answer following questions

This assignment seeks to help you understand the answer to a broader concern and that is, “How might corporate analysts improve their understanding of their competitive environment?” You should base your responses to the following questions on your analysis of Whirlpool Corporation 

Please answer the following questions:

• Define the industry and the boundaries of the industry within which your company competes.
• Identify the major competitors of your firm and use two different sources of information to do so? Identify any differences between the two information sources.
• Choose one of the competitors of your firm. Examine recent news stories about its performance. Offer examples of how it did not meet the expectations of observers and insight as to why this did not occur.
• Provide insight regarding the corporate culture of this firm.
• Define how, not where your company competes.
• Identify the key operational performance indicators for firms competing in this industry.
• In one half page, summarize what you think is the connection between the key insights of the Zahra & Chaples (1993) reading and this assignment.

Hint: Operational performance indicators may be found in the Industry Handbook found on the Investopedia website (www.investopedia.com). You will need to go into each industry profile to find them. Industry competitors can be identified using sources such as Biz.yahoo (http://biz.yahoo.com), Reuters (www.reuters.com), and the 10K Corporate Annual Report forms filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). To address the assignment task dealing with industries, you will need to do some research and come up with a definition of an industry boundary. In regards to corporate cultures, consider keyword searches using Google and other search engines or news aggregators. Look for news stories or magazine articles that discuss its culture. Do also look for online job advertisements posted by the company and do examine the human resource section of the company’s web site. They often provide insight into the company’s definition of its culture. As for how the company competes, take a look at it's SEC 10K Annual Report www.sec.gov (do not print this off as it can often be hundreds of pages). It often discusses its business model or how it makes money.

Please limit your response to this assignment to three and one half single spaced, typed pages. Please cite your sources in the text and please reference them at the end of your assignment. Please complete write–up with one paragraph that summarizes what you think is the importance of this assignment.