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Business Strategy and Policy

Assignment #1_Company Profile

Select a major US corporation (a publicly held company listed on one of the major stock exchanges), obtain an annual report and perform an analysis of the company and their customers. You should also use this time to begin researching your chosen firm by searching for articles and/or analyst reports from any of the major financial news web sites available to you. Sites that I have used in the past have included www.moneycentral.msn.com, www.quicken.com, www.fool.com among others. My suggestion is that you read the annual report of your chosen firm in an effort to determine a general outline of who their customers are, and what dominant business they are in.

12pt. Font

Double spaced

3-5 pages, fully cited using APA format

Due Date: Both in hard copy and electronically via Canvas, Saturday, January 23rd (three weeks), 11:59pm.

Write a profile of your firm and what they do, highlighting any hot button issues that you find. By hot button, I refer to both, any particular aspects of the company that give them some sort of competitive advantage or ‘uniqueness,’ and /or any hot current issue(s) the firm may be facing. You should also take this time to present and analyze the vision and mission of your firm per class discussion. Finally, try to find information relating to their general competitive profile. Some categories to consider include, but are not limited to: Company Profile; Assessment of Vision/Mission (particularly important); Industry/Primary Competitors; Key Products; Identifiable Customer Segments; Success to Date, Hot Current Issues etc. Please note that I am not asking you to give me their entire history…just a profile that gives me a broad picture of your firm.

Your company’s profile MUST include the following basic factual information at the top of the first page.

Student Name:

Company Name:

Industry: (The NAICS code and title for your firm’s primary industry)

Market: (The primary stock market, either NASDAQ or NYSE, where shares are traded)

Symbol: (Company stock ticker symbol)

Revenue (Latest Year):

*failure to have this basic information will result in no credit given.

Please use section headings in your paper to give your finished work more structure. See the Starbuck’s example on modules for an illustration of what this means.

Finally, all research material used MUST be fully cited and documented using the APA format.

Companies that you may NOT select include:

Adidas Goldman Sachs Puma

Adobe Systems Google (Alphabet) Samsung

Amazon Hewlett-Packard Southwest Airlines

American Outdoor IBM Sprint/Nextel

Apple Computer JPMorgan Chase Starbuck’s

AT&T Johnson & Johnson Target

Citigroup Kraft Verizon

Cisco Systems Merrill Lynch Wal-Mart

· Firms that you previously wrote a paper on may NOT be selected; your piece must be a new piece of research and writing.

· Foreign companies (except those that are listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ)

· Utilities

· Subsidiaries of larger corporations.

· Conglomerates (GE and Berkshire Hathaway for example) and Media companies (strongly recommended)

· Insurance Companies, Banks and Investment Companies unless granted permission by Prof. Reichart.

· As a general rule of thumb, focused companies, those that are predominantly operating on one primary industry, are superior to more diversified, conglomerate firms.

· **If you have an interest in doing your project on one of the above-mentioned firms, you must clear it with your professor first!!!