflect knowledge of the topic and models discussed in class. You will have two opportunities to submit this paper Tuesday 11/9 and Monday 12/20. I will take the highest grade. You must submit a completely new write up on a second attempt. Write-ups should be submitted by Blackboard. Below please find information about what you should do for the current topics paper as well as how I will grade it:

The current topics case involves taking an article from the business press, like WSJ or the Financial Times, or other news sources that outline strategic decisions made by companies. Please do the following for the Current Topics Case:

• Please select one article that prominently features an organizational decision related to strategy.
• Write approximately 5-7 pages, max 9 (Times New Roman, 12 Font Double spaced) in which you answer the questions provided below. You should draw upon course concepts to provide a rigorous analysis based on well supported arguments:
  • What does this organization do and what is its business strategy (e.g., low cost, differentiator)? Provide a brief summary.
  • What was the strategic decision? Provide a short description or summary and a citation for the article.
  • Provide a combined SWOT/PESTLE analysis (3-4 paragraphs with a table) to help provide macro environmental context and explain the opportunity that the company may be taking advantage of and/or the threat they may be trying to mitigate.
  • Using Porters Five Forces, describe how competitive this particular industry is and your reasoning for coming to that conclusion. (NB:That will mean specifying the industry.)
  • Why do you think the organization made this decision?
  • Was this a good or bad strategic decision and why? Take a clear stance and argue for it.
    • For these final two points, you will want to use material and theory from the class to support your claims regarding the companys strategic decision.
    • You should connect it to the SWOT/PESTLE and Competitive Analysis
    • But in addition, you should draw on at least one (1) additional framework from class. It must be something different than SWOT/PESTLE or Porters Five Forces