Environmental Analysis

Introduction

Latest woes - sales dwindling, market share eroding, disruptive competitors – are featured heavily in mass media today, and even in the Wall Street Journal. But is disaster really looming on the horizon for the low-cost retailer or tech giant? Or do the issues simply present an opportunity for big success?

Instructions

· Business briefs are often used to convince and inform clearly and concisely in the business environment. For this assignment, your business brief should state its purpose, create awareness, and provide a persuasive informed assertion based on research and conceptual understandings.

· Select a publicly traded business of your choice (use Amazon) and assess the company's external environment using three or more media sources to identify factors that are impacting their business model. (Note: You may use this same business in the upcoming Assignments 2 and 3).

· Imagine yourself as part of the Executive Team. Write a business brief for the organization’s Board Members for an upcoming meeting in which you present and defend your position on whether these factors signal imminent doom or new growth opportunities. What possible (credible) strategies are needed to ensure ongoing competitive advantage?

· Organize your brief as follows:

1. Identify and concisely describe four external factors impacting the business:

· Is each a positive or negative? Explain.

· What are the “symptoms” of each factor? (What is likely happening as a result of a factor?)

· How does each factor correlate to Porter’s Five Forces, Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation and Kim’s Blue Ocean models? Explain.

2. Rank the factors in order from least to greatest potential impact and briefly explain your rationale.

3. Argue your position

· Persuasively assert what these factors imply for the future.

· Consider how the factors potentially influence the organization’s capabilities, behavior, and strategic options.

4. Develop and support your recommendations, assertions, and facts with in-text citations, appendixes, and references.

Formatting and Submission Requirements

· Typed, double-spaced, professional font (size 12) with one-inch margins on all sides.

· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, professor’s name, and the course title and date. (The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.)

· Headings, bolded, are used to identify main topics and subtopics

· Write about each of the indicated topics concisely and briefly . The total report should be 4 to 6 pages. NOTE: The Cover Page is not included in the required page length