Nearly 100 million Americans have investments in the stock market through shares of individual companies or positions in mutual funds. At its peak volume, the New York Stock Exchange trades more than 3.5 billion shares in a single day. Stock brokerage firms are the conduit to help individuals plan their portfolios and manage transactions. Given the scope of this industry, no single definition describes what customers consider to be “superior value” from a brokerage operation.

Part One

After forming small teams, the instructor will ask the teams to count off by threes. The teams will study three different brokerage firms, with team 1 examining Edward Jones (Web site: http://www .edwardjones.com), team 2 E*TRADE (ticker: ETFC), and team 3, Charles Schwab (ticker: SCHW).

Part Two

Each team should research its target company to answer the following questions:

• Describe the “who, what, and how” for your firm. How stable is this focus? How much have these elements changed in the past five years?

• Describe your firm’s strategy.

• How does your firm’s strategy offer protection against each of the five forces?

Part Three

In class, the instructor will ask two teams for each firm to summarize their results.

Then, the whole class will discuss which firm is most effective at meeting the needs of its customer base.