Solved by verified expert:I am posting what will be needed for the remainder of the term. I will also post the final exam within the next few weeks. You will analyze the companies within this document. The good thing about this assignment is that you can choose the eight (8) companies you want to analyze. You will need to concentrate on pages C9 thru C15. Naturally, you will conduct a SWOT analysis. The Financial section gives you a formulas and an explanation of how it relates to analyzing the strength and/or weakness of the organization.When you complete your analysis, you will need to discuss the financial structure; however, I do not need a break down of the financial ratios. If it helps you to explain, then you are free to insert charts, diagrams, data, etc. as a part of your analysis. This analysis should be 2-3 pages in length, 12 pt. font, and Times New Roman. I encourage using additional resources. Of course, you will need a reference page.CASE 8 Beefing up the beefless Mac: McDonald’s
expansion strategies in India: C-120
CASE 9 Nucor Corporation and the US steel
industry C-128 CASE 10 Pacific Dunlop: Caught on the half volley
C-157
casestudiesforstrategicmangement__1_.pdf
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INTRODUCTION Preparing an effective case
analysis C-3
CASE 1
ABB in China, 1998 C-16
CASE 2
Ansett Airlines and Air New Zealand:
A flight to oblivion? C-31
CASE 3
BP–Mobil and the restructuring of the oil
refining industry C-44
CASE 4
Compaq in crisis C-67
CASE 5
Gillette and the men’s wet-shaving market
C-76
CASE 6
Incat Tasmania’s race for international
success: Blue Riband strategies C-95
CASE 7
Kiwi Travel International Airlines Ltd
C-105
CASE 8
Beefing up the beefless Mac: McDonald’s
expansion strategies in India: C-120
CASE 9
Nucor Corporation and the US steel
industry C-128
CASE 10 Pacific Dunlop: Caught on the half volley
C-157
CASE 11 Philip Morris C-173
CASE 12 Pisces Group of Singapore C-188
CASE 13 Raffles, Singapore’s historic hotel C-194
CASE 14 Southwest Airlines, 1996 C-205
C-1
Case Studies
Introduction
Preparing an effective
case analysis
In most strategic management courses, cases are used
extensively as a teaching tool.1 A key reason is that cases
provide active learners with opportunities to use the
strategic management process to identify and solve
organisational problems. Thus, by analysing situations
that are described in cases and presenting the results,
active learners (that is, students) become skilled at
effectively using the tools, techniques and concepts that
combine to form the strategic management process.
The cases that follow are concerned with actual
companies. Presented within the cases are problems and
situations that managers and those with whom they
work must analyse and resolve. As you will see, a
strategic management case can focus on an entire
industry, a single organisation or a business unit of a
large, diversified firm. The strategic management issues
facing not-for-profit organisations also can be examined
using the case analysis method.
Basically, the case analysis method calls for a careful
diagnosis of an organization’s current conditions (as
manifested by its external and internal environments) so
that appropriate strategic actions can be recommended
in light of the firm’s strategic intent and strategic
mission. Strategic actions are taken to develop and then
use a firm’s core competencies to select and implement
different strategies, including business-level, corporatelevel, acquisition and restructuring, international and
cooperative strategies. Thus, appropriate strategic
actions help the firm to survive in the long run as it
creates and uses competitive advantages as the
foundation for achieving strategic competitiveness and
earning above-average returns. The case method that
we are recommending to you has a rich heritage as a
pedagogical approach to the study and understanding
of managerial effectiveness.2
As an active learner, your preparation is critical to
successful use of the case analysis method. Without
careful study and analysis, active learners lack the
insights required to participate fully in the discussion of
a firm’s situation and the strategic actions that are
appropriate.
Instructors adopt different approaches in their
application of the case analysis method. Some require
active learners/students to use a specific analytical
procedure to examine an organisation; others provide
less structure, expecting students to learn by developing
their own unique analytical method. Still other
instructors believe that a moderately structured
framework should be used to analyse a firm’s situation
and make appropriate recommendations. Your lecturer
or tutor will determine the specific approach you take.
The approach we are presenting to you is a moderately
structured framework.
We divide our discussion of a moderately structured
case analysis method framework into four sections.
First, we describe the importance of understanding the
skills active learners can acquire through effective use of
the case analysis method. In the second section, we
provide you with a process-oriented framework. This
framework can be of value in your efforts to analyse
cases and then present the results of your work. Using
this framework in a classroom setting yields valuable
experiences that can, in turn, help you to successfully
complete assignments that you will receive from your
employer. The third section is where we describe briefly
what you can expect to occur during in-class case
discussions. As this description shows, the relationship
and interactions between instructors and active
learners/students during case discussions are different
than they are during lectures. In the final section, we
C-4
Introduction Preparing an effective case analysis
present a moderately structured framework that we
believe can help you to prepare effective oral and
written presentations. Written and oral communication
skills also are valued highly in many organisational
settings; hence, their development today can serve you
well in the future.
Skills gained through use of the
case analysis method
The case analysis method is based on a philosophy that
combines knowledge acquisition with significant
involvement from students as active learners. In the
words of Alfred North Whitehead, this philosophy
‘rejects the doctrine that students had first learned
passively, and then, having learned should apply
knowledge’.3 In contrast to this philosophy, the case
analysis method is based on principles that were
elaborated upon by John Dewey:
Only by wrestling with the conditions of this
problem at hand, seeking and finding his own way
out, does [the student] think … If he cannot devise
his own solution (not, of course, in isolation, but
in correspondence with the teacher and other
pupils) and find his own way out he will not learn,
not even if he can recite some correct answer with
a hundred percent accuracy.4
The case analysis method brings reality into the
classroom. When developed and presented effectively,
with rich and interesting detail, cases keep conceptual
discussions grounded in reality. Experience shows that
simple fictional accounts of situations and collections of
actual organisational data and articles from public
sources are not as effective for learning as fully
developed cases. A comprehensive case presents you
with a partial clinical study of a real-life situation that
faced managers as well as other stakeholders, including
employees. A case presented in narrative form provides
motivation for involvement with and analysis of a
specific situation. By framing alternative strategic
actions and by confronting the complexity and
ambiguity of the practical world, case analysis provides
extraordinary power for your involvement with a
personal learning experience. Some of the potential
consequences of using the case method are summarised
in Exhibit 1.
As Exhibit 1 suggests, the case analysis method can
assist active learners in the development of their
analytical and judgement skills. Case analysis also helps
you learn how to ask the right questions. By this we
mean questions that focus on the core strategic issues
that are included in a case. Active learners/students with
managerial aspirations can improve their ability to
identify underlying problems rather than focusing on
superficial symptoms as they develop skills at asking
probing yet appropriate questions.
The collection of cases your instructor chooses to
assign can expose you to a wide variety of organisations
and decision situations. This approach vicariously
broadens your experience base and provides insights
into many types of managerial situations, tasks and
responsibilities. Such indirect experience can help you to
make a more informed career decision about the
industry and managerial situation you believe will prove
to be challenging and satisfying. Finally, experience in
analysing cases definitely enhances your problemsolving skills, and research indicates that the case
method for this class is better than the lecture method.5
Furthermore, when your instructor requires oral
and written presentations, your communication skills
will be honed through use of the case method. Of
course, these added skills depend on your preparation as
Exhibit 1 | Consequences of student involvement with the case method
1 Case analysis requires students to practise important managerial skills—diagnosing, making
decisions, observing, listening and persuading—while preparing for a case discussion.
2 Cases require students to relate analysis and action, to develop realistic and concrete actions
despite the complexity and partial knowledge characterising the situation being studied.
3 Students must confront the intractability of reality—complete with absence of needed
information, an imbalance between needs and available resources, and conflicts among
competing objectives.
4 Students develop a general managerial point of view—where responsibility is sensitive to
action in a diverse environmental context.
Source: C.C. Lundberg and C. Enz, 1993, ‘A framework for student case preparation’, Case Research Journal, 13
(Summer), p. 134.
Introduction Preparing an effective case analysis
Student preparation for case
discussion
If you are inexperienced with the case method, you may
need to alter your study habits. A lecture-oriented
course may not require you to do intensive preparation
Exhibit 2 | An effective case analysis process
Step 1:
a. In general – determine who, what, how, where and when
Gaining familiarity
(the critical facts of the case).
b. In detail – identify the places, persons, activities and contexts of
the situation.
c.
Recognise the degree of certainty/uncertainty of acquired
information.
Step 2:
a. List all indicators (including stated ‘problems’) that something
Recognising symptoms
is not as expected or as desired.
b. Ensure that symptoms are not assumed to be the problem
(symptoms should lead to identification of the problem).
Step 3:
a. Identify critical statements by major parties (e.g. people,
Identifying goals
groups, the work unit, etc.).
b. List all goals of the major parties that exist or can be reasonably
inferred.
Step 4:
a. Decide which ideas, models and theories seem useful.
Conducting the analysis
b. Apply these conceptual tools to the situation.
c.
As new information is revealed, cycle back to sub-steps (a) and
(b).
Step 5:
a. Identify predicaments (goal inconsistencies).
Making the diagnosis
b. Identify
problems
(discrepancies
between
goals
and
performance).
c.
Prioritise predicaments/problems regarding timing, importance,
etc.
Step 6:
a. Specify and prioritise the criteria used to choose action
Doing the action planning
alternatives.
b. Discover or invent feasible action alternatives.
c.
Examine the probable consequences of action alternatives.
d. Select a course of action.
e. Design an implementation plan/schedule.
f.
Create a plan for assessing the action to be implemented.
Source: C. C. Lundberg and C. Enz, 1993, ‘A framework for student case preparation’, Case Research Journal, 13
(Summer), p. 144.
C-5
for each class period. In such a course, you have the
latitude to work through assigned readings and review
lecture notes according to your own schedule. However,
an assigned case requires significant and conscientious
preparation before class. Without it, you will be unable
to contribute meaningfully to in-class discussion.
Therefore, careful reading and thinking about case facts,
as well as reasoned analyses and the development of
alternative solutions to case problems, are essential.
Recommended alternatives should flow logically from
core problems identified through study of the case.
Exhibit 2 shows a set of steps that can help you to
familiarise yourself with a case, identify problems and
propose strategic actions that increase the probability
that a firm will achieve strategic competitiveness and
earn above-average returns.
well as your instructor’s facilitation of learning.
However, the primary responsibility for learning is
yours. The quality of case discussion is generally
acknowledged to require, at a minimum, a thorough
mastery of case facts and some independent analysis of
them. The case method therefore first requires that you
read and think carefully about each case. Additional
comments about the preparation you should complete
to successfully discuss a case appear in the next section.
C-6
Introduction Preparing an effective case analysis
Gaining familiarity
Identifying goals
The first step of an effective case analysis process calls
for you to become familiar with the facts featured in the
case and the focal firm’s situation. Initially, you should
become familiar with the focal firm’s general situation
(for example, who, what, how, where and when).
Thorough familiarisation demands appreciation of the
nuances, as well as the major issues, in the case.
Gaining familiarity with a situation requires you to
study several situational levels, including interactions
between and among individuals within groups, business
units, the corporate office, the local community and the
society at large. Recognising relationships within and
among levels facilitates a more thorough understanding
of the specific case situation.
It is also important that you evaluate information
on a continuum of certainty. Information that is
verifiable by several sources and judged along similar
dimensions can be classified as a fact. Information
representing someone’s perceptual judgement of a
particular situation is referred to as an inference.
Information gleaned from a situation that is not
verifiable is classified as speculation. Finally,
information that is independent of verifiable sources
and arises through individual or group discussion is an
assumption. Obviously, case analysts and organisational
decision makers prefer having access to facts over
inferences, speculations and assumptions.
Personal feelings, judgements and opinions evolve
when you are analysing a case. It is important to be
aware of your own feelings about the case and to
evaluate the accuracy of perceived ‘facts’ to ensure that
the objectivity of your work is maximised.
The third step of effective case analysis calls for you to
identify the goals of the major organisations, business
units and/or individuals in a case. As appropriate, you
should also identify each firm’s strategic intent and
strategic mission. Typically, these direction-setting
statements (goals, strategic intents and strategic
missions) are derived from comments made by central
characters in the organisation, business unit or top
management team as described in the case and/or from
public documents (for example, an annual report).
Completing this step successfully can sometimes be
difficult. Nonetheless, the outcomes you attain from this
step are essential to an effective case analysis because
identifying goals, intent and mission helps you to clarify
the major problems featured in a case and to evaluate
alternative solutions to those problems. Directionsetting statements are not always stated publicly or
prepared in written format. When this occurs, you must
infer goals from other available factual data and
information.
Recognising symptoms
Recognition of symptoms is the second step of an
effective case analysis process. A symptom is an
indication that something is not as you or someone else
thinks it should be. You may be tempted to correct the
symptoms instead of searching for true problems. True
problems are the conditions or situations requiring
solution before the performance of an organisation,
business unit or individual can improve. Identifying and
listing symptoms early in the case analysis process tends
to reduce the temptation to label symptoms as
problems. The focus of your analysis should be on the
actual causes of a problem, rather than on its symptoms.
Thus, it is important to remember that symptoms are
indicators of problems; subsequent work facilitates
discovery of critical causes of problems that your case
recommendations must address.
Conducting the analysis
The fourth step of effective case analysis is concerned
with acquiring a systematic understanding of a
situation. Occasionally cases are analysed in a less-thanthorough manner. Such analyses may be a product of a
busy schedule or of the difficulty and complexity of the
issues described in a particular case. Sometimes you will
face pressures on your limited amounts of time and may
believe that you can understand the situation described
in a case without systematic analysis of all the facts.
However, experience shows that familiarity with a case’s
facts is a necessary, but insufficient, step in the
development of effective solutions – solutions that can
enhance a firm’s strategic competitiveness. In fact, a lessthan-thorough analysis typically results in an emphasis
on symptoms, rather than on problems and their causes.
To analyse a case effectively, you should be sceptical of
quick or easy approaches and answers.
A systematic analysis helps you to understand a
situation and determine what can work and probably
what will not work. Key linkages and underlying causal
networks based on the history of the firm become
apparent. In this way, you can separate causal networks
from symptoms.
Also, because the quality of a case analysis depends
on applying appropriate tools, it is important that you
use the ideas, models and theories that seem to be useful
for evaluating and solving individual and unique
situations. As you consider facts and symptoms, a useful
Introduction Preparing an effective case analysis
Making the diagnosis
The fifth step of effective case analysis – diagnosis – is
the process of identifying and clarifying the roots of the
problems by comparing goals with facts. In this step, it
is useful to search for predicaments. Predicaments are
situations in which goals do not fit with known facts.
When you evaluate the actual performance of an
organisation, business unit or individual, you may
identify over- or underachievement (relative to
established goals). Of course, single-problem situations
are rare. Accordingly, you should recognise that the case
situations you study probably will be complex in nature.
Effective diagnosis requires you to determine the
problems affecting longer-term performance and those
requiring immediate handling. Understanding these
issues will aid your efforts to prioritise problems and
predicaments, given available resources and existing
constraints.
Doing the action planning
The final step of an effective case analysis process is
called action planning. Action planning is the process of
identifying appropriate alternative actions. In the action
planning step, you select the criteria you will use to
evaluate the identified alternatives. You may derive
these criteria from the analyses; typically, they are
related to key strategic situations facing the focal
organisation. Furthermore, it is important that you
prioritise these criteria to ensure a rational and effective
evaluation of alternative courses of action.
Typically, managers ‘satisfice’ when selecting
courses of action; that is, they find acceptable courses of
action that meet most of the chosen evaluation criteria.
A rule of thumb that has proved valuable to strategic
decision makers is to select an alternative that leaves
other plausible alternatives available if the one selected
fails.
Once you have selected the best alternative, you
must specify an implementation plan. Developing an
implementation plan serves as a reality check on the
feasibility of your alternatives. Thus, it is important that
you give thoughtful consideration to all issues
associated with the implementation of the selected
alternatives.
What to expect from in-class case
discussions
Classroom discussions of cases differ significantly from
lectures. The case method calls for instructors to guide
the discussion, encourage student participation and
solicit alternative views. When alternative views are not
forthcoming, i …
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