This is an exercise where each individual will share in class how he or she can apply the strategy tools that week to his or her work, career or life. Please also submit Powerpoint slides summarizing your key points. Include the title and your name on the first page, and footnotes indicating sources of research if any in the notes section of your slide. For all of these assignments, we ask you to choose the company that you work for if possible. If you are not currently working for a company or if the topic doesnt apply to your company, choose a company that you have interacted with in real life and avoid the big companies that everybody has talked about such as Walmart, Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc., since talking about a well-known company will not bode well for evaluation unless you can come up with new and deeper insights.

Please note that given that the nature of strategy, our grading criteria will focus on depth of thinking and analysis, ability to grasp key insights into the nature of things, and able to communicate those key insights in a concise matter. The quality of the insights counts much more than the number of words. It is essential you imagine yourself as a CEO who can boil strategies down into simple but powerful messages delivered in a concise matter with plain language; rather than as a marketer putting out a lot of big words and grand talk, yet to inundate the actual key messages you want to convey. Time management will also be taken into account so set a stopwatch or timer with a smartphone, and going over your time limit will negatively impact your grade.

Check out the learning materials in Ch3 on Internal Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Competitive Advantage. Choose the company you work for. Using the company diamond tool in the chapter, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the company you work for in comparison with the competition. During your in class sharing, you should focus on 2 or 3 strengths and weaknesses you think are most relevant and important rather than running through an exhaustive laundry list.