Case Analysis—Your Choice

Your Goal: Identify which corporate-level strategies the company is currently utilizing, determine its effectiveness, and provide recommendations for an improved corporate-level strategy.

Step 1: Choose a case that you have not yet analyzed from these options 

• Baidu’s Business Model and Its Evolution
• Illinois Works: Retooling for Continued Growth and Profitability
• Pacific Drilling: The Preferred Offshore Driller
• Publix Supermarkets, Inc.

Step 2: Analyze the case.

Identify the frameworks, tools, and resources that will help you gain a thorough understanding of the current state of the company and the challenges they face.

Step 3: Synthesize your findings and propose solutions in a report. Your report should include the following: 

• The main points of the case: Briefly summarize the case you chose to analyze.
• A summary of your analysis with evidence: Include the results of any analysis you conducted, including external analysis, internal analysis, PEST and SWOT analyses, etc. Summarize strengths, weaknesses, and threats for the company.
• Strategy: Identify three to four recommendations that address the goal of the analysis. List the pros and cons of each option and identify which one you recommend the company adopts. Justify your choice in reference to principles in the course textbook and the results of your analysis.
• Strategy Implementation: Provide steps the company would need to take to implement the proposed strategy, including changes to company structure, incentives, control, etc.
• Critical Questions: List one to two questions that would contribute to a meaningful discussion about the case in class. These questions should get at the deeper issues of the case, lead to a critical analysis of possible solutions, and help us identify takeaways and learning points that we can apply in the future.
  Principles and Application: List one to two takeaways from your analysis that apply to other projects in the class, your life, and your future work. They should help you identify how to better apply the strategies and principles that you learned this week in the reading.