Appendix 2
BRYSON BELL
DANA COOK
IAN WALROVEN
PHILIP WINFIELD
TYLER BUSCHMAN
JORDAN JONES
STEPHANIE LIGHT
AUSTIN BASTIAN
What is a Case?
 A Story
 What do you do with the information?
 Case analysis typically has six parts
 External analysis, internal analysis, strategic issues, strategic
alternatives, recommendations, implementation
Executive Summary
 Company Vision/Mission
 A statement to reflect what the company stands for and strives
towards

Under Armour: ‘To make all athletes better through passion,
science and the relentless pursuit of innovation’
 Company Goals
 What the company strives to achieve internally and externally
Executive Summary
 Company Policies/Values
 Refers to the ethical, personal and cultural, economical values
the company incorporates internally and externally when
doing business

Under Armour’s core values were founded on: innovation,
inspiration, reliability and integrity
 Corporate and Competitive Strategies
 How the company plans on growing and progressing in the
current and future market
External Analysis
 This section includes a description of opportunities
and threats found in the specific and general external
environmental sectors.
 Talks about the industry you are in and the
competitive forces.
External Analysis
 Things to include:
 Competition Analysis- Porter’s 5 Forces (opportunities and
threats)
Rivalry
 Entrants
 Bargaining power of buyer
 Bargaining power of Supplier
 Substitute Products


BOS: talks about this in chapter 3 Reconstructing Market
Boundaries


Examining your Red Ocean
G2G: looks at this topic by referring to knowing who you are as
a company and what you stand for to be successful
External Analysis
 General External Environment (opportunities and
threats)





Economic: what’s going on in the economy
Demographic: are there new demographic changes that affect
strategy
Sociocultural: society affects trends
Political-legal: new laws that affect business?
Technology: new technological advances
External Analysis
 Boal's industry analysis questions address these
issues


“business and economic characteristics”
Competitive forces
 Using all of these resources and using ideas from
BOS about creating Blue Oceans, knowing your
market and G2G knowledge of what companies
should be doing to be great gives us a clear picture of
all the things to think about when doing an external
analysis
Internal Analysis
 The internal analysis section of a case analysis
includes a description of the strengths and
weaknesses found in an organization’s internal
functional areas.

SWOT analysis
 The internal analysis section should include an
analysis of top management and board of directors.
 Once you have analyzed all of the internal areas, you
should describe the specific strengths and
weaknesses you see in each area and explain why you
see them as strength or weaknesses
Internal Analysis
 Strengths/Weaknesses found in the functional areas
within BLM Inc.

Strategic managers strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: CEO is very hands on
 BLM’s weakness: CEO is very hands on


Corporate structure strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: Organized into different product divisions
 BLM’s weakness: Company isn’t organized around geographic
markets


Corporate culture strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: Employees believe in the products, company is very
people oriented, company emphasizes open communication
 BLM’s weaknesses: none found

Internal Analysis
 Strengths/Weaknesses found in the functional areas
within BLM Inc.

Production-operations strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: Most of the company’s production facilities are
less than seven years old.
 BLM’s weakness: Company has a large number of suppliers


Marketing strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: Company logo, repeat customers
 BLM’s weakness: Target market is narrow, Global marketing has
not been effective

Internal Analysis
 Strengths/Weaknesses found in the functional areas
within BLM Inc.

R&D strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: Current expansion of R&D facility
 BLM’s weakness: No global R&D facility


Human resources management strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strengths: Educational benefits offered to employees
 BLM’s weakness: Assembly work on custom ordered motorcycles is
précis and demanding


Information systems strengths/weaknesses
BLM’s strength: Numerous forms of communication with employees
and customers
 BLM’s weakness: Web site is only in English

Internal Analysis
 The final part of an internal analysis for a case
analysis is a four part financial analysis
1)
2)
3)
4)
Ratio analysis and comparison to industry/company trends
Graphs and charts outlining sales, profits, and any other
important financial measures
listing and explanation of a company’s financial strengths
and weaknesses
a statement of the companies financial condition (i.e. weak,
fair, strong)
Strategic Issues
 After SWOT Analysis
 Identify Critical Weaknesses
 Identify Opportunities
 Identify Distinctive Competencies
Strategic Issues Example
 Big Loud Motorcycles

Target market is very narrow

Missing significant marketing opportunities
Strategic Issues for Underarmour
 Narrow Market compared to competition
 Implementation issues for new product lines
 Need to expand their brand to appeal to more people
Strategic Alternatives
 Address the strategic issues
 Propose at least two alternatives to address each
issue
 Describe what, how, who, when, and where of each
alternative
Under Armour
Strategic Alternatives
Blue Ocean Strategy
 Looking at noncustomers through three tiers
 Develop and target products towards females
Good to Great
 Technology accelerators

HeatGear has anti-odor technology helps prevent the growth
of odor causing microbes
Under Armour
Strategic Alternatives
Strategic Issue: Men’s apparel line is more successful than the
women’s. Missing out on a big opportunity since roughly half of the
population is female.
Strategic Alternative:
 What:
Design and develop products for females and target
through advertising aimed at females.
 How:
Find out what women want to wear and see
through current customers, surveys, and focus groups.
 Who:
Marketing research department will be responsible for
collecting information, pursuing, and developing a plan.
 When:
Start immediately to take advantage of the
opportunity.
 Where:
Alternative will be done in U.S. market and involve
input from headquarters in Baltimore.
Recommendations
 After you’ve developed your strategic alternatives…
 Time to make some choices.
 Which alternatives are you choosing? Why?
 Which alternatives are you rejecting? Why?
Recommendations
 Choose the best alternative
 Note: You can choose as many of your alternatives to “resolve”
your issue as you want, as long as they’re not mutually
exclusive.
 Explain how your chosen alternative(s) will resolve
the strategic issue.
Implementation
 Disadvantage of case analysis: can’t put your
proposed ideas into action
 To overcome this, your case analysis should provide
a description of what changes would have to take
place if your chosen strategies were implemented
3 Ways to Approach Implementation
 Describing proposed changes in organizational
structure
 The proposed changes in organizational culture
 Source of funding for implementing the chosen
strategies
 Case Study: BLM
Ch. 8 Blue Ocean Strategy:
Build Execution into Strategy
 All members of the organization need to be aligned
around a strategy and support it
 Overcome organizational hurdles
 Create a culture of trust and commitment
Ch. 8 Good to Great:
A Culture of Discipline
 The main points of this chapter:
 Build a culture full of people who take disciplined action
within the three circles
 Consistent with the Hedgehog Concept
 BLM case study
 Under Armour
Conclusion
 Case Analysis
 External Analysis
 Internal Analysis
 Financial Analysis
 Strategic Issues/Alternatives
 Recommendations
 Implementation