BMGT 495 – Project 2: Tool Analysis (Week 4) Companies Name: Acacia Communications Inc. NOTE: All submitted work is to be your original work (only your work). You may not use any work from anot

BMGT 495 – Project 2: Tool Analysis (Week 4)
Companies Name: Acacia Communications Inc.
NOTE: All submitted work is to be your original work (only your work). You may not use any work from another student, the Internet or an online clearinghouse. You are expected to understand the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy, and know that it is your responsibility to learn about instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources as specified in the APA Publication Manual, 6th Ed. (You are held accountable for in-text citations and an associated reference list only).
Project 2 is due Sunday at 11:59 p.m. eastern time of week 4 unless otherwise changed by the instructor.
This project is the second of four projects. It also represents the second part of the external environmental analysis that is part of a strategic management plan. You will use the tools and apply concepts learned in this and previous business courses to demonstrate an understanding of how organizations develop and manage strategies to establish, safeguard and sustain its competitive position in the 21st century’s (rapidly evolving/shifting/changing), uncertain hyper-competitive business environment.
Monitoring competitors’ performance is a key aspect of performing an external environment analysis. This project provides you with the opportunity to evaluate the competitive position of one of the organizations listed below and integrate that information in a partial SWOT (OT), Porter’s Five Forces, External Factor Evaluation (EFE) matrix and Competitive Profile Matrices (CPM).
In this project, you are presenting a report document. The expectation is that the report provides the level of details to help the audience grasp the main topics and to understand and complete the External Environmental Analysis.
You will then write the report in your own words to share the external analysis. You are expected to present information and support the ideas and reasoning using the course material and your research. You will not lift any information from source documents without properly citing and referencing. For the technical analysis aspect of the project, you are required to create the technique on your own and may not use from any source material that you happen to find. No work from a clearinghouse or similar website may be used or cited as a credible source.
Skill Building
Outcomes Met With This Project
· utilize a set of useful analytical skills, tools, and techniques for analyzing a company strategically;
· integrate ideas, concepts, and theories from previously taken functional courses including accounting, finance, market, business and human resource management;
· analyze and synthesize strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to generate, prioritize, and implement alternative strategies in order to revise a current plan or write a new plan and present a strategic plan
Step 1:Specific Company for All Four Projects
Although you are required to research information about the focal company and the external environment for this project, you are also accountable for using the course material to support the ideas, reasoning and conclusions made. Course material use goes beyond defining terms but is used to explain the ‘why and how’ of a situation. Using one or two in-text citations from the course material and then relying on Internet source material will earn few points on this assignment. A variety of source material is expected and what is presented must be relevant and applicable to the topic being discussed. Avoid merely making statements but close the loop of the discussion by explaining how
something happens
or why
Success:The analysis is based on research and not opinion. You are not making recommendations and you will not attempt to position the focal company in a better or worse light than other companies within the industry merely because you are completing an analysis on this particular company. The analysis must be based on factual information. Any conclusions drawn have to be based on factual information rather than leaps of faith.
Research for IndustryAnalysis
to support you in your studies. The UMUC Library provides research assistance in creating search strategies,selecting relevant databases, and evaluating and citing resources in a variety of formats via its Ask a Librarian service at
Use this template to complete the project:
Project 2 Template
. The document has to be written in Word or rtf. No other format is acceptable. No pdf files will be graded. Use 12-point font for a double-spaced report. The final product cannot be longer than 8 pages in length, which includes all tables and matrices but excludes the title page and reference page. Do no use an Appendix.
Step 4: Industry Analysis
· Perform a Porter’s Five Forces analysis on the organization’s industry and the focal company in particular. The industry is the global industry. Use the course material to identify the five forces and what components make up each force. The analysis of each force must clearly discuss ‘why and how’ and conclude with the effect of the given force on the fortunes of the industry (industry profitability) and/or industry dynamics; that is whether the effect of the force on the industry is weak/modest/average/moderate or strong/severe and also on the focal company. You may not use a Porter’s Five Forces analysis that is already completed and available on the Internet. A zero will result if used as the analysis has to be the result of your research and your own development.
Step 5: Competitive Analysis
· Perform a Competitive Analysis using the focal company’s closest three competitors plus the selected company. Analyze the competition’s products and services explaining features, value, targets, etc. What are the competition’s strengths and weaknesses and what is the market outlook for the competition?
· Identify and discuss at least eight (8) key success factors (critical success factors). Each industry has different key success factors so make sure the success factors fit the industry. Review the Competitive Profile Matrix Example under week 3 Content for clarification.
· Develop a Competitor Profile Matrix (CPM). Explain how you developed the matrix. Make sure to support your reasoning.
Step 6: Partial SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a tool used to assess the strengths and weaknesses (internal environment) and the opportunities and threats (external environment) of an organization. You will complete a partial SWOT analysis only completing an analysis on the OT (Opportunities and Threats). The information presented is not based on your beliefs but on fact-based, data-driven information. The items used in the OT are factors that are affecting or might affect the focal company or those companies within the identified industry.
· Develop an OT table using your research to identify at least five (5) opportunities and five (5) threats that influence the industry and the focal company. Make sure to cite the elements within the table.
· Perform an OT analysis (separate from SWOT table).
· You may not use a SWOT analysis that is already completed and available on the Internet. A zero will result if used as the analysis has to be the result of your research and your own development. NOTE: A matrix is a table. It is not an analysis.
Step 7: External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Analysis
The External Factor Evaluation (EFE) matrix will allow you to use the information from the industry analysis and the competitive analysis to assess whether the focal company is able to effectively take advantage of existing opportunities while minimizing the identified external threats that will help you formulate new strategies and policies. You will use the opportunities and threats from the OT analysis.
· Using the information gathered for the OT analysis, develop an EFE matrix using five (5) opportunities and five (5) threats. Discuss how you developed the EFE matrix and the outcome. Make sure to support your reasoning.
Step 8:Conclusion
Create a concluding paragraph. The Conclusion is intended to emphasize the purpose/significance of the analysis, emphasize the significance/consequence of findings, and indicate the wider applications that are derived from the main points of the project’s requirements. You will draw conclusions about the findings of the external environment analysis.
Step 9:Submit the Report in the Assignment Folder
Submitting the project to the Assignment Folder is considered the student’s final product and therefore ready for grading by the instructor. It is incumbent upon the student to verify the Project is the correct submission. No exceptions will be considered by the instructor.
· Use the grading rubric while completing the project to ensure all requirements are met that will lead to the highest possible grade.
· Third person writing is required. Third person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second person writing).
· Contractions are not used in business writing, so do not use them.
· No direct quotes except for mission statement and vision statement. For all other source material used in the analysis, you will not use direct quotation marks but will instead paraphrase. What this means is that you will put the ideas of an author or article into your own words rather than lifting directly from a source document. You may not use more than four consecutive words from a source document, as doing so would require direct quotation marks. Changing words from a passage does not exclude the passage from having quotation marks. If more than four consecutive words are used from source documents, this material will not be included in the grade and could lead to allegations of academic dishonesty.
· Use in-text citations and provide a reference list that contains the reference associated with each in-text citation.
· You may not use books in completing this project.
· Provide the page or paragraph number in every in-text citation presented.
· You may not use Fern Fort University, Ibis World or any other for-fee website.
Self-Plagiarism: Self-plagiarism is the act of reusing significant, identical or nearly identical portions of one’s own work. You cannot re-use any portion of a paper or other graded work that was submitted to another class even if you are retaking this course. You also will not reuse any portion of previously submitted work in this class. A zero will be assigned to the assignment if self-plagiarized. Faculty
donot
have the discretion to accept self-plagiarized work.