Find an article about a specific company that will allow you to address one of t

Find an article about a specific company that will allow you to address one of the
strategies from these three chapters, listed on the preceding page.
o Paragraph of article summary. 5 points
o Identify what specific strategy your company is using, supporting your
assertion with detailed information from the relevant chapter and the
article. 10 points
o Using information from past chapters, determine whether the choice of
this strategy was motivated by external factors (Chapter 3) or internal
factors (Chapter 4). 8 points
o Explain whether this was a good or bad move (you MUST select one,
no fence-sitting) using chapter and article information. This cannot
just be your opinion, you need chapter support! 7 points
Each bullet should be its own section, separated by white space or a new paragraph.
Failure to provide the full article reference: -5 points
Chapter 6:
– Strategic offensives
– Blue-ocean strategy
– First-mover advantage and disadvantage
– Horizontal scope of the firm
– Vertical scope of the firm
– Vertically integrated firm
– Backward integration
– Forward integration
– Merger
– Acquisition
– Outsourcing
– Strategic alliance
– Joint venture
Chapter 7:
– Export strategies
– Licensing strategies
– Franchising strategies
– Foreign subsidiary strategies
– Alliance and joint venture strategies
– International strategy
– Multi-domestic strategy or think-local, act-local strategy
– Global strategy or think-global, act-global strategy
– Transnational strategy or think-global, act-local strategy
– Cross-market subsidization
– Mutual restraint
Chapter 8:
– Tests of corporate advantage
– Synergy
– Acquisition premium
– Corporate venturing
– Transactional costs
– Related business diversification
– Unrelated business diversification
– Strategic fit
– Specialized vs. general resources and capabilities
– Economics of scope
– Corporate parenting
UNIT 4 Strategies
– Umbrella brand
– Restructuring
– Retrenching
– Parenting advantage
– Industry attractiveness competitive strength matrix
– Resource fit
– Portfolio approach (cash hog, cash cow)
– Spin-off
– Companywide restructuring
Only legitimate business sources may be used for the BP assignments: Forbes, Fortune,
BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal, Inc., CNN, Fox, etc. No Wikipedia, Investopedia, etc., or
other random websites. A really good place to find Business Press articles is via Flipster. On the
university website, type “flipster” into the search function in the upper right. Follow the links. Under
“Business” you get Forbes, Fortune, and BusinessWeek.
Each BP assignment starts with one paragraph to summarize the article. Then your task is to use
chapter concepts to analyze your article according to the given Unit’s assignment in Content, and
in the format described in the previous section of the syllabus. Also be sure of the following:
• Specific facts from the BP article must be used. As an example, “They had really good
sales.” is not specific, you need to give the actual numbers the article provided: “Their
sales grew 30% in 2022.”
• These are essay answers and must be detailed. Flesh out your ideas; do not use bullet
points.
• If an assignment asks you to ID two things, both things need chapter concept support.
• On multi-part questions, start a new paragraph or section for each question.
Each question or each part of a multi-part question must have at least one full chapter concept
as its basis. (See the example below for what constitutes a full concept) This concept will be
highlighted and cited, by most immediate heading in the book and then the paragraph number
following that heading (see below). Then use your own words to apply the concept(s) in analysis
of your article situation or quiz question. Be very specific in applying the concept to the article
situation or the quiz question, generic arguments are not analytical.
Example:
Question: What strategy is your firm employing?
Wrong answer #1: This company is using a low price strategy. They have lower prices than all
their rivals and thus they get more customers.
Why this is wrong: It doesn’t use any concepts from the chapter, so it has nothing highlighted and
no citations. It also has no specifics from the student’s chosen article. This answer would earn
zero points.
Wrong answer #2: This company is using a broad low-cost strategy. They are trying to keep
their costs low so they can pass on low prices to their customers.
Why this is wrong: It uses a term from the book and highlights it, but not the full concept of the
broad low-cost strategy. There is no citation. It also offers no detail from the article about what
the company is doing to lower costs. This answer would earn less than 50% credit.
Right answer: This company is using a broad low-cost strategy, defined in the chapter as
striving to achieve lower costs than rivals targeting a broad spectrum of buyers (Broad
Low-Cost Strategies, paragraph 1). They are doing this by reducing their transportation costs
through strategic alliances and by increasing their purchase volumes to lower per-unit materials
costs. However, it’s important for broad low-cost firms to incorporate features and services
that buyers consider essential (Broad Low-Cost Strategies, paragraph 1), so they are also
adding simpler touch-screen controls and a stronger online support system.
Why this is right: Chapter concepts are highlighted and cited, they are beyond just the general
term, there are several (not just in the topic sentence), and they are used to analyze article
specifics. This answer earns full credit. Well done, Dr. Mullane!
NOTE: Use bold or underline to highlight chapter concepts on the BP assignments.
Grammar and Usage
1. Do not use contractions in business writing (can’t, don’t).
2. Where possible, use third person. Avoid using first person unless the assignment has you
writing about a personal experience or opinion.
3. Commas and periods are always placed inside closing quotations. Even if you are only quoting
one “word,” place the comma or period inside the closing quotation.
4. In a list of phrases, make sure the form of the phrase is consistent. Instead of, “One would
prefer living in Montana, to buy groceries at Albertson’s, and a nice apartment,” write, “One
would prefer living in Montana, buying groceries at Albertson’s, and renting a nice apartment.”
5. Make sure your verbs match the plurality of the subject.
6. Always use complete sentences. This sounds so obvious, but I frequently see phrases that
students intend to be sentences but lack the properties of a sentence (both a subject and
predicate).
7. It is very common for students to be prolific with commas. Comma rules can be confusing.
You are more likely to get into trouble with commas if you are writing conversationally or
using sentences that are long and unorganized. Do not use commas to set off phrases unless (1)
it is a phrase that could be eliminated from the sentence, or (2) the phrase contains a subject
and predicate (is a full sentence on its own). An example of proper comma usage for (1) is
“The students liked the class, especially the experience with computers.” An example of proper
comma usage for (2) is “The students liked the class, and they enjoyed their experience with
computers.” Note that in this second example, you are required to use a comma because it is a
compound sentence. See #10 below. An example of improper comma usage is: “The students
like the class, that included experience with computers.”
8. Properly denote possessive nouns and pronouns. Often students leave apostrophes out or put
them in the wrong place. The most common error: “The company announced who would be
it’s new CEO”. “It’s” always stands for “it is.”
9. Use pronouns that are of the correct plurality. The most common error is “Microsoft released
their earnings.” (company=singular, their=plural pronoun) The correct way is “Microsoft
released its earnings.”
10. This is a very common improper usage of a comma: “We went out to eat at the Montana Club
on Wednesday night, and watched the boxing matches at the Wilma.” The comma is not
necessary because the two phrases that it separates are NOT complete sentences. To correct
this, either remove the comma or insert a subject in the second phrase (“We went…. night, and
we watched …”).
Effective Writing
1. Use headings and subheadings. Not only will this force you to organize your thoughts, but it
will also provide the reader information about where you are going in your paper.
2. Provide transitional paragraphs when switching between two marginally related topics. When
switching between two closely related topics, transition in the first sentence of the new topic or
the last sentence of the old topic.
3. Watch paragraph length. Often a long paragraph really contains discussion of several main
ideas, so it could be broken into several shorter paragraphs.
4. Do not be too casual in your writing. Students tend to write like they speak, which can be very
informal and “chatty.” Professional business writing should not sound like a casual
conversation when it is read. Casual writing carries an unintended aura of not being serious
about your subject or assignment.
5. If the paper has been composed by more than one person, be sure the different writing styles
are not blatant. If a paper is divided up in a group, designate one person to integrate the parts.
This person will need to make changes to the other members’ parts to make the paper more like
his/her writing style throughout the paper.
6. Use charts, illustrations, tables, and figures as appropriate. Place them in the body of the paper
at the appropriate point.
7. Properly introduce and summarize your topic with opening and closing paragraphs.
8. Designate your sources in some format preferred by your instructor. Some assignments and
papers will have formal guidelines on footnoting, while others will not. Even if there is no
formal requirement for footnotes, you should list your sources in a reference or bibliography
list.
9. Do not plagiarize. When you are answering questions about a reading or summarizing a
reading, it is tempting to copy and paste the words from the reading. If you do this without
placing the words in quotations and footnoting the source, this is plagiarism. This is illegal and
constitutes a violations of the Student Conduct Code. Reword the content in your own words.
This shows thought and understanding of the topic.
http://www.business.umt.edu/Faculty/herron/writing…