4 assignments
simonsmy
assignment_9_instruction.docxAssignment 9
Company for analysis: Seagate Technology
Topic: Identifying Blind spots in Competitive Analysis
You need to reference each company and each website.
Objectives
The aim of this assignment is explore blind spots in a company’s competitive environment.
Instructor Comments
This assignment is about building awareness among students and analysts about potential blind spots in the competitive environments of corporations. In the reading for this assignment, Zahra and Chaples (1993) identify six blind spots. These include misjudging industry boundaries, poor identification of competitors, overemphasis on competitors visible competence, overemphasis on where, not how, companies compete, faulty assumptions about the competition and paralysis by analysis. The aim of the assignment question is to focus attention on aspects of these blind spots. The assignment task regarding corporate culture refers to the blind spot regarding visible competence. The assignment task dealing with operational performance indicators deals with paralysis by analysis. The assignment task that explores examples of not meeting observer expectations addresses faulty assumptions. The link between the other three assignment tasks and the blind spots are self-evident.
Assignment
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 the company that you have chosen for this course.
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.
