Instructions for Project – Part 1
IMPORTANT POINT #1: Be sure that your company is publicly-traded (find a stock price). If your company is private or
a subsidiary of another company this will cause problems in Project Part 2.
IMPORTANT POINT #2: Part 1 is an industry analysis and as such should focus on the industry, not your specific
company. If you find yourself writing “This force affects Kroger because….” you are wrong. The correct approach is
“This force affects the grocery industry because….”
IMPORTANT POINT #3: This is a research paper and what you write should be backed by facts. If you write about
“economic growth” or something like that then you need numbers to back up that statement. Items such as your key
success factors should be backed by research. Etc.
I. Introduction 5 points
Give your company’s name and identify the industry in which it competes. This is the company you will analyze
when you do Project Part 2 later in the semester.
II. Competitive Analysis Grid 40 points
A. Include your company and all of their direct and close-indirect competitors on the grid. Explain why you
choose this group. Maximum of 8 firms. You evaluate them by what you determine as the key success factors –
minimum of 5 – for your industry (the horizontal on the example). The key success factors listed here are
examples only, you need to determine which specific factors are key for your industry, don’t just use these.
Here’s an example:
Price Selection Food Quality Ambiance Speed Total
Panera Bread 1 7 7 7 4 26
Panda Express 5 3 5 4 7 24
Chipotle 5 4 4 5 7 25
McAlister’s Deli 3 7 7 7 4 28
Wing Stop 3 1 4 1 1 10
Subway 7 3 1 1 7 19
1-7 rating scale: 1 = poor, 7 = excellent
Ratings are done comparatively, some company should have a 7 in each column (e.g. best price) and some other
company should have a 1 in each column (e.g. worst price). After that it’s relative to the distance from the best
to the lowest. If a column has only 3s and 4s in it, for example, you’ve done it wrong.
B. Explain your choice of key success factors (research based). Why are these things important to your industry?
C. Analyze the nature of competition in the industry using the grid. Don’t just describe the grid, analyze what the
grid reveals about competition in your sector of the industry as a whole. This is the payoff, be detailed!
Instructions for Project – Part 1
III. Industry Environment Analysis 45 points
A. Analyze all of the Five Forces using textbook information (pp 53-68): Rivals, Buyers, Suppliers, New Entrants,
Substitutes. Use headings. It is extremely important that you aggressively use the textbook for this analysis.
Failure to do so will result in a very low grade for this section.
• When you analyze the Buyer force, start by identifying all buyer groups. These usually are either end
consumers or specific other industries, such as auto dealers are the buyers of the auto manufacturing
industry. (Be aware that the end consumer never has power in this model. If you want to analyze the
influence of the end consumer, that happens in the Rivalry force.) Also start the Supplier section and the
Substitute section the same way, with an identification of what industries are relevant to that section.
Suppliers are the industries that provide your industry what it needs to produce the product or deliver
the service. The companies of your chosen industry are NOT the suppliers in this model. Substitutes are
products from other industries that meet the same or very similar need of your industry’s product. Coke
is not a Substitute for Pepsi, they are Rivals.
• Conclude each force section with your assertion of the force as strong or weak for your industry and
then discuss whether that means it’s a positive or a negative (you must pick one, it can’t be “both”) for
industry profitability (not company) and why. Very important to use what the text says here. If the text
says that a strong force in an area is a negative on industry profitability, then it’s a negative. Don’t make
up some scenario where you think it could be a positive or just repeat what you found on some website.
Use the model how it’s designed to be used.
• Provide a paragraph that gives an overall assertion for industry profitability from the previous analysis.
Don’t just rehash what you found for each of the 5, give an overall analysis. “Given the analysis of the 5
Forces, the overall outlook for industry profitability is (positive/negative) because….”
Writing/Typing Requirements: 10 points
– Use heading/subheadings to separate your paper.
– Use good writing style – introductory/ conclusion sentences for paragraphs, complete sentences, transitions
between paragraphs/sections. Essay, no bullet points.
– References – you should have at least 6 references and you should put them at the end of the paper (use
whatever style you like on this as long as the references are complete). Be sure you indicate in the body of the
paper where information from a reference is used. Like this…(Author, 2016)
– Please write in your own words – “borrowing” significant portions of quoted material without attributing it to
an author is plagiarism. Having much of your paper being quotes is also bad, it’s not your paper then. If you use
your own words but you got the concepts from a source, you still need to reference the material. (NOTE: Papers
will be run through a plagiarism program, so be careful to use your own work.)
-Ten pages maximum, typed and double spaced. Page max does not include appendices.
