Strategy Composition, discussion help

Within the Discussion Board area, write 600–800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

As you close your weekly meeting with Deborah, she says, “There are some very good ideas here. I would like to see you continue with a global marketing plan. We need more concrete analysis and data for the presentation. Get your team to work.”

After your meeting with Deborah, you briefly meet with your team to discuss moving toward a more formal analysis.

“Tiffany and Mike, we need to provide a more detailed analysis,” you explain. “You’ve done a great job so far looking at what resources we need and potential countries, but we need to really dig deeper on this.”

Tiffany nods her head in agreement. “Definitely,” she says. “We need to look at some internal variables as well as political, environmental, sociocultural, and technological environments of the countries that we are considering.”

Mike interjects, “Well, that’s something we should consider, but it’s not the only way to analyze this type of project. This is such a big decision, and we need to give as much information as we can.”

You reply, “Great point, Mike. We should look at this from a couple of different angles.”

You go back to your office to update the project schedule with Deborah’s instructions. You review the activities and note the project remains on schedule.

The next task in your strategic marketing plan is to determine the tools that are needed to conduct an analysis of the industry and competitors. Complete the following:

• What are the best tools to use in this situation?
  • Provide a brief summary of at least 2 of these tools.
• Why do you think these are the best ways to analyze the market?
• How will you use these tools in your plan?

The materials found in the M.U.S.E. may help you with this assignment, such as the audio file Implementing a Global Strategy. This file provides real-world experience that may help you with this assignment.

Within the Discussion Board area, write 600–800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

As you review the analysis conducted by Mike and Tiffany, you notice the area of competition is missing from the reports. Thinking about your project management training, you update the project schedule to include activities related to identifying competitors.

You talk with Mike and Tiffany at lunch. “You’ve done some great research and brought up some good ideas to implement in the presentation,” you say. “There is one element that we are missing.”

“One of the most important aspects of the strategy: our competitors,” Tiffany states.

“I’ve already done some analysis, and there are many in the global market. It seems like there are several office furniture companies thriving, but not as many custom furniture manufacturers,” Mike elaborates.

“Well, we need to provide the board with some solid competitors. I’ll work on finding our top two,” you say. Complete the following:

• Who are your top 2 global competitors in the market?
• Provide a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis for each competitor.
• Why are they direct competitors?
• What is their competitive advantage?
• Could you form a cooperative strategy with any of the competitors?
  • If so, how?
  • If not, why?
• What strategies could you use to build a competitive market profile?

The materials found in the M.U.S.E. may help you with this assignment such as the audio file Choosing a Strategy. This file provides real-world experience that may help you with this assignment.