Firm Characteristics
•Whitepaper format
•Approx. 2-4 pages
•Porter’s 5 Forces, Value chain, Core Competency & Business strategy, Threats to Longevity
Choose a firm that you might want to work for one day (or a firm in an industry in which you want to work). The firm should be publicly traded, so that you can gather the necessary data about it.
As though you were presenting a market analysis in a professional setting, create a whitepaper describing the firm in detail. To do this write a description of the firm’s characteristics that answers the items below. I expect this will take 2-4 pages, but focus on clear presentation of content rather than length. Cite any sources used including any chart or image sources incorporated into the document.
Your whitepaper should address the following:
• Define the firm’s industry
• Describe the firm relative to the 5 forces
• Determine the strength of the forces
• Which forces are most important to this firm’s continued success and why?
• Where is the firm in the industry value chain?
• What is the firm’s business strategy?
• How can/does IT enable these strategies?
• How sustainable are these strategies?
• Explain the greatest threats to the firm’s continued success
• How can these threats be minimized?