Industry Analysis Assignment

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT MGT 490

Strategic Management

This assignment is worth 5% of your overall course grade, and should be submitted via Blackboard

Working individually, you will analyze a given industry using a combination of outside research and the tools developed in the External Environment session of our Strategic Management (MGT 490) course. In particular, you should use Porter’s 5 forces analysis to conduct your analysis. (1) Please look for the industry assigned to you in the “Industry Analysis Assignment” spreadsheet available on the course’s Blackboard page in the Session 3 (External Environment) folder. (2) Describe your given industry): Provide an overview of the overall economic activity of the industry (i.e., financial figures) Describe the main players in the industry (main competitors) How competitive is your industry? For simplicity, please examine your industry in the United States (USA) only! (3) Please use Porter’s 5 forces tool and apply it to your industry. Remember to cover the main players: (a) Industry Competitors / Competitive Rivalry (b) Threat of New Entrants (c) Threat of Substitutes (d) Supplier Power / Bargaining Power of Suppliers (e) Buyer Power / Bargaining Power of Buyers

Please make sure to clearly present the requested information in points (2) and (3) above in the form of a report (500 – 1250 words). At a minimum, your report should address the issues raised in points (2) and (3) for your given industry.

You might want to include a diagram of Porter’s 5 forces analysis as applied to your industry to facilitate discussion of these issues in your report. Sample diagrams are presented in the Session 3 slides as well as in your textbook.

PS:

While the slide and textbook, as well as our class discussion, will help you to work through Porter’s 5 forces tool, you can find a relatively quick overview of it in this interview with Michael Porter himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw