Milestone 2:
Business-Level Strategy
We will be writing about the hospitality industry – restaurants and/or hotels
A restuarant chain like Applebee’s or hotel chain like Best Western, would be ideal.
In this assignment you’re going to analyze a company that was
‘stuck-in-the-middle’ until it went bankrupt or otherwise stopped operations
sometime in the last twenty years. What should executives have done differently?
Could the end of that company have been changed?
For this milestone, you will put yourself in the shoes of a business
analyst for that company before it’s demise, and write a paper for executives
which includes:
Why and how the
company is stuck in the middle.
An explanation
of the conditions in the firm’s industry and the business-level strategy
that the firm should pursue in response. Explain and justify your
recommendations.
A strategy
recommendation for the firm’s executives to pursue.
This assignment will enable you to apply the material
you’ve learned to the business case of your choosing. This will deepen
your knowledge of business-level strategy, and also enable you to research a
firm or industry you’re interested in. You may focus on the same industry
as you discussed in your previous assignment.
For help finding an example of a ‘stuck-in-the-middle’
firm, review the examples included in the module and in this article. You are welcome
to select your firm from one of the course examples, or from outside of the
course material, as long as the firm fits the criteria of being ‘stuck in the
middle’. You will do research for this assignment by searching for analyses, articles
and news reports of the end of the company. Your milestone should draw on at
least three sources (which need to be properly cited in a works cited).
Guidelines
Your report
should be 1-2 pages, and should be written in clear and professional
language. You will need to cite the sources you use using APA 7
style. Your list of works cited does not count towards your page
limit.
If you need
inspiration, visit the books and articles cited in the bibliography for
this module; they contain many case studies you can draw on to inspire
your work. Remember to cite your sources.
You can find
information about the conditions within an industry using reports,
economic forecasts, news articles, interviews or academic articles.
If you’re having trouble locating information, reach out to the professor
or to UMPI’s library services.
What to include in your
submission
Your assignment submission should include:
A short paper
(1-2 pages) addressing the points outlined above in APA 7 style.
A list of works
cited.
