This is a group assignment, but we only need help with the external analysis on the company we chose, which is Amazon.
First, identify the important industries and/or market segments for your firm as well as the key competitors in those industries/segments.
Next, conduct a five forces analysis on the industry. Identify two of Porter’s Five Forces that you believe most critically affect the industry’s “attractiveness” or “profit potential” (i.e. the level of profitability for the industry’s average firm) and describe those. If your firm is in more than one industry, you will need to choose one industry to analyze here. You can choose to define the ‘industry’ your firm is in as broadly or narrowly as you would like, just be clear about the industry or industry segment you have chosen to analyze, and be consistent in your analysis.
You will want to do the full Five Forces analysis so you can identify the most important forces influencing the industry’s profit potential or average profitability. Include it as an appendix. But in the text, just discuss two of the most important forces that influence the profit potential of the industry and justify your choice.
Finally, describe one or two key general environment changes or trends likely to affect the industry in the future, and describe how these will affect the industry’s average profitability overall and how they matter strategically for your company. Be as specific as possible (e.g., not just “technology” – but the specific events or trends and how will they affect the industry broadly as well as your company). Be sure to provide reasons and evidence to support your claims.
Style/content tips. When writing the paper, imagine you have been hired to deliver an impartial, objective assessment of the company. In other words, choosing to study a company doesn’t mean you love the company or are expected to make a ‘sales pitch’ for the company. Strive for language that is clear and precise, and strive to make factual, objective statements. Your statements should be supported with evidence that is drawn from more than one source, i.e. not just the company website. Avoid hyperbole. It can be hard to write this way because much of what we read and hear about business in the media is a counterexample. But do your best to hone your language and support your statements with facts obtained from objective sources – it will make you a more critical consumer of business information as well as a better communicator. Also, please write in sentences and paragraphs, not bullet points. It’s fine to use bullet points in the exhibits, but not in the text.
For in-text citations, simply note citations with a superscript number (indicating that you have inserted a reference). The citations should just appear as superscript numbers in your document and the references should be listed as endnotes on the last page of your paper (not included in the page count limits).You can do this in WORD by clicking on “References” and then “Insert Endnote” where you want to mark your citation. You will then enter your reference as an endnote. References should be provided all on one page at the end of your document (please note – not as footnotes at the bottom of each page). Many of your references will be websites. Please include the URL so I can click through to see your source. For each reference, please also include a brief description of what information the site contains and how you used it in your analysis (a sentence is sufficient). If you quote directly from other sources, use quotation marks. If you paraphrase or use ideas from other sources, please cite them when you use them. If you use a source many times it need only be included in references once, but every in-text use should refer to that reference. Please see the note on plagiarism posted on Canvas.
