Project 3: Internal Environmental Analysis

Purpose 

This project is the third of four projects. Students will perform an internal environmental analysis using the tools and concepts learned in the course to date. You will also draw from previous business courses to understand how organizations develop and manage strategies to establish, safeguard, and sustain their position in a competitive market. 

Students also can review an organization’s objectives and goals and the key functional areas within the organization. Performing an internal environment analysis helps assess a firm’s internal resources and capabilities. It plays a critical role in formulating strategy by identifying a firm’s strengths to capitalize on to effectively overcome weaknesses. 

Outcomes Met With This Project

• Utilize a set of useful analytical skills, tools, and techniques for analyzing a company strategically;
• Integrate ideas, concepts, and theories from previously taken functional courses including, accounting, finance, market, business, and human resource management;
• Analyze and synthesize strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to generate, prioritize, and implement alternative strategies to revise a current plan or write a new plan and present a strategic plan.

Instructions

Step 1 Specific Company for All Four Projects

The company that your instructor has assigned to you for Project 1 is the company you will use for this project. The assigned company must be used for this project and in subsequent projects in the course. Students must complete the project using the assigned company. Deviating from the assigned company will result in a zero for the project.

After reading the course material, you will complete the steps below.   

Step 2  Course Materials and Research

• You must research information about the focal company and the internal environment for this project. You are accountable for using the course materials to support the ideas, reasoning, and conclusions made. Course material’s use goes beyond defining terms and explains the ‘why and how’ of a situation. Using one or two in-text citations from the course materials and then relying on Internet source material will not earn many points on the assignment. A variety of source material is expected, and what is presented must be relevant and applicable to the topic being discussed.   Avoid merely making statements but close the loop of the discussion by explaining how something happens or why something happens, which focuses on importance and impact. In closing the loop, you will demonstrate the ability to think clearly and rationally, showing an understanding of the logical connections between the ideas presented from the research, the course material, and the question(s) being asked.

Note: Your report is based on the research results and not on any prepared documentation. What this means is that you will research and draw your own conclusions that are supported by the research and the course material rather than the use of any source material that puts together any of the tools or techniques whether from the Internet, for-pay websites, or any pre-prepared document, video or source material. A zero will be earned for not doing your own analysis.

Success: The analysis is based on research and not opinion. You are not making recommendations, and you will not attempt to position the focal company in a better or worse light than other companies within the industry merely because you are completing an analysis on this particular company. The analysis must be based on factual information. Any conclusions drawn have to be based on factual information rather than leaps of faith. As stated above, you are expected to use the course materials and research on the focal company’s global industry and the focal company to ensure success. The opinion does not earn credit, nor does the use of external sources when course materials can be used. It is necessary to provide explanations (the why and how) rather than making statements. Avoid stringing one citation after another, as doing so does not show detailed explanations.

Library Resources

On the main navigation bar in the classroom, select Resources and then select Library. Select Databases by Title (A – Z). Select M from the alphabet list, and then select Mergent Online. Dun and Bradstreet’s Hoovers Database, among others, is another excellent source for competitors and industry information. You are not to depend on one resource to complete the analysis. Moreover, it is impossible to complete Porter’s Five Forces, a competitive analysis, or an OT by using only the course material.

You should not be using obscure articles, GlassDoor, or Chron, or similar articles.  

Research for Financial Analysis:  Financial Research

Research for Industry Analysis CSI Market

The UMGC library is available for providing resources and services. Seek library support for excellence in your academic pursuit.  

Scholarly Research in OneSearch is allowed.

To search for only scholarly resources, you are expected to place a checkmark in the space for “Scholarly journals only” before clicking search. 

You should not be using obscure articles, GlassDoor, or Chron, or similar articles.  

Research for Financial Analysis:  Financial Research

Research for Industry Analysis CSI Market

Step 3  How to Set Up the Report

The document has to be written in Word or RTF. No other format is acceptable. No pdf files will be graded. Use 12-point font for a double-spaced report. The final product is expected to be 10 – 12 pages. The final project may not be more than 12 pages in length, including all tables and matrices, but excluding the title page and reference page. Do no use an Appendix.   

• Those items identified in the technical analysis should appear under the appropriate heading in the paper. It is important to format the tables/matrices to fit the report and present the analysis clearly and concisely.
• Create a title page with the title, your name, date, the course number, the instructor’s name.
• Create Topic Headings that correspond to exact sections of the project requirements. 

Step 4 Strategic Role of Corporate Strengths/Weaknesses in the Internal Strategy Analysis

There are three levels of strategy: corporate-level strategy, business-level strategy, and functional-level strategy. Corporate-level strategies are related to businesses or markets the focal company successfully can compete within. Corporate-level strategies affect the entire organization and are formulated by top management using middle and lower management input. Decision-making about corporate-level strategies is considered complex, affects the entire company, and relates to an organization’s resource capabilities. Corporate level strategies align with an organization’s mission statement and ideally are designed around goals and objectives. 

Perform an analysis on:

• Corporate-level strategies.
• Create a partial SWOT table, perform an SW analysis, and discuss the strategic inferences/implications. Discuss what strategies would allow the company to capitalize on its major strengths and what strategies would allow the company to improve upon its major weaknesses.
• Create an IFE matrix and analysis. Make sure to explain how the matrix was developed and discuss the strategic inferences and implications.
• Develop a Grand Strategy Matrix. Explain how the matrix was developed and discuss the strategic inferences/implications at a corporate level and business-unit level.

Step 5  Strategic Role of Internal Resources/Departments/Processes

Perform an analysis on:

• Business-level strategies
  • Evaluate the company’s product line, target market. 
  • Identify and explain business-level strategies.
• Functional-level strategies
  • Assess the company’s organizational structure, the organizational culture, marketing production, operations, finance and accounting, and R&D that can be accomplished by viewing the company’s website, interviews, and surveys.
  • Explain how these strategies align with the company’s vision and mission statements.

 Step 6  Strategic Financial Analysis for the Last Reported Fiscal Year 

• Use the company’s income statement and balance sheet to calculate four (4) key financial ratios. One key ratio must come from each of the four key categories: leverage, liquidity, profitability, and efficiency. The four (4) specific ratios selection must come from the following categories.

• Leverage Ratios (Long term debt ratio, Total debt ratio, Debt-to-equity ratio, Times interest earned ratio, and Cash coverage ratio)
• Liquidity Ratios (Net working capital to total assets ratio, current ratio, quick ratio, and cash ratio)
• Efficiency Ratios (Asset turnover ratio, average collection period, inventory turnover ratio, and Days sales outstanding)
• Profitability Ratios (Net Profit Margin, Return on Assets, and Return on Equity) 
• The selection of the ratios has to be relevant to the focal company, so it is important to choose wisely.
• Quote industry financial average ratios correlate to the four (4) financial ratios selected for the focal company. Explain the importance of the four (4) averages to compare why averages are important to use. You may find the industry averages by going to the library. If you cannot find it on your own, reach out to the librarian as these resources are readily available.

Note:  If copied directly from the Internet, a zero will be assigned. When placing any table or figure in a table, it must be explained in detail.

• Create a conclusion. The Conclusion is intended to emphasize the purpose/significance of the analysis, emphasize the significance/consequence of findings, and indicate the wider applications derived from the main points of the project’s requirements. Finally, you will conclude the findings of the external environment analysis.    

References

Step 7  Review the Paper 

Read the paper to ensure all required elements are present.

The following are specific requirements that you will follow. Use the checklist to mark off that you have followed each specific requirement.  

Checklist	Specific Project Requirements
	Proofread your paper.
	Read and use the grading rubric while completing the paper to ensure all requirements are met to lead to the highest possible grade.
	Third-person writing is required. Third-person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first-person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second-person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/first-second-and-third-person.
	Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them.
	Paraphrase and do not use direct quotations. Paraphrase means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document. Removing quotation marks and citing is inappropriate.  Instead, put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage to the source document. There should be no passages with quotation marks. Using more than four consecutive words from a source document would require direct quotation marks.  Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks. If more than four consecutive words are used from source documents, this material will not be included in the grade.
	You are expected to use the research and weekly course materials to develop the analysis and support the reasoning. Therefore, there should be a robust use of the course material. The material used from a source document must be cited and referenced. A reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa. Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks.
	Use in-text citations and provide a reference list that contains the reference associated with each in-text citation.
	You may not use books in completing this problem set unless it is part of the course material. Also, do not use a dictionary, Wikipedia, or Investopedia, or similar sources. You may not use Fern Fort University or any other for-fee website.
	Provide the page or paragraph number in every in-text citation. Since the eBook does not have page numbers, you must include the chapter title, section heading, and paragraph number.For citations using a video, you must provide the minutes and second of the cited material.

 Step 9  Submit the paper in the Assignment Folder

The assignment submitted to the Assignment Folder will be considered the student’s final product and, therefore, ready for grading by the instructor. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the student to verify the assignment is the correct submission. No exceptions will be considered by the instructor.