UMUC MGT670 project 3

Your task is to conduct a global industry comparative analysis that will help develop the strategy for expanding your organization's products into a new country. Note that the term products will refer to products, services, or a combination of the two.

In this fictional market expansion, your analysis will examine a real-life organization. To accomplish this task, you need to identify and assess the risks that your organization may encounter, such as market barriers and competition, as well as opportunities for success in the selected country. As the general manager for strategy, you have been tasked with the following:

· Analyze your organization's resources and capabilities (organization profile).

· Evaluate the external environment, specifically the industry in which your organization operates (industry analysis).

· Select a new country as a market for expanding your organization's products (country risk assessment). You will select one country from the provided list and assess the risks associated with doing business in that country, including risks presented by its economic, political, and cultural environments.

Based on your research, in three weeks you will make a recommendation to your senior vice president and CEO on expanding into this new market. Be sure to budget enough time for each of the 13 steps.

The first step in conducting your global industry comparative analysis is to choose an organization.

As promised, Gustavo sends you adetailed e-mail. With his requirements in mind, develop an organization profile of about 6–7 pages in length. The profile you develop should incorporate the components described here and in Steps 2–5 below.

Choose from thelist of organizations provided and note your choice in the Project 3: Choice of Organization discussion.

The selection will be awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. The faculty will approve your choice and post it in the table in the discussion area.

After you have chosen an organization, continue to the next step, where you will provide your organization’s background information in your organization profile.

Now that you have chosen your organization, you need to create an organization profile. As you begin to develop your organization profile, the first step is to gather information about your organization's background. Do some research on your organization's website and using the UMUC library. Write up the background information and include the following:

· Introduce the organization. What business is it in? For help, seeFinding Company Information.

· Describe the company’s recent financial performance. ConsultFinding a Company's Annual Report for help.

· State where the organization is located and who its major customers are.

· Provide a brief history of the organization.

· State the size of the organization in terms of employees and revenues.

· Describe the organizational structure and identify major roles or functions of key individuals in the organization. For help, readFinding a Company's Leadership Information

When you have provided the organizational background, continue to the next step, where you will determine a strategy and competitive position for the organization

The next step in developing your organization profile is to determine the strategy and competitive position for your organization. Include the following information in your profile:

· Perform a detailed assessment of your organization's currentbusiness strategyand recommend specific actions to gain andsustaining superior performance in relation to your organization's competitors.

· Locate and review your organizations’smission, vision, and core values. ReviewGlobal Strategy as Business Model Change. Then, apply what you have read to aid your evaluation of thestrategic intent of your organization.

· Determine the strengths and weaknesses of your organization. In addition, determine the core competencies your organization can build on to create competitive advantage in the global environment. ReadGlobal Competitive Advantage.

· Provide a clear picture of the organization's operations (value chain), products, and position in the marketplace. Provide a summary of the core competencies, sales history, corporate structure, current leadership of the organization, and its global and domestic operations.

When you have completed your strategy and competitive position assessment, continue to the next step, where you will develop the organization’s competitive strategy statement.

As you continue developing your organization profile, include the following information in your competitive strategy statement:

· What is the current mission and is it clearly stated? If it is not clearly stated, what do you believe the organization’s mission to be? Is the mission compatible with or does it provide acompetitive advantage? From your analysis of your organization’s competitive advantage, what is the biggest strategic challenge facing your organization?

· What are the key organization processes? UsePorter's Value Chain Model to guide your analysis. Draw a diagram of your organization’s value chain. Identify the key processes used. Where does your organization add value as a way of gaining a competitive edge? Only include those processes that are critical to gaining a competitive edge.

· Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the organization forstrategy formulation compared to competitors. Address the major factors that may lead to the organization's success or failure.

When you have completed the competitive strategy statement, continue to the next step, where you will discuss the organization’s market and financial performance data.

In the final step of completing your organization profile, briefly summarize the organization's financials for the past five years. For guidance on finding this information, seeBusiness Research: Finding a Company's Financial Information. What information do you need to assess the performance of your organization? (Financial data and tables can be attached in an appendix. Appendices do not count toward the 6–7 pages that you are limited to for this profile.)

In your organization profile, discuss the implications of the market and financial performance data you have presented.

You may submit your organization profile (Steps 1-5) in the box below for feedback. In the next step, you will begin the industry analysis.

Use the following filename protocol: lastname_firstname_Project3_OrganizationProfile

Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.

Understanding your organization's industry is essential to making useful strategy recommendations to Gustavo. You will develop a 6–7 page analysis of the industry in which your organization belongs. Your industry analysis should incorporate the components described here and in Step 7 below.

You should appreciate that whatever happens in the industry will influence your organization. Who are the competitors? Is it easy to start a business in this industry? Are there significant entry barriers? What are the dominant characteristics andcurrent trends in your industry?

Discuss industry size in terms of the number of companies, total employment, capital investment, major customers, and annual revenues. What are the driving forces of change in the industry, (e.g., innovation, technology, and buyer preferences and lifestyles)? State how organizations compete within the industry and identify the critical success factors in this industry.

When you have addressed the trends in your industry, continue to the next step, where you will apply Porter’s competitive forces model to analyze the industry.

Review and applyPorter’s five forces model to your analysis. Tailor the Porter model to the industry and integrate the complete figure of the model within the narrative of the report. What is the competitive structure of the industry? Describe the following:

· Entry barriers—How difficult is it to enter this industry? Are there several players competing for profitability? Are there significant threats of new entrants?

· Intensity of rivalry—Identify your organization's top three competitors. Discuss industry rivalry. Is competition intense?

· Bargaining power of buyers—Who are the buyers in this industry? What kind of influence do buyers have on the competitors in the industry? Globalization makes it easier for buyers to source products worldwide. Is this the case in this industry?

· Bargaining power of suppliers—Provide a profile of the suppliers. Suppliers with significant industry influence can play a major role in the marketplace. For instance, DeBeers, the world's leading supplier of diamonds, has enormous bargaining power in the diamond industry.

· Threat of substitutes—Carefully distinguish between similar products in the same industry. A substitute product for eye glasses would be contact lenses. Train travel is a substitute for travelling by car.

You may submit your industry analysis (Steps 6–7) in the box below for feedback. In the next step, you will look at specific countries for possible expansion.

You may recall from your meeting with Gustavo that he wants your expert analysis of the external business environment in which your organization is likely to operate in the future.

As you prepare to select a new market for your organization to expand into, remember that you will need to accomplish one of the following options:

• offer your organization's products in that country
• establish value-chain activities in that country
• some combination of the first two options

If you work for an organization that already operates in more than one country, for the purpose of this report, you will select a new country (i.e., a country in which your organization does not currently operate and that has zero to minimal revenue). A list of candidate countries is given below. For help, visithttp://sites.umuc.edu/library/libhow/businessresearch-countries.cfm.

Your choice of a country is on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please reserve your choice in the Project 3 Discussion area.

If you are not sure whether the country you have selected qualifies for this project, consult your course instructor.

As the senior vice president for business development, Gustavo da Silva has already decided that your organization will expand its operations in your selected country. No further approval from the CEO, Rasheed Ali, is required.

When you have selected a new country for market expansion, continue to the next step, where you will prepare an international expansion and global market opportunity assessment.

Gustavo is seeking your advice regarding theinternational expansion and global market opportunity assessment. Review the blueprint for international expansion in the business journal article,Going International.

You should also consider principles ofinternational strategy for doing business in your selected country. What products are good candidates for generating additional revenue for your organization from expansion into the selected country? Please provide a detailed analysis as per final report format guidelines.

When you have completed your international expansion and global market opportunity assessment, continue to the next step, where you will perform a PESTEL analysis.

As part of your country assessment, Gustavo also expects aPESTEL Analysis of your selected country in relation to the industry in which your organization operates. In other words, you are looking at the country through the prism of the industry in which your organization conducts business.

When you have completed your PESTEL analysis, continue to the next step, where you will assess the organization’s global value chain.

What activities, if any, in your organization's value chain are candidates for relocation to the country selected in Step 8? If there are no activities that can be relocated, please explain why. If there are activities that can be relocated, provide a brief justification and examine the challenges you see in coordination of theglobal value chain after the proposed value-chain activities of the organization are set up in this country.

When you have assessed the organization’s global value chain, continue to the next step, where you will evaluate cultural issues relevant to your organization’s operations.

Include information about the following cultural issues in your analysis:

· What cultural differences are likely to influence your organization's operations (e.g., marketing, human resources, etc.) in this country? For background and guidance, consultInternational Cultural Differences and read aboutthe impact of culture on best-practice production and operations management.

· Would your organization's products need to be localized or marketed differently in this country? Explain why or why not. SeeConducting Market Research for help.

· Are there any issues that your organization's corporate social responsibility or compliance program may need to address while operating in this country?

When you have completed your assessment of cultural issues, continue to the next step, where you will submit your final report.

This report should include not only your analysis and recommendations from Steps 8–12 above but also your analysis from Week 1 (week 5 of the course) (organization profile) and week 2 (Week 6 of the course) (industry analysis).

Your final report should include anexecutive summary guide followed by the main body of the report. Each section should clearly support your analysis. As you begin your executive summary, you might use this template for the first sentence, representing the outcome of your three-week analysis:

"It is recommended that (selected client organization) enter the (named country) with its (specified product)."

Your final report should follow these guidelines:

· 14–15 pages, excluding the title page, table of contents, reference page, and appendices

· in-text citations and references should abide by APA format

· 12-point Times New Roman font

· one-inch margins

· double spaced.

Your final report should include the following components:

1. Title page

o states the organization’s full legal name, country, and the organization’s product

o recommendation for [NAME OF ORGANIZATION] to enter [COUNTRY] market for [PRODUCT]

o date and your name

1. Table of contents

o page numbers for each major section

1. Executive summary (see note below)

o summarizes the results of your analysis and how you arrived at the recommendation

o belongs on a separate page from the introduction to the paper

1. Introduction (first page of paper body)

o states the purpose of the paper

o tells what the paper will do

o introduces the industry, country, and organization by name

1. Analyzing organization's resources and capabilities

o choice of organization

o organization profile

o strategy and competitive position of the organization

o organization's competitive strategy statement

o market and financial performance

1. Understanding your organization's industry

o trends in your industry

o analysis using Porter's five forces

1. Analyzing country's external environment

o selection of a new country for market expansion

o international expansion and global market opportunity assessment

o PESTEL analysis

o global value chain

o cultural issues

1. Conclusion
• One- or two-page summary of your recommendations and your rationale
2. Reference
• APA-style reference page
3. Appendices
• large data tables