Company Analysis

    Q1. External analysis (not about company). PESTEL & 5 Forces – approx. 1300 words PESTEL: 6 most important issues to be identified, discussed and each concluded as an O or a T. 5 Forces: each force to be discussed and assessed as High, Moderate or Low. Having these forces in mind assess industry attractiveness. Os and Ts from PESTEL (and 5 Forces – e.g. high rivalry) should be placed in TOWS. Q2. Internal analysis (resources and competences) – approx 1000 words Resources (what a company has) – descriptive approach. Approximately 5-6 resources to be identified and discussed (each should be discussed in a separate paragraph and concluded as a Strength or a Weakness). Try to address human, physical and intangible resources (financial resources are important but you are not required to address these). Try to identify at least one Weakness. Competences (what a company does). Two tables needed (Value Chain and VRIO). Approximately 5 - 6 activities (distinctive competences) to be placed in Value Chain and pushed through VRIO to identify one Core Competence. One distinctive competence (ideally core competence) should be discussed in detail (explain the activity, state why it is good/special, provide evidence, provide your reasoning behind VRIO – why is this activity Valuable to customers, Rare and difficult to imitate; do not worry about O, just assume that all activities have organisational support) in the main body. You can discuss another distinctive competence in the appendix. Each distinctive competence is a Strength, so (assuming that you identified and discussed 5 resources – 4 Ss and 1 W) and listed 5 distinctive competences in value chain, in total you should have 5Ss (competences) + 4Ss (resources) + 1W (resources) = 9Ss + 1W. The above Ss and Ws should be placed in TOWS. Note that in Q2 you should discuss resources and competences of the main company (acquirer) without the target. The target company should not be discussed at all.