2. Search for a mission statement for the firm. Not all organizations publish such a statement, so alternatively you can look for enduring principles and values upon which the firm seems to be anchored.

3. Identify the major goals of the company.

1. Apply Porter’s five forces model to the industry in which your company is based. What does this model tell you about the nature of competition in the industry?

2. Identify changes taking place in the macro-environment that might have an impact, positive or negative, on the industry in which your company is based? What are these changes, and how are they affecting the industry?

3. Identify strategic groups that might exist in the industry. How does the intensity of competition differ across these strategic groups?

4. In what stage of life cycle is the industry in which your company is based? What are the implications of this for the intensity of competition both now and in the future?

1. Identify the competitive position held by your firm. Which, if any, of your resources are helpful in sustaining the firms’s competitive advantage?

2.Identify the core competencies that are at the heart of the firm’s competitive advantage.

3. Perform a SWOT analysis for your firm. Remember that strengths and weaknesses are internal to the firm, and opportunities and threats are external. Focus mainly on strengths and weaknesses because the OT comes from the External Analysis.

4. In indentifying strengths and weaknesses use Chapter 4 and analyze functional areas such as Marketing, Research, and Development, Production/Operations, and Management Information Systems. You do not need to do Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix.

You are also responsible for the Financial Analysis. Be sure to reference the source of the income statement and balance sheet that you use to calculate the financial ratios.